The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-26

Out and About
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The Shakspere club meets with Mrs
j. Russell Marble tomorrow evening
Prof. G. H. Haynes will give a sketch
of the ancestry and early life of Shaks-
pere, and Romeo and Juliet" will be
begun.
Miss Mae Hogg has recovered from
the illness with which she suffered
while in Paris, and is now in Nice She
will spend Christmas in Rome.
Noting the resignation of Walter NJ
Lancaster from The Spy staff, the New
York Times says: Mr.. Lancaster
works in musical criticism was well
known and much esteemed. His writ
ing was characterized by a safe and
not ungenerous conservatism, and was
uninf1uenced by any of the 'fads' which
have of late marked comments on mu-
sic in many quarters"
Miss Sheldon and Miss Barnard, the
local Y. w. c. A. delegates to the con-
vention in Memphis, were expected to
arrive by the S.57 train last night but
failed to do so. The ladies at the Y. w.
c. A. were at a loss to know why but
supposed that they had somewhere
failed to make connections. They may
have taken the next train from New
York, in which case they arrive early
this morning.
Mrs Frederick j. Barnard gave a
large tea yesterday afternoon for her
two daughters Mrs Barnard and the
Misses Barnard received. The house
was decorated with cut flowers and a
banjo and mandolin club played softly
behind cluster of palms in the hall.
Nearly 400 women called during the
afternoon.
The Auxiliary Lend-a-Hand of the
Church of the Unity held very sue
cessful sale of home made cake and
sweets in the church parlors yesterday
from to 6 o'clock.
Dana J. Pratt, baritone Mrs. Pratt,
contralto, Miss Muzzy. soprano Miss
Rowland, soprano, Ernest L. Smith, pi-
anist, and Miss Miles, Miss Corbin and
Miss Temple, accompanies, gave a
concert Friday night at the Celia Club
of Spencer. Their music was much en-
joyed by about 300 persons who were
present.
And still the Womans Club is smil-
ing at the recollection of its last en-
tertainment. 1t seems that Prof. Ward
was the 29th choice of the literature
committee. Somebody made bold to
ask him where he was professor. He
teaches elocution at the Emerson school
of oratory. If the sample he gave us
of Emerson school oratory is a fair
sample, Providence spare the club
from any more samples
But the Emerson school of oratory
is probably not the root reason of Prof.
Wards peculiar delivery. He was
once a Methodist minister, then a Uni
tartan minister, and now he is said to
be nothing at all. Unhappy traces of
each spiritual state, with the exception
of the last, were visible in his mega
phonic utterances. The fact that he
now lectures a good deal on art is re-
sponsible for that e-penultimate
outburst concerning the art future of
America.
Of all English poets, Dante Gabriel
Rossetti is probably the most difficult
| to read aloud interestingly He is en-
phatically a poet for oneself. His poe
| try is so intricate and so emotional that
| it somehow loses its force when spread
| over many people in large place That
delicate aroma of passion which distills
from it to the mind of the solitary read
en- becomes less admirable when it is
| shared.
No mere man ever ought to attempt
| Rossetti in public. Ten to one he will
| make himself ridiculous.
On Prof. Wards lips THE blessed
damozer' was absolutely unintelligible.
If you had offered an angel cake to the
lady who, not having read the poem
before she came into Association hail.
was able upon leaving it to tell where
the blessed damozel was and who she
was and what she did and why she did
it, not dozen candidates out of the 200
to claim the prize. And there are wo-
men in the Woman's club who never
read line of Rossetti. 1t never before
seemed possible that the verse of this
| foremost Pre- Raphaelite could ring
| false, but then in Association hall II
sounded positively tawdry. The genius
| of Rossetti and the Emerson school of
oratory swore violently at each other
| But of course the trouble lies with Ros-
setti. If he had only written "The
| blessed damozel' and "The house OF
| life" properly, Prof. Ward would have
read him intelligibly and then that an
gel cake would have been sacrificed