The record-union., 1892-06-25
An EVENING WITH BURNS.
Miss Howison's Lecture on the Great
Scottish Poet.
The Story of His Life and It's Sad End
ing-Extracts From Some of
His Best Poems.

There was fair attendance at the Con-
gregational Church last evening to hear
Miss Howison lecture on the life of
Robert Burns" the poet
Miss Howison, while she has not a
powerful voice, has very graceful man
ner and style, and she interprets the
sentiments, defines the conditions under
which the poet was placed, and selects
his choicest productions with compre-
hensive judgment and excellent taste.
She prefaced her lecture proper with
the recitation of the following lines
which she stated were written by one of
Americas greatest statesmen and au-
thors after he had visited the birthplace
of the great poet. That statesman, the
author Of the following exquisite lines,
which have not been widely published
and are familiar to few, was Robert G..
Ingersoll:
Though Scotland boasts thousand names
OF patriot, king and peer,
The noblest, grandest of them all
Was loved and Graded here;
here llVed the gentle peasant prince,
The loving Cottar King,
Compared with whom the greatest lord
Is but titled thing.
IT'S but q cot rooted in with staw.
A howell made of clay;
One door shuts out the cold and storm
one window greets the day
ana yet stand within the room
And hold all thrones in scorn
For here beneath this Iowly thatch,
Loves sweetest bard was born.
Within this haIlowed hut feel
Like one who clasps a shrine
When the glad lips at last have touched
Tne something deemed divine;
hglPp fnA arid 81
As long as day returns
The tribute OF its love and tears
viii pay TO Robert Burns.
a taste for literature and means for it's
qualification, said the lecturer, are among
the greatest blessings of humanity. Read
ing brings us into continual communion
with the greatest thinkers and wisest peo-
pie OF all countries, and makes us the con-
temporaries of all time.
The mission OF poetry is to elevate in
splre, encourage and enthuse us to lead
pure lives, inspire noble thoughts and
higher morality. No one can read and
master the productions of great minds
without acquiring benefit and inspira-
ton.
Burns, said Miss Howison, are the
greatest of all songs. There are two ways
to study great genius, and one is to define
what IN 1t is common to US, and the other
in what we differ from it,
The lecturer then spoke at considerable
length on the characteristics Of Burns and
his poetry which made him so popular
with all classes wherever the English
language is spoken. She gave an extract
from Carlyle, in which he places the
highest estimate on Burns genius, and
pays him splendid tribute.
During the lecture Miss Howison re-
cited in full the poems of Burns entitled
as follows: Man Was Made to Mourn
''The Cotters' Saturday Night" "A
Mans a Man for a. That" and gave a
number Of selections from his other pop
uIar and world-famous songs, concluding
her quotations with his "Advice to a
Youthful Friend,' which she said was
equaled by nothing save, perhaps, the
advice of Polonius to his son Laretes on
the occasion Of his departure for France,
IN Shakespeare grandest tragedy, Ham
let.''
The lecturer gave the pathetic story of
Burns death, as related by his biog-
raphers, and then gave an extract from
lngersolPs description OF the same cir
cumstances, in which the famous orator
and writer holds that the poet was liter
ally ''dunned to death.'
In order to assure his friends of his
patriotism he enlisted in the Dunfries
Volunteers at time when he was in such
Strengthened circumstances that he was
obliged to go in debt for his uniform. He
was never permitted to pay the account.
and was, as many believe, literally wor-
ried to death by the demand of his cred
itor, and he died in poverty, despair and
pain, in what should have been his prime.
at the age of 80 years.
Asa specimen of his sublime pathos.
Miss Howison recited his lines, "To
Mary in Heaven" She closed her lect-
ure with a splendid poem written by
Wallace Bruce, another celebrated Scotch
poet.
This afternoon Miss Howison will lect-
ure on ''Shakespeare-The Man and
Poet" at the High School at Ninth and
NJ streets