Page 23 - 1914 February - To Dragma

136 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

found my interest in this. And after the devious paths I have trod,
I think I have found my desire. Story telling is one of the higher
arts, lost long ago, and but now being revived. As it is with all
arts, there are few real artists—and i f you once hear a true one
like Mrs. Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen of Chicago, you will have ex-
perienced that soul-satisfying joy that artists imbue one with.

Telling a story seems the easiest thing in the world—to the ones
who are listening: they do not guess at the long weary hours spent
over the preparation of one story, the reducing and amplifying, the
knowing it so well one can play with it, for one never memorizes
a story. Then there is the fitting in of oneself to the atmosphere—
from soaring to the sublime heights of an epic, to the recounting of
a humorous folk tale.

I t must be handled as artistically and well as a pianist her
musical selection, or a vocalist, her song. Every tale has its partic-
ular interpretation, and its best is from the hands of an artist. The
story teller looks for her stories from the best in literature, she is
always searching. There is a wide and varied field before her, the
folk lore of all countries, the fairy tales, fables, and legends,
the epics, the books of master-writers. Always is she selecting with
the thought uppermost in her mind—that of the culture value to the
child.

An earnest story teller devotes many hours of hard work to study
and research, and then there is the long and often tedious prepara-
tion of the story—but the compensation is well worth all the effort
spent. For to gather children around you and see the very soul
shining in their faces and intense eyes—Oh, well, there is nothing
so beautiful as being a story teller!

I S A B E L L E H E N D E R S O N . . Sigma ' 0 5 .