The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 19, 1901, Page 9

THE SUNDAY CALL. ORMONISM'S fourth dynasty, the Book of 1 e words o heedquarters seemed to be In strong de- mand Mormon, has “come to pass.” Yet these two shrewd politiclans found With George Q. Cannon gone t0 time to quit the fleld where the battle was ciaim the throne celestial allot- raging most flercely, and to seek shoot- ted to all faith followers of Joseph ng in far off Utah. It happened, how- Bm! & new lesder must mrise for the cver, that while there they met leading people, Who in seventy years have §roWn memiers of the Mormon ejurch and wefo from & farmer boy's dream to control the epiertained by apostles and bishops. It richest valleys of the RocRy Mountains. hupp d also that the Mormon leaders Not mlone must a new leader be found, 4 been frightened by the summary ac- {but he must come from the second geN- {ion in the cawe of83. 1. Roberts and the leration must be the guld new encouragement thix had given to the rell- ora Morn afalr 1 the gious socletlies thut were preasing for a American people will have constitutional amendment which would concern place the enforcement of the anti-polyg- Mormonism of the past, with its deflant a'ny lawe in the hands of Federal mar- chomplonship of polygamy, has presented sl 1 judges. taxed the 1 @ soclal problem that has genuity of monism of th b of & right of ec astics to sh suthority of the State, wil| present a po- itical problem of even greater importance and perplexity. Liberal elements in the Mormon church heve long whispered that the passing of the first genmeration of the men who were closely in touch wth Joseph Smith a: Brigbam Young in the organization & reorganization of the church and in days of 4 and trouble would mark e revolution in the conduct of the Mormon people. And with George Q Cannon passed the power of the first gen- eration. Not the least of the changes expected ndonment of polygamy as an of the religion. Plural mar- as been popular among t Even in the days when Brig- hem Young, with autocratic power over the affaire’ and even the lives of his fol- lowers, enforced the practice by command 2nd revelation, scarcely § per cent of the people could be induced to sanction the éootrine. Men who sought place In the church, others who in fanatical zeal wished to tostity by sacrifice to their belief in the revelations of their prophet, and still oth ers who feared the authority of the church officials, took plural wives, but the great body of educated and in t a s Of course it was merely a colncidence that Mr. Roosevelt should come whirling to Utah just at that time, and that he should .be met at the State line by apos- tles of the Mormon church and should be invited ‘to visit the Mormon offices, dec- orated wih flags and lithographs of the President and himself. And, perhabs, it that in the fall is a coincidence also ns Utah, which had v for Willia n 1896, and had been consistently nce, should swing to the Re- n column with more than 5000 plu- that Wyoming should be Repub- and at in Idaho the result should n in doubt for two da becduse lower counties, in which the Mor- s hold power, swung back ta the Re- publicans, arter being Democratic for four is merely an incident, but it is what observers of Mormon methods had predicted. They had declared that the formon vote would be under the control of the Mormon Jeaders, and that States would be swung in the West according to the interests of those in control. In this case they aré pointing out that noth- irg officially has been done since the elec- tion to encourage those who desire to ha- rass the Mormons and that the Repub- ltcan national leaders have been inclined .to treat the movement for an anti-polyg- amend t with the utmost indiffer- amy ence. Power to accomplish such’ results is not to be regarded l'ghtly. And it is a real The people of Utah have not for- division on party lines was accomplished between 1891 and 1885, when the church leaders decided it' would be best to abandon the old church 'and anti- church fizht. 2 Within one-night the Mormon party was power, got how diesolved. Tts adherents flocked to the Democratic party, because that organiza- tion had never advocated strong legisla- tion against polygamy. With a Repub- lear administration in power, however, this was considered impolitic, and ample proof has been furnished that members of the twelve apostles went through the Territory and in secret priesthood meet- irgs picked out men hjgh in the church and ordered them thereafter to stand as Republicans. The result was that by 1895 the new State was so divided that a mere are members of.one of the quorums of elders. Those who obey place themselves under criticism of Democratic candidates by the president of the Mormon church was suf- ficlent to throw the State to the Repub- Nor do the church leaders now conceal their determination to hold political pow-y Their last manifesto, nature of a revelation, specifically d that no officer of the church shall accept a political nomination without having ob- tained the consent of his ecclesiastical su- periors. No Mormon of any demonstrated abllity is free from this rule, as all such issued in the es With the San Francisgo == IME! time! gentlemen.” With a n laugh the word is repeated in the hall and corridor, and immediately about fifty or sixty men take their without any confusion or bus- tle while exchanging a fire of good-na- tured banter, two or three small groups finishing off their conversations which d been going on prior to this stentorian interruption originating from a gentleman seats influential | scated In the center of the places allotted members refused. | to the barytones of the chorus. In the second generation the spirit of opposition to the practice has been shown more strongly. With free education in the centers of porilation and constant contact with pe~~ _ of the world has come a de- termination to live fn accord with the so- Itiis a very pleasant couple of hours, a rehearsal of the Loring, Club, at least | from a spectator's point off vie and, al- though there is a great deal of hard work accomplished by the director and the gen- tiemen of the chorus within that time, yet cial doctrines of the country. And what |t js fully evident that whatever labor is most significant is that the most de- | tpore s, is a “labor of love.” termined foes of the continuance of plural | for four and twenty years the Loring marriege are those born within it, ar- reyed agal because of the strong feeling of their mothers. | Bigns of this abandonment of the prin- | muitiplying in Utah as re older men has waned. | of these are the facts that e strongest rule of Brigham Young has W. Woodruft was the sacred twelve ciple have been hority of Joseph Bmith and been broken named es a aposties before he Heber memb had been married even once, while Utah, himself b and a champlons of sign a biil to ! polygamists And there is g reason behind this pressure. The secor in the church have lost much of spiritual longing that led their parents across scas and continents to join the w York prophet and his successor have been tou by the spirit of Amercar bu: s and politics an leaaers recogr that they that it would be far mo place themselves in touch with Americar are in h position profitable gain concessions by a asts in the th such life and conefliation n te.s fch is meeting w o countr, o commercial prosperity - Je some few may continue to prac- polygamy the mew leaders of the urch will be bus and political lead- Behind them they will have one of most powerful political machines of the country—a machine which even Tam- reaching as it does he church. In the of- the apostles they may lay what- s they will, and depend upon the | people to carry them out. e heated days of the last natfonal hen Willlam J. Bryan was ng for his second invasion of the and Theodore Roosevelt was mak- | ing h's whirlwind tour of the West, two | fnetionel Republican leaders were duck ting in 1 h. They were Perry €. and Richard Kerens, Preparat of literature for the cam- paign demanded the presence of Mr. {Heath In the East, as he had been at the thecd of the Republican literary bureau ince the campaign of 1896. Mr. Kerens’ ¥ollowers in Missour! were waging & strong campalgn for control of the State, &nd his services there and at Republican rancisco has been one of the most popular and yet at the same time most uncompromisi artistic of the musical organizations of the Paclfic C The club regularly gives four concerts in each season, these concerts beinz con- ceded to place the club in the front rank of musical associations, anG easily one of the six best male voice socleties in the United States. The tickets for the con- certs are always in great demand, al- though they can be had only through the courtesy of the active and assoclate mem- the club, and the audiences are st cultured and fashionable of It must have occurred to almost er at the club's public ‘perform- such excellent concerted work ssarlly mean a great deal of preparation, and it was with the view of ing “how it is done” that the writers ittended a recent rehearsal. has just been mentioned that there was no delay or confusion in the members finding their places prior to the beginning of the rehearsal and this, though appar- Il matter, 1s very suggestive res the continued artistic of the club, for everything is well sed and nothing is taken for grant- ed. Each member has his own place, the being seated at a concert in exact- same order as at every rehearsal, and any one who has had ‘experience of choral music appreciates how well calcu- lated this is to give confidence when it comes to performing in public. But now the director has taken his place on a platform slightly raised above the accompanist and chorus—the accompani- ment at the rehearsal {s that of plano. The two club librarians have distributed coples of the first number to be rehearsed; and while this was being done an onlook- er could mot fail to be struck with the ditious and skiliful way in which these two gentlemen supplied each mem- ber with a copy, all the time being sub- jected to a running fire of chaff, which evidently they were able to return in sev- eral instances with Interest. This first number is Schubert’s dainty “The Gondoliers.” The conductor lifts his baton and immediately there is absolute quiet, the pianist playing the opening sym- phony with as much care as if the occa- sion were a concert. The plece is read through, and very excellently read, too, After it is finished the director polnts “lub of San bers of must mnec tly a sm f wauat ly the out that on such and such a page the ral- lentdndo was not unanimous. Immediate- ly the pianist patterns the phrase, and these few measures which were not satis- factory to the director are goneyover per- haps half a dozen times until the ciub answers his baton with confidence and de- cislon. Then again he points out that the three lower parts are singing too loudly, and with a little plaintive humor he sug- gests that perhaps it ds just as well that the first tenors also should be heard! The plece is then sung through again, but this time wherever there is 2 weak spot a stop is made, and whichever part is at fault is told of it, and that part alone perfects the few measures that are shaky. At the conclusion the director with a smile says: “Generally good, generally good, but too strong In parts, and, gentlemen, please accent the bell effect in the middle sec- tion.” This also is now Improved until the effect produced satisfies the conductor. Then the practical evidence of how well they un- derstand their duties. One gathers up from the men sitting on the seats next two librarians give further : singers at a woring QIub Rehearsal. use it is surprising that there are not |leader of the church, will probably be more errors of this kind), but to this the |elected after Mr. director seemed to pay little heed, simply remarking, “No solos, gentlemen,” for, as he afterward explained, when any one in- dividual has sung a once he very rarely does it again, so that there is practically no correction neces- the center alsl= the copfes from thelr re- spective rows (by the by, the scating Is arranged in four rows with a division up the middle so that there are rqally two choirs), while the other librarian distrib- utes coples of the next piece for rehearsal. This happens to be a tender little sere- nade by Eisenhofer. It has evidently been sung before, and the director must Mnow there is scme weakness, for he takes \the parts separately; second tenors alone, first bass alone, first tenors alone, second bass alone, and then he takes them to- gether; and here one cannot fall to ob- serve that no matter whether there is being rehearsed a single part or the en- tire choir, the conductor insists that all the nuances in the composition under study shall be observed. During a pau there is a voice from the second bass, “Mr. Loring, I notice in my copy quite frequently the sign ‘p. p.' May I ask what It means? I notice that most of the men sing this more loudly than the other parts not so marked.” *“Oh!" re- plies the director, “I perhaps should have explained that the two letters do not sig- David &. Loring. nify ‘pretty powerful’; they are génerally understood to mean ‘very soft,’ " where- upon there is 2 long-drawn “Oh!” from the chorus, suggesting that the same in- quiry and same reply have been heard before. But the baton again signals for the club to sing together, a stop being made to ex- plain that the crescendos are much tco abrupt and the decrescendos not smooth enough. The serenade {s immediately fol- lowed by the “Rhine Wine Song’ of Men- deissohn, which at the third singing, is taken with a dash which is electrifying, this result following a very careful study of the piece and a caution from the di- rector that the dotted eighth and six- teenth notes must be most carefully marked—and they certainly are. Following this the first basses are drilled very carefully in Johannes Pache's “Moonrise,” in which these voices have quite a prominent part, the director with just the suggestion of a twinkle in his eye reminding them that it is not neces- sary to extemporize or to compose as they go along, as probably what the composer wrote was written for some purpose! This ‘was apropos of one slight break where two or three volces sang a G sharp in- stead of a G natural, which was immedi- ately corrected. Next there is taken up a dashing setting of the “Bedouin Love Song" by Arthur Foote, a Boston composer, who, even If he had never written arything else, has cer- tainly by this one composition established his claim to be a clever musician of the front rank. Even at this early rehearsal the singing of this number by the club is most exhilarating. It goes with an aban- don and dash which is rarely heard in a chorus, but this does not satisfy the di- rector. A few measures on the last page are not sufficiently emphasized; there is not a large enovgh crescendo on one long- sustained chord, and particularly he in- sists that the very last chord of the piece shall be sustained’ fortissimo to the end and then that every voice shall stop as one. ‘Patience, gentlemen,” quletly re- marks the conductor. “It is worth the trouble.” After this is tried two or three times it is marvelous how great an im- provement becomes noticeable in tke cli- max of the song. At this stage of the rehearsal the sec- retary called the roll and the members had a ten minutes’ rest, when they moved around and had a chat with any one ‘whom they wished to see who might not have happened to be sitting' near them, while the air of good-fellowship which seemed to pervade the whole, club sug- gested how healthy the organization is. In these few minutes one could see that the director placed himself on an equal basis with the others as one of the mem- bers, but whenever he again rapped on his desk for attention each man resumed his original seat and there was absolute at- tention and discipline. “The Dreamy Lake” of Schumann Is a very delicate composition, which must necessarily be sung‘with great care. In this occasionally a single voice could be heard singing through a rest or coming in at the wrong time (and considering that in a majority of these pleces single-voice parts of the music are what the chorus The last two pleces studied that even- ing were two of Dudley Buck's, one be- ing a setting of Tennyson's “The Bugle and the other Spirits and Hours metheus Unbound,” compositions, yet two which are certain to make a great effect at when they are sung. The printed copies of these state that the accompaniments are for piano, organ, string quintet and flute, and the writer the full accomoaniments will be used at the concert, which doubtless will enhance the: effect considerably: the plano alone and at this early stage of the work it is evident that they are fine compositions and are sung by the club Then the director announces that this is all for the evening, and In- stantly discipline is again relaxed and the air of hearty good-fellowship is evident. For an organization of this kind to have * from Shelley’s * different | people equally, ro- concert was informed that with con amore. been in existence twenty-four years and 10 be as strong and healthy now as ever it was proves conclusively that the policy of the club, which has been to keep strictly to its established high standard, is good business policy. In reply to an in- quiry as to when the business of the club is transacted it is explained that once a month a business meeting is held after the rehearsal, but as the club at the be- ginning of each season places control of the arrangements for the season in the hands of several committees these busi- ness meetings are principally to hedr the reports of the committees and the treas- ury. The income of the club is derived from the actlve members and also from a limited number of assoclate members, who, by thelr associate membership, are entitled to tickets for each concert. In the event of there being any extra expense, say for a small orchestra, the active mem- bers in such a case do not hesitate to as- sess themselves. All this is done to main- tain that high artistic standard to which the club in the beginning determined to adhere. The membership of the organization is strictly on an amateur basis; that is, each zetive member works for the club as an amateur, and no matter how prominent a part he may take in a concert it is as an amateur member of the club. Already the committees are contemplat- ing having an exceptionally important serles of concerts during the twenty-fifth season, their semi-jubilee, but in the meantime the rehearsals are being held for the last concert of the twenty-fourth season, to be held within a short time. It is something for our cit¥ to be proud of to know that this unselfish work for the sake of music itself is being done and that we have on the extreme western edge of our continent a club of male voices which by competent critics is sald to be fully as good as any one of the best similar organizations in New York, Bos- ton or Philadelphia. the absolute control of the leaddrs of (he sect. Those who disobey must face tae secret opposition of the powerful pries hood, which reaches from the church af- fices in Salt Lake City to every home in the Mormon settlements extending from Alberta, Canada, to Chihuahua, Mexito. Utah alone I8 not affected, either. Mor= mon towns are extended all along the backbone of the Rocky Mountains. Idahe and Wyoming, in any close election, now are practically dominated by the Mormon votes. Church settlers have been taking up valuable lands in Colorado and fmni= grants sent to this country from RHurope by the elders in that fleld are being col« onized in all the surrounding States. New villages are constantly springing up in Nevada, which ls regarded as a fruitful fleld for Mormon endeavor, while to th north and south of Utah a continuous line of towns s being established. That there are rich prizes to be grasped by these who will wield such power no- body can doubt. Government Influence can be exterted in a thousand and one ways to help the Mormon propaganda. In- fluence in the new colonies of the United States, recognition and protection of mis- slonaries abroad by the American diplo- matic authorities, business and political opportunities at home can be had by those who can at a close national election prom- ise to cast to any party the electoral votes and Senate seats of perhaps half a dozen States. Who will be the new real leader of the church? This is the question now asked by the people of Utah. Lorenzo Snow is ~pthe president, but he is old and his one idea is to pay the debts of the church and leave a well-oiled machine to his suc- cessor. Brigham Young, son of the second great Snows death to the | chair of the prophet. He, however, will not be the real leader of the church. Around him will be grouped strong of this kind | apostles, who will struggle for the mas- tery. One will be Heber J. Grant, whose | influence was responsible for the nom- ination of B. H. Roberts, and who almost elected A. W. McCune to the Senate two years ago in a trial of strength in the Legislature with George Q. Cannon. of | Another is Francis M. Lyman, chief of the movement which divided the Mormon and ally of Georgs Q. | Cannon, in the final days of strugsgle in the third dynasty. Two others are John Henry and Joseph F. Smith, nephews of Joseph Smith, already strong in pelitics, | leaders of Republicans, who demand pow- er because of the alleglance they gave to | the church when Joseph Smith’s son drew a faction away from it. The contest for control will come over the position of first counselor to the president, the prime minister in the Mor- mon government. This George Q. Can- non held during three administrations, and the bestowal of the place will serve netice on national politicians with whom they must treat to gain the ald of the Mormon church. One-Rail Elsctric Road That Makes Two Miles a Minuta, NE of the oddest spectacles in the transportation business is the sight O of an electric car running two miles or more a minute on a one-rail Even if it appeared feasible, on & track. casual examination one would say that it was about the most dangerous form of traveling that could be devised. But the truth is the exact reverse, judging by the records of the three mono-rallroads which are in existence. There is one in Ireland, another in France and a third in Bel- glum, and It is proposed mow to build one in England to run between Manches- ter and Liverpool, thirty-four and a half miles, which distance, it is sald by, the projectors of the scheme, can be covered in eighteen minutes. ‘The line in Ireland, from Listowell to Ballybunnfori, ten miles, has been run- ning thirteen years, and the company proudly points to the fact that mn that time there has not been a single accident on the road. The cars and the engine are suspended from a single steel rall, which rises about three feet from the ground. The center of gravity of the care Is be- low the rail, which takes away the pos- sibility of the trains leaving the track. An odd arrangement of the “points,” as raliroad switches are called In Great Brit- aln, is seen at the terminals of the line, where a section of the rail turns on a pivot, connecting with any one of several tracks. The use of electric rower permits the employment of a novel kind of block. In a line of anv considerable length thes blocks would be, say, four miles lons. When a train {3 on one block the current would be supplied to that block and the block behind it would have no current, so that there could be no possibility of rear- eng coilisions. Thus, no two trains going in the same direction could get within four miles of each cther.