Page:Oregon Literature by Horner.djvu/18

10 hours they found much solace in song. The violin was their only piano. They listened to its music and they danced to its notes; and those, who did not think it wicked, sang with it. They did not all have time to read books, and many of them did not know how; but they could all sing, and they found time for this recreation; and they sang more in their homes and in their fields than they do now. If at no other time, they sang on their way to and from labor; and every home became a sort of musical conservatory. They had traveled far, and reached their earthly Canaan; and now they were singing of the Canaan beyond, drinking in the poetry that flowed like the milk and honey of the land that they had found.

And it is probable that the men and the women and the children who sing the good songs thrilling the world with their melodies exert as great an influence in touching the popular heart and in inspiring the nobler sentiments of humanity as do the men and the women who write the good songs; and the men and women who write the good songs do as much to develop the nation as they who write the good laws. The singers, therefore, some way or other are just back of the good laws of the country. In the days when there were no newspapers, nor magazines, and books were few, the Davids, the Homers, and the Alfreds, went about singing patriotic songs to the people; and thus, through the art of song, patriotism became a part