Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1914-03-27
A Memory.

don't know what nor how, nor am
L positive that anything actually oc-
Cured, but something suddenly re-
minded me of something which oc-
Cured long time ago. Something
that had been asleep in my brain
and memory for years and years was
suddenly aroused and awakened, and
came back with the vividness and
reality of the day of its occurrence
1t was nothing more nor less than the
words and music of an old song which
heard sung but that once, and have
never heard it since. For more than,
we'll longer than | like to admit, that
old hymn has been somewhere in my
brain. Cut deep and distinct in the
plastic disc of memory must have
been that old song on Sabbath
evening of the long ago. The mem
DRY seems to be built on the same
principle as Photographic record.
By and by an invisible hand takes
out the record, and an invisible hand
turns the crank, and behold, there it
is, as clear and distinct as the day
the needle pressed the plastic plate
in the hall of memory.
With this song came also the act
ual sound of the voice and face of
the singer, all preserved intact, in
delible, unerasable.
1t was long ago, as remarked bbove,
and on a quiet, dreamy Sabbath day,
at a country church. The wide,
framed church building stood off the
road, on an elevated, beautiful grassy
plot. Large ancestral oak trees
cast friendly shadows, and furnished
inviting seats and lounging places
for the boys and men who gathered
there to worship in the days of "Auld-
Lang Syne." Two huge blocks, sawed
from great trees-one taller than the
other-stood hard by, upon which
the girls and their mothers alighted
from their horses, and removed their
riding skirts, which they threw across
the saddle, and the boys leading the
the shade, then returning, escorted
the girls to the church door, "handed"
them in, and left them to find seats
as they might choose.
| was a comparative stranger in
the community, so / went in church
ahead of the rest of the boys and
men, and took seat not far from
the door. The old minister had al
ready taken his seat in the pulpit.
1t was customary those days to sing
a hymn Ito call the people in" Tho
boys and men under the trees would
wait for that hymn. The old minister
groaned aloud, looked at his watch,
and nodded to one of the brethren in
the amen corner to "sing something"
After looking through the index for
the number of the hymn, which he
knew by heart, he struck up in kew
about two octaves too high: "Come.
Thou Fount of Every Blessing" When
he reached the second stanza, every
body Joined in, and the music rose in
a billowv swell of praise. noticed
that the majority of the men tried
to sing bass, and Il number of tho
women sang tenor. But 1t was sing
ing of the old type such as is seldom
heard these days. Before the con-
clusion of the hymn the loungers I'M
der the trees had all taken their places
IN church-men on one side, women
on the other-each to themselves. 1t
was not customary those days for
men and women to sit together in
church, not even members of the same
tamil y. What congregation it was.
what picture of unselfish, unaffect-
ed simplicity it presented. Wild
honeysuckles and wild roses which
grew along the roadsides and a few
~ s.''Ni"i liOWSiS SOiipOSeu lne deco
rations of the hats the girls wore.
The older women wore plain "sun-
bonnets'-some of them none at all.
There were dogs, nursing babies
crying, fretful babies-which tn @
sound of the songs and hymns could
not drown: A scene like this ean
never be described-never-forgotten
/ rememherr little of the sermon. .
us Greet, however, abided with me
for days. AT its close the preacher
called on one of the brethren in the
amen corner to lead in prayer. When
the prayer had been concluded the
old minister arose from his knees in
the pulpit, advanced to the front. and
with closed eyes, sang a solo. / re-
member only the refrain. Between
each verse these words:
We are passing away,
We are passing away
Like short winters day."
Deliberate, tremulous, the old preach
er's voice rose and fell, and the con-
gregation sat spell-bound until he
was through, then raising his hands
he pronounced the benediction. | went
out deeply impressed.
And this was the song and these
the words which awoke in nv memory
the other day.
j. A. L.