Arizona republican., 1903-02-10

sic, without hattering our egotism, en- larges our conception of the best in | ourselves. Under it's influence every l thing ignoble drops from our loving, everything paltry from our longing, everything unworthy from our aspir- ing. We seem to look our own souls in the eye and realize how fair they were meant to be.
 It is this seemingly unnatural infiu- ence over the emotions that gives music the power it has upon the moral and physical health. We little realize how often our hearts are controlled by the spirit of discord. Something goes wrong and we worry; we are afraid that something will go wrong and we | worry again; there is no reason to sup pose that moment will ever arrive in which everything will go entirely right. so we keep on worrying. Religion, l philosophy, society. hygiene, hari work-each holds out a hand to save, | but we are not rescued from the suici- dal habit until music, heavenly maid caressingiy takes possession of the overwrought nerves and tunes them as a musician his instrument, until they are inca pablo of discord.
 There is a melody born of melody,
 That melts the heart into q sea,
 a sea on which the nipples of worry are properly propCrtioned to the depths ( i | peace.
 | Nervous disea ses, whether real or il1- aginary. are almost completely under | the control of music. The most marked 1 characteristic of general debility is de pTession of spirits. and this is invaria- bly, frightened by joyous or tender strains. There is something peculiarly intimate and personal about the home music listened to at dusk, before the lamps are lit. The unbodied spirit that guards you takes this opportunity to pour on your jaded soul "balms and soothings manifold" Your tense mus cles relax. your brow clears, and you are comforted without knowing why. Such music restores the dropping frame as dew revives a plant
 Perhaps the commonest and most de-
 plorable of all nervous diseases is the
 habit of unhappiness. It shows itself
 in scolding, fault-finding, complaining,
 fretting, grieving, repining, nagging,
 fussing, hurrying, and ireasonless ob-
 jeCting to unalterable conditions. if
 you have a relative suffering from this
 nearly incurable trouble, your best
 medicine will be found in the form oi
 a music box. set to a continuous per
 formance of lively tunes, such for in-
 stance, as Dixie:
 "I wish I was in the state of Maine,
 Waiting for the Dixie train
 Away, Away, Away Away"
 What light, gay, vivid, effervescent
 air it is, Age cannot wither it. Sc,
 how it lifts the head, brightens the eye,
 quickens the heart beat and rela:es the fretful lines about the lips. This is n; , fanciful prescription. It was recently 1. tried in case of nervous prostration ,: that, it is believed, was saved iron ,. insanity by its means. If the thera !. peutic power of music was once clearl!
 understood, it could be adapted tc al needs and occasions. There would b. :, musical restaurants on every street, s' I that he who was chewing the cud of
 bitter fancy could find easy access t ! more appetiZing spiritual nourishmenJ l and all the children's games and the; Q elders schemes would be set to musi
 so cunningly devised that defeat woul Q be robbed of it's sting and success o e it's effrontery. There would be ligh S and Hitting airs to accompany the din
 ners of dyspeptics, joyous repetition y of the wedding march when the peac n of the newly married was threatene 0 by an impending quarrel, invigoratini
 strains to put new life into the indolen, e and the glad and splendid assurance O
 some cid rhymes for the daily use O r those that sit in spiritual darkness.
 is finer thing to set noble words t 9 uplifting music than it is to write then . for it is the music that makes ther
 universal and immortal. What we rea : once or twice we forget: what we hea : a hundred times is burned into memor! II From Good Housekeeping for Janu
 ary.