THE REV CHAS. CLARK

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXIX, Issue 6985, 10 February 1891, Page 2

THE REV CHAS. CLARK

once more delighted a Greymouth audience ' last evening, and in truth it was a delight to listen to this brilliant lecturer reproduce from the pages of the. greatest of English novelists the brightest and most joyous,, the tenderest and most pathetic passages with an emotional power that few* were proof against. It was the same lecturer with all his magical art of eloquence unimpaired that introduced the .audience to some of the gems of Dicker) s's that have not become familiar enough to be considered hackneyed. The first piece selected was the wonderful shooting party at which Mr Winkle and Mr Pickwick played so conspicuous apart, and which is crammed with, those, little mci- j dents, humorous and grotesque, and which.the genius of Dickens . enabled him to make so interesting. It was in fact with, the master as with the hero of the " yeal pies," .-" It's the seasonin' as doe 3 It." Then what could be nobler or more pathetic than the last hours of Sydney Carton and vthe poor child who shared his friendship and sympathy as they went hand in hand to the guillotine, he proud with the conscidusneas that Fortune had at last given him the opportunity of doing one act to ennoble a misspent life, flow very lifelike were the little joys and cares of Aunt Betsy, Trott, Mr Dick and the memorable head which he could no more rid hinself of than he could his own, with the original and never-to-be forgotten Micawbers ; the wonderful Mrs Gummide;e,.thePeggotieß, and Traddles, and " Mr Copperful," and all the rest of them, to aay nothing of that most anfortunate but still enjoyable banquet. The lecture concluded with Dr Marigold, that prince of "cheap jack" men, and his joys and sorrows. Perhaps there is no more touching passages in all Dickens's writings than are to be found in the history of Dr Marigold and his deaf and dumb adopted child, from her discovery in the showman's van to her visit to the old cheap jack's cart with her happy husband and child. Many an unbidden tear must have started at the deep pathos with which the genius of the writer ; intertwined those creations of his genius. To-night the rev. gentleman will deliver his famous lecture " The Tower of London," one which few who have heard once but wish to hear again. The only other alteration Is that the gallery will be thrown open at a shilling.