The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-11-10
LECTURES LAST NIGHT.
THE Ao,goSuAcxs


Lecture by Miss Kate Field-womnn In the
Wiiderness-The Adventures Of the Black
Fly Club and How Ladies' ssIsougi is.''
Miss Kate Field lectured last evening before a
large and fashionable audience at Stenway Hail
on 'The Adirondacksn among whose lakes and
lonely recesses she camped out with small
party OF LADY friends and participated III the
sports OF the hunter during the past season.
The lecturer was alfred in blue silk, Ia
Ponlpadour, with a delicate nosegay half hidden
In the lace, and her HAIR arranged III massy curls.
Seating herself on the platform by the side or a
small table on which handsome basket OF flowers
was placed, she commenced her lecture with an
easy grace that made one forget the lecture room
and almost fancy himself in a private parlor, lislen-
ing to the unaffected narrative OF lady's expert
ence among the hunters in the wilderness. Az she
proceeded with her lecture she removed her white
kid gloves but retained her fan until near the close
when she rose to her feet and dispensing with
script concluded III most impressive style OF
0raLory.
Alter brief Introductory the lecturer said that she
was one OF the 80 called 'Murrays foos,n and that
despite the horrors portrayed to her OF life In the
Adirondacks she had camped out among the noun
tains aud roughed 1t with the most, adventurous
Before setting out on her expedition she had been
warned against Indians, Wild animals anacondas
and the terrors Of the North pole but having gone
through the DUsr0n rcace jubilee she believed that
she could live in the bowling wilderness, and had
found that while the course OF the true rover meier
did run smoesa" 1t was not over colored by
the most graphic description. So far from encoun-
tering the predicted terrors she met Indians the
anacondas were oil human, and the only peculiar
features Of the pole were of the cat species. Her
party, she said. was composed or four ladies', who
organized themselves into the "Black Fly Club,n
and with trusty guides had hunted nshed ana
roughed within the unfrcquened Businesses OF the
ADIRONDACK region. They had demonstrated that
however pleasant 1t was to have the tyrant man to
care for and protect woman, she could sometimes
get along very well without him, ana that
her muscle and seif-reliance, although m
paired, had not been wholly destroyed by disuse.
Woman, II she behaved herself, would be treated
with consideration everywhere, ana any lady OF
determination might travel, camp out and engage In
adventurous experiences as well as man. She then
told how they started In boats on the lower Saranac
lakes, with no Saratoga trunks, no panniers nor
bandDoxes, but clothed in bloomer dresses and their
right minds they sailed out on the limpid waters;
through the darkness OF their first night in
the wilderness, while the sounds Of night birds,
and the cry OF the loon flied scene with strange
ness; here they startled the owls and at he
the other shore. and tumbled out upon the silent
beach, Here, after laundering at the door and
throwing stones through the windows Of rude
shanty, they brought out queer old backwOods.
man. VINO seemed half mountaineer half Rip Van
Winkle with touch OF that llustrious pirate Chief
Who murdered Captain More,
Not many miles from shore,
And left him in his gore.
The old fellow, it seems, was Mortified at the ap.
pearance OF females IN That locality, and among his
first CALCULATIONS declared that he must move FUR
Their INTO the woods, as people were getting 80 thick
about there that he wouldn't be able to tell his
own legs without chalking them.
Their first meal was described az consisting prin
cipay OF a gloomy pile OF hash that appeared to
have gone into mourning; and the guide, whom
Governor FentOn characterized as the smartest
man IN the ACKNOWLEDGES, as sort OF Yankee Arab
who had taken TO the woods when 'tne
him up.n The lecturer then told how they
skrmished for sleeping apartments; how one lady
got her loot down stoyepipe hole In the upper
door; how they bunked in the bed OF night sports
man. who unexpectedly came in before morning
anu assaulted their door, but was eventually shelled
out Of his trenches with brushes and things and
forced to raise the siege; how they slipped and
stumbled and wriggled across the carries; how
they climbed the tnlest trees to swing
on the t0pmost branches and gaze out
lakes; now they hunted deer by night among the
lilies along the Shore and shot NOBLE buck in day
time while the eager hounds came wildly down In
the trail to the death; how they ished and did not
comcal experience, ana how they lived from day to
day luxuriating in new existence that gave fire to
The blood and th2uaspd incidents l9r memory t9
II Would be Impossible to give within the limits OF
brief report an adequate Idea Of the many expert
interesting ana spicy throughout and not only gave
a vivid picture OF life among the mountains, but
showed how woman may now and then dverge
from the beaten track OF domestic cares and fashion
into new experience that invig0rates the body,
refreshes the heart and fills her with nober thoughts
lmDulspa.