The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-12-10
The Average of Audiences.

A thoroughly popular lecture ough
TO have nothing in 1t which five hun
ired people cannot all take in flash
lust as it is uttered. l should bt
}: very sorry to say anything disre
| spectful OF audiences. | have beer
; iindly t-eate.t by great many, and
may occasionally face one hereafter.
But l tell you the average intellect oI
i've hundred persons, taken as they
come, Is not very high. IL may be
sound and safe, so far as it goes, but
l. Is not very rapid or profound. Il
lecture ought to be something which
Ill can understand, about something
which interests everybody. | think,
that ii any experienced lecturer gives
you Giifer,ns account from this, it
VII probably be one of those elo-
quent or forcible speakers who hold
dn audience by the charm OF their
manner, whatever they talk about
even when they don't talk very wlll.
But an acreage, which wss what l
meant TO speak about, is one OF the
most extraordinary subjects of ob5er-
vatiOn and study. II Is awful in lis
automatic necessity of action. Two
communities OF ants or bees arc
exactly alike in all their actions, 50
lar as we can see. Two lyceum as.
semblies, OF five hundred each, are
so nearly alike that they are abso-
lutely undistIneuishab!e in many
cases by any definite mark, aud there
is nothing but the place and time by
which one can tell the Remarkably
Intelligent audience" OF town in
New York or Ohi0 from one in any
New England town Of similar siZc.--i
Of course, il any principle OF selec
ton has come in, IS In these special
associations OF young men which are !
common in cities, it derange5 tue
uniformity o. the assemblage. But
let there be no such interfering cir
cumstances, and one knows pretty !
we'll even the look the audience vii, |
have before he goes in. Front seats:
a Jew old folks,--shiny -headed,-
slant up best ear toward the speaker,
drop off asleep alter II while, when
the air begins to get little narcotic
with carbonic acid. Bright womel's
faces, young and middle-aged, little
behind these, but toward the front
(pick out the best and lecture mainly
To that. Here and there a counte-
nance sharp and scholarlike, and a
dozen pretty female ones sprinkled
about. An indefinite number OF pairs
OF young people,-happy, but not
always very attentive. Boys, in the
background, more or less quiet
Dull faces here, therein how many
places, l don't say dull peo2le, but
faces without a ray of sympathy or a
movement of expression. They are
what xiii the lecturer. These mega
tive faces, with their vacuous eyes
and stony lineaments, pump and suck
the warm soul out OF him that Is
the chief reason why lecturers grow
so pale before the season ia over
They render latent any amount OF
vital caioriC !; they act on our minds
as those cold-blOoded creatures | Was
talking about act on our hearts.
Out of all these inevitable elements
the audience is generated,-a great
compound vertebrate, as much like
fifty others you have seen as any two
mammals OF the same species are like
each other. Each audience laughs,
and each cries, i'll just the same pla
ces OF your lecture that is, ii you
make one laugh or cry, you make all.
Even those little indescribablc move
ments which lecturer takes cogni
zance OF, just as driver notices his
horse cooking his ears, are sure to
come in exactly the same place OF
your lecture always. | declare to
you, that, as the monk said about the
picture in the convent,--lhat he some
times thought the living tenants were
the shadows, and the painted figures
the lealities,--I have sometimes felt
as if were q wandering spirit, and
this greatunchanging multivertebrate
which faced night after night was
one ever listening animal, which
writhed along after me wherever
He'd, and coiled ut my feet every
evening, turning up 10 me the same
sleepless eyes which l thought had
closed with nv last drowsy incanta
tion.- OHcer JVendeH Holmes.