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Show THE CITIZEN ft No doubt an excellent formula, but we believe better results could be ob- OBSERVATION PLANE hearts as cold as marble The Insincerities Of Public Concerts i t EARD music is sweet, but that said sweeter, unheard is Keats. He was thinking of those harmonies which sing divinely in the which soul, to the poetic inspirations i all men feel and so few can express. Even when these divine harmonies are expressed by a master of song we are deaf to most of them. They are like the music of the spheres to which Shakespeare alludes But whilst this muddy vesture of decay doth grossly close us in we can not hear it. ttT insincere is There something even a concert, about public when the worlds greatest singers and instrumentalists take part. The applause is hypocritical or, at the best, merely the result of a determination to acclaim technical skill. No soul responds with electric enthusiasm to all the music at such a concert, either because the music is in itself a brilliant pretense or because no ear is attuned to all harmonies. Recently a great soprano, aided by a distinguished violinist, came among us, and both were accorded what the press agent might call a continuous In the sense in which the ovation. best public concerts are a success it was an imperial triumph. Because the applause gushed forth like waters from artesian wells the diva sparkled with smiles that vied with the glitter of her diamonds. The pianist was as content as some vain Chanticler crowing his importance to the morning sun. As the applause grew the diva, be- ing Latin and temperamental, indulged in various theatricalities to show her delight and to convince the vast audience that she was almost as much pleased with them as they were with her. At one juncture she detected a golden-hairegirl in her path to triumph and stopped to kiss the child effusively. That was a hint of the unheard music of art and of the . soul to which the poet so beautifully alludes. The critic has no right to be a spectre at the feast and he, too, applauds with the others applauds the d music, the technique and the theatricalities. All go away satisfied with themselves and most of them forget even to confess to their secret souls that most of the music left their tained by dividing No. 1 smoke by the density of the observers. The result fountains bound with ice. After all, each one hears only a few strains that kindle the real fires of beauty in the heart and the inner shrines of the mind. One is reminded of the critical shafts which Edgar Allen Poe once leveled at the pretentious poems before which his contemporaries bowed in worship. He declared that all long poems were, in reality, merely a series of short poems and he cited Miltons Paradise Lost as an example. There were, he contended in trenchant terms which we have forgotten, sandy deserts between rare oases of song. The pundits of his day were offended. Those who had schooled themselves to think all the dull philosophizing of Milton supremest poetry immediately found fault with the unerring instincts of a true poet. Such men would pore over a list of the ships in the Illiad and convince themselves that Homer had produced some fine aesthetic values by his mere arrangement of the names, forgetting that even Homer nods. And so it is with music. All operas, masses and oratorios are merely a series of brief strains of genuine beauty and appeal. At public concerts so much attention is paid to the selection of pieces which will reveal brilliant technique that only two or three songs and pieces out of a score or more really set free the choiring di- vinities of our soul. It is easy to retort that the fault lies solely with the hearer. The reply is dishonest and the more dishorest because it states half a truth. All of us have our deaf as well as our blind sides, but the composers of music, be they ever so great, are no better able than Milton to produce long compositions of unfailing beauty and witchery. Smoke Experts Show Their Mean Density T NASMUCII as Salt .Lake did not swear off smoking on the first of the year it is a consolation to have the experts telling us in soothing tones what they have discovered about the smoke nuisance. One expert has this to say: The number of observations mul- tiplied by the density of No. 1 smoke, and divided by four, equals the smoke units for observation. would be zero. The trouble up to date has been that no one has been quite able to calculate the density of the observers. Having the average smoke density of all of the plants in a certain class, and the coal consumption of this class of plants, it is a simple matter, says an expert of one of the daily papers to reduce the amount of smoke made to a percentage of the total produced in the city. How happy all of us will be when the smoke production is reduced to a percentage of the total say from 100 per cent to 99 per cent. This can be done by bottling the smoke and preserving it until summer. Much data has accumulated, says the expert. Yes, but more smoke. Vicious Method Used In Calling Strike rP HE manner of calling the strike of electricians and substation operators of the Utah Power & Light company is illustrative of the worst methods of paid agitators. The hope and expectation of the imported agitators was to throw Salt Lake into sudden darkness by means of a strike called without warning. What was to be gained for the em- ployes by this typically Bolshevistic method is not obvious. Certainly the public, instead of being favorably impressed with the claims of the men, would have been justly indignant and would have been against the strikers from the ouset if the plan of the prohad sucfessional ceeded. Fortunately for the welfare of the community the Utah Power and Light companys other employes worked harmoniously to keep the city lighted and all the substations operating practically full capacity. , strike-manipulato- rs The fatal fallacy of using bludgeon methods ought to be apparent to employer and employes. If we are to go in for Bolshevism violence is to be expected, but a spirit of hatred and revenge can never bring adjustments so long as our present industrial system survives. Our industrial system is based upon the community of interest between labor and capital and community of interest can be preserved only by friendly feeling and fair treatment. Strikes have always been failures, for even when the workers have won higher wages there has been the waste that always accompanies warfare. And usually the workers do not win. The result is that a state of bad feeling continues to exist and neither side is prepared to make concessions when a new controversy arises. That is all wrong, but it suits the agitators because they live by industrial warfare. Their occupations will be gone o.uu mey wm oe replaced Dy wnony (d (Continued on Page 18.) (Sffials Burn to Ashes A coal that gives an even heat, leaves no clinkers and lasts longer is a good coal. It will pass the tests made either by industrial experts or experienced housewives. For twenty-fiv- e years Castle Gate or Clear Creek coals have performed an economical service in thousands of homes because they have merits which fuel buyers demand. Castle Gate or Clear Creek coals have always been promoters of cleanliness, comfort and satisfaction. ASK YOUR DEALER Miners and Shippers Exclusively of Castle Gate and Clear Creek Coals Utah Fuel Co. 'mjf) |
