Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-12-20
PERSONAL--- SOCIAL
KITTY CHEATHAM
ALWAYS DELIGHTS
Wednesday Club Audience Re
iurns to Childhood With
Clever Entertainment

Fahnestock Lall in the Y. NJ. G. A.
nation last evening. 1t was the oc-
casion of the ever popular Christmas
concert of the "Wednesday club. The
scarlet poinsettias, ferns and frs were
there as usual. So also was the large
fashionably dressed audience of men
and women. Then out upon the ros-
trum stepped Kitty Cheatham, the
charming wonder-woman and 10!
away fell tie heavy burden of the
years and tie heart which knows and
loves childhood SO thoroughly, made
children OF them ALL 1t was not alone
with her music but in folk legends,
humorous and darky stories she was
equally delightful. The vivid express
siye face, the small eloquent hands
which seem meyer to rest and the ease
and spontaneity with which she talks
all make Miss Cheatham like a rare
old wine, Intoxicating, but for which
the thirst is never quenched.
Voice? Yes, she has q voice, a
mellow flexible soprano, nothing of
itself to set the world aflre but who
stops to ask of Kitty Cheatham's
quality of tone? IL is forgotten in
listening to the words that voice ex-
presses, in the quaint little songs she
sings and in watching the way her
whole graceful body expresses the
meaning. She made an earnest plea
for all childhood that it be given the
best the world affords along all lines,
sympathy and understanding especial
ly because the little ones of to-day are
the men and women of tomorrow
who, in the great crisis of the worlds
AFFAIRS Will have problems to meet we
cannot comprehend.
Three Song Cycles
The program contained three cycles
or songs, Folk Songs of various ma
tions, the traditional Mother Goose
Rhymes (grownups had forgotten
they could sound like that and Negro
Melodies. Miss Cheatham is especial
y fitted for the latter being a South
erner, raised by a Nanny of the bye
gone type. She expresses the mourn
full minor cadences with the slurred
grace notes and long sustained whole
notes peculiar to tie negro of the
South. 1t is evident that she loves
and understands the race as no one
can who has not lived amongst them.
Many of her darky melodies were
sung without other accompaniment
than the clapping of her hands.
Nearly every song was prefaced by
a story or anecdote sometimes whmsi-
cal, often humorous, all apparently
spontaneous. There was q world of
wise advice in the absurd dialect song,
Don't Be What You Amt, But Be
What You 1s' she gave as an encore.
True to nature was Practising"
(John Alden Carpenter), the little lad
forced to play his scales for hours
each day against his will
The Little Gray Lamb
In serious recitations Miss Cheat
ham was equally at home. The Won
derful Christmas poem, The Little
Gray Lamb" (Archibald Sullivan) was
full of the lofty spiritual significance
of the love of the Great Shepherd.
Once when asked to speak before a
gathering of students representing IL
different nations, Miss Cheatham chose
this as being a selection whose mean
ing could reach beyond it's mere YER
bal expression. She is especially fond
OF Stevenson's poems for he, too, un-
derstood childhood so thoroughly.
Her rendering of his "The Cow"
schoolgirl fashion, was a delight. She
also read one of his unpublished
poems to children given her person.
ally by Mrs. Stevenson.
Miss Flora Macdonald Wills piano
accompaniment was always in perfect
unison and accord with Miss Cheat
hams voice.
1t was something new for the We'd
nesday club but thoroughly welcome
as the applause and flowers testified.
Here's TO Kitty Cheatham, the woman
who can make one forget that child
hood covers only a brief span of
years. King Solomon said, Where
there is no vision, the people perish"
Miss Cheatham brings to the tired
heart the needed vision.
ANNA HAMILTON WOOD,