The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-10-18
By ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.
The writer isn't an engineer.


will be an unpleasant accident on the
interurban track opposite the Country
Club golf links.
Some day a carful of interurbanites
will go skidding to their destruction
down the bank to hole three
And will spoil a mighty good
green" in the parlan'e of the links.
Just as sure as the sun rises and
sets this will happen some day, unless
the dirt-bank on the off-side of the
National Road is bolstered up with a
stone or concrete wall.
Not only would this be safer and
saner
But more ornamental.
| 1t stands to reason that the dirt
there will gradually crumble away just
as it has in the past.
| A big rain some day might wash it
| all away.
Just like the scarlet sins in the Cos
pei hymn.
Why, by the way, is it that gospel
hymns are always sung on Sunday af-
| ternoons.
Especially on those warm, gloomy
days when the neighbors all have
their windows open.
And must listen.
Do what they may to drown the
sound, it still percolates through the
screens.
Just as you are meditating upon the
general worthlessness of everything
and everybody, on the insanity of life
and the detestable meanesseS of
those who despitefully use you-just
as you are thinking about the size of
the coal bill, which hasn't been paid,
and lamenting that you can't buy the
new hat you saw with $25 tag on it
although you know if you wait you
can buy it the day after Christmas for
! $249-when you have decided that
there is nothing in love and that mar
riage is failure, that there are more
humbugs, cads and doddering idiots
to the square inch than exist any
place this side of Mars-just then,
someone on the fringes strikes up a
doleful lament on the piano to the eff
feet that we may meet on the Golden
Shore.
Or mayhap, in the sweet bye and
! bye.
! 1t is neck and neck between the
! two both in favor by the gospel hymn
ers and the anathematizations of the
neighbors.
Sunday afternoon is frequently made
hideous by these sacred serenaders.
While it is often selected by them
for no other reason than because they
have time to give free rein to their vo-
I cal ambitions, it is nonetheless mad
ness to the others who have time to
do nothing but listen.
The psychology of gospel hymns is
curious and peculiar.
! Separated into their component
parts they present an array Of states
evidence against their composers
which would be cause for Indictment
by the grand jury.
Although, after all, the grand jury
isn't half as bad as it sounds.
Summoned thither not long since
to testify the writer was surprised to
find this awesome body made up OF
human beings.
She had always thought they wore
crowns and sat on thrones.
Not So
Just the men you see walking down
street or riding to town in wagons.
However you must never tell any
thing you hear in jury rooms.
Sure there's no harm in telling what
you see, however. And perchance some
timid soul will take courage.
Here's tip.
Don't be afraid of the prosecutor
He wouldn't hurt fly
He is merely to look at.
There is nothing more enlightenins
than getting within hailing distance O
officialdom. Fearsome beings who, bee
tle-brow-wise, stride the forum, upol
close inspection will be found to b.
no more imposing than the gospel sin
gers next door.
But to return.
Every now and then the sanctif1et
ones rise up and execute a moral wa
, dance because some musician say
| that gospel hymns are frequently ba
| nal and lacking in everything that goe
| to the making of good music.
J That the words are, oftener thai
not when analysed. meaningless AM
chaotic. And the music without reason
for being.
; They shrek that the "old songs" ar
1 good enough for them.
; And that the musical critic is al
> iconoclast. Seeking to tear down an
destroy.
This is more or less amusing.
l But the musician has the best of i
at any time.
Especially on Sunday afternoons.
L For the solos and ensemble nun
bers that dolorously issue through tn
cracks in the doors and float with n
). uncertain sound into the surroundin
: ambient atmosphere are enough t
l. give the most confirmed optimist tn
S doldrums. and drive the pessimist t
e suicide or the inebriating cup.
I The gospel hymners are, strangel
i enough and yet not unfittingly, usual
0 without vocal training
+ But they make up in volume wha
e they lack in technique.
:. They are always strong on the hig
r notes.
: If they flat in a way to set your MI
@ STOOL fenfh xryhx iv,ly ~ =