The Washington herald., 1917-04-11
Folk We Touch in Passing
The Gift
BY JULIA CHANDLER.

INTO The Girl God gave His Creates,
VI all gltts-a golden voice
Born In a dim alley of the b,r ci.,,
no one was there to notice as long as sb,.
remained The Child. except the other
children whose lives she touched ana 2
eatelul mother or two whose fretfu;
children were soothed to sleep bv som.
fragment Of melody that issued from, srho
Child throat as clear and sweet as tn.
tone Of q silver bell
But when she became The Girl il was
different.
For there was that in her song that
stopped the feet OF every passerby ana
sent him on his way with a feeling thai
somehow he had climbed a little closer to
the heart OF God.
And the name of the thing that folk
did not take the trouble to define was
love-an unselfish love that had broaden
ed to meet the demand about her with
each year Of The Girls life-for long agu
she learned that song was her service to
God.
The more barren the lives she touched
IN passing the greater the necessity for
The Girl and her song; the more need
for the crystal fountain of love from
which 1t poured, until 1t came about that
the whole section of the city in which she
lived called her the angel, and many
N'S'S "SiS VIM Sdlu lHdl HeT BlII OF
voice could lift souls out of Purgatory.
After while news OF The Girl and her
golden voice reached The Impressario
Threading his way through the tenement
district he came one day unannounced
upon house over which the angel OF
death was slowly folding her wings, and
from its windows-open wide to the April
sunlight-there flowed the enveloping love
Of the girl in an exquisite volumn of
NITh
his head in reverence. even while know
Ing nothing of the man within whose way
along the valley of the shadow was made
so much less terrible by the voice of The
Girl that he went out with a smile upon
his lips.
And when his spirit had fed and the
girl came out into the sunlight she found
The lmpressario waiting to- offer her the
training that he said would bring the
world to her feet.
So 1t was that The Girl passed into tn.
woman. and time came when masters
pronounced her voice technically perfect
But when she sang for the great au-
dlence, which had paid its dollars into
The Impressario's Golfer to hear her the
man who had spent so much to perfect
her art stirred a bit uneasily in his seat
Not that there was any flaw in the music
which poured from The Woman's slender
tnroat-at least in the matter Of technique
but he missed that quality in her tonal
production which had brought a smile to
dying man In his going hence in a year
now dim.
And the critics confirmed the anxiety
of The Impressario.
They raved and ranted UP and down
columns Of newspapers concerning the
clear quality Of The Woman's voice; the
perfection of her %technique-but, one and
all, they declared her perfection to be
that OF crystalline coldness-'like unto a
North star"
And when The Woman had read the
comment and noted the disappointment
In The Impressario's face she went
straight to the heart OF the thing.
sang greatly in the yesterday be-
cause loved much" she offered and
The lmpressario was waited back to
memory to that sunlit April day when
the voice of The Girl had chased the
shadows from the Valley OF Death for
pauper. and he knew that CONNER
ciaiism had frozen the well spring of love
from which had flowed all the tender
quality OF The Girls soul, leaving him a
technically flawless voice that touched
the intellect Of every auditor, but stirred
the heart of none.
tcorgrisht, Is7J