Chapter X: QUALITY INSPECTION.--In my paper in these pages, in 1894, I (3)

During the third and fourth years are taken up, respectively, structural and historical geology. Both these subjects are taught largely by lectures, illustrated by charts and diagrams, a select set of specimens for the table, and a few such specimens as can be passed around the room. In the historical geology special care is taken to furnish for class use as many specimens as possible of the typical rocks and fossils of the various ages. It is nearly impossible to provide so abundantly, however, as for mineralogy and lithology. As regards examinations, the methods used are as follows: The first half hour of each exercise is taken up with answering questions or identifying specimens, the examinations in all cases being written. The ground covered by each examination includes all that has been gone over during that year previous to the examination. After the examination is finished, the instructor briefly answers and explains the questions. The papers so handed in are marked by the instructor and returned the following week. All of this serves to enable the class to keep a comprehensive grasp of the subject constantly in hand. At the end of each year's work a final examination of three hours in length is given, covering the complete subject. The final rank given each member is made up equally from an average of the term's work and the final examination. This course has proved decidedly popular. The instruction was originally given in the Geological Department of the Institute of Technology, in a room adapted to seating thirty-six persons. This was gradually crowded to accommodate fifty-six persons. At the beginning of the last four-years' course the number of the applications was so large that each applicant was required to sign a printed statement promising to be present at all exercises for the four years, except for good and sufficient reasons. One hundred and seventeen persons gave the required promise. In order to meet this demand, two divisions were formed, and on each Saturday afternoon the same lesson was repeated. In order to defray the additional expense of the second division the members of the class voluntarily contributed three dollars each. The labor of repeating the lessons on the same afternoon proving too great, provision was made the second year to transfer the instruction to the large lecture hall of the Natural History building, where accommodations were made for one hundred and twelve students. The work has since been carried on there, and a complete new set of specimens, diagrams, etc., is gradually being obtained.

The membership of the class is, of course, principally made up from Boston and the towns immediately surrounding, but a few come from places as far distant as towns in Connecticut and Rhode Island, from Bridgewater, Scituate, Framingham, Fitchburg, Lowell, Lawrence, and Beverly.

One member of the class has made an exhaustive study of the granites of eastern Massachusetts, and others are teaching geology in secondary schools outside of Boston.

An important and influential outcome of the first lessons of Mr. Barton was the formation, in the fall of 1888, of the Barton Chapter of the Agassiz Association, by seven ladies who had been fellow-students in mineralogy. Later, men and other ladies who had attended Mr. Barton's field lessons were invited to join. For ten years this club has flourished, and held weekly evening meetings for nine months of the year, at which the members have done much systematic work in the study of geology, mineralogy, chemistry, botany, entomology, and zoölogy. At some of the sessions the individual members have taken their share of the work by the preparing of exhaustive papers which have been read to and discussed by the class, and sometimes a series of lessons has been given by specialists in the several departments. Many of the first scientists of Boston have aided this association by the giving of lectures and advice regarding courses of lessons and opportunities for study, while the club has in return been a great benefactor to many who sought its instruction and the association of those with like tastes. In arranging regular Saturday outings for the study of field geology and botany, this club was the pioneer in this vicinity of the kind of study which happily now seems to be fast becoming popular. A number of persons who were members of this association in their younger years are now holding positions in the United States Geological Survey or other departments of the Government, or in the capacity of curator or instructor are connected with large museums, colleges, or schools in different parts of the country, thereby having opportunities to continue their favorite lines of work, to spread a knowledge of the things about them, and to induce in others tastes such as were fostered in them while connected with the Barton Chapter of the Agassiz Association.

Since closing the four-years' course in botany Dr. Greenleaf has repeated the lessons on vegetable morphology and physiology and those on systematic botany. Finding the class not so well prepared as in former years, instead of continuing the third course of the series, he has given a set of fifteen lessons on the elementary structure and function of flowering plants, as he believed that course to be a necessary foundation for further botanical study.

Another feature of The Teachers' School of Science should not remain unnoticed. It consists of effective work in zoölogy and geology by Mr. A. W. Grabau, the official guide in the museum and a graduate student of geology. A course of lessons on The Shore Animals of New England was begun by him in April, 1897. Directly connected with these field lessons was held a class in laboratory work, which was attended by about twenty persons.

The next year Mr. Grabau endeavored to give his audience a comprehensive view of the action of cold and heat, of winds and waves, rain and rivers, and of the chemical effect of the atmosphere in the production of the natural features of the earth's surface, by giving eight lectures on The Surface of the Earth, its Rocks, Soils, and Scenery. Special attention was given to the scenery of New England, and this awakened an interest in local scenery, which interest led to Mr. Grabau giving several lectures in surrounding towns, under local auspices. One of these lectures called the attention of the people of Arlington, Massachusetts, to the fact that they had in their midst a valuable geological monument, and led them to start a movement for the preservation of a terminal bowlder moraine on Arlington Heights, which is the only good accessible example of such moraine near Boston.

Under the same instruction ten lessons were given on the use of the microscope and the preparation of specimens of hydroids.

The work begun at the winter lectures was continued during the spring by excursions to the seashore. The beaches of Revere, Swampscott, Marblehead; the cliffs and tide pools of Nahant, Marblehead Neck, and Nantasket, and the mud flats and piles of Beverly, were explored. One excursion was made to the outer shore of Cape Cod and Buzzards Bay. The party spent four days on this excursion.

During the early part of the summer an outing was made to Bayville, Maine, where a laboratory was furnished, with microscopes and other accessories, and fourteen persons (mostly teachers) devoted ten days to the study of marine fauna, special attention being given to hydroids. Some geology was studied during this excursion, and a small island mapped. Those who attended this expedition were delighted with an experience new to most of them, as many of them had not before studied zoölogy and knew not what a field could be opened by the study of natural history. One of the party afterward remarked, "I feel as if I had been born into a new world, so different are these things in their homes from their representations in books."

In the autumn and following spring field lessons were given on marine zoölogy, the object being to study animals in their natural habitats. Another excursion was made to Woods Hole, Buzzards Bay, and a summer laboratory established for ten days at Goldsborough, Maine, where work similar to that done the previous summer was here carried out. Among the field lessons of the spring of 1899 was an excursion of four days' duration to Cuttyhunk, one of the Elizabeth Islands, where there was an opportunity to study a marine fauna southern in character and different from that found on the Maine coast. On the afternoon of Agassiz's birthday a sail was taken to another of this group of islands--Penikese, the site of the famous summer school. In the evening the class of seventeen persons listened to the reading of selections from the life of Agassiz, poems regarding him, and magazine articles describing events connected with the great meeting in the summer of 1873. The next day an excursion was made to Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard, where the afternoon was spent in studying the wonderfully colored clay cliffs and in searching for fossils. As an outcome of Mr. Grabau's field lessons the Hale House Natural History Club was formed. This club consists of teachers and other persons who have banded together for the study of natural history. Meetings are held twice a month, and similar classes have been formed for children of the neighborhood.

The Teachers' School of Science has been of great assistance to the Boston Normal School by furnishing certain of its pupils with instruction in geology and zoölogy.

In 1893 The Teachers' School of Science took part in the exhibition of elementary science teaching made by certain teachers of the schools of the eastern part of Massachusetts. The school was enabled to take part in this public exhibit through the generosity of Mr. T. A. Watson, a pupil in the school, who paid the necessary expenses.

* * * * *

A collection of articles obtained by the Baron de Baye in a
scientific expedition last year to Siberia and the Russian
Caucasus contains specimens from very ancient times down. Among
them are mammoth bones and chipped flints, like those of the
Mousterian period in France, from the Yenisei; arrowheads, like
the European and American, from the same region; bronze weapons
from the Caucasus; iron arrowheads like those of the Congo;
skulls, weapons and ornaments, necklaces of hard, polished,
pierced stones, from the Kurgans of the steppes, dating from
antiquity down to the beginning of the middle ages; Caucasian
jewels, and ceramic ware ancient and modern. A very curious
object is one of the statues, called Kamenaia Baba, of a kind
supposed to have been set up by the Scythians and always held in
veneration, of which the present specimen is the only one yet
allowed to go out of Russia.

INFLUENCE OF THE WEATHER UPON CRIME.

BY EDWIN G. DEXTER.

The relation between general climatic conditions and the prevalence of suicide has been somewhat exhaustively studied by students of criminology, the result being a considerable accumulation of data and the formulation of a number of more or less tenable theories. From these studies we may safely conclude that the homicidal tendency, as shown by self-destruction (suicide) and the destruction of others (murder), is stronger in the temperate climatic zones than in the torrid or frigid, and that in the late spring and early summer months more of these offenses have been recorded than for any other period of the year. To these few facts the seeming effects of cosmical forces upon such tendencies has apparently been limited.

In fact, it was the oft-repeated statement that nothing was known of the exact relations of the more definite meteorological conditions with the prevalence of suicide--a statement to be found in most treatises upon the subject--that has given rise to this paper. Realizing that the science of climatology must include, and in fact be based upon, a study of the meteorological conditions prevalent, and that the study of these definite conditions for the exact times when suicides or murders occurred might throw some light upon the question, this problem was undertaken.

In the preparation of the accompanying charts, from the study of which the conclusions herein stated were deduced, the record of crime for Denver, Colorado, for the fourteen years ending with June, 1897, was made use of. Superintendent Howe, chief of the city detective service, has kept such a record with the greatest care, and we wish here to acknowledge the many courtesies of his office.

No attempt has been made in this paper to compare the conditions for Denver, either meteorological or social--and each is somewhat unique--with such conditions elsewhere. In fact, such a comparative study is at present impossible since data are wanting.

In the actual preparation of the charts each murder, suicide, or attempt at suicide--which, for our purpose, is equally important--was set down chronologically in the left-hand columns of large sheets of paper ruled for the purpose. These sheets were then taken to the office of the United States Weather Bureau, F. H. Brandenburg, director, where were recorded in the proper columns the maximum and minimum barometer readings, maximum and minimum temperature, maximum and minimum humidity, maximum velocity of the wind, precipitation, and character of the day for each day during the fourteen years on which a crime of either class occurred. When several took place upon the same day the fact was taken into consideration. From the sheets thus filled out, the curves on the accompanying charts were plotted by computing the per cent of crimes of each class committed under the definite meteorological condition indicated.

The curves marked "normal" were constructed by tabulating in a similar manner the conditions for every day in a sufficient number of days to secure a fair average. Five years were so tabulated for Figs. 2, 3, 4, and 5, and the records for nineteen years used in Figs. 1 and 6.

The whole number of suicides recorded is two hundred and sixty; murders, one hundred and eighty. It may be noted that this number of suicides, for a city averaging hardly one hundred thousand inhabitants for the fourteen years, is largely in excess of the rate recorded for American cities, but it must be remembered that some of these were unsuccessful attempts, and also that the social conditions of Denver tend to swell the number--containing, as it does, so many disappointed in the last struggle for health.

Fig. 1 shows the occurrence, in per cent, of crimes of both the classes considered for each month of the year, together with the monthly meteorological means, computed from the records for nineteen years. The expectancy curve in the occurrence table is based upon the supposition that the months of the year are all of the same length, and that the numerical expectancy would be one twelfth, or eight and a third per cent for each. It will be seen that the crime curves are for the most part below the expectancy for the winter months, and above it for the summer (except for April, and suicides for June), showing the maximum for the latter class in May and for murders in March. Morselli shows[C] that for most European countries suicides are at the maximum in June, though a considerable number show that condition for the later spring months. A study of the general meteorological means, shown upon the same plate as the occurrence table, fails to indicate any good reason for irregularity of the crime curves. The "month" columns read from the top to the bottom of the chart, and by following that for May, for instance, which month shows the maximum for suicide, we find that the meteorological condition for each class of data is about halfway between the extremes for that class for the year, while for January (minimum suicides) each class is by far more divergent. Yet a mean, like those considered in this table, is but the average of the extremes, and those months which show great per cents of crime also present great extremes of condition, which fact, interpreted in the light of those disclosed by the charts yet to be considered, make the occurrence curve more explicable.

[Footnote C: Suicide, International Science Series.]

WIND.--An explanation of the various curves in Fig. 2 may serve for the series following, so I give it somewhat in detail. The vertical distances from the base line indicate per cents, and the distances from left to right, divided into columns, the maximum velocity of the wind per hour for the days tabulated. In the "normal" curve every day for five years was considered, and it was found that seven per cent of the days for that period showed a maximum velocity of between one and ten miles (first column), forty-eight per cent a maximum velocity of between ten and twenty miles (second column), nineteen per cent a maximum velocity of between twenty and thirty miles, and so on, as indicated by the curve. Now, it can readily be seen that this normal curve may also be considered the expectancy curve--_if the wind has no effect_. That is, if forty-eight per cent of the days of the year show a maximum velocity of the wind, between ten and twenty miles an hour, the law of probability would give us the same per cent of the crime for the year on such days if this meteorological condition were not effective.

What we do find, however, is indicated by the other curves, and any increase of crime over expectancy may in this case be ascribed to the wind. We notice that for slight velocities (one to twenty miles an hour) the crime curves are below that of expectancy, but we can see that if the sum of all the per cents for any one curve is one hundred, and one is forced above the other at any part, there must be a corresponding deficiency at some other part. So we may, perhaps, with justice suppose that these mild velocities do not exert a positively quieting effect emotionally, but simply a less stimulating effect than the higher ones. For velocities of between twenty and thirty miles a marked effect is noticeable, and under those conditions the proportion of suicides to that expected is 37:29; velocities of from thirty to forty miles, 14:11; of forty to fifty miles, 7:2; of fifty to sixty miles, 0.4:2.6; of fifty to sixty miles, 0.2:2. The curve for murders shows the increase to be slightly less than for suicides, but the same general relation is preserved throughout. The value of such curves is, of course, somewhat proportional to the number of observations made and recorded, and we must confess that two hundred and sixty (suicides) and one hundred and eighty (murders) is a hardly sufficient number from which to deduce a definite law, but we can hardly doubt, even considering this somewhat limited number, that the wind is, in our problem, a factor of no mean importance.

TEMPERATURE.--Fig. 3 is intended to show, in a similar manner, the relation between expectancy curves, based upon conditions of temperature, and the actual occurrence of the crimes in question. With this class of data, as well as that for the barometric readings and humidity (Figs. 4 and 5), both the maximum and minimum readings are considered. This was done instead of taking the mean of both for the day, since in many cases the latter might be quite normal, while one or possibly both the former might exhibit marked peculiarities. All the curves were constructed precisely as in the chart just considered, and those marked "normal" are again the expectancy curves. An inspection of the chart shows no marked discrepancies till we reach the higher temperatures. For the lower the coincidence for all the maximum and all the minimum curves is not exact, but somewhat similar. When, however, we reach for the minimum curves, temperatures of from 40° to 50° and from 50° to 60°, which means that for the per cent of days indicated, the temperature did not go below those points, the per cent of crime exceeds that expected under the conditions in the proportions of 22:16.5 and 24:18 (suicides), and 21:16.5 and 29:18 (murders).

The same general relation exists between the maximum curves, where it is shown that for temperatures between 80° and 100° the actual crime is about thirty-three per cent in excess of the expected.

These facts have their bearing upon the already noted statement that the summer months show a preponderance of homicide.

BAROMETER.--Fig. 4, disassociated from the others, shows but little. Naturally we should not look for very marked effects from variations of an inch or less in the barometric readings, when in the course of a journey from the sea level to Denver a change of six inches is brought about, and in going from the same point to the summit of Pike's Peak one of nearly twelve inches without producing any marked emotional abnormities, but we must take into consideration the fact that sudden barometric variations generally accompany or more frequently precede other important meteorological changes. In the latter case, though they might be the primary cause of factors considered in this study, they themselves would fail to show upon the tables.

HUMIDITY.--This figure (Fig. 5) indicates in a very decisive manner that states of low relative humidity, as shown by both maximum and minimum readings, are conducive to excesses in both the classes of crimes studied. For instance, for maximum humidities between ten and twenty the proportion of actual crime to that expected is 1:0.1; between twenty and thirty (suicide), 11:1; between thirty and forty, 9.5:4.5; between forty and fifty, 15:8. The maximum curves show somewhat the same general relation though not with quite so marked divergences. To one who has experienced the general low humidities of our Colorado altitudes (Denver is one mile above the sea level) this result is not surprising. There is no doubt that a nervous tension much in excess of that common in the lower altitudes exists, due in part, perhaps, to the deficiency in barometric pressure and a consequent effect upon the respiratory processes, but probably, as shown by these curves, more largely to the dryness of the atmosphere, as indicated by low humidity. I hope at some future time to verify or disprove this supposition by a comparative study made at some lower altitude.

CHARACTER OF THE DAY.[D]--Fig. 6 shows the relation between the expectancy of crime, based upon the actual per cents of cloudy, partly cloudy, and clear days (records of nineteen years), and its actual occurrence. The disagreements are very slight, although a slight excess of murders is shown for cloudy days.

[Footnote D: By the United States Weather Bureau days are
characterized as "cloudy" when for 0.8 or more of the possible
hours of sunshine the sun is obscured; "partly cloudy" when from
0.4 to 0.7 inclusive is obscured; and "clear" when 0.3 or less.]

SUMMARY.--Fig. 1 shows at a glance no generally prevailing meteorological conditions to which can be ascribed, with any degree of certainty, the monthly variations of crime.

Fig. 2 shows that high velocities of wind seem to increase to a marked extent the tendency to crime. For the highest velocities increasing the probability twenty times (two thousand per cent).

Fig. 3 shows that high temperatures seem to have the same effect, that of between 90° and 100° increasing the probability one hundred per cent.

Fig. 4 fails to show that barometric changes are accompanied by any marked excesses in crime.

Fig. 5 shows that low conditions of relative humidity are attended with very marked excesses, those below thirty increasing the probability of suicides eleven times (eleven hundred per cent).

Fig. 6 fails to show that the character of the day has any considerable effect.

Considering briefly, in conclusion, the results of the foregoing study, and comparing them with a somewhat similar one for children,[E] we may safely conclude that the tendency to homicide varies with those meteorological conditions which bring about an emotional state necessitating a considerable discharge of motor stimulus. The same conditions which bring about irritability and unruliness on the part of the child accompany suicidal tendencies.

[Footnote E: See The Child and the Weather, Pedagogical Seminary,
April, 1898.]

This supposition is upheld by the fact that suicide is less common in the colder climates, where the metabolic processes are slow, and in the torrid zone, where the heat produces a general depletion of energy for motor discharge, than in the temperate regions, where the climate is exhilarating. The study, from the social standpoint, too, leads us to the same conclusion. The excess of crime in the social whirlpools of our great cities is convincing, and especially the careful study made by Morselli of the prevalence of suicide in the different countries of Europe, interpreted in the light of what we know of their social conditions.

Yet, in considering the facts disclosed by the present paper, we must not dogmatically assert that each is of the importance that the figures indicate. In fact, it seems evident from a careful study of the sheets, which show all the conditions together for the same day--a thing impossible with the charts illustrating this paper--that the various conditions for the day mutually react and interact upon one another, certain combinations seemingly resulting in a re-enforcement of the tendency to crime, while certain others inhibit it. Space forbids any full discussion of this phase of the problem in the present paper, but it very probably will be made the subject of some future study.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.--The above paper was written more than a year ago.
Since that time the work of comparing the prevalence of crime
with the meteorological conditions has been carried on upon a
much larger scale in the city of New York. An immensely greater
number of data have served to corroborate the earlier conclusions
arrived at in this Denver study, only in minor points--and those
directly traceable to the very different climates--proving at all
in opposition to them.--NEW YORK, _July, 1899_.

THE SURVIVAL OF AFRICAN MUSIC IN AMERICA.

BY JEANNETTE ROBINSON MURPHY.

Fifty years from now, when every vestige of slavery has disappeared, and even its existence has become a fading memory, America, and probably Europe, will suddenly awake to the sad fact that we have irrevocably lost a veritable mine of wealth through our failure to appreciate and study from a musician's standpoint the beautiful African music, whose rich stores will then have gone forever from our grasp.

During my childhood my observations were centered upon a few very old negroes who came directly from Africa, and upon many others whose parents were African born, and I early came to the conclusion, based upon negro authority, that the greater part of their music, their methods, their scale, their type of thought, their dancing, their patting of feet, their clapping of hands, their grimaces and pantomime, and their gross superstitions came straight from Africa.

Some of their later songs, it is true, we must technically call "modified African," but how far the original African song elements have been altered (and usually not for the better) by contact with American life is a question of fact, and can only be settled by a careful comparison of the songs as sung among the natives of Africa and the changed forms in which their modified ones are found today in the South. It must be determined in each case, and can not be settled by any general theory or formula.

This question of the classification of African music has given rise to more or less discussion. It seems hardly just to call the genuine negro songs "the folk songs of America." We are a conglomerate people, and no one race can claim a monopoly in this matter. English, Scotch, German, French, Italians, and others have brought their own music and their own folklore, and in each case it must be considered distinctly belonging to the nationality that imported it. Why should not the same be true of the genuine negro music? The stock is African, the ideas are African, the patting and dancing are all African. The veneer of civilization and religious fervor and Bible truth is entirely superficial. The African is under it all, and those who study him and his weird music at short range have no difficulty in recalling the savage conditions that gave it birth.

Were I to begin now the study of all the intonations and tortuous quavers of this beautiful music, I fear I should be able to do little toward imitating it; for it was only possible to catch the spirit of it and the reason of it all while my voice had the flexibility of childhood, and the influences of slavery were still potent factors in the daily life of the negroes. I followed these old ex-slaves, who have passed away, in their tasks, listened to their crooning in their cabins, in the fields, and especially in their meeting houses, and again and again they assured me the tunes they sang came from Africa.

Possibly I have an unusual predilection for this imported African music, but to me some of the strange, weird, untamable, barbaric melodies have a rude beauty and a charm beside which, as Cowper says--

"Italian trills are tame."

It is indeed hard to account for the strange misconceptions which prevail as to what really constitutes genuine African music. The "coon songs" which are so generally sung are base imitations. The white man does not live who can write a genuine negro song. At home there used to be a rare old singer, an old Kentucky mammy, whom everybody loved. She once said: "Us ole heads use ter make 'em up on de spurn of de moment, arter we wrassle wid de Sperit and come thoo. But the tunes was brung from Africa by our granddaddies. Dey was jis 'miliar songs. Dese days dey calls 'em ballots, but in de ole days dey call 'em spirituals, case de Holy Spirit done revealed 'em to 'em. Some say Moss Jesus taught 'em, and I's seed 'em start in meetin'. We'd all be at the 'prayer house' de Lord's Day, and de white preacher he'd splain de word and read whar Ezekial done say--

"'Dry bones gwine ter lib ergin.'

And, honey, de Lord would come a-shinin' thoo dem pages and revive dis ole nigger's heart, and I'd jump up dar and den and holler and shout and sing and pat, and dey would all cotch de words and I'd sing it to some ole shout song I'd heard 'em sing from Africa, and dey'd all take it up and keep at it, and keep a-addin' to it, and den it would be a spiritual. Dese spirituals am de best moanin' music in de world, case dey is de whole Bible sung out and out. Notes is good enough for you people, but us likes a mixtery. Dese young heads ain't wuth killin', fur dey don't keer bout de Bible nor de ole hymns. Dey's completely spiled wid too much white blood in 'em, and de big organ and de eddication has done took all de Holy Spirit out en 'em, till dey ain't no better wid der dances and cuttin' up dan de white folks."

The negro usually sang religious music at his work. He was often turned out of church for crossing his feet or singing a "fiddle sing," which is a secular song, but he could steal all the chickens he wanted and never fall from grace. One of the most persistent fancies that the old slaves cherished was that they were the oppressed Israelites, that the Southerners were the cruel Egyptians, and that Canaan was freedom. Bondage was of course their slavery. They believed that some day the Red Sea would come in a sea of blood, which was verified in the civil war. In many of their songs they appropriate Bible prophecies and ideas to themselves. The song given on the opposite page is a characteristic one, illustrating many peculiarities; and if it did not come from Africa, where did it come from?

It is often asserted at the North that, as a rule, the negro was punished if he prayed or received religious instruction. On the contrary, many fine plantations had their "prayer houses," where a white minister was employed to hold services and to instruct them in the Bible. In nearly every section they were permitted and encouraged to hold their own meetings. That this is true is attested by these same thousands of "spirituals," all of which are filled with Bible texts. Some of the most devout Christians were, and are yet, the old "mammies" and "uncles" who lived all the closer to the heavenly Father because of their simplicity and lack of learning. The deeply religious and better class of old negroes maintain that the reason that this music is so fascinating to whites and blacks is because it is God's own music inspired by the Holy Spirit.

[Music: DONE FOUND DAT NEW HIDIN' PLACE.

1. Who dat ... yon- der dressed in white? ... Must be de
2. Who dat ... yon- der dressed in black? ... Must be de
3. Jes on-ly could see lee-tle ba - by to-day-- ... An - gel done
4. When I was down in E - gypt's land, ...Heard a mighty

chil-lun ob de Is - rael - ite ... Done found dat new hid-in' place!
nig - gers a - turn - in' back! Done found dat new hid-in' place!
drug her thoo de twelve pearly gates! Done found dat new hid-in' place!
talkin' 'bout de promised land-- Done found dat new hid-in' place!

Who dat ... yon- der dressed in red? ... Must be de
God don't talk like a nat-er-al man--... Talk so a
Pur- ti- est ting what eb-ber I done ... Was to
And when we get on Ca - naan's shore.... We'll

chil-lun dat a Mos-es led! .. Done found dat new hid-in' place!
sin-ner can a - un-der-stand-- Done found dat new hid-in' place!
git religion when I was young-- Done found dat new hid-in' place!
shout and sing for-eb-ber more-- Done found dat new hid-in' place!

REFRAIN.

Come a-long--Done found dat new hid-in' place!

Ise so gla-ad 'm Done found dat new hid-in' place!]

There is indeed a wonderful power in some of these songs, and the charm undoubtedly lies in the fact that they are founded on Bible texts.

No one questions the remarkable hold the genuine negro music has upon the Anglo-Saxon race, as is evidenced by the success of the Jubilee singers years ago and of the Hampton students now. The negroes have simply used the weird African melodies as a fascinating vehicle for Bible truths.

Most students of English hymnology have observed a similar fact in their own religious poetry. One of the most powerful devotional hymns in the language--How Firm a Foundation, ye Saints of the Lord--is largely indebted for its perpetuity to the fact that almost every line is taken directly from the Bible.

To illustrate the power of this music upon the colored people themselves, I may be permitted to give this little bit of personal experience:

A few nights ago I went to pay a visit to an old "mammy" from Charleston. All her family sat round the room when they found I was from the South. The eldest daughter said: "Bress de Lord! I'm glad to see you! The Norf am no place for people what's been used to eberyting. Nuffin but wuk, wuk, wuk; all's jes money. No fun, nor lub, nor Jesus Christ nowhar! Why, dey'll jes meet you and pass de time ob day, and dey'll let you go away widout eber stoppin' to ax yer ef you's prepared to die, and how's your soul. Why, I neber seed no stranger in Charleston 'thout axin' 'em how's der soul comin' on? De niggers heah ain't got no Holy Spirit and dey is singing no 'count songs--dese white songs from books."

At this juncture I quietly began to sing, "I don't want to be buried in de Storm." Suddenly they all began to sing and pat with me, and quickly adapted their different versions to mine. They lost no time in getting happy. They all jumped up and down in a perfect ecstasy of delight, and shouted, "I feel like de Holy Spirit is right on my hade!"

Another one exclaimed: "People! dem songs makes de har rise up. Mine a-risin' now."

We all had a good time, and I felt greatly complimented when the head of the house explained enthusiastically: "You does shore sing 'em good; and for a white lady you is got a good deal ob de Holy Spirit in you, honey"; and before I left the house they had tried to convince me that God has surely blessed this music by taking a hand in forming it himself.

We find many of the genuine negro melodies in Jubilee and Hampton Song Books, but for the uninitiated student of the future there is little or no instruction given, and the white singer in attempting to learn them will make poor work at their mastery; for how is he, poor fellow, to know that it is bad form not to break every law of musical phrasing and notation? What is there to show him that he must make his voice exceedingly nasal and undulating; that around every prominent note he must place a variety of small notes, called "trimmings," and he must sing tones not found in our scale; that he must on no account leave one note until he has the next one well under control? He might be tempted, in the _ignorance_ of his twentieth-century education, to take breath whenever he came to the end of a line or verse! But this he should never do. By some mysterious power, to be learned only from the negro, he should carry over his breath from line to line and from verse to verse, even at the risk of bursting a blood-vessel. He must often drop from a high note to a very low one; he must be very careful to divide many of his monosyllabic words in two syllables, placing a forcible accent on the last one, so that "dead" will be "da--_ade_," "back" becomes "ba--_ack_," "chain" becomes "cha--_ain_."

[Music:

1. Ma- ry and Marthy had a cha-_ain_--Walk Jerus'lem jis like Job! An' a 2. I tell you bredderin, fur a fac'-- Walk Jerus'lem jis like Job! If you 3.Some says Pe-ter and some says Paul-- Walk Jerus'lem jis like Job! But dey

eb'-ry link was a Je - sus Na-_ame_! Walk Jeru-s'lem jis like Job! ebber leabs de debbil you musn't turn back! Walk Jeru-s'lem jis like Job! ain't but one God saves us all-- Walk Jeru-s'lem jis like Job!

REFRAIN.

When I comes ter die ... I want ter be ... read-y; When

I comes ter die, ... Gwine ter walk Jeru-s'lem jis like Job!]

He must also intersperse his singing with peculiar humming sounds--"hum-m-m-m." He will have to learn that the negro never neglects his family relations in his songs, and seldom considers his "spirityul" finished until he has mentioned his father and mother and sister and brother, and his preacher.

A beautiful custom prevails among them of sending messages by the dying to friends gone before into heaven. When a woman dies some friend or relative will kneel down and sing to the soul as it takes its flight. This song contains endless verses, conveying love and kisses to Aunt Fannie and Uncle Cæsar and "Moss Jesus." With omissions it is used upon other occasions with fine effect.

[Music: RIDE ON, JESUS.

CHORUS.

Ride on, Je-sus, Ride on, Je-sus, Ride on, Conq'ring King; I

want to go to Heaven in de morn-in'. 1. See my mud-der,

Oh, yes! Tell her for me, Oh yes! Ride my hoss in de

bat-tle ob de field, I want to go to Heaven in de morn-in'!]

Old Mary, who sang this, was a nurse in our family. She, like most negroes, had no idea how old she really was. She never worried, though the heavens should fall, and this ignorance as to when their birthdays rolled round may account for their longer lives here and in Africa, and for their not showing their age. She found great difficulty in arranging her religion to suit her morals, and once, in my childish innocence, I remonstrated with her for getting "baptisted" so many times, and she exclaimed indignantly: "I's a Methodist wid a Baptist faith. I gits baptisted ebery summer when de water am rale warm, and I gits turned out ebery winter fur dancin' and stealin', and you would too, child, ef you was a nigger."

A few days ago I asked one of the most scholarly and noted ministers of the colored race, who was visiting in New York, about the negro music. He is very black, and his parents were pure Africans. He said that undoubtedly the tunes came directly from Africa, that his father said he had sung them at home in Africa, and that the tunes were almost supernatural in their hold upon the people. He continued: "Upon condition that you will never tell my name, I'll give you an incident which will prove to you that many of our race are still under the influences of voodooism, and that although I am, as you see, a professed Christian, all the African practices hold a powerful charm for me which I can't shake off." Knowing well his reputation and position, I was startled. He went on and said: "And this may serve you some time, as it is a true story of my own weakness. Once the bishop ordered me to the city of ----, where I was to have charge of a run-down church. The first prayer-meeting night the members locked me out, and came with shotguns to the church steps and said they were tired of ministers, that they had had four, and would not have a fifth minister. By dint of eloquence and superior education I obtained their consent to enter the church. Well, I tried faithfully to attract them. I never had more than a handful, and for six months all seemed dead set against me. I could not draw. Completely discouraged, I was in my study praying when the door opened and a little conjure man came in and said softly: 'You don't understand de people. You must get you a hand as a friend to draw 'em. Ef you will let me fix you a luck charm you'll git 'em.' In my desperation, I told him to fix it. He brought the charm back in a few days, and said, 'Now, you must feed it wid alcohol, whisky, or spirits, and never let it git dry, and always wear it nex' your heart when you enters or leaves de church.'

"It was only an ugly piece of red flannel, and I hate to confess it, but I obeyed his instructions. I always felt for it before I went down on my knees to pray. The next Sunday the church was full of people. The following Sabbath there was not standing room. For four years the aisles were crowded every Sunday. I knew it was not the gospel's power, but that wretched 'luck ball.' When the bishop sent me to another church he wrote and said: 'When you came they tried to drive you away with shotguns; here, now, twenty men write me begging to have you stay. Now you draw beyond any minister in the city! How is this?' I was ashamed to tell him. I opened the charm, and found these things in it. It was a large piece of red flannel, with a horseshoe magnet fastened flat to it. In the center of the space in the magnet was a bright silver dime. On one side were sewed two needles, on the other side of the money one needle. Below it were two more needles. The whole was covered with what looked and tasted like gunpowder. I tore it up and threw it away, and have never been able to draw an audience since.--You want one? Well, I'll try to get one for you."

"Indeed I want one! What lecturer would not?"

I give this as an instance of the peculiar persistency of African ideas even in enlightened, civilized, Christian minds.

There is a Mrs. R---- in a side street in a Northern town whom I lately visited. She was the most prominent member in the Baptist colored church. She was the leading singer. Another singer got jealous of her power to holler the loudest; besides, she wanted to get her washing away from her as well as her husband, and, worst of all, _conjured_ her. At last the first singer fell sick, and the doctor could do nothing to relieve her. A conjure woman called, and for twenty-five dollars undertook the case. She came in and moaned a few incantations in an unknown tongue. She carried a satchel, and took from it a glass, poured some gin into it and drank a little, and then, holding her hand over it, said:

"Mrs. R----, look inside yourself and tell me what you see."

Mrs. R---- was hypnotized, I suppose, and said, "I see pizen, and snakes a-crawlin'."

"That's right! It's the lady across the way has put the spell on you, and she has cut your shape out in red flannel and stuck it full of pins and needles and biled it. She's trickin' you, and killin' you. But I'll throw it back on her--scatter your spell to the four winds. She has killed a snake and taken the blood and mixed it with wine, and in twenty-four hours it turned into snakes and you drank it and you were going crazy, and your home would have been gone." It is needless to say the sick woman recovered.

She showed the caul she was born with tied up in a bundle in her stocking. The neighbors were always trying to touch the lump so they could put spells on people and be healed from diseases. The conjure woman also makes luck balls for sale. She tells her customers they must always wear them next their skin on the right side, and keep them wet with "feedin' medicine."

I was so fortunate as to discover the contents of one of her balls. Corn, twine, pepper, a piece of hair from under a black cat's foot, a piece of rabbit's right foot, and whisky--all put into a red flannel bag. This was all inclosed in a buckeye biscuit. She puts loadstones in some of them to draw away a lover from a girl. She also takes roots of several different herbs and flowers and makes them into love powders, and gives them to a darkey lassie to throw upon her truant lover to bring him back to her waiting heart.

It is not to be disputed that Africa has touched in many ways and in divers places the highest civilization of the Old World. I am fully persuaded that in the near future scientific researches will discover among native African tribes traditions which disclose the real parentage of many of the weird stories concerning the Creation and the Flood which are now current among their descendants in this country. The same may be said of "Brer Rabbit" and the "Tar baby," "Brer Fox," "Brer Dog," "Brer Wolf," and all that other wonderful fraternization with animal nature which simple savage life and unbridled childish imagination suggest. In many instances they will be found absolutely identical with those that are now told in the wilds of Africa.

To show the existence of this belief among the negroes themselves, I will quote from an old negress, whom I know well, named "Aunt Lucinda":

"Dis is an ole tale. Hit done come down since de Flood. Why, chile, de Bible didn't git eberyting by a good deal--cose it didn't! Us niggers done tole dis in Africk, and Moss John done say de Bible say ef it got all de words Jesus say hit couldn't holt 'em. And dere's lots of tales de Bible didn't git. Dis one now be 'bout de hammer and de ark:

"One time God done tole Moss Nora to build him a ark, case de people fo de Flood was a singin' and a cuttin' up and a givin' entertainments, and God wanted to raise up a better people to a sarve him, and so Moss Nora had to build de ark tight, so de few people wouldn't drown. God tole him to take a he and a she of every kind and fix de jistes tight so de ark wouldn't leak water when de Flood came. De people sat around on de benches a-pokin' fun at him, and dey say, 'Moss Nora, what you doin'?'

"He say, 'I's a-hammerin' de jistes tight.'

"And de people say, 'What dat you doin'?'

"And Moss Nora say, 'I got this ark to build, and I gwine to build it.'

"And de people kep' a-pokin' fun. Dey say, 'Moss Nora, what dat hammer say?'

"And he say, 'What it sound to you like it say, humph?'

"And de people laugh and say it soun' like it say nuffin but 'Tim--tam! tim--tam!'

"And Moss Nora say: 'Dot's whar you fotch up wrong. I got ter build this ark so tight de water won't leak thoo, and de people won't fall out, and dat hammer don't say "Tim--tam," no sich ting. Hit say ebery time I hits de jistes, "Repent! repent!"'

"Dere's a spiritual what goes long wid it too, honey, 'bout de hammer an' de nails, but I don't know it. Hit's a ole, ole story dat we been singin' since de Flood--jes come down from mouf to mouf. Hist de Window is a ole tune, but not ole like dis one. Hit done come jis like I tole you."

In regard to one song, at least, I have irrefragable proof of its African origin. Mrs. Jefferson Davis tells me her old nurse was a full-blooded African named Aunt Dinah. She would lovingly put her little charge to sleep with this doggerel:

[Music: FADDING, GIDDING.

Fad-ding, gid-ding, fad-ding go; San-té mo-lé, san-té mo-lé;

Fad-ding, gid-ding, fad-ding go; Eb-er sence I born ma' han' 'tan so.]

Aunt Dinah would also sing it pleadingly when begging for a present. She would begin the supplication with hands clinched tight, and open them quickly at the last line. She declared that she always sang it in this exact manner in her old African home whenever she was asking a favor, but she was never able to tell the meaning of any part of it except the last line, the African of which she had forgotten, but which meant that all black races are born with wide-open palms ready and waiting for other peoples to pour rich gifts into them. This she translated in her apt, crude way: "Eber sence I born, my hand stand so!"

She had a relative named Moses, I think, who had three deep gashes radiating from each eye. Of these he was very proud, as he said they indicated that he was of the king's blood.

Ten days have elapsed since the above was written. I feel like crying, "Eureka!" I have found my proof! After a diligent search for a real live African, I have found an educated convert to Christianity, who has been absent only two years from the wilds of the west coast of Africa. In broken English he sang for me several songs sung by the savages of the native Mendi tribe. The tunes sounded much like songs I know, but I could not take them down during this interview. All the songs I sang he said seemed very familiar--in certain portions especially so.

I was especially interested in the description he gave of a peculiar ceremony common among the wildest Bushmen and the Yolloff tribe. My informant grew up and played with them a great deal when a child. He says the death of a young boy they consider an affront to the living--an affront which they never forgive. It is singular that among some of our Indian tribes a similar notion prevails. The friends meet around the corpse and exclaim, while they chant and sing and dance, in a high-pitched voice: "Why did you die? Were you too proud to stay with us? You thought yourself too good to stay with us. To whom do you leave all your things? We don't want them! Take them with you if you are so stuck up; we'll bury them with you!"

They work themselves into a perfect fury, and one gets a whip and flogs the corpse until it is horribly mutilated. Then the few who have really been friends to the child in their crude way draw near and begin to sing:

"Anasa yi.
Anasa papa,"

which this native African assured me meant, as nearly as he could translate it--

"Find out how mother is.
Find out how papa is."

The curious identity of the name for father in this African dialect and our own he could not explain.

Even while the relatives were thus speaking kindly to the departed child, others would come up with whips, and with blows spitefully exclaim: "Tell my father's sister I am happy. Speak to her for me." This they said, mocking the relatives for sending messages.