Last evening Mr. C. T. Copeland gave a practical, entertaining talk to a large audience on the uses of good reading and speaking.

Mr. Copeland spoke first of the difference between this age and the last in the art of reading and speaking. It was not until very recently, he said, that there was the slightest desire shown by the students to learn to read and to speak well. He accounted for this in part by the fact that men had so much less time to devote to reading now than in the past century, and in order to keep up with the times they let the grand old writers go, to spend their time in reading magazines and new novels. He spoke further of the immense practical value it was to a man in starting out in life to be able to speak well and clearly, - with confidence and persuasion. If a man looks and speaks like a gentleman people will wish to know him - he has a place in life waiting for him. If he looks like a gentleman but does not speak like one no one will care to have anything to do with him. No one can follow a sweet, dignified speaker without a feeling of pleasure and sympathy.

The talk was followed by reading from Homer, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and from George Du Maurier's "Trilby."