The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-08-23
Mre. colllngwood rucker's Recital.

. Mrs. colllngWood fuckers Recital.
The recital given last night at the
First Christian church, at which Mrs.
George Collingwood Tucker gave a
number Of Songs for children from
eight to eighty was largely attended
and even younger children OF the
audience gave signs of joining heart
lily with the eight-to-eighty class In
giving smiling approval to the pleas
ing entertainment of the fair and popu-
lar songstress. She had the audience
In fine humor even before the opening
number of the song series proper, be
ginning with "Mumps' childish
rhyme indicating that children envy
those afflicted with this well-known
complaint inclining a boy Who has it
to be proud Of his swelled head afflic-
ton and to strut about free from
school and chores, the envied of all
the boys and girls of the neighborhood.
There were so many of these child
ish ditties that to name them in care
full rotation without comment would
add nothing to the story Of the even
ing. These hasty lines are not intend
ed as the ordinary, precise criticism
of an evening of delightful song or an
amusement write-up telling how beau
tifully refreshing this or that number
was. Mrs. fuckers recital was not
an ordinary measured recital. 1t was
the most informal of all the informal
musical social parties you ever at
| tended. Mrs. Tucker sat on the plat
form, a very queen of attractive enter.
ltainment, as a veritable hostess and
she proved the happiest entertainer
4 that one meets in a'life time, no mat
ter how gray your head may be. She
takes all of her large audience into
her confidence just as If composed oil
4 a company of her old friends and
keeps up vein of bright, sparkling
even jolly, running monologue to fill
up the interim between the numbers
sending out scintillating thoughts ant
! witty words as they came to her in
: tuitively, some as bright and quaint al
Erins limericks and others as patheti'
as the appeal to Douglas, Douglas, ten
3 der and true"
3 While her child songs are cute AM
i simple, bringing the broadcast smile
to the most sedate, behind this tende
! humor there hides sympathy an
D pathos which cannot be laughe
. away. They bring back memories 9
4 the early days when
i FL sported in my mothers tender arm
road horseback on my father
s knee;
! Alike were sorrows, passions an
l. alarms,
s And gold, and Greek and love, Ii
known to me-"
Or even to those older and mature
times as the thought came of the Ii
tie dead infant sleeping in the tin
green grave, when in baby life,
1T lay upon it's mothers breast,
; thing
Bright as a dew drop when it fir
descends,
Or as the plumage Of an angels wiz
When every tint of rainbow beau
blends"
!, The versatility and innate GENT
of Mrs Tucker, her tactful art
song and acting and her gay ar
sprightly dramatic sincerity. noted
the Injunction of one of her song
Don't you be what you Amt; be VIII
you isl" draws the audience to h
with an inspiration that is sincere a
the way through the program. HI
y songs toward the close in negro di
lect were little gems of that style
minstrelsy Her closing number, NJ
on the program, she sang by urgel
f. request, and her encore numb,
Dixie sung in her happiest and mo
enthusiastic vein caused the audient
to leave her reluctantly, but to wer
their way homeward in deightf
mood.
Now. If this criticism is too info
NAL for so splendid a recital and ye
~ are altogether disappointed at it's !
!, formality, then you must rememb'
. that Mrs. Tucker. too, was informs
!, and her jovial and child-like spirit e
!. tered SO naturally into the innocen'
i. of childhood she depicted and Il
+, idiosyncrasies and the peculiar ar
=. catchy melody of the unsophisticatt
- colored race that she drew her aut
I ence along into an earnest and int
j ested pathway of enjoyment. 81
!. touched the button and the audien'
4 smiled and kept smiling. Her |
: formality inspired the informally