HENRY GARLAND MURRAY.
To be able to tell a story, and tell it well, is a gift, and not an acquirement; a gift that one may well be proud of. The gentleman whose name heads this sketch, left his sunny home in the Island of Jamaica, last autumn, and paid a flying visit to our country. We had heard of Mr. Murray as the able editor of the leading newspaper in Kingston, and, therefore, he was not an entire stranger to us.
But his great powers as a lecturer, we were ignorant of. With a number of friends, we went one evening to listen to a lecture on “Life among the Lowly in Jamaica.” The speaker for the occasion was Henry G. Murray, who soon began his subject. He was a man of fine personal appearance, a little inclined to corpulency, large, electric eyes, smiling countenance beaming with intelligence, and wearing the air of a well-bred gentleman.
He commenced in a calm, cool, moderate manner, and did not depart from it during the evening. Mr. Murray’s style is true to nature, and the stories which he gave with matchless skill, convulsed every one with laughter. He evinced talent for both tragic and comic representation, rarely combined. His ludicrous stories, graphically told, kept every face on a grin from the commencement to the end. For pathos, genius, inimitable humor, and pungent wit, we have never seen his equal. He possesses the true vivida vis of eloquence. Mr. Murray is a man of learning, accomplishment, and taste, and will be warmly welcomed whenever he visits us again.