Miss Hallie Q. Brown
By F. S. Delany
Hallie Quinn Brown is a native of Pittsburg, Pa. When quite small her parents moved to a farm near Chatham, West Ontario, Canada. At an early age, in the year 1868, she was sent to Wilberforce College, Ohio, to obtain an education the country schools of Canada could not give, and where her parents subsequently moved, and now reside at Homewood Cottage. She completed the classical scientific course in 1873, with the degree of B.S. in a class of six. One of her classmates is the wife of Rev. B. F. Lee, D.D., ex-President of Wilberforce. Realizing that a great field of labor lay in the South, Miss Brown, with true missionary spirit, left her pleasant home and friends to devote herself to the noble work she had chosen.
Her first school was on a plantation in South Carolina, where she endured the rough life as best she could, and taught a large number of children from neighboring plantations. She also taught a class of aged people, and by this means gave to many the blessed privilege of reading the Bible. She next took charge of a school on Sonora Plantation, in Mississippi, where she found the effort to elevate the minds of the people much hindered by the use of tobacco and whisky—twin vices.
But as she is an indefatigable worker she accomplished much, and at this place, as at all others where she is known, her influence for the better is felt. Her plantation school had no windows, but it was well ventilated; too much so, in fact, for daylight could be seen from all sides, with no particular regularity, and the rain beat in fiercely. Not being successful in getting the authorities to fix the building—shed, we should have said—she secured the willing service of two of her larger boys. She mounted one mule and the two boys another, and thus they rode to the ginhouse. They got cotton seed, returned, mixed it with earth, which formed a plastic mortar, and with her own hands she pasted up the chinks, and ever after smiled at the unavailing attacks of wind and weather.
Her fame as instructor spread, and her services were secured as teacher at Yazoo City. On account of the unsettled state of affairs in 1874-75, she was compelled to return North. Thus the South lost one of its most valuable missionaries. Miss Brown then taught in Dayton, O., for four years. Owing to ill health she gave up teaching. She was persuaded to travel for her alma mater, Wilberforce, and started on a lecturing tour, concluding at Hampton School, Virginia, where she was received with a great welcome. After taking a course in elocution at this place, she traveled again, having much greater success, and received favorable criticism from the press.
For several years she has traveled with the Wilberforce Grand Concert Company, an organization for the benefit of Wilberforce College. She has read before hundreds of audiences and tens of thousands of people, and has received nothing but the highest of praise from all. She possesses a voice of wonderful magnetism and great compass, and seems to have perfect control of the muscles of the throat, and can vary her voice as successfully as a mocking bird. As a public reader, Miss Brown delights and enthuses her audiences. In her humorous selections she often causes “wave after wave” of laughter. In her pathetic pieces she often moves her audience to tears. The following are a few of thousands of compliments paid to her by the public press:
Miss Brown, the elocutionist, ranks as one of the finest in the country. (Daily News, Urbana, O.)
Her style is pure and correct; her selections excellent. (News, Long Branch, N. J.)
Miss Hallie Q. Brown, the elocutionist with the company, was loudly applauded. Many credit Miss Brown with being one of the best elocutionists before the public. (Indianapolis Times.)
Miss Brown, the elocutionist, is a phenomenon, and deserves the highest praise. She is a talented lady and deserves all the encomiums that she receives. (Daily Sun, Vincennes, Ind.)
The select reading of Miss Hallie Q. Brown was very fine. From grave to gay, from tragic to comic, with a great variation of themes and humors, she seemed to succeed in all, and her renderings were the spice of the night’s performance. (Monitor, Marion, Ill.)
“The select readings of Miss Brown are done to perfection. She has an excellent voice and good control of it. She makes every piece sound as if it were the author speaking, and in many of them doubtless she excels the one she imitates.”