Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1908 — Chides Lafayette in Comparison. [ARTICLE]

Chides Lafayette in Comparison.

The Lafayette Sunday Times has a page edited by “The Man About Town.” It is of the chit-chat order, and Lafayette people all take the Sunday Times and spend the happiest sort of a day with it. /On last Sunday it took Lafayette people mildly to task for their lack of pride in the accomplishments of its citizens, and in the following language related the visit to that city of the crowd that went to see Gus Phillips: Can you Imagine two hundred Lafayette people traveling fifty miles to pay tribute to any former citizen the town ever had? Can you see such a number going to IndlanapoLs to witness a play written by some present resident or past citizen? Can you picture the cold, calculating Lafayetteans letting go of themselves long enough to heartily cheer some favorite son as did the de egation from Rensselaer last Tuesday evening? I do not want to be too disagreeable or hold up our shortcomings too long to the public gaze, so I will not mention local incidents that have been exactly the reverse of that of last Tuesday. That was certainly a demonstration well worth while at the Grand opera house last Tuesday evening. It was a tribute that made the heart warm and one that should have done all those participating and witnessing it much good. Seldom dees an actor have such a mark of esteem shown him as Augustus Phillips, a former resident of Rensselaer, experienced upon the occasion of the visit of “The Wolf’ to this city. Two hundred of his friends, of those who knew him as a boy, traveled from Rensselaer to see him in his splendid character acting and the enthusiasm with -which they greeted him must have made him feel that the memory of man is not so uncertain after all. The speechmaking and the flowers tendered Mr. Phillips after the second act furnished an Incident that seldom finds place on a professional program and it was a privilege for the Lafayette people to witness it