The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1923-11-23
STORY OF EARLY
TIMES IS RECITED
HamIin Garland, the Lecturer,
Spoke of Pioneer Days
INJECTED THE POETRY
Interested An Audience At orpheum
r. Theatre Last Night With Tale
81 Unfortunate Past

Hamlin Garland Is a lecturer
without hourishes. He has none OF
the affectations and poses which
some lectures would have acquired
In thirty years Of platform work. He
talks direct and simple, Just as II he
were in the room alone with a
friend. He doesn't exaggerate his
stories and any one who hears his
talks would doubt him for q mo-
ment. His is a story direct from his
heart, q story of his life and his
parents life. It Is story OF q half
century pilgrimage on the main
travelled road of life, bringing only
toll and privation and OF silent
heroisIn. :.
But Mr.. Garland does not make
his life story a melancholy and
gruesome one. In telling OF the stern
round of druggery he weayes In bits
OF humor, anecdotes and transforms
bleak prairies into poems and 70.
mances.,
The author stated at the beginning
OF his home life, Of his father, a
firm and strict soldier, ten Of his
mothers singing lovely. honey songs
for the family at evering time. But
the blood of the pioneer flowed in
the mans veins and he insisted al
ways on the mother singing a
marching song Of the pioneer, as an
antidote to the others. Then came
the day when his father and uncle
David treked across the country to
hunt a new home in Minnesota.
They built log cabin in the wild
erness. Then the family, with the
cook stove and churn were packed
in a big sleigh and with salt tears
in their eyes they took up life In the
wilderness. 20
Here the author described the
beautiful scenery. the lakes, the
wild fowl in his own characteristic
manner. -" =
Did Not Like Early Rising
The coolest weather the family
arose at four o'clock in the morning,
and here the author got his dislike
for milking COWS. His father did not
only command, but he was there
himself always on the job
Dissatisfied, the father again sang
the Marching song. The stove and
churn were packed in the prairie
schooner to start across the prairies
to a new home. The mother never
complained when she bade her new
~ made friends good bye. Time and
time again the father tuned up his
marching song and the family be-
came reconciled to IL. The mother
always kept things handy to pack In
a moments notice. ...-..,,.. sss
In a beautiful and pathetic way
the author told Of his boy hood on
the prairie and how he learned to
use the rifle, providing the meat OF
wild prairie chickens and other
fowls for the table. Il
/ Then of his going to Boston to
take up a literary career. or his re-
turn again to visit his parents on
the prairie home. Materially they
were no better of, but both worn
with toll, the son after some per-
suasion with the father took them TO
Salem to live. He gives q charming
description of his new bride, who
had been an artist in.Paris for five
years. and Of her meeting with his
parents, the wedding dinner and
follow up. -
with a profound love for the state
of Minnesota and Wisconsin, he
pleaded that the beautiful scenery,
the old forest trees and the lakes be
left as they are, that the drainage
of the lakes, the woodman's axe and
forest fires would In time destroy
the most beautiful scenery in all
the world. -..-
The author closed his lecture with
the singing of some Of the old early
day tunes, with the long drawn III
nor key used as a closing OF the
song. They sang it in this manner to
drown out the lonely howl OF the
prairie wolf at night. He closed with
the recitation Of some Of his own
pioneer verses, The Pioneer:
"They rise to mastery Of wind and
snow; -.. 4 2
They go like soldiers grimly into
strife, ........-. d..
To COLOMBO the plain; they plough
and sow,
And fertilize the sod with their own
life ...-g.--.-. i.
AS did the Indian and the Buffalo"
Hmlin Garland spoke at the Or
pheum last night under the auspices
Of the Teachers college.