It would make general and genuine appreciation of good music, and put an end to the specious pretences of which we spoke just now.

The German artisan's ear and voice are cultivated from childhood; his love of music is intelligent, his enjoyment of it hearty, yet discriminating.
Our babies hear few cradle songs under the new _regime_, except such as are crooned, more or less tunelessly, by foreign nurses.

Girls no longer sing old ballads in the twilight to weary fathers and allure restless brothers to pass the evening at home in innocent participation in an impromptu concert, the boys bearing their part with voice and banjo or flute.

We did not make perfect music when these domestic entertainments were in vogue, but we helped make happy homes and clean lives.
We used to sing--all of us together--upon the country porch on summer nights, not disdaining "Nelly Was a Lady" and the "Old Kentucky Home," and sea songs and love songs and battle songs that had thundering choruses in which bassos told mightily.

Moore was in high repute, and Dempster and Bailey were in vogue.