"Such singing (in which the artistic is lost in the natural) can only be the result of the most careful training. The richness and purity of tone both in melody and harmony, the contrast of light and shade, the varieties and grandeur in expression, and the exquisite refinement of the piano as contrasted with the power of the forte, fill us with delight, and at the same time make us feel how strange it is that these unpretending singers should come over here to teach us what is the true refinement of music; make us feel its moral and religious power."
Others spoke as follows:—
"I never so enjoyed music."—Rev. C.H. Spurgeon.
"They have beautiful voices."—London Graphic.
"Their voices are clear, rich, and highly cultivated."—London Daily News.
"This troupe sing with a pathos, a harmony, and an expression, which are quite touching."—London Journal.
"There is something inexpressibly touching in their wonderfully sweet, round, bell voices."—Rev. George MacDonald.
Mr. Gladstone, while prime-minister of England, honored them with a complimentary breakfast, and listened to their songs, as Newman Hall writes, "with rapt, enthusiastic attention, saying, 'Isn't it wonderful? I never heard any thing like it.'"
"We never saw an audience more riveted, nor a more thorough heart entertainment. Men of hoary hairs, as well as those younger in the assembly, were moved even to tears as they listened with rapt attention to some of the identical slave-songs which these emancipated ones rendered with a power and pathos perfectly indescribable."—London Rock.
I might now, if it were necessary, fill many pages with the comments made upon these charming singers by the American press both before and after their trip to England; but these would only be repetitions of the laudatory notices just given. The following is quoted because it is descriptive of the improvement made by the singers. Said "The Boston Journal,"—