The Indianapolis journal., 1893-11-14
SHE INITIATED TALNAGE.
What Happened at Moderately Gag
Entertainment in Brooklyn.
New York Sun.

New York SUM-
Miss Dell Thompson Is a Brooklyn young
woman with a captivating smile. a cult
waited voice and freedom OF gesture. She Is
also entertainer. that is she recites beau
tiful poems and things in public. Most OF
these recitations are delivered I'm Brooklyn.
not because Miss Thompsons ability in this
line is of inferior quality. but because-well.
because Brooklyn is the natural home or
the lecture and the recitation. Sometimes
Miss Dell Thompson is invited to amuse an
audience for the benefit OF the Socialists.
and sometimes 1t is to help pay a church
debt or buy top-boots for the heather. She
Is very entertaining.
Now. it happened that the sands-street
Memorial Church, which is in Henry street,
by the way, gave moderately gay enter
tainment on Wednesday evening. The church
is new and handsome, and its hall is well
adapted to moderately gay entertainments.
VI course, an elocutionist is necessary for
such an entertainment Miss Dell Thomp-
son was selected. There was a varied pro-
gramme- In the audience We're of course,
great many Methodists, and some of
them brought their Baptist. congregational
or Episcopal friends. The hall was filled.
The audience was asked TO remember that
1t was in a sacred building and not to des-
ecrate II by unseemly actions.
MISS Dell Thompson was strong favor
ite- She wore becoming gown. and she
recited the chariot race from Lew Wal
lace's "Ben-Hur"s effectively that the au-
dience could almost hear the wheels go
round and the sharp painting Of the horses
as they tried Tor place. 1t was good and
not too noisy. Miss Dell Thompson's adj
vance agent, If she had one, would say that
she was greeted with rounds of applause
AT any rate the audience called her back
again. Miss Thompson skipped from Lew
wallace to TennySon and played horse with
the Charge of the Light Brigade" She
amused the audience with an imitation OF
the way the schoolboy struggles through
this charge when he Is delivering 1t as his
Irst TrIn recitation Then she worried Henry
many booming cannons In this imitation.
Sarah Bernhardt was the next victim Some
OF the women in the audience couldn't see
on fame If she recited in that way She,
couldn't get a place in a BROOKLYN lecture
course. While they were wondering if any
dueed to them Miss Deli Thompson said:
ladies and gentlemen, | will now show
recites this beautiful poem'
MISS Thompson's smile vanished. Her
Iia race assumed thirty-three-per-cent COM
polka step she founced to the middle OF
the stage. Her heels wobbled and her
gestures suggested dolls dance. Her
f1gnt arm began windmill motion as she
said:
Cannanerrraguffum, cannonerrleffeffumr
MISS Dell Thompson's voice was also
Iedture Ii had the pleasing timbre of the
man who sings out stack o. whites an
draw one in der dark!'' in a Bowery restau-
rant. Those who knew said that Miss Dell
Thompson's stage business was good 1t
would have made the joints Of a football
player ache With a kick that scared the
deacons and their wives in the first row, She
said:
'Sturmat by shotten shell, bowley they
roddenwell, inther jawsufdeth inter ther
mouthuNhell, allat waSleffeffum, leffuf six
underd."
Some of the audience began to feel dread
about the effect. She sprang with bound
into this verse:
when canr-r-r glorifade?
Wower wilchargeymadei
Honor-r-r-r chargeymade?
Honor-r-r-r L-i-Brigade?
hubble sixhundred' -
This fell with with a louder thump than
the election returns. DR.. Talmage has
friends in Brooklyn, and perhaps some OF
them were in the audience. Deacons looked
smile with a protest. Miss Thompson con-
tinued her calisthenics and oratory TO tks
mournful end of the Light Brigade, and
when she left the stage there was some APP
plause. One woman who heard the recita-
ton ton protested in this way:
TO the Editor OF the Brooklyn Eagle:
May enter a protest through your pa
per? Wednesday evening 1 attended con-
cert, given at the SandS-strest Memorial
Church. During the entertainment Miss
Dell thompson gave rendering of The
Charge of the Light Brigade" as she imag-
ined various persons would do it. among
them DR.. Ta1mage. / know / am right
In protesting against the use of one Chris
tian church TO hold up to ridicule the min
lister of another. The gentleman who asked
the audience to remember they were in a sa-
cred building, and not TO desscrate il by
unSeemly actions should have included
the entertainment If Miss Thompson
thought this imitation an exact representa-
ton OF the Doctors style, she made an
error. If she intended 1t as caricature
1t was poor taste. My advice TO the lady
is to follow the good example OF the rev.
erend gentleman, who, under all circum-
stances, places everybody in their bssf
light. B. NJ"
Miss Thompson's friends are Indignant
because she was harshly criticised for fer
imitation of Talmage
"She didn't mean any Iln-m esy it." said
one of them last night. ut was a bit OF
harmless amusement, and. besides She
can give good imitation of Talmage, any.
how"
Among the people who attended prayer
meeting at the Sands-street Church last
evening there was lots Of talk about Miss
Dell Thompson. Some of the women took
IL seriously, but not many. The Rev. George
Van Alstyne, pastor of the church, said:
Il think that Miss Thompsons last re-
citation might have been omitted. Such
recitation was hardly in good taste in
church entertainment. Miss Thompson's
first recitation, however, was excellent"