Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-03-12
THE LECTURE LAST NIGHT

-
Virginia city, lover the hill,) is a
sweet place, in some respects Some
Of its people are noble, benevolent, en-
terprising, magnanimous. According 10
the written solicitation Of Il number OF
gentlemen of that city, whose anne we
often in the course of a year see append
ed to "csrds complimentary for theat-
rical benefits, and other euterprising or
benevolent objects, our fellow-towns-
man, Conrad Wiegand, ESQ.,, assented
to the delivery of a lecture, at Piper's
Opera House, last night, for the benefit
of the poor Of Virginia. 1t was not a
matter Of ambition on the part OF the
lecturer to thrust his truly intellectual,
patriotic and statesmanlike lecture upon
any community, as it was prepared by
him solely for his own use or edihcation
but, being solicited by the people OF
Virginia city to produce it in public TO
realize q pecunisry benefit for their
starving poor, he assented. According
to the published correspondence in the
newspapers, last night, at about 8 o'clock,
was the time set for the delivery ofthe
lecture, at the Opera House. The time
arrived Lo, what an outpouring of
the people there was! Not over fifty
people were in the House, and half of
them were from Gold Hill! The poor
Of Virginia city evidently had bread,
and meat, and fuel-and, although the
weather was yet quite cold, for it was
only the eleventh Of March and grass
has not yet commenced growing -
there seemed no necessity Of going to
the Opera House to hear a lecture for
the "beneft of the poor!" Even the
gentlemen who signed the soliciting
card to Mr.. Wiegand, seemed to have
been afflicted with a fit of absent-mind-
edness, and gave the occasion the go-by.
(If any except the editor of this paper
were there, zee did not see them.) The
audience was slim, meagre, small. The
occasion not being a nigger-show or a
cock-6ght, is perhaps the best solution
for its disparity Of numbers. Such a
turnout of an audience, and for such
an occasion, was the shabbiest thing we
have ever detected in that community,
and we trust we shall never have occa-
sion to again expose a similar remissness.
A private business man, a highly intel
lectual and cultivated gentleman, a
resident of a neighboring city, is pub
licly solicited to visit and deliver a lee
ture on a live question Of the day, the
proceeds to be contributed for the relief
Of the poor of that place, and when the
hour arrives, not more than twenty or
twenty-five people of that city think
enough Of the occasion to even walk or
ride to the Opera House to hear it'll If
this isn't shabby treatment, we really
do not know what is. But, not to dis
appoint those who did 60, Mr.. Wiegand
delivered his lecture-snd having at
tentively listened to it for one and a half
hours, we pronounce it the most intel
l%ectual, live, ~wide-awake, solid, matter
o~f-fact, patriotic, historical, and states
manlike speech that ever was delivered
within the walls Of any building in Vir-
ginia city. So much for the lecture,
and our opinion Of the shabby treat
ment it received by our ~neighbors "over
the hill"
We take the liberty, on behalf Of
several poor families in Gold Hill, to
formally invite Mr.. Wiegand to speak
before a Gold Hill audience, to deliver
before it his beautiful lecture on the
subject of "The Great Republic, or
Radical Reconstruction for Continental
America" Let him but assent to our
request-and he can do so without an
array of soliciting-names-and the Gold
Hill Theatre will be crowded by an ap-
preciatiye audience.