The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-17

- lean-upen- the -naantelpiece, and stand ike an
older and graVer,m man in the face Of a new and
more exactiug society. A convection OF respon
sbIlIty comes like a solemn citation, 60 tell you
that you are no more an Indifferent unit amidst
your race, but one whose life has passed from
himself AS from your closet you tnvoluntarlly
came to stand before these thousand people,
back to 1t they shall follow YOU, and look across
your shoulder, ana be your rebuke or in-
dorsement Farewell, Bohemia! the wor1 OF
boys, the sphere of Bedouins, with all thy way
ward judgments, and flexible convictions, and
dissolute skppticisms 1t is no more the public
it is society 20 whom you ta!k-sons, daugh-
teTs, wives mothers-Godl , .r.
And II the knees go down, why let the fire
blaze, and the shutters burst wide open, and the
whole continent look in. There Is no vitality in
any resolution unless you breathe into it the
l had no trouble with any of my appoint
ments, and journeyed from town to town.
straight westward, making zizzag through the
Connecticut Western Reserve, and bing an
arc through MICHIGAN and Northwestern Ill.,
nois, to return to the Pennsylvania border and
fulfil some scattering obligations. In thus cir
cult, once repeated, travelled seven thousand
miles from my point of departure, and for three
consecutive weeks spoke every night. 1t oc-
CURED to me, therefore, that Pllhp, the manag
ing editor, was more literally than figurativey
correct, when he described leCturlng as a good
way 10 get on In truth, found il hard enough,
and harder by its apparent ease for where one
expects an excursion and catches cold, rheuma-
tism, ana diseases OF the spleen he grows old by
two hours, entertained the committee till mid
night and had TO rise at three O'Clock in the
morning TO be able to make the next connection.
Combined with this ply sica1 distress was the
dread of failing spirits, which now aud then
oveitake the lIveliest peripatetc. An audience
knows little of the man who rises before them
in cloth and linen smooth OF beard and speech,
and pleases Tor an hour, and disappears. There
is a nameless melancholy and indispositon
which makes that seance an houT-on-therack
to the philosopher himself
One of theLmost popular lecturers last winter
was the rafting western journalist, Beet Lawler.
He painted in oil and music was tender senti-
mentalot, and had no superior IN the power of
interesting and embellishng. Yet he is said 10
have suffered this peripatetie melancholy so
poignantly, that to escape his audience he some.
times hio himself and had to sbe bullled into
speaking. Human nature, unless it has the
ley1y OF girl in her teens, is not equal to the
duty Of beng agreeable six nights in seven.
Once | halted at the great railway town of
Patmos, and at the sight OF my name
upon board fence felt description of
indigI alton. The committee received me
with the urbanity OF soyeTeIgns; l had the
best room In the inn; the fare was fresh
and sayory; the audience quick to appreciate
and charitable to enthusiasm. But seemed 10
be talking at the stake, with the flames in nv
throat. l could not smile Applause made me
cynical. / went back to my room with dismal
consciousness OF absolute failure, and would not
be comiorted by my dearest intimate. The next
morning, as | was leaving the town in wrath,
the enterprising Patmians o. the association
overlook me. The words were on my lips.
Take back your money; know did not
earn iC.n
But the Secretary only meant to invite me to
lecture again as ] came eastward, and heard
him. like Ian deliberately lied to.
1t was tarUhest from my anticipations, at the
beginning, that should have any campaigning
to do, as when al army 'non-combatant;n but
once, at the village OF OmnIvorum discovered,
after nv lecture, that two always made no
come ectIon, whereby was quite cut Oft from
the city of Popocatapelt, though solemnly an
nounced to appear there within eighteen hours.
But there was another railway, fifty odd miles
distant, which did make connection with the
Popocatapelt road, and, twenty minutes after I
heard OF it., an obliging committeeman was
going straight for the place. through the
ruts ana pitholes of the night. We drove alter.
natelC; for it was cold famine, and
every bone IN our bodies cracked, and tlem-
| forward seat Into the shivering committee-man's
| lap and now thetcommittee-man butted me Off
the seat, so that our horse believed he was both
to harness and to saddle. Now we dropped into
a ravIne-horse and dearborn, as ii driven over
a cliff; and now we're flying vertically upwards,
as on a moOnbeam, with every muscle OF the
nag bursting with eXerton. We could not
sleep, having TO shift lIom side 10 side all night
| to ballast the wagon; and when we could look
! at each other in the morning, both appeared 10
| have been spouted out OF mud-geyser, and to
be quite spent and lunatic. But got to Popo-
| Catapelt, and after one hours sleep, took up my
| lecture with perfect success to myself -
| / think it was Jouston, the rising layman and
| editor, who made so unfortunate connections
| two years ago He struck a town on the wrong
| night, and got a telegr am, when Just too late,
| that it was another town, sixty miles Off that
| expected him. So he paid hundred dollars for
| special train, and when he reached the other
town, rain fell, so that the whole audience might
| have been put out OF doors by one tolerably
| muscular man. In this manner, one weeks
| experiment lost Jouston both money and spirits,
| though he was said 10 be powerful speaker.
| The most embarrassing cause OF the lecturers
| nUn-rehabllity does not come from within
himself, but is due TO the carelessness
| the United states is q series OF skeins,
| the threads OF each skrin being routes and the
| points where the skeins communicate are lite
| rary intelligence Offices Thus, Albany, Syra-
cuse, Buffalo, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Detroit,
| Chicago. and Cincinnati may be called the in
| telligence offices. AT each of these the Cor
| responding Secretary OF the regular lecture
| association distributes his lecturers to the sur
! rounding towns; II he be a man OF method, he
can give them continuous engagements, so that
| they will lose no nights in ldleness, and yet
! travel only small distances each day. But where
! Secretary undertakes TO manage dozen
! lecturers, he not uncommonly shakes them
| together like so many sugar-plums IN box. 1t
| was the Professor BourgeClse and Reverend Rip
| pie who so met each other one season. Bour-
| geoise was riding along joYously between Mlchl-
! gan and Illinois, calculating the amount Of
motion in digestion, and wondering why his
| dinner didn't give him more heat, when these
| dynamical reflections were arrested by hand
on his shoulder
"Good morning, Bourgeoise! where do you
| speak tonight Y
"At Chihuahua, my dear Ripple
"Bless my soul no! 1t is 1 who am booked
| for Chihuahua"