Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1906-03-02
| THE STORY TELLER
| PAR EXCELLENCE.
He is Opie Reak, Author Of
Tales OF the
South.
LECTURED LAST EVENING.
Held Large Audience Spell Bound in
Barratt IIall--Told of Kentucky
Family Fcud.

Opie Read. the story teller par excel
lence, held great audience SPELL
bound last evening In Barratt hall
with tales of interest that would now
set his hearers In roar. and then bring
tears to their eyes as something pa
thetic would touch chords OF sympathy
in the heart, and set in motion those
emotions that are SO quickly awakened
by that zone touch Of nature which
makes the world akin" Mr., Read is a
peculiar mana trait peculiar TO all Pc
cullar men--genuses. They would not
be geniuses, II they were not peculiar;
different from the average assortment
OF mankind--of rarer ana more se-
lected kind, as the products of their
lives make manifest.
WIT, HUMoR AND PATHos.
A good story-teller is something Of a
rare bird; an pathological gentleman,
the burden of whose song Will draw an
audience without any suggestion of GER
emonial invitation, and keep their at
tention, too. The late Maj, Goodspeed
OF this city and formerly of Good
speeds Landing on the Connecticut
river, was a story teller Of the manor
born. ANA his Plymouth dinner story Of
an Instance of forgetfulness. as instance
ed In the experience OF the late Rev,
Or. Gresham of Boston, win ever re-
main green In the memory OF the New
Englanders who attended that dinner,
and put In an hours spare time after
wards trying to recover their breath
and straighten out their features. En-
gineer IA. NJ Mccartney, formerly Of
the san Pedro road, is another such
man, and when he stops In the street
to button hole friend and starts in
to relate striking episodes in his check
cred experience. the listener might as
we'll prepare to give up all serious
thought for the next 30 minutes. ABB
raham Lincoln was one of the greatest
story tellers that ever lived and his
tales as told on the Illinois circuits will
remain embalmed in printed story in
| definitely. Opie Read is a story teller
| Of the old time school--pure and undis-
| guised wit humor and pathos-- tales
| that take hold of the inner experience
and awaken the sympathetic interest
| that can be touched In no other way.
| Mr. Read sits as he talks, and talks as
| he sits, as a southern plantation owner
would sit In an easy chair on his spa
clous veranda, and unwinds the narra-
| tive yarn with all the freedom from
| embarrassment and entertaining pow
| ers of descriptive that characterize the
| free and easy conversational style Of
| the genial southern gentleman. Like
| Mark Twain, or any other true humor.
| ist, Mr.. Read never laughs when say
| ing anything funny. But. at the same
| time, the careful listener will notice n
| twitching at the corners of his mouth
when anything really humorous is
| about to break loose. At times, when
| reaching a climax, the speaker rises
| to his feet, and even ventures into dra-
matte action. This Is skilfully done,
| and fastens the interest of the audience
| more firmly on the thought presented
cllnches 1t on the underside Of
the board with handmade nails.
as II were. The suddenness Of
| transition from quiescence TO
| action and rhetorical flourish, does not
| attract special attention, for bodily mo-
| ton Is IN this case but the handmade to
| utterance and lends pertinent emphasis
| to speech. Mr.. Read riveted the ewes
| and ears OF his audience on the stand
| as he related the story of a Kentucky
| family feud with its long list of at
| tending and heart stirring details and
| his hearers forgot an about the per.
sonality OF the speaker. intent alone on
| every word that fell from his lips. And
| II may be remarked en- PEASANT, that
here was instanced the true bearer of a
message, the man who can make those
about him think only solely, entirely