The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-01

ton, and Mr.. Folker's best man was
Mr.. Robert Hanna.
Mr. Folker has taken the David
Page home in Melrose, where he and
his bride will live temporarily, after
September 5.
During the past two weeks a good
deal of attention has conferred on Miss
Nellie Kouns and Miss Sara Kouns,
who are back in Topeka for a little
while, before beginning their new con-
cert trip thru the country. They have
been very successful in the work they
have been doing in the last few
months.
They have been entertained at a
number of small social affairs while
they were in town, and were house
guests of Miss Hazel Risteen. They
also sang at the meeting arranged by
the woman's committee of the Kansas
council of defense. when Mrs. Ira
Couch Wood of Washington, D. c.,
addressed an audience that crowded
Memorial hall, this week. Every one
who heard the girls said that they had
gained a great deal in the quality of
their voices and in the expressiveness
of their musical language. Their pro-
fessional experience has added greatly
to their gifts, which were already
much admired.
The Misses Kouns are leaving today
for st. Louis. There they will open
the new Orpheum theater, and are
booked as top liners for that event.
From St. Louis they will go TO Chi
cago, and will sing at one of the large
theaters there. A number of Topeka
people who are planning to be in Chi
cago the same week are looking for
ward to hearing them then. They will
then go to Milwaukee, and after fill
ing a second engagement in Chicago
they will go to Winnipeg, and then to
Vancouver. They will fill engage
ments in Portland and Seattle, and
then they will go south to be in San
Francisco for two weeks, and they
will also sing in Los Angeles for two
weeks. They will be in Oakland for a
week, will stop in Salt Lake City and
Denver, and will then go to Kansas
City to sing. From there they will
go to New Orleans.
An article from New York the
atrical magazine gives the following
! account of the Misses Kouns:
THE Kouns sisters, nellie and
| Sara, intend leaving vaudeville, after
finishing the Orpheum circuit trip
January 13 next. They may go on
concert tour following that date altho
| the girls have offers before them for
several theatrical ventures, including
a chance for one of them to appear as
star in a play to be especially written
! for them by Clara Hummer, and man.
aged by Arthur Hopkins. The Schu-
tractive proposition. The Misses
Kouns, however, have grand opera as
pirations and are considering the con-
/ cert stage as preliminary step.
! Their voices were under European
cultivation for several years. On the
Orpheum circuit trip next season the
girls are to receive $3.50 weekly. Nor
| ton Beck heard the Misses Kouns in
recital in Orchestra hall in Chicago
last spring. and offered them Or
pheum circuit work. The recent New
York Palace engagement for the sis
tiers attracted much attention to them
and to their possibilities"
The Kouns girls have been favor
| ties in Topeka society ever since they
left off pinafores. and the recognition
they have received from the world
outside is a subject on which Tope-
kans become more or less self-con-
gratulatory
! Mrs. c. w. Kouns has been selected
by the Drama League of America. to
work with the Y. NJ. c. A. in the Sc
lection and production of q series of
entertainments to be given for the SOL
diers at Camp Funston. Mrs Kouns
Will have headquarters at the camp
The Topeka Art Guild held its first
at the Francis & Hodge studio, ia
Kansas avenue.
Miss Madeline Whitney a member
of the guild, who is a student in the
Parsons school of applied art in New
York, gave an interesting talk on cos
tune designing as it is taught in tht
Parsons school. Her talk was illus
trated by about fifty original draw
ings, many of them of great beauty
1 Miss Whitney has talent of a yer!
promising order. and her work las
season received much favorable motto,
from the head of the school Sucl
| eccentric Mr.. Parsons on any of hi
seven or eight hundred pupils unles
| it is especially we'll deserved. Mis-
/ Whitney will return to New York in
| few weeks, to resume her studies.
Thru the activities of the Art Guild
| the art exhibition of the Free Stat
i Fair this year will be held in tn
i rotunda of the state house, instead o
at the fair grounds. Effort is beini
made to give the exhibit a generall
| higher character than heretofore. Spe
cial invitations to exhibit have bee
sent out to all the leading artists o
the state, and a committee has bee
formed which will pass on the eli
gibility of all pictures presented 70
| exhibition. Pictures for the State Fai
exhibition are being sent to the Jas
Il D. Sullivan art store, 122 West Eight
i avenue. Mr.. Sullivan reported tina
many pictures have already been re
/ ceived.
Officers of the Topeka Art Gull
are corresponding with several promi
nent artists and lecturers on art, I
/ give talks in Topeka this winter
] Among these is Loredo Taft, the note