CHAUTAUQUA.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 February 1921, Page 7

CHAUTAUQUA.

NEW PLYMOUTH SEASON. CAPTAIN UPTON’S LECTURE. Last evening patrons were treated to one of the most enjoyable entertainments that has yet been given by the Chautauqua in the present New Plymouth season. Miss Ruby Page ranks very high as an elocutionist, and everything she attempted was done in a manner that roused the enthusiasm of the audience to the highest pitch. She was recalled many times but her repertoire was equal to the occasion, and every item was fresh and different, revealing some new gift or power on the part of Miss Page. In the pieces in which she represented more than one character her work was very difficult, but the transition was simple and easy, and she assumed first one role and then another with astonishing rapidity. The lecture was by Captain T. Dinsmore Upton, and though all the Chautauqua lecturers have been good. it is doubtful whether any have made such a good impression as Captain Upton did. Captain Upton is brimful of humor, and kept his audience in the happiest frame of mind, but he was not there merely to entertain, and he assisted all to a proper outlook upon life. Captain Upton showed that he was a man with a big heart, able to take in all mankind. He believes that there is some good in all men. He was deeply interesting when dealing with the training of children, and his ideas in this connection appealed to all. He measures life by the good accomplished. “It is not for you or me to say,” he said, “how many years a man has lived, except in point of achievement. I would rather die at 21 and accomplish something than live to 71 and do nothing more than cross the street and see a train come in.”

Speaking of children’s play, he said that it revealed the real character was not the desirability of victory in the games played, but the need for playing the game fairly. Another point he made was that the child life of a community was a reflex of the lives of the older people of the town. Dealing with the evil of gossiping and the spreading of evil reports, Captain Upton suggested as a mitigation of this evil- that all those who had never done anything wrong themselves should gather together and do the whole of the gossiping for the community. The lecturer had something to say about those who opposed every progressive movement in a O town on the grounds of expense, or because what was good enough for them was good enough for their children. Strangely enough the men who consistently opposed everything hardest were the first, when visitors arrived, to take them round to see their new street, or school, or domain. There were some men, he said, who asked when anyone was en- i gaged in good work what he was going to get out of it. A man who was always asking this question had a soul shrunk to the dimensions of a peanut. Captain Upton turned again and again to the care of children, and his remarks concerning those who were sent to public institutions weer specially interesting. “It is a tough job,” he said, “to play your game when nobody loves and nobody ;ares.” Another sentence bearing on a child’s lift was: “A man who curses his child may live to be cursed by that child.”