CHAUTAUQUA

Hokitika Guardian, 14 February 1920, Page 1

CHAUTAUQUA

VERY SUCCESSFUL OPENING

The Chautauqua season opened yesterday and the reputation it made assures a very successful run here. The Lyrie Quartette and Judge Alden are a very happy association, and there is an entertainment provided which ranges from “grave to gay, from lively to severe.” The Lyric Quartette is a New Zealand combination, and is of a high standard. The performers are all happy entertainers and they give a series of items which command the attentions of a delighted audience. Last night fully 400 people gathered in the tent, and patrons did not have a dull moment, while the Lyric singers held the stage. Their performance was a musical treat of a high order, and was interspersed with much humor, which kept the audience well entertained. The four members of the party were hosts in themselves in supplying a most enjoyable musical prelude to tho uplifting lecture which followed. Judge Alden, charmingly introduced by a lady chairman, spoke of “The Needs of the Hour.” It wa s a • very fine address, engrossing at every stage, and of the character which seemed to fit tlio times very appropriately. The lecturer drew liis knowledge from and pointed liis theme at his own country, U.S.A., but every spoken word was applicable to our own country. He dealt with the four walks of citizen life wherein reform were needed; commercial, political, domestic and religious. He referred to the four epochs in America which had created tlie spirit of the age; the arrival of the pilgrims-; the war of independence; tho civil war; the birth of the West. He spoke of the evils of graft and greed, and said the people had put away God for gold. The world needed true individualism so that the spirit of each act would he the essence of the deed. He was round in his condemnation of the profiteer—the noblest work of fraud! He dealt graphically with his own ronversion from atheism to Christianity, and said every man should ask, “What Am I?” “Where Am I?” and “Whither Going?”. They were heirs of the ages and 2,000 years had not changed the teachings of Christ. The central fact of life was Christianity, and the central fact of Christianity was Christ himself. Individual selfrestpect was the especial need of the hour for the people of a nation.

Judge Alden imports many humorous turns into his addresses. He delights in puns and smart sayings, and lias a very happy way in delivering his Americanisms.

Last night when speaking of the dishonest grocer weighing out his goods, lio dccribed “ambush scales,” as scales which “lie in weight.” Again when the people spoke of tainted money, the possession of a liockfeller or a Morgan, tjlie taint generally was that “ ’taint” ours. He had many a'joke with the* vendor who waters his milk and rails at the big profiteers. lie had a- good word to say for women. A nation witlidut women would he ■“stagnation,” said the lecturer. In referring to the prevalence of divorce he thought the marriage ritual should be amended by adding to “love, honour and obey”, “Stop, look and listen.” Something was necessary to check divorce. When U.S.A. entered the late war—late—her people went on a divorce riot. The latest statistics showed that out of 13 marriages now, one divorce resulted. Society was full of divorcees, and society thought itself the cream proliably because it had been through the “Society separator.” Speaking of a mother’s love for a son the lecturer knew that all sons were not perfect. He knew there were spots .on the sun!