THE HELENSBURGH NEWS, THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1883
SHANDON – MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY
In connection with this association, a grand literary and musical entertainment was given in the schoolroom on Thursday evening last, when every available inch of space within its walls was occupied by a large and enthusiastic audience, who long before the hour of commencement had gathered together, many of them from a considerable distance.
The entertainment was certainly one of the best of the whole course, and each of the artistes, at the close of his or her performance, was greeted with enthusiastic applause. The programme was of the most varied and mixed nature, and while the audience were at times raptured in silence, listening to the sweet strains of some delightful solo, they were again roused to the highest pitch of mirth by the humorous and side-splitting recitations of a couple of Glasgow gentlemen, whose efforts aided considerably to make the evening an unqualified success.
Of the ladies, the song of Miss Finlay, ‘Come o’er the moonlit sea’ was much enjoyed, while those of Miss Lindsay, ‘The Kerry dance’ and ‘Killarney’ were equally so. Mr Harrison’s ‘Bay of Biscay’ was a powerful rendering of this well-known song, and for which he received an enthusiastic encore, while his part of the duet, ‘The minute gun at sea’ accompanied by Mr McCallum, was quite as telling.
A most pleasing feature of the evening’s entertainment was several selections on the violin and piano by Messrs D McCallum and Ingram, and although for a time the audience was held as it were spellbound, as the strains gradually quickened the bonds of restrain were fairly broken, and the musicians finished under a perfect storm of applause. Last though not least at the end of a lengthy programme was the catch song ‘Call John’, sang by a quartette under the able leadership of Mr McCallum, and which at the finish had to be repeated.
The piano for the occasion was kindly lent by Mrs O’Bryan, Greenhill, while the duties of chairman were most pleasingly performed by Mr W MacLellan, jun., Blairvaddich.
The ninth of the course of public lectures will be given on Friday evening first by Rev Wm Leitch, Helensburgh, the subject being ‘Readers and Readings’.
Shandon People and History 