St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-21
AUTHOR AND PAINTER.
E. H0PKWS0N SMITH APPEARS AT
THE LYcSUM
SKETCHES FROM HIS BOOKS.
He Entertains a Large Audience
With Readings From His Own
Writings-Col. Carter, of Carr
tersvilie. and His Servant
"Chad"-The Venetian Con.
dolier.

NFieiHgs-$o S0fter, Oh Cars
t~ersville. and His Servant
"Chad"-The Venetian Con.
doiier.
+. Hopkinson Smith. author, artist,
appeared at the Lyceum thea:er last
night in readings from his W writings.
The audience was large and select.
Mr.. Smith was enthusiastically ap-
plauded, and at the reception held al
L. b. Walkers residence at the close
of the readings. encomiumS were show
cred upon him. There W, a disagree
able draught on the stage. causing Mr..
Smith to cough and evince signs of
distress. 1t was finally found necessary
TO lower the curtain, and he finished
his readings at the edge of the stage
near the footlights.
Last nights literary treat came under
the head of the fourth event of the
Imperial series. Although fourth OH the
list the author furnished an entertain
ment whose rank should be first"
Were it not for the 'Hopklnson," which
is fixed between the IF" and ''Smith''
of his name, to the man who had never
read his sketches. this writer would be
merely one OF that great army of Smiths
where number is legion and whose rep
resentatives are everywhere. But
about this IA Smith there is
a something that dignifies and places
him on a pedestal high above
the other Smiths. His writings
are delightful. and his manner of read
Ing them equally so. He appeared
awkward when he stepped before his
audience last night, but when he got to
~deiineating his quaint characters. or be-
came one of them, as it were, the stiff
ness and awkwardness vanisEei /. In
his sketches from Col. Carter, of Car
teIsyille," he took upon himself the
gestures, the manneriSIns and dialect of
the colonel and of his servant Chad"
To those who had read f. HopkInson
Smith, especially his Col. Carter, of
Gainesville" it must have been a de-
licious diversion 10 listen to the author
p%erSOnify the colonel and his black
servant. His imitation of the Southern
dialect, the dialect peculiar to the gen.
tleman whose home is across the Dixie
line, and the broader %vernacular of his
colored inferior" are especially good,
and add 10 the entertainment of his
readings. He gave three sketches from
the book-"A Visit From the Grocer"
AN Old Family Servant" and Aunt
Nancy"
Mr.. Smiths versatility of style of
writing is demonstrated in dropping his
Col. Carter and taking up "A Day at
Laguerre's." where he becomes dra-
matte and more descriptive. One of the
sketches, "Espelo-Go rgoni Gondolier."
he read last night at its conclusion
was enthusiastically applauded. The
tale is written in a pictur-
esQue manner, rounded and re-
plete with glowing, splendidly-col-
Ored pictures of Venice and lis
beautiful surroundings, demonstrating
that he wrote itas an artist. for every
thing has been carefully tinted aud
touched up with a painters brush.
Capt. joe" a sketch of a captain of a
wrecking boat, was we'll received, as
was the rendition of ''In and Out of a
Cab in Amsterdam" from the book
"Well-Worn Roads,"