The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-29
The Senator and the HYMNS.

Inc senator ana the hymns.
We like to think OF the Hon. GEORGE
FRIsBIE HoAR as sort of college Of the
humaner letters. He is about the last Of
the old-fashioned lawyers, the men who
loved literature and history, were deep
in the Year Books and the old reports,
with a relish for all the antiquarian and
strange lore Of their profession. They
quoted CICERO and HORACE, were strong
in English poetry and had an magma
tive and sympathetic touch and taste
denied to most Of the bigger money
making lawyers, essentially men Of bust
ness, of to-day. Since the death Of his
kinsman, Mr.. EvARTs, Mr.. HoAR is the
most notable representative Of brilliant
type, the kind Of lawyer that Mr.. Sheriff
SCOTT for instance, would have been
glad to sit up all night with.
Various knowledges have soaked into
Mr.. HoAR the phrase is homely, but
expresses tolerably thorough, uncon-
scious and unpriggish cultivation. One
Of his specialties is hymns. He could
line out with any clerk or parson that
ever lived, and pour you forth hymns as
copiously as the late DR.. FREDERIC
HENRY HEDGE used to pour out German
poetry. As Puritan and Yankee 4
the straitest descent and sect, Mr..
HoAR loves the old-fashioned hymns
They are almost document Of genealogy
to the true New Highlander. He can't
pass buryin' graound without hearing
that cheerful lay Of China, Hark from
the tombs, doleful sound, mine ears,
attend the cryl' The bare, white green
blinded meetin' haouse, the stiff pews,
the thick, squatty. shabby hymn books,
the oblong, dog-eared song books with
the music; the lazy clock that never re-
minded the painful preacher that time
was short and his discourse intoler-
ably long; the sheds, where the rude
forefathers of the hamlet ate their mince
pie and cheese and tempered criticism
Of the sermon with swappin horses; the
buzzing Of the flies and murmur Of the
palm-leaf fans; the shiny glacial summit
OF the deacon in his dress coat; the girl
three pews ahead to the left whom you
couldn't keep your eyes off the kick In the
shins or jab with pin given or taken
we'll, we may be sure that when Mr..
HoAR hears a hymn, he is a boy again
in the meetin' haouse in Concord. And
Federal Street Is not street to him.
It's a tune.
He knows the hymns, good, bad and in
different, the metres, long, short, common
and particular. He is deep in the Bay
Psalm Book, STERNHoLD and HOPKINS,
TATE and BRADY, WAITS and select, as
we'll as the work OF more artistic singers
like HERBERT and KEBLE. He Ia good au-
thority on hymns, and the opinion which
he gave in letter read at the woman
suffrage festival in Boston the other
nights has weight:
us there anything moro cheap and vulgar than
the national anthem OF our English brethren, GOD
Save tho Klng''
80 LORD. our GOD. arise,
Scatter his enemies.
And make them fall
Confound their politics.
Frustrate their knavish Tricks,
On him our hopes we NJ,
GOD save US all +
England, I hope. knows better now. But she
has acted on that motto for thousand years"
The words of God Save the King
are feverish and foolish enough, con-
sidered as literature, but the spirit OF
them Is the spirit Of Old Testament COM
mination. of the patriotic aspiration, OF
the national feeling of every people.
Hurrah for ourselves and damn our
enemies:" so we might translate crudely,
but essentially, every national hymn
England will have to fall lower than her
worst enemies expect before she will
cease to act on that motto When
patriotism is supplanted by world
patriotism, then order your ascension
robe.
The tune counts and the words are moth
ing. The Rev. DR.. SMITHS words to this
same tune, here called America" are
poor stuff as poetry. There is no heaven
born genius in Mr.. KEYS 90, say, can
you see?' and the main merit Of Yankee
Doodle is that it is the only tune that
some ears can swear to. The force
and value of these national airs are not
found in the lines. How many Of us
know two stanzas or even one stanza OF
the Star Spangled Banner or are
letter-perfect in America y Yet tho
songs are a. representative In their way
as the flag Is. Tho history and the hopes