Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1872-03-02
Lectures.


friend Reed :
Several years asos some of our esteeuped cit.
lzeus went 10 the tronble and labor Of procur.
Ing regular series Of lectures from proml.
nent spcakefA They put themselves shoulder
to shoulder In the Effort nearly every family
purchased season ticket, and Ashtabula Hall
was filed night after night 10 overHowing
For while the people were delighted and
prOfited. But the committee made some un.
fortunate scleciions AUD the people began to
grumble. One said, "ikis leoiuFe was not sci.
entihc enough" another said, "the lecture was
too scientific for average comprehension. One
speaker treated his subject In too light and
frivolous q manner, while another was too
soft and silly, because he kept the audience In
roars of laughter Yet the very man who dis.
liked the funny lecture was displeascd with
the more sober and sensible one because ii was
too dry and upiutereStipg 10 cncbain the at
teptlon. The blame of course was all laid up
Oh the heads Of the devoted committee. The
fact that they had been enabled to spend an
hour, at moderate cost, with such men az
Cough. TiltQn, Philips, Yeomans. Vincen
Fairfield and hosts Of otbers OF less note
without mention Of so great star in the fem.
mime armament rs Anna Dickinson, created
no effect upon certain persons, who launched
wholesale denunciations against the entire
lecture SYSTEM. The !. VI. Z. A. tried il for
one season and failed; nearly every lecture
was money out of the treasury, and yet Ia,
people did not have moral stamina enough tc
stand up for and sustain them. Some Of the
lectures were, to be sure, costly, yet the very
person who speaks against high priced lee
lures, says that he would pay $50 every win
ter to hear John B. Cough, and Mr.. Gought
| charges are well known to be enormously ex
or6iant. But it would not satisfy all to OBJ
tain Cough, for many remark that he ha
spoken so many times here that his lecture il
comrpletcly played out" Wiser selection
might have been made at less expcndilur
Of money, but this is no reason why the peo
pie Of Ashiabula, who few years sine
crowded Ashtabula Hall, paying 5000 TO
season tickets, should now utterly refuse To at
tend as good lectures or better, with past ex
periencc, for one half or one quarter the sum
Does the pafer famiiias who refuse to attcn,
such an entertainment, show q refined and cul
| uNutcu tdste Whtn lie lukes Ills vile apo Cnil
dren to the minstrel show, or tue Itincran
theatreY DO our prominent and leading clti
zcns, who refuse the patronage ar the infiu
encc of their presence in the lecture hall, Civ
the speaker or stranger who is visiting ou
town, good idea Of the tastes or even moral
of its inhabitants?
Because high priced lecturers were employ
cd once, don't condemn in wholesale man
ncr the entire lecture system, but use yoLl
power and influence in obtaining perhaps bet
ter men for less money in future, Tho citizen
of Ashtabula would be benefited aud profitet
10y u good course of lectures every winttI
Let us make it an oGicct-working Tor it unit
the end is reached Tor the Christian also, H.
lecture scheme is one prolific of MUCH good
Mems hearts can often be touched by wei
delivered moral lecture, who could in no cas-
be persuaded to attend the house of God. u.