CHAUTAUQUA

Hokitika Guardian, 18 February 1920, Page 1

CHAUTAUQUA

At tlie Chautauqua session yesterday, the Zedeler Quintette were the main attraction. They supplied the full programme for the afternoon, the musical programme, vocal and instrumental, being much enjoyed. At the evening session their part of the entertainment was all too short for the audience which encored every item. Miss Fortune’s vocal efforts delighted the auditorsl and in addition to a double encore the lady was tlie recipient of bouquets of flowers. Mr M. C. Reed or "Washington was the speaker, his address being on “The Value of a Vision.” His message was to put as much as we could into I our lives, so as to get more out of life. I Vision—outlook—was the keynote to a ( man of woman’s enjoyment of life. To enjoy life by making the most use of it we needed the power of appreciation, thereby seeing over a wider range and with a more distant horizon. Hie speaker spoke with earnestness and emphasis, and in the course of his address reviewed the Allied heroes—-tlie heads of nations—Greece, Italy, France Belgium, United States and Great Britain—men with a farsceing outlook who knew what was best for their country and nation, and persevered with their great enthusiasm to accomplish all they set out to attain. lUe spoke too, of the necessity for labor and application to bring out the talents within us. Born with an instinct for genius, poets, artists, composers and what not, were not made withput the" personal effort of application. In this connection, he quoted Edison as defining that “Genius Was ten per cent inspiration and ninety per cent perspiration.” Mr Reed thought all the, great thinkers and writers who* had gpfefebefoi'e were not, being replaced because we lived in what be called “a vaudeville age,” a time of gaiety in which there v;a,s a creed abroad that we were all equal and that wo could live together without any effort. That view ol" life was doomed to failure, and a clearer understanding of work and the need for work, with respect for the dignity of labor, was coming to people who were thus getting a- wider vision of their duty and why they were here. He closed a vigorous address with a review of the life of Leon Tolstoi, the Russian Prince, who groped vainly in his own country for years before he realised wlmt life, was and what was man’s mission. Realising it in the end he took his place with his own peasants and working side by side with th.em in the fields strove to uplift them and gave them a literature

and a teaching they could accept-, and. doing that he proved the value of his

vision. During an interval Mr Wild made nn appeal for guarantors for next year’s season of Chautauqua, and there was a fair response. In reply to an invitation if the public wanted Chautauqua back next year, practically the whole of the crowded tent stood up, so that another and better season of Chautauqua will be duo next year. New artists appear to-day and tomorrow to close the present session. Speaking of the artists 1 1 - Christchurch Press says of the close of the ’soason there: The final sessions yesterday of the Christchurch Chautauqua were well attended, the evening session especially so. At both the Fen. wide Newell Concert Party gave delightful programmes, and Dr Caroline gToscl delivered forceful and inspiring lectures, the afternoon lecture being entitled ’’Twentieth Century Education” ; in tho evening, Dr Giesel spoke on “Tho City Beautiful, or Civic Sanitation.”