Rocky Ford enterprise., 1908-07-24
CHAW-- TALK WAY
BY G. H. T.

days or bright, Rocky Ford keeps
right up with the. procession and lays
herself out to get her share of ev-
erything that is going, be it good,
bad or simply fashionable.
She. has had street fairs as we'll
as other fairs, political conventions
and other conventions, Domestic
meetings, and continuous vaudevill.s.
But she had never had a Chautauqua.
So when Chautauquo boomer came
this way and told US it was the prop
er thing to have, we took it.
1t Is now in full swing. And we
seem to be getting our moneys
worth. At all events the attendance
has been good and if hereafter any
body says we haven't a soul above
sugar beets and cantaloupcs we will
point with pride to the ten days of
July weather in which we took our
cushions under our arms three times
day and rushed for the front seats
Of learning in the canvas Temple of
Athens, down on the Fair Ground.
The accommodations are raw. The
side OF two-inch plank without any
back on it is not conducive to the
concentration of mind essential to tho
absorption of knowledge. particular
ly by people who are thin in flesh:
and il we did not have the merry
go-round on the outside and the Jap
anese juggler on the inside we prob
ably would not have made the rec
on gate receipts that we have. 1t is
evident that the modern Chautauqua
managers have found the happy mean
between the theatre comiquc and the
Puritan sermon, and are thereby lift
ing the obtuse up without pulling any
n. tn I,,Et s.,f- 1f
Three intellectual meals a day at
cost of 25c per diem. OF course
there is some Breakfast food served
at the morning sessions: and some
Postum in the evening. But then
there was Payne and Spillman Riggs
and Blake and Miss Gaines and the
Schubert Ouartcttc-not forgetting
Jchn Miller and the Orphcan boys.
And then there was LaFollettc.
Some of US were afraid we weren'.
going to get him. And then for
time we thought we were never going
to get rid OF him. He talked three
hours and fifteen minutes by the
watch. We have had nothing like i:
since those carly days in our his
tory when Billy Goblin presented the
High school diplomas. But we have
all forgiven Billy. and sent him to
the state legislature since then. And
we forgive La Toilette.
OF course good many left while
La Toilette was talking. It's no use
trying to put a gallon of information
into quart bottle: and I doubt II
anybody but a prospective candidate
of the presidency could have held any
part OF the crowd for the full three
hours. 1t is true that the reform
senator from Wisconsin is man
&r,;th hrt &c he h,Ir't hrrn
the fashion before he came the mid
die half of his story would have
seemed dryer than it did. But we
weren't going to admit he was too
much for us. And those who cndur-
ed to the. end had their fortitude rec
ompensed when the speaker got
round to telling of his personal cxpcr-
fences with the political machine as it
exists in Wisconsin-or did exist at
all events before he smashed it. The
distinguished Wisconsin senator's
theme was Representative Govern
ment." and he proceeded to show
can form of government as enunciat-
ed by the trainers of the Declaration
of Independence had been undermin-
ed by the machine politician of mod
ern days in the interests of corporate
concentration of wealth. 1t was
long story. as he told it, but every
body felt that the man was in earnest
in his protest against the centra1iza-
tion of governmental power in the
hands of few industrial and specu-
lative vultures, and his appeal to
the manhood and conscience Of the
mass OF the people made a perora-
tion that brought him generous ap-
plause and a hearty hand shake at
tile close. -. -..
After three mortal hours of talk
let US hope that some residue of the
moral emotions aroused will remain
when the smoke of what JchD Miller
calls the "oratorical rotundity of the
Did you hear Miller? Well,
it wasn't his fault If you didn't. He
wasn't so informin' as La Toilette; /;
and he didn't stick to his text as
the senator did. The titles of his two
lectures wcre-wcll. never mind. One
title would have done just as well
as another. as there wasn't anything
beneath that he didn't make at least
some remote allusion to. And his
wit and humor and sarcasm kept the
audience in a perpetual bubble OF
good nature.
Then Spillman Riggs came on
where Miller left off; and If his SER
mon on 1.-THE Average Church Choir
left anything of sanctimonious flaw
or in the program of Sunday / don't
remember it. thought E. c. Shell
ton, who knows thing or two him
self about church singing, would fall
off his backlcss plank perch. And
there were others almost equally
moved by Sundays discourse.
The Orpcans did US turn music
ally. Indeed they did several turns,
doing them sometimes turn about and
sometimes altogether. The young
men didn't put on any priIna donna
- ths., S,~11eI