Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 212, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1913 — CHAUTAUQUA PLEASED LARGE AUDIENCE [ARTICLE]

CHAUTAUQUA PLEASED LARGE AUDIENCE

Immense Crowds Heard Thursday Programs and All Were Delighted and Will Go Again. The second day’s Chautauqua was better than the first and Platform Manager Davis says that the program will get better each day, and this seems to be the case. Our people are certainly taking hold of the Chautauqua with delighted interest and there can be no comparison between it and any other week’s entertainment that was ever in Rensselaer. Those who have not started should not put it off any longer, but start with tonight and attend every program, afternoon and evening. Young and old were delighted with Prof. Louis Williams’ demonstrationa in science and electricity. He possesses a fund of dry humor that made nis part of the entertainment even more enjoyable and from the smallest children to the oldest person in the audience there was an hour of enjoyment and enlightenment. The tenor solos of Mr. Lindquest were applauded so vigorously that he was called back time and again and the audience would have been amply repaid for their expenditure if there had been no other number on the program. Dr. Aaron S. Watkins is a droll 'humorist, with a fund of amusing stories, and he kept the audience in ripples of laughter. His afternoon lecture was a temperance argument, and still was immensely humorous. In the evening he talked of “Fools and Failures,” and said that practically all the men and women who had accomplished great things, things that revolutionized the world, had been called fools when they first suggested the possibilities of their projects. Columbus was a “fool” for saying the earth was round; Morse was a “fool” for trying to convey sound over a wire; Field was a “fool” for trying to plant a cable to convey sound across the ocean; Fulton was a “fool” for trying to propel a boat with steam. But the accomplishment of their claims had made fools of those who were ready to denounce them. The speaker engaged in some prophecy respecting the possibilities of the future and warned us not to place discouragements in the way of those who plan great things. His lecture was intersperced with many well-told stories. Through the courtesy of the management the scholars of the grades and the high school. 500 strong, are this afternoop attending the Chautauqua, free of cost. It Is a very generous thing for the management of the Chautauqua and for Superintendent Dean, who dismissed the school at 2:20 o’clock to permit the children to attend. Tonight Dr. E. L. Eaton will speak from the subject: “Glories "of the Firmamenff ’ The ClartoWalker Concert Co. will sing **Phe Old Songs With Violin Obligato” Tomorrow is band day and the Lincoln Chautauqua Orchestra will be here, also Colonel Gearhart, a lecturer that you should not fail to hear. The merchants of the town will close at 7:30 tonight and Monday night, so that business men and clerks can attend the program.