Page:The Story of the Jubilee Singers (7th).djvu/78

 *kerchiefs waved in the air, and the deafening applause was kept up until the Singers answered with "God Save the Queen."

The American Missionary Association had always taken strong ground against the use of liquors and tobacco. The National Temperance League therefore looked upon the Singers as allies in its work, and gave them a cordial welcome to their annual soirée at the Cannon Street Terminus Hotel. Such was the eagerness to hear them, after they had filled the parts assigned them on the programme, that the other exercises were shortened to give them more time for singing.

At the great annual fête of the League at the Crystal Palace in July, the free use of the opera-house was tendered to the Singers for a concert, and all the advertising was done for them by the Committee, without charge. The great event of this occasion, which was attended by thousands of excursionists from all parts of the kingdom, was the concert given in the central transept, by a choir of five thousand children, under the management of Mr. Frederick Smith. The audience was immense. At the close of the programme the Jubilees came upon the platform and sang one or two songs. One of them of course was "John Brown;" and at the last verse Mr. Smith suddenly rapped up his army of singers to join in the chorus. The effect was very fine, and the song closed with round after round of long-continued applause.

These occasions, however, added little to the Jubilee Fund, valuable as they were in the way of