Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1853-12-24
THE CHARACTER OF AUDIENCES.

DR.. Holmes lcctured recently, at New Bedford, on
"Audicnccs" ;" and divided his listncners into four
classcs-thc apprccatyc listener, the resisting
listener the reporter and the man who goes cut.
His ypc of the first was the pretty female, about
whom The craycst lecturer gets mp a little romance.
Bat 10 any face, whether pretty or not, expressing
kindly sympathy, the lecturer turns in his dcspon-
dcnrv.or his triumph The terrible counterpart Of
this is the resisting listener, who ~ always Of the
male sex, and is TO be found out in five minutcs.-
His face Is perpetual veto-his idea is that the
speaker l., a sort Of swindlcr, determined to make
him laugh whether he will or not. So lie buttons
mp his mouth, and says plainly, "Nonc Of your
tricks with nc" The lecturer had better give such
an one up at once; his teeth may lie strong, but he
will make nothing of that old file Reporters are
generally friendly. If they think lecture is very
bad they generally scy nothing about it. Ono
great mistake which they sometimes make, is to
undertake to report lecture upon the strength OF
being in the only five minutes. IL they guess
Mt the subject under such circumstances, they arc
very apt TO guess wrong. The man who goes
Out comes last. Some men wear n weed upon
their hats not because they have lost any friends,
but from mysterious inward impulse For the
same reason, the man goes out--bccausc he must
90 out, not from weariEcss nor because he is faint,
but because like the man with the steam leg, he
must. Perhaps his mind is incapable Of holding
more than half lecture, and having received that,
the person cce. out-lull.
lHc uuOchtt Nus It's lllPt stages hl Nbltn, llu-
urity anl scnilty. Attcr it arrives at iho age of
thirty or forty minutes, we may notice the signs Of
its gradual decay. Tho signs Of comatosc coudi-
ton come on. First there Is the nod-thc little nod
the head falls aud is stroightway Indignantly re-
stored. But the symptoms are too plainly to be
seen in the peculiar lsh-liko eyes, and so continue
the 'crEs and counicrjegks, down. down upon the
edge of the bench, or possibly upon nc;ghboriug
fruulc, who does not know whether to consider this
an outrage aud so call FOR the police, or as doar
alton Of affection, and promise Ito consider it.
Then, too, there il, the man Of business, whose at
tention is distracted by n note overdue or tho
female who rcmorsolully remembers three pairs o
stockings undarHcd at home: or the buxon dumt
who iancics she hears in that cry her scrccchinl
infant. 1t is only tho locomotive, but she is n
much done for as if she had been taken up by tn
cow-catchcr. Then it is time for the lecturer +
lcsyir himself. The true remedy then is to tell
story.
The young can pardon anything but dullness-
just MS long as Il speaker retains something q
youth in his heart, just long will they listen
him. Woman has tastes, but she is the most il
dulgcnt listener 1t is Fortunate too, that a larg
class Of hearers listen from habit, like Southey
man, who thought, after working hard all the weel
that Sunday was a blessed day, because he coul
go to church lay up his legs, and think Of fnothint
~ J.. Ere. I0St.