done. Have you ever seen a frown on the face of a whistling boy? Of course not. Where there is music, there is peace and harmony that fill the mind, leaving no room for bitterness, jealousy, or kindred evils.
The mayor of a large eastern city had this to say to the convention of Federated Music Teachers: "I believe you are second in importance only to the clergy of our city, because I feel that music is next to religion in the uplifting of human souls."
Mr. Robert Laurence, for three years song leader at Sing Sing, says that during the entire time of his service in musical work at this great New York prison, it was impossible to find among the inmates a pianist good enough to play ordinary accompaniments well. The situation was so amusing that a sign was hung in one of the corridors bearing this inscription: "Study piano and dodge the hoosgow" and one of the inmates wrote a letter to the district judge requesting that if a good pianist was ever brought up for sentence to give him life.
Very little musical effort is ever really wasted. If you will share your community song book, your church hymn book, your phonograph or radio with the neighbor you can't quite understand, you will soon be exchanging favorite recipes, flower bulbs, dress patterns and home remedies.
Why should women, in particular, sponsor the study and development of music in the community?
We women of today are the mothers of the Bachs and Mozarts of the future. Let us teach our children good music, encourage it in our community and keep our lives and theirs full of harmony.
Do you know—
"I am the laughter of children's voices; I am the joy of early youth; I am the pleasure and recreation of busy middle age; I am the peace and comfort of life's sunset; I am the lullaby at the cradle and the hymn of God's eternal peace at the grave. I am Music."
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