The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-04-15
Interesting, Entertaining and Insiruc.
tive Lecture Last Night.
Delivered BY Rev. John Lloyd, the
Eloquent Waseca Divine.
Profound Student Of History and Liter
ature.-Pleasing Talker.
Ready With Humorous illusions and
Considerable of Joker.
From Saturdays Daily.


Rev. John Lloyd, pastor of the Congre-
gational church at Waseca, lectured last
evening at the local Congregational
church on "The Poetry of Robert Burns"
As the night was rainy and boisterous,
the audience was by no means so large
as it might have been. Yet those who
were there caught the enthusiasm of the
speaker and applauded him with the
sincere heartiness that the excellence of
the lecture deserved.
Rev. Lloyd is still quite young man,
yet his utterances of last evening show
ed him to be most profound student of
literature and history and the ease and
familiarity with which he passed from
one historical allusion to another won
the ready admiration of his hearers. Mr..
Lloyd's accent clearly showed his own
lineage. He joked considerably about
his own nationality, and said that he
had sometimes been described as an
Irishman, who had been born in Scotland,
but happened to have Welsh name.
His speech, however, was so clearly
Caledonian that none who heard him last
night would think of assigning him to
any other nationality than that of the
poet whose works he had come to COM
ment upon.
Mr.. Lloyd brought in many quaint
Scotch phrase in the course of his lee
ture. In Scotland, he said, it is common
to speak of a church member "sitting
under the minister" In America, how
ever, the church members do not "sit
under their minister;" they are more
apt to "sit on their minister"
He spoke of the Scottish dialect that
was used in the works of the immortal
Scotch bard, who was the subject of
the evenings lecture. The dialect
itself was indeed provincial, but
the truths and sentiments to which that
dialect gave utterance were of universal
import, and the notes were such as to
find an echo in every human breast.
In the works of Robert Burns could
be seen the dominant characteristics of
his nationality. Mr.. Lloyd insisted that
the chief characteristics of any national
ity was brought out by the humor of
that people, The dominant characters
tics of American humor was exaggera-
ton. That was also one of the dominant
American characteristics. The American
liked to think of everything as big.
Hence when he went to joke upon any
thing, he was prone to magnify the OBJ
ject of his mirth.
The dominant character of Irish humor
was drollery. The wit of the Irishman
was so quick that it upset him and
everything else that stood in its way.
That was why an Irishman's wit con-
tanned SO many contradictions.
Sidney Smith once said that it re-
quired surgical operation to get joke
into Scotchman's head. A Scotchman
replied, "But those are English jokes"
The great Distinguishing characteristic
of the English joke was that it was in
tensely practical. Wellington was once
on the point of being introduced, when
the Frenchman turned his back and
made off. "Will you please excuse him?"
remarked Wellington; 81 taught him
that lesson at Waterloo"
The speaker characterized the Scotch |
humor as intensely sober and therefore |
ironicaL A Scotchman would continue |
to talk theology after he had swallowed
his twelfth glass of whisky. A charac
teristic Scotch joke was uttered by the
widow of a man whose head had been |
cut. off in railroad accident. When |
told of what had happened, she said, 'It
was ma much of heed but it was a
sair loss to the puir mon."
The sentiments of Burns were intense
" sober and earnest, and often ironical.
In his works there was at the same time
a continuous expression of sympathy Tor
all mankind, and not mankind alone but |
for every creature that could feel. His |
sympathy was universal In one of his
poems he expressed the hope that Satan
himself would turn repentant and be
saved after all. In his we'll known poem
declaring that ga mans a man for a.
that" he might be called the poet pro-
phet of humanity, as he uttered the same
democratic sentiments that were destined
to dominate the world in later genera
ton.
He was intensely patriotic. Yet his
patriotism was rather of the cosmopo
Titan kind, than that which looks only
at ones own country. He was ever in
favor of the masses of humanity.
The character of Burns presented some
strange contradictions and inconsistent
cies. His sentiments were lofty and
ennobling. Yet he had in youth the mis- J
fortune of falling into habits of dissipa-
ton. His life was one of continuous !
falling into ribaldry and again rising to
the aspirations of his better nature.
The speaker throughout his lecture |
showed a wonderful familiarity with |
the works of Burns. Quotations where
with this and that point was illustrated
came to his mind with admirable spon-
taneity.
Early in the evening DR.. Dodds enter
tanned the gathering by singing Burns
ga Mans a Man for a. That and love