Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1869-10-21
The Lecture Business.
THE STARS OF THE COMING WINTER
WHO NAY AND WHO MAY NOT RE
SECURED.

We make the following extracts from
the New York Mail, in regard to the lee
ture bu-ineSs,au few OF the more prom
inent lecturers. They will be found in
teresting:
A general impression exists that the
lecture business is declining; precisely
the contrary fact is true. The war ma
turally affected the rostrum, and for a
| time the orator, who haranged for fresh
enlistments, took the place OF speakers
whose sole purpose WAS TO instruct or
please. But all that Is past. The same
influence which is doubling the number
OF theatres is increasing the bulk of lee
turers and of lyceum organic itions. Ac-
curate statistics are impossible. Lecture
associations are largely intermittent. Pro-
badly not more than seven hundred re-
gular courses exist in the country, and
perhaps even that number is oyer-stated
But of fresh lecture erganiz ftions of
towns which had no course last year and
will have one during the present season
OF charitable courses of individual lee
tures for special objects, the number is
very great, and we presume that, taking
all the lecture e-patronizing communities
through, not less than three thousand OF
them may be- enumerated Between two
I'D .hreo millions will be spent this year
on lecturers fees and contingent expenses:
indeed, the chances are that this will
prove an altogether inadequate. New
England was the old foraging ground in
the old transcendental epoch to-day,
however, the West disputes the palm, aud
the middle States have a very large pro-
of lrpan,na Ear fnItpiHaal 81
ties, Boston, Hartford and Providence are
the strong points east. Albany, Troy and
Buffalo are the great New York cities,
although our own metropolis, Brooklyn
and the adjacent cities and towns have
every year vast number of irregular
courses. Newark is the banner lyceum
city of New jersey, and, with due respect
to Philad slphis, Pittsburg holds the same
position in Pennsylvania. At the South
the lecture field j. still fallow, and Della
ware and Maryland alone of the old slave
States have established associations From
Ohio TO the line of the Pacific Railroad,
and far up the northwest to the EXTREMIST.
towns of Minnesota, there is scarcely
village of thousand inhabitants which 1
will not be visited by at least one member /
of the lecturing fraternity The Asso-
include a hundred distinct courses, and .
this league numbers scarcely "A fourth Of
the established lecture organizations in
that section.
1t will readily be imagined that be-
tween these various societies s-sometmes
three in the same city-the sharpest
rivalry exists, and the fiercest fight il
made to secure the bsnt possible talent
IL III
American. They want the best that Is
going. The lecture agency in this city
frequently receives applications from local
tiles consisting of scarcely more than
shop, Westinghouse and
grocery and post-office combined, with an
order for Wendell Phillips, Anna Dickin-
son, John Il. Gough, at ''any price and
any date they will come for" II il much
the same with all. They want the cream
and are willing to pay, or at all events,
promise TO pay good, sound, cream
prices.
with letters flying across the country to
all the "rtars' and planets Of the lecture
horizon, produces great confusion and
renders the whole business complicated
An association in Milwaukee, for example,
will have its course male up with the ex
,eption of one date, say January 10.
They write to Theodore Tilton. A fort
light after, they get word that he can't
,ome. They try Olive Logan-"jnst a
week too late" Again they write to
bird, fourth or fifth, with like luck The ,
eason is getting late, they are getting
frightened, and finally secure "A lecture ,
Sall-hower whose performance covers the
with shame. There has been !.
ii exceeding amount of this blundering :
,oing on the late years, and the result has
been too often disastrous. From this in
vitable trouble, from the fact That the
lecturers, occasionally change
heir residences and that committees are
'ften in great doubt how to direct to =
hose whom they especially desire-from
he great economy that routes-Le-a +,
arge number of consecutive engagements
afford to lecturers in time, money and
ase of travel-from all these causes has
prung Lecture Agency system. 3
From the bureaus circulars of over a d.
hundred names and from other sources,
We are enabled to state, with unusual ac- !
uracy, the names of the lecturers in the
ield the present season, and of those of 3
worldwide reputation who are not likely /.
o lecture at any extent. ).
OF the latter is Henry Ward Beecher.
is busy with his life of Christ,
md will lecture only in two or three
,laces, whittier old associations call him.
last year, also, Beecher was counted out. !
,ome of the prices offered in order to
freak his resolution to quit the lecture
Irena would startle the public If known.
But Mr. Beecher was not to be reached /.
hat way. Curtis and Baysrd Taylor
,ave been captured by Cornell Universi-
>, and If they lecture at all, will do % 4
My in favoeits locaitiss. 0oldWin .
3nith .psrsistsntly rsf.ses iayitptiaaa