The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-08-04
AUDIENCE FILLED
BIG TENT ON
WET NIGHT
DisagreeabIe Weather Failed to
Discourage Chautauqua Goers
LECTURE BY FATHER CRONlN
Literature of the Day Severely
Scored in Brilliant and Witty
Address.

The Chautauqua goers of Benning
| ton showed their defiance to the
| weather by nearly filling the Chautau-
! qua tent last evening in spite of the
storm of rain and wind. AS in the af-
ternoon, the audience was enthusias-
tic and cordial. The program, which
consisted of a concert by the Dunbar
| Singing Orchestra and an address by
Rev. Father d. f. Cronin on '"The
Weeds and Flowers Of Literature"
The singing orchestra gave fully as
enjoyable program in the evening as
in the afternoon and afforded the
| audience much pleasure with their
musical selections, vocal solos. sket-
ches and recitations. Father Cronin
of Lincoln, Nebraska, is an unusually
entertaining and earnest speaker,
holding the interest and attention of
his audience not only by his convinc-
ing conclusions but also through his
rare native wit and humor for which
he is noted.
in his address on the Weeds and
Flowers of Literature FatheF Cron-
in discussed the immortality of for.
cign literature and then rather startl-
ed his audience by the statement that
in the United States there are more
vile. insidious, immoral, soul-de-
stroying books than in all Europe put
together" He placed the blame
squarely on the American people as
individuals, for. he said, "a nation
cannot be greater than the people
who compose it,"
He vigorously attacked yellow jour
nalism and, ttresi newspapers on the
front page OF which is to be found al
ways a. widely assorted collection of
the reported violations of the Ten
Commandments 4i
He ascribed the public's fcuriosity
as to evil. ivillainy and scandal as the
reason for its publication i'm such
wholesale fashion. The Sunday sup
plements, the colored section. he de-
scribed in Illuminating terms. The
result Of this peryerting form OF jour
nalism. he stated, in an absolute un-
belief on the part of the public in any
and all newspaper stories.
Our periodicals he declared to be
for the most part pure and uninjuri.
Gus to the reader, and this form of
literature was passed lightly over.
1t was the modern novel, the best
seller or problem novel, which called
forth the strongest condemnation of
the lecturer; hence so much rotten lit
erature. He described the influence
of the hero and heroine upon youthful
unintormed minds and characters in
an amusing truthful fashion. The apti
tude of young men and women for ap-
ing the immoral, conscienceless hero
or heroine he dwelt upon at some
length. He called this type of novel
filthy stories in classic guise dealing
with sin gilded over to such an ex-
tent as to be unTecogniZable to the !
youthful mind.
Father Cronin closed his talk with
a plea for the reading of decent,
HGdilHy anu clCNdllliS literature,
which, he said can be found in abun-
dance by the wise reader.
Between the two numbers of the
program DR.. Turner requested the
audience to rise and sing the Chautau-
qua song which was printed inside
the programs. The song was written
by one of the Swarthmore professors
and has three verses. The spectators
soon caught the melody of the song
and the tent was filled with tuneful
appreciation of the Chautauqua.
After the program there was fin
al meeting of the guarantors each of
whom was called on to buy four tick
cts to make up the amount guaran-
teed. This was considerably less than
had been expected and was no more
than most of them expected to take
anyway. aa