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Show I iSTiiiriilRowN readsIoem "'J BEFORE DISTINGUISHED AUDIENCE; Miss Minnie Brown of Ogden, now a senior at the Leland Powers School of the Spoken Word, Boston, enjoyed the distinction a few nights ago of reading the stirring poem, "Old Ironsides," Iron-sides," at the annual dinner of the Old Ironsides association. This dinner din-ner was held In the Hotel Lenox, Boston, Bos-ton, Tuesday, March 27, and the speakers who responded to toasts were Hon James H. Curley, mayor of Boston; Captain William R. Rush, commandant Boston navy yard; Hon Channing H. Cox speaker Massachusetts Massachu-setts house of representatives; Hon. Walter C. Wardwell, ex-mayor of the city of Cambridge, Mr. Edward S. Crandon, Captain Richard W. Sutton, and Mr. M. H. Gulesian. The toast-master toast-master was Hon Calvin Coolidge, lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. It was a proud and, doubtless, exciting ex-citing moment for the "Mormon" girl from Ogden when she responded to the request of the toastmaster to stand in the midst of these distinguished guests and read these words of the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, that saved the frigate "Constitution'" from destruction Old Ironsides. A) ' pull her tattered ensign down, Long has it waved on high, And many a heart has danced to see That banner in the sky;' Beneath it rung the battle shout And burst the cannon's roar The meteor of the ocean air Shall sweep the clouds no more. Her deck once red with heroes' blood, : Where knolt the vanquished foe When winds were hurrying o'er the ,flood And waves' wore white below; No more shall feel the conqueror's tread, Or know the victor's knee; The harpies of the shore shall pluck The eagle of the sea! Oh better that her shattered hulk Should sink beneath the wave; Her thunders shook the mighty deep And there should be her grave; Nail to the mast her holy flag, Set every threadbare sail, And give her to tho god of storms The lightning and the gale! Writing to a friend in Ogden of her experience at the banquet, Miss Brown said: "The lieutenant governor himself placed my chair at the table and when he introduced me to read the poem "Old Ironsides" ho said' 'No annual affair of this society would be com plete without the reading of our poem and we have with us tonight one win knows how to read It so we can alj understand what it means. I 'presenl you Miss Brown.' "I was not half so nervous as I used to be at our choir banquets in the ward (just fancy). I stood up In that beautiful place, and in the midst of those men and""women, some of whom are famous all over the world (like Henry Cabot Lodge) and I read the poem. It was done right, I know, because be-cause they were so nice to me afterwards after-wards Captain William Rush, who is in charge of the coast defenses against Invasion, spoke very kindly to me. He looks like our Judge Bagley, only not so good looking." Continuing, Miss Brown described the big social affair in detail and, concluding con-cluding the letter, said she was completing com-pleting her course of study at the Powers' school under most favorable conditions. |