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Edgar Guest - The Choir At Pixley
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The choir we had in Pixley wasn`t much for looks an` styles, 
But today if I could hear it I would walk a hundred miles; 
There warn`t a singer in it that could boast she `d crossed the seas 
To study with the masters and to learn to make high C`s; 
There warn`t no variations, warn`t no frills that folks think grand;
Warn`t no singin` operatic that no one can understand; 
But jus` plain gospel singin` like the music of the birds, 
An` the congregation didn`t have to strain to catch the words.

There were jus` four people in it — Mrs. Tompkins, Mrs. Botts, 
Arthur Tweedle was the tenor, an` the basso Jeptha Watts. 
Oh, `t would do you good to hear `em singin` low "Abide With Me," 
An` "Jerusalem the Golden" an` "The City by the Sea.
"There was nothin` high-falutin` `bout the songs they used t` sing, 
Jus` sweet, humble hymns of praises to the Master an` the King; 
Jus` sweet, simple strains of music, but my soul they always stirred, 
An` I liked it better, mebbe, coz I understood each word.

An` I mind the day in Pixley when a city woman came 
To our little church to visit, an` I mind her burnin` shame, 
When she sneered about the singin` an` she scoffed about the choir, 
An` I mind the way she snickered an` the way she roused my ire, 
An` how I up and told her that the music she thought grand
Was the music that she paid for an` she couldn`t understand ; 
An` I said the choir ain`t singin` now for you, an` never would, 
But it`s singin` for the Master an` I guess He `d call it good.

The little church in Pixley ain`t a little church no more,
It`s took in wealthy people an` its steeples skyward soar;
It`s got a marble altar an` it`s got a tony choir
Of singers trained in Europe an` a-singin` now for hire.
They `re runnin` now to solos an` they advertise the fact
That So and So is goin` t` sing, a large crowd to attract;
But I can`t say I like it, why it isn`t half so good
As the little choir that used t` sing the songs we understood.
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