Chautauqua Season.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 31 January 1921, Page 3

Chautauqua Season.

MAINTAINED AT HIGH LEVEL.

Large audiences filled the People’s Picture Theatre on Saturday afternoon and' evening, when the Levin Chautauqua was continued.

, The music was contributed by the lonians, a talented quartette of Australian and New Zealand artists, who greatly pleased the audience. These included Miss Dorothy Baker, violinist; Miss Lalla Knight, soprano ; Miss Enid Heywood, accompanist; and Mr Geoffrey Cowley, baritone. All the items were of high average merit, and recalls were frequent. The lecturer was Captain Norman Allen Imrie, a Canadian officer with distinguished war service. His subject in the afternoon was “Stirring Chapters in Recent History.” In the evening he spoke on “Some Political Problems Facing John Bull and Uncle Sam.” Captain Imrie is a virile and incisive, speaker, who succeeds in imparting to his discourse a great element of his own energy and nervous force. His illustrative stories wer© all hew and pointed, and another feature of his lectures was his power of condensation. In a few picturesque and pregnant phrases he succeeds in conveying to the listener a gripping mental picture of some incident in history, or the salient points of some complex problem that the average man does not bother to investigate. Seasoned with a piquant spioe of humour, Captain Imrie held a crowded house entranced for an hour and a-half on Saturday

night, and at the end of that time received an ovation that testified to the impression ho had made upon his auditors. He, first briefly surveyed) the history of the United States and the British Empire during the past three hundred years, showing how each had developed along particular lines, but now were faced with- much the same political problems. In particular he dealt with the plea for self-determina-tion raised by the people of Cuba and the Philippines and Ireland, and the difficulties that these problems presented) to their respective governments.

TUESDAY’S PROGRAMME,

The Overseas Entertainers, five vivacious artistic young ladies, have entertained audiences in many parts of the world, on both sides of the Pacific and on both sides of the Atlantic. This organisation has toured constantly for the last five years. They have won an enviable reputation in every State in America ,every Province in Canada, and have delighted audiences in France, England and Alaska. In the hospitals and! camps of France these girls, with their programmes of life dash and musical brilliance, were most enthusiastically received. The personnel of the company includes Miss Beulah Truitt, manager, readier, entertainer and drums; Miss Amelia Carstenson, director, violin soloist, and) saxophonist; Miss Helen Ferguson, cornet soloist, soprano soloist and pianist; Miss Emily Gernand, cello soloist and piano soloist.