The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-10-06

The great Welsh festival has passed
into history, but it's echoes will llnger
with US until another year rolls around,
and the sounds of preparation for the
next Eisteddfod take their place.
Denver is ito be the city where the
second convocation Will be held; this
was decided by the committee yester-
day after an animated session in which
the claims of Montana were urged by
Mr.. Leyson, donor of the famous dia-
mond badge, and those of Denver
pressed in the shape of letters from its
chamber of commerce, it's mayor and
prominent citizens. So Denver will be
the mecca of every true Welshman
next year, and hard indeed will Denver
have to work to efface the recollection
of the Overwhelmingly successful SAT-
Lake event.
That success, indeed, has peen OF
the staggering sort, and has aStonlShed
no one more than the members of the
energetic and enterprising committee
who had the affair in hand. Ever
since the tabernacle choir made their
triumphant tour to the Worlds fair,
and participated in the great Eistedd
fod there, the busy brain of Evan
STEPHENS has been boiling over the
thought Of what a magnificent event
might some day be held in Salt Lake;
the musical taste of our people, the
fact that we are the trade centre of so
great a stretch of country, the fact
that we boasted the greatest audi
/ torium and one of the finest organs in
America, and more than all, the fact
that there was a heavy Welsh pobula-
ton all around us, whose hearts the
Eisteddfod idea would fire even as the
sound of the pibroch used to fire the
clan OF the McGregor-all this sug-
gested that the grandest Eisteddfod
ever seen in the west of America might
with confidence be projected and
worked up for the capital of Utah.
The Financial Results.
Mr.. Stephens, however, shuddered
when he thought of the work and the
financial outlay involved, and as his
nedlth was never of the strongest. he
only considered the idea as a. thing
3far off, desirable, but hardly to be
attained. Another enthusiastic Welsh
American, however, in whom all the
fires of Cambria burn with an unex-
tlngutshable glow, made up his mind
that the Eisteddfod was feasible. This
was the 1rrepressible John James. By
dint of the most incessant and indie
fat1gable work, he got several kindred
spirits excited over the same idea. and
before long the present Cambrian as
ISOLATION was formed, he being given
the post of secretary-the officer on
whom the great burdens of the whole
affair have devolved. Mr.. Stephens
consented to aid in making UP THE pro-
gramme, which he did in conjunction
with H. E. Giles, of Provo; Mr.. Lewis,
OF Logan; j. j. Davies, of Provo; R. J.
Thomas, Of Salt Lake; W. B. Jones, of
Denver, and Secretary James. The
committee once formed, it went to
work with a will and boldly an
nounced the first ENsteddfod for this.
fall.
r No praise can be too high for the
enterprise, generosity and nerve the
committee have manifested in hand
ling the stupendous affair The diff
culties were of the breatl-taking sort
from the start. When the hour for
opening the festival had arrived. on
| Thursday afternoon last the commit
tee stood obligated for the neat little
sum of $4,000 incurred for expenses.
| Two thousand dollars in cash had to
be raised for prizes; the advertising
bills were enormous, the event having
been doomed from one end of the
Rocky Mountain region to the other;
the three judges were hired at hun
dred dollars each and expenses, from
Pennsylvania and return, an item of
about $500; the incidentals were, of
| course, prodigious, and just at the last
moment, when the committee began to
look haggard over the expense ac-
count. another $500 had to be raised to
aid the Denver chorus. The Denver
people had given UP the trip, owing,
as they claimed, to an advance in
their fares made by the railroads. The
Esteddfod committee, who felt obi
gated to the public after having add
vertised the Denver contestants so
literally, and who probably felt at the
same time that the interest in the af-
fair would be largely diminished il the
Denverites withdrew, most generously
appropriated $500 to induce them to
make the tour. It was probably a
paying investment
The great financial success of the
Eisteddfod has been its astonishing
feature. Nothing in the history of
| amusements in this community of red
! letter amusement events approaches
the scene at the tabernacle on Friday
night, the evening of the great con-
test: and last night, at the closing
concert, not fewer than 5000 or pos
sibly 5000 people almost fought their
way into the building. Just
how many there were will
never be known, for the reason that
the greater part of the audience at
each Of the sessions had season tickets
which were not taken up till last
nights concert, and hundreds were not
taken at all in the rush. Yesterday at
noon the committee had $1,000 depos-
tied in the bank; last nights concert
yielded close upon another $4,000
large part of the audience, of course,
having season tiekets-so the gross re-
ceipts may safely be set down as be-
tween $1,000 and $500.
All this sum, of course, does not go
to the festival committee. Out of it,
20 per cent is given for the house,
lights. heat and the tabernacle choir
The so per cent share Of the Eistedd-
fod, however, should not yield less
than from $500 to $4,000, which will
pay its expenses and leave $1,000 or
81. 500 in the committees treasury with
which to work up some future mann
moth event of a similar nature.
The Artistic side.
The impetus to the cause of music,
given by the eisteddfod can hardly be
estimated. The educational influence