A KIPLING RECITAL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 30, 30 October 1918, Page 7

A KIPLING RECITAL

BY MR. ALEXANDER AVATSON.

Not even the most severe thundexstorin of the year could keep the public away from Jlr. Alexander Watson's entertainment last night. It was. a tribute to the visiting English elocutionist to find that even in such violently inclement weather more people attended the Concert Chamber than there was accommodation for. On account of the downpour and consequent flooding of the streets,' Mr. Wakon arrived at the hall quarter of an hour late, but knowing that he would keep faith the large audienco was well content to wait.- Last evening's recital was devoted to. Uio prose and verse of Kudyard Kipling, England's virile poet and author, whose writings always havo the effect of a good tonic. 11l their' form there is originality; in their sentiment there is clean, strong manliness, and in their bluntnbss there is face-to-face truth without puling apology. Kipling's prose was represented by forty minutes of the irresistible iMulvaney and Ortheris, those cheerful builders of the Empire, in their connection with "My Lord thci Elephant" (from "Soldiers Three"), a rccital which in the hands of Mr. "Watson was a gurgle of delight from, beginning to end. Kipling's appeal to tlio nation at the initiation of the war as expressed in his verses "For All Wo Have . an<l Are," were declaimed with ringing conviction, and his Polonius-like address to. his son in "If —" was also finely expressed. The prophetic "Big Steamers"' recalled to mind how years before the present war Kipling liad realised that without the freedom of the seas England could be starved. The verses were recited with rare charm.. Other Kipling verses recited were "The Harried Man," "The Hump," "The Bell Buoy" (in which the reciter made the hell's warning, "Shoal, 'Ware ShaoV a thing of life), "The Slory (it the Garden," and the invigorating "Ballad of the Claphnrdown." Mr. "Watson was disturbed .111 his contemplative reading of "Mandalay" by the drone of Highland pipes, which wiis so inappropriate an accompaniment as to be disconcerting, so lie met the Highland charge with the guns of tho Clampherdown. and subdued 1 it. Finally Mr. Watson made a rythmical tragedy of "Boots," the sensation of an infantry soldier rendered half-crazy by the never-ending march over Africa at the time of tho Boer War—doleful material to finish with. Mr. Watson will this evening give a Dickens and miscellaneous recital. The Charles Dickens will be I taken ■ froni "Merlin ■ Chuziilewick," "Pickwick Papers'" and "A Christmas Carol," while Hhe miscellaneous items will be "The Defence of Lncknow" (Tennyson). "A ; Holiday in . Bed" (Barrie), "The Highwayman" (Alfred Noves), and Whitcomb liilcv's i%pular "The ElfChikl." ■