CHAPTER V.
SUCCESS AT LAST.
This campaign was a succession of triumphs. The
Singers, with their experiences of the last three
months so vividly in remembrance, seemed to themselves
to be walking in a dream. Mr. White had
expected success, but even he had not dared to hope
for such a success as this. Ministers everywhere—and
especially those who had cheered the Singers at
Oberlin with their applause and contributions, and
so felt a sort of proprietary interest in the work—gave
themselves enthusiastically to promote arrangements
for their concerts. And the audiences that
crowded the churches and halls where they sang did
not seem to be content merely with contributing an
admission-fee to their funds.
Almost a furore for making them presents broke out, and spread from town to town as they went. At Bristol, famous for its manufacture of clocks, a gentleman pledged a supply of that useful article or the new Hall on its completion. At Winsted, another manufacturing centre, a few friends promised a bell. The Douglass Manufacturing Co., at Middle-
