The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-01-25
Miss Anna Il. Dickinson

The New York correspondent of the Spring
field Republican has been to hear Anna Dick
| inson, and gives the result of his reflections
as follows: - $1,000.
People will go to hear Anna Dickinson, first
because she is woman, secondly, because she
is young and good looking, thirdly because she
is clever, and lastly because she agitates aei-
tating topics. If she were old and ugly, vastly
cleverer than she is, and treated abstract sub
iects in amasterly manner, she might talk to a
beggaFly account ofempty benches. Though
disliked by many, it is useless to deny Miss
Dickinson's ability. Objectionable as she NAV
be to the highly cultivated, she is nevertheless
power, calculated to be of great good in all
reform movements. She is not an orator. she
has neither grace of manner nor grace of die
ton. She is neither imaginative nor scholas-
tic, nor does she yet know how to manage
naturally good voice, although she harps less
upon one tone than formerly, But Anna
Dickinson possesses, an animal magnetism
that takes hold of masses; she is eloquent in
that she can make her audience laugh and cry,
and she can tell plain, unvarnished tale, in a
way to appeal to earnest men and Wo-
men. Regarding her in the light Of woman.
one wishes she were more womanly in the best
sense of the word; i. e., that she possessed
more dignity, that she were less pert that she
were more conciliating in manner, and did
not SO often border upon the 'scold.' A
speaker need not be dictatorial to be strong,
and it is just this dictation which men detest
and makes them turn deaf ears to really SEN
sible remarks. In her last lecture, CLONE
Thrusts, or Marrying and Giving in Marriage;''
Anna Dickinson has selected subject which
she is competent to treat, and which is likely
to do good, provided her audiences are proper
ly approached. If Miss Dickinson would oc-
casionally put on kid gloves, and rather insin-
uate than attempt to pound the truth into OBJ
stinate heads, her cause and woman's cause
would get on faster. The difficulty with most
female speakers is that their tremendous self
assertion and aggressive attitude frightens
their own sex and disgusts men, who immedi-
ately reduce strongminded women down to
two classes; shrews and Bloomers. 1t. is alb
surd to be boomer; it is weak-minded to be
a shrew A woman, to properly represent
her sex and appeal to mems best nature, must
be thoroughly lady, endowed with womanly
grace, and the wonderful tact so peculiarly fe-
male and so nearly allied to genius. 1t is not
likely that Anna Dickinson has yet done jus
tlce to her best self. Smart savings extort
laughter; they ''bring down the house." and
few persons can resist the temptation to come
down to the level of their audience rather than
essay the more difficult and thankless task of
elevating audiences to their hight. But the
good fight is not to be fought with common
weapons,-a Damascus blade is needed, than
which nothing is more cutting, if you please,
! but the temper is pure and perfectl "Aurora
Leigh" with her big brain and true womanly
love has done more for real woman's rights
than all the females of America put together.
1t is hardly possible that women should have
their moral and political rights until they OBJ
tain those which are intellectual, and the
shortest road to the latter, as Mrs Browning
has said, is by deeds, not words. Anna Dick
inson, as woman, has mission to fulfil
which can best be accomplished by toning
down her matter and polishing her manner.