Putnam patriot., 1908-08-28
Ira D. sanke,. the Evangelist Singer.

Ira D. Sankcy, the Evangelist Singer
 Last week we simply mentioned the death of Ira B. SankeY, the great Cos. pei Singer, at tie age ef 6s, after an iil- ness of two yeats. He WAS too great a man and widely known and admired not 10 have sketch ol his fife present. pd to our readers. We take from the spring field Republican as complete n biography of him as We have seen: There have been many singers be- l sides, of revival campaigns, like r. r, l Bliss whose nobiy tfngie death, ny | the side of his wife, crushed Ill the burning wreck of the F.lgin railway disaster, though he was free to saXe his | own life-has given him n lover 's glory as well aS il Christians. is. But of them all in ouf day, Sankey was the most | famous and the most talented, and hss <, eafeel produced the most important effects, lte was not onls pleasant and dcVout singer. but he possessed . .nnefh robust tenof voice et tteh aual- lly and full compass, and capable ot delicate expression, while commando tug the largest auditoriums, and heard clearly at extraordinary distances. It l had ffem hts interior nature, moreover, | q prnfoundtv moving, and indeed mag netic, quaitY Musicians often, hear l ing him. lanlented that such m extra. ] ordinary areaa should not have been trained technically
 Hut, In truth, there was no sense oi lack when he sang his gospel hymns those tunes might otlen seem flat and thin when ea.ead bA the people in the religious meetings, but they did not seem so N hen he saag them, Many ot | his tunes were of his own composition; because, ~hae he never pfoiessed him self q composer, when he wanted mu
 sic for hymn, aud found after search ing that nothing suited htn tu publish ed tunes, he sang one himself in his heart, and IL was written down, The great tune associated with his name, that ol .,rhe Ninety and Nine, was an Improvisation.
 There was a gospel meeting at the Free Assembly hall, Edinburgh, when | Mr. Moody and he were campaigning l Great Britain. \ short time before he had found in the "e'hfis,ian Age tn London, a poem bs Elizabeth Cecilia | Clephane, of Meirose, ot the church of Scotland The occasion demanded, as he felt, something new; he read over the hi.es, thought the melody out, and going to the platform sang il before il | was written down, May l6, is14.
 Many stories are told of the effect oi this striking poem as he sung u, oae of the mast notable k spoken et in nm' fields "EngIish Hymns, as follows, .t Hear and sweet the song rose up; Il go 10 the desert to find my sheep. And the man on the hillside heard and
 was saved. '
 This was an incident; related in North.
 field, near twenty-tive years ago, ot a
 man sitting hy his door. across the
 Connecticut river-a man who hated
 the Moody and Sankey meetings, and
 was eufsing al the absence of hts fam
 ily attending them. The strains ei
 "The Ninety and Nine" reached his
 ears, and he went to the meeting him.
 self, and became Christian.
 such maFSels translate the myth oi
 orphcus into fact. But to \ generation
 large part os which heard Mr. san
 key, this ls not al all unlikely. la s
 hall. or wherever he sang, he produced
 both musical pleasure and emotional
 ef'ect~-not olten so well joined. In.
 aeed, the alliance with Ira ~ankes wa,
 one ef the most wise and fortunate in,
 eidents oi Moody's life. They will moi
 bc separated in fame.
 Ira David ~ansey was born In Eila- i barxh, Pa, August Is, l>so, of Eng.