Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-01-08
GRIEF INSPIRED HYMN
Requiem Rendered to Victims of
 the Chicago Horror.
SUNG IN A ST. LOUIS THEATER.

Sentiment of the Occasion Swept
 Large Crowd Which Sang ssNearer,
 My God, to Thee," at the Request
 of a Man In the Audience-Many
 Were Moved to Tears.
 There has been considerable specula- ton in St. Louis as to the motive and identity of the man who on recent night, after the second act of Ezra Ken dalTs play, 1.-The Vinegar Buyer" at the Century in St. Louis, arose in the bal cony and requested the audience to join in singing Nearer, My God, to Thee" in memory of the Iroquois thea ter fire in Chicago.
 The audience of HOO people imme- diately complied with his request, ev- cry one from pit to gallery joining in the hymn. The singing of hymn by an entire theater audience is said to be without preceds1lt in St. Louis
 The man, 1t was later learned, who H. Congdon of Chicago, who is con nected with a firm of publishers in Chicago
 MT. Congdon, when seen by repre- sentative of the St. Louis Post Dispatch the other day at the Southern hotel, said:
 q do not know why did it or what the impulse that prompted 1t was. It was on the spur of the moment. am no public speaker, and the idea of get ting up before an audience, and such an audience as was at the Century, is most distastefuI to me. It took nerve to rise in crowd filled with the New Years spirit and all on pleasure bent and call them back to the serious things of life, but, as said, it was on impulse and was done perhaps before I had time to think.
 T was not in Chicago at the time of the disaster, but arrived in St. Louis from there Friday. The contrast be- tween the merry crowd at the Century and the assemblies of breaved ones that I had left in Chicago, still hardly able to realize the immensity of the disaster, was too much for me.
 'The second act had just ended, and the small talk between the acts was seat in view of all and said, Ladies and gentlemen
 "The talk through the house died out as I continued:
 "tOn this, the crowning night of season of enjoyment and pleasure, I am sure you will all join me in giving moments thought to the unfortunates of Chicago. Let us remember the dead, the suffering and the bereaved ones. When the lamented President McKin- ley died certain hours of the day of his burial were set aside in all the towns of the country to the singing of his fa- vorite hymn.
 Can we not do the same for the un- fortunate ones of Chicago who perished in the midst of pleasure such as we are now enjoying? Let us all join in sing ing Nearer, My God, to Thee."'
 T asked the orchestra leader to sound the c chord, and he did so. At first only few joined in, but as the audi ence fell in with the spirit of the occa- .. 4S ! A sion the volume rose and swelled until the theater resounded with the notes of the hymn.
 All were singing. Pit, boxes, bal cony and gallery all joined to render requiem to the victims of the Iroquois. The thin treble of the gallery gods blended with the deep bass and the soft contralto of those below, and, al- though I am not what you would call a religious man in the stricter sense, it was one of the most striking and inn pressive things I ever witnessed. It was beautiful"
 Many of the audience were moved to tears President Cook of Dekalb, III, the head of the national board of ed ucation, was in the audience and pro- nounced the rendition of the hymn ex- cellent.