Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1854-04-12
Thc character Of Audiences.

The last lecture before the Portland Mer.
cantle Library Association was by Or: u.
w. Holmes, on "Audiences.'
He divided his listeners into four classes
-lst the appreciating listener, &c, the re-
sisiing listener, Sd, the reporter, 4tb, the
man who goes out His type Of the first
was pretty females, about whom the graSest
lecturer gets up little romance. But to
any face, pretty-or not, expressing kindly
sympathy, the lecturer turns in bis despon.
dency OF, his triumph The terrible coun-
terpart of this is The resisting listener, who
is always Of the male sex. and is to be
found out in five minutes. His face is q
perpetual veto-bis idea IS that the speak
er Is sort of swindIer, determined tonlake
him laugh, whether he will or not. Sohe
buttons up his mouth, and says plainly;
s'none of your tricks with me-" The lee.
turer had better give such an one up at
once; his teeth may be strong, but he will
make nothing of that old file. Reporters
are generally friendly. Ifthey think lec-
ture is very bad, they generally say noth-
ing about it. One great mistake which
they sometimes make, is to undertake to
report lecture upon the strength of being
IN the room only five minutes. We are
making mistake somewhat of this char
acter in this report.) Then there is the
man who goes OUT He generally comes
last. Some men wear weed upon their
hats, not because they have lost any friends,
but from mysterious inward impulse
For the same reason the man goes out, not
from WEAKNESS, nor because he is faint, but
because he must. Perhaps 1t is because
his mind is incapable of holding more than
half lecture, and having received that,he
goes out-full.
The audience has its three stages Of
youth, maturity and senilty. After it ar
rives at the age of thirty or forty minutes,
we may notice the signs of its gradual de.
cay. The signs of comatose condition
come on. First, there is the nod-the lit
tie nod-the head falls and is straightway
indignantly restored. But The symptoms
are too plainly to be seen in the peculiar
fish like eyes, and SO continue the jerks
and counter.ierks, down, down upon the
edge of the bench; or, possibly, upon a
neIghboring female, who does not know
whether to consider this an outrage, and so
call for the police, or as declaration OF
affection, and SO promise "to consider it,
Then, too there is the man of business,
whose attention is distracted by note o.
verdue, as the female who remorsefully
remembers three pairs of stockings undarn'
ed al home or the buxom dame who fan.
cies she hears in that cry her screeching
infant. 1t is only the locomotive, but she
is as much done for as if she had been ta-
ken up by the cow-catcher. Then il is
time for the lecturer to bestir himself. The
true remedy then is to tell story.
The young can pardon anything but dull
ness-just as speaker retains something
of youth in his heart, just so long will they
listen to him. Woman has tastes. but she
is the most indulgent listener. 1t is tortu-
nate, too, that large class OF hearers listen
from habit like Southey's man, who thought
after working hard all the week, that Sun
day was blessed day, because he could
go to church, lay up his legs, and think OF
nothing.