Page:The Story of the Jubilee Singers (7th).djvu/62

 Twenty thousand people were on their feet. Ladies waved their handkerchiefs. Men threw their hats in the air, and the Coliseum rang with cheers and shouts of "The Jubilees! The Jubilees for ever!" Mr. Gillmore brought the Singers from their place below, and massed them upon his own platform, where they sang the remaining verses.

Mr. White has never quite forgiven himself that he did not answer the thunderous encore that followed, with "John Brown" in the original version! Musically speaking, it was the greatest triumph of their career, and they never recall it yet, without a gleaming eye and quickened pulse. It was worth more than a Congressional enactment in bringing that audience to the true ground on the question of "civil rights."

The number of the Singers had been increased to fourteen, with a view to division into two companies when it was desired to visit the smaller places where it would not pay to take the full number; and the rest of the summer was spent in rest and drill at Acton, Massachusetts. A faithful trial, during the fall, of the experiment of two small companies little more than paid expenses; and at New Year's Day the troupe was reorganised, to consist of eleven members, as follows: Ella Sheppard, Maggie L. Porter, Jennie Jackson, Mabel Lewis, Minnie Tate, Georgia Gordon, Julia Jackson, Thomas Rutling, Edmund Watkins, Benjamin M. Holmes, and Isaac P. Dickerson.

A busy and successful campaign of three months followed. The Singers received a letter, drawn up