The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1919-09-17

| the builders of it illustrate and de-
scribe it in their catalogue as the
most graceful auditorium roof in
America. There is not a post in the
building to interfere with seeing.
Three years ago this auditorium
was built, and the first big event in
it was concert by Galli-Curci They
say that when the great singer learned
that on the way from Omaha to Den
yer she was to stop and sing in a viii
lage of only three thousand popula-
ton away out there on the prairie,
she was not very enthusiastic about it,
But her agent said to her; You will
have an audience of three thousand
persons, and not one in one hundred
of them never heard a grand opera
singer" .ta, 49, ,.l.. -. 49,
/, The Auditorium
| The day of the concert the streets
Of the little town were filled with au.
tomobiles. People came one hundred
miles to the concert. Three thousand
persons paid one dollar each and were
comfortably seated. 1t was new ex.
perience to GallilCurci, and she &C.
tually wept with emotion when that
great audience of farmer folk, hearing
for the first time. in their lives such
singing, and thrilled by it., rose and
cheered and cheered. Since then 9th.
|er great singers and musicians and
other concerts have been there and
each time the auditorium was filed.
Johnson stood in the center of the
auditorium recently showing it off to
a committee sent from a bigger Ne.
braska town to look at it and make a
report. II feel more pride in what
I've done to help build this and keep
lit going than in all else put together
that I've done in my life" he said can
auditorium like this is the greatest
benefit that con be conferred on any
farming community, You've got to
live on a prairie farm to know how
monotonous it is, how irksome it be-
comes, how lonesome folks get, espe-
cially young people. Why, in the, av-
erage farm community the girls have
no chance to marry. Neither nave the
young men. There's no chance for
them to meet. There's, no informing
ling, no social life. The. church is
closed almost the whole year round. If
the young folks drive to town they can
only stand round or shop. Man alive.
I tell you there are tragedies of lone
illness for young folks on these west
ern prairie farms; warnings for COM
Partnerships 60 unsatisfied and hearts
break
"Now," ne told them. there is this
ibig hall. Look at that waxed and pol
|ished hardwood floor. Hundreds Of
couples can dance here at once, and
they do. Twice month we have
dance here, one dollar for men, ladies
free. We have a good orchestra Of
our own, but they areall church men,
bers and they refuse to play the jazz
music demanded by the new dances,
lso we bring up an orchestra from Lin
coln-the finest orchestra in the state.
Then we advertise the dance in the
Auditorium Herald. That's little
four page paper edited by the adyer-,
Using man of my store and mailed
out to select list Of four thousand
persons. also advertise it free Of
charge in my Store News, and the
weekly papers of the county tell about
it, and so everyone knows Of it. They
come from as far as one hundred miles
away by train and fifty miles by au-
tomobile to dance here.
Il wish you could be here at one Of
those dances and see the fun the
young folks have, and the fun the old
folks get out Of it just sitting up there
in the galleries and watching. l wish
you could see the faces of the boys
and girls brighten as they pair off.
There's a great work being done in
this hall, a great socializing work. 1t
beats everything else in this end of
the state.
"A girl comes to this dance with her
brother or with her father and moth
er, or with neighbors. They are say
at first, hut they. soon warm up. She
meets a lot Of young men she never