Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-03-22
THE OOIIO HISTORY OF LOVE
A LECTURE BY LOLA MONTH";.

German theatre. New York, on "The Comic
History of Love-" The house was crallihcu
from parouette to roof long before the houI IoF
raising the curtain, and some hundFeuS vi PeD
ple had to leave the doors, being unable 10 on
tain admission. The drama OF Lola Moh'eH i"
Bavaria" with Mr.. and Mrs. Haym IN the Prlp-
cipal parts, preceded the lecture, when olu hos
commence till the late hour OF halt-past Ieh' aUu
was not concluded until near twelve Lo5
ridiculed sentimental love, which she ueseIi"eu
as entirely different from that sacren PASSION %
which il WINS impossible to speak lightly. She
related several anecdotes to illustrate the force
of sentimental love in ancient times, sucn as
that of Aristotle submitting to carry ms iauF
love on his back after he had repToachea Alex
ander the Great with his slaviSh deyotlon TO Tue
same lady. The German poet Mlelanu, sal1
that sentimental love began with the first sign
and ended with the first kiss. She thought
Plato was right when he said that love was
great devil 1t was devil, indeed, which, when
it possessed either man or woman, lt was haFu
to cast out. Yet what u ridiculous being was
man who was the victim of this love! lie could
live on smile and be withered by tear
She related the story of Idenhart, chaplain to
Charlemagne, who was in love with his beautiful
daughter Emma, and one night having passed
the flying hours in her chamber, found IN the
morning the ground covered with snow, so that
he knew not how to escape without leaving the
mark of his footsteps; but she, with woman's
wit which never fails her, carried him oft on
her back 1t was only in the higher classes, she
said, that we find this sentimental love. There
was none of it in the purlieus of Glasgow, Biz
bingham or Manchester There was no humoT
GUS side to love there where males and females
live in disgusting congruity. In this country,
thank God, there were no such scenes, owing
to the equality of all classes. cobber's shanty
might be found along side of the mansion of
Fifth avenue millionaire, and it was quite likely
that the cobbler might make love to the mil
4
certain that the millionaire would make love to
the cobbler's wife. 1t was not unknown even
for young lady to run away with her fathers
coachman.
Lola dwelt with some sci iousness on the un-
happiness of unequal matches. Bat they were
only examples Of the fact that woman would
sometimes take the bit in her own mouth and
run away with her brains, for which sorrow was
sure to come when the little honeymoon sleigh
ride was over. People took great trouble when
counting 10 catch each other, but they took no
trouble to keep each other. She wondered that
some Yankee hoy did not invent some famous
salt to keep the joys of matrimony from cloy-
ing What value would it be to husbands and
wives She ridiculed the silly expression of
lovers of 'Let us never part more" Her adj
vice 10 young ladies and gentlemen, husbands
and wives was to part as often as possible, and
stay away long enough to give little tinge of
freshness to their meeting, The OncientS did
well, indeed, to represent Cupid blind. The
Order of the Garter, she said, owed its origin to
love, and related the story Of Edward III and
the Countess of Salisbury, Tho dropped her gar
ter, which was presented to her by the gallant
sovereign. So you see, said Lola, what ire
mendous institution the garter is under the in
fluence of love and power. daughter and APP
plause) But it was not only every Statesman
and diplnmatist that love ruled 1t was found
in the church and holy orders, too The clergy
exhibited woGul examples of wickedness in this
respect, If she could judge from reports that she
saw daily in the HERALD, Tribune and Times
In fact, many religious scots were founded on
the principle oflove.
sect called the Lovers League" kind of free
love institution, in which among other practices,
it was common for husband, when brother
of the church came to visit his wife, to retire
from the house, attend to the visitors horse,
and not return till the pious brother had depart
cd. Iaughter.) There religious sect
once in Italy, the leaders of which, brothers
and sisters, used to assemble at night, and after
exercising themselves with many prayer they
would put out the candles, and the brothers
would court the sisters as chance might direct
in the dark. CHEERS and laughter.) Much of
the ridiculous ianaticiSm of the present day
was a combination of love aud religion; and
when religion was moved by love, farewell to
chastity and law. When these things were
practiced as far off as Salt Lake they were very
funny, but when they came into our own houses
the laugh was on the wrong side of the mouth.
Love entered largely into our religious revivals;
and 1t often happened that the wife, in the en-
thusiasm of her religious excitement, supposed
that her home should DC as open to the minister
as her husband; and when it came to that how
long would it be before the minister would
exercise as much influence over her, neither
for good or evil, as her husband? Whatever in
vaded the sanctity of home opened the door
! to the spirit of intrigue and sin.
The influence of love was seen in the history
of Mohammed who made change in the fifty
sixth chapter of the 10 an, making it lawful
for married men to make love to their female
servants in spite of their wives. Ii this idea
was to obtain she afraid many married men
would become Mohammedans. There was no
end to the vagaries of love when it was conncc-
ted with religion philosophy, as VS. had album
dant examples in the Mormons and the free
lovers The origin of free love, she thought.
might be fonnd in the old English song: 'I'll
kiss and III daily as long as you please" but
free love debased man and ruined woman 1t
would ruin man, too, only he has the making OF
public opinion in his own hands. In conclusion,
she said that the golden rule of every woman's
life should be the lines in Goethe's Faust ad-
dressed to maidens
The close of the lecture was received with
loud aDplauSe Tola rvoS coIIad out h.,cDro tI,o