RELIEF FROM WAR NEWS

Evening Star, Issue 23451, 16 December 1939, Page 4

RELIEF FROM WAR NEWS

AMERICAN JOHN SEAGLE S SESSIONS SINGER OF NEGRO SPIRITUALS BIG FOLLOWING IN U.K. AND CONTINENT While the Atlantic air Janes are being filled with stories of war and destruction, bombings, air raids, and suffering, a lone American is playing a major role in giving radio listeners in Yireafc Britain and on the Continent slight relief from the bloody war news of the day. That person is a young man in his early thirties ; who since graduating from Yale University, has established a world-wide following for his spiritual singing on a short wave programme presetted by stations WGEA and WGEO, in Schenectady. tn the three years that John Seagle has been on the air he has developed a listening audience that results in at least 50 letters a day being sent him from all parts of the world. Started as a 15-minute programme, the demand was so great for an extension of time that three programmes of 25 minutes each are now broadcast each week. Many of the letters reaching him from Great Britain during the present crisis have touched on war, and as one listener in England described it, * The Church in the Wildwood,’ as Mr Seftgle’s programme is known, “ comes as a consolation and makes us wish wo •ivere on your side of the Atlantic, far from the-bogy of war, gas masks, air raid .drills, and, worst of all, conscription. For with that disappeared our last vestige of freedom. It is a welcome return to sanity to hear your voice over thousands of miles of ocean, singing the hymns we and our fathers before as sang.” A letter from a listener in Holland on the German frontier expresses appreciation for the programme and what it meant to the writer’s _ aunt. He wrote: “ While she was in her last weeks before passing on, she always asked me to watch for your programme. When it came through we opened the door of the kitchen to the hall, and the door of the hall to the sick room, and through these open doors she could hear andl enjoy fully the voice of John Seagle.” A sick-bed on the German frontier and still singing and listening together with Schenectady! “We often sing the songs in Dutch as Mr Seagle ( sings thear'' in English,” he con- ‘ The programme is non-denommational in character, and Mr Seagle has received' many gifts that he baa given variotia American charitable organisations. Last month brought a letter from a coal miner in Wales which enclosed a sum of American money and a request that Mr Seagle give it to a worthy American charity, in appreciation of the programme.