The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-20

and 1t was for the most part composed of
ladies and gentlemen who are not in the
habit of patronizing any but the highest class
OF entertainments. 1t was such an audience
as any speaker might have felt proud to APP
pear before, and one that had right to de-
mand that the lecturer should put forth all
her strength, and give the best performance
she was capable of. 1t is doubtful, however,
whether there was a single person in all that
great assembly that, as the lecture proceeded,
did not feel admiration merging into pity,
and give grand sigh of relief when the affair
was over The enterprising manager of the
Star course of lectures esteemed Miss
Dickinson to be sure paying card, or he
would not have selected her to inaugurate
his series of entertainments. She did not
belle his expectations, as the large attendance
last evening sufficiently proved, but the ques-
ton now arises, what are Miss Dickinson's
attractions? Do people attend her lectures
because they expect to hear a thoughtful and
eloquent exposition of great subject, or is
the lecturer looked upon as a natural curiosity
like the double-headed girl, the bearded
woman, the lightning calculator, the what is
it, or the great American pie-biter? We have
is obviously suggested by the discourse to
which we were treated last evening. Our
opinion has always been, that women are en-
titled to all the liberty they can claim, to fill
any honorable field of employment for which
they are competent. On the stage the women
rival the. men, and often surpass them, for
there are now before the public no such male
artists as Ristori and Janauschek If women
are endowed with the gift of eloquence, there
is no good reason why they should not
ascend the rostrum and entertain and
instruct their audiences with words of wit
and wisdom. This field is one that is, in
a right to demand that female lecturers, like
female actresses and female authors shall be
amenable to the same rules of criticism as
their male competitors. If women have any
thing that is worth saying, and if they know
how to say it, by all means let them appear as
lecturers. But an intelligent public expects
that those who do so shall treat us to some
thing more than weak twaddle and coarse
vituperation about subjects that they do not
half understand. Miss Dickinson has GER
tain ability as a speaker and there her
merits end. She has never started a new
idea OF shed new light on any of the sub
iects she has taken up, and her discourses,
from first to last. have been made up of the
commonest of commonplaces upon the usual
topics that occupy the minds of the little knot
of female rghtists who mistake their own
clamor for interest on the part of the public
in their schemes. 1t was announced that last
evening Miss Dickinson would relate her
opinions of the Mormons as gathered during
her recent visit to Salt Lake City, and her
audience fully expected an exposition of the
Mormon system from a womans standpoint.
1t is needless to say that such a lecture could
be made intensely interesting; and although
some persons in the audience, whose estimate
of Miss Dickinson was critical rather than
enthusiastic, knew pretty well what to
expect a great number were sadly disap-
pointed and left the house under the
decided impression that they had been i'm
! posed upon by false pretences. Miss Dick
inson related nothing about the Mormons
that was not well known already to every one
| of her hearers, and her only references to
! them were few side remarks, brought in
! without any pretense of connection, merely
! for the purpose of seeming TO carry out the
| promises made, while the lecture itself was a
mere diatrabe on the subject of women',
rights, a repetition of which has been said
over and over again by the Susan Anthonys.
Cady Stantons, DR.. Mary Walkers, and other
aspiring females who are ambitious to wear
the breeches, and who are at once objects of
ridicule with the men and of contempt with
their own sex. If the public like this sort of
thing, of course they have a right to patronize
it, but if one of the male gender, gifted with
twice the oratorical ability of Miss Dickinson.
were to make a practice of spouting such
stuff, he would not attract dozen auditors
to any one of his discourses. We are, therefore,
forced to conclude that Miss Dickinson is not
esteemed for the elegance of her style, the
splendor Of her eloquence, the profundity of
her thought, the brilliancy of her wit and
humor, for she has none of these, but that the
public look upon her as a hpSHS aatulCe and
experience the same sort of delight in listen
ing to vituperative woman on the platform
as they do in beholding Mr.. Pearce putting
his hand into the lions mouth, the Japanese
iuggler ascending his ladder of swords bare
footed, Lydia Thompson in spangled tights
dealing out indecent witticisms, or any of the
other monstrous novelties that are afforded
under the name of amusements. Miss Dick.
inson pretends to appeal to a better class OF
auditors than the performers we have men
toned, and intelligent people, such as assem-
bled to hear her last evening, have
=