The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-12-05
demonstrates.

| There was once an aspiring young journalist
! who attempted to give Uer6dttna report of
| Coughs lecture He is dead. We say Coughs
| lecture. for he has but one. We see the an
| nouncement that he is to give q new lecture,
and though We know it's the rose under anoth
er name, we have an abiding and most un-
shakespearian faith that it will smell just as
sweet. Sowe go early to secure seat and find
the hall crowded. Presently Cough appears,
makes his bow, and we Immediately prepare TO
be amused, may, we are already amused, and
our countenances are wreathed in anticipative
smiles He tells the old stories that we have
heard dozens of times before, and we laugh and
cry exactly as we did year ago, exactly as we
shall ten years hence if we have the good for
tune to hear him, and then some OF us come
away saying, most ungenerously, There $
nothing to Coughs lectures" On the contrary,
there is much to them. There il genuine fun
and genuine pathos,-things that are none too
common in this world.
To attempt a report or even a synopsis of last
evenings lecture would be folly. About all we
can say is that the hall was packed, that Cough
was himself that the audience was exceedingly
amused The Jokes were the old stock jokes of
JDb WOTlu. we udNo d Sucpiotou that
they were told by some gorila-emerging
Joe Miller, with '1ocal coloring' of course in
the days before the flood But they were i'm
mensely amusing for all that. The pathetic
portions were often but delicious bits of blad-
derry bathos;'' still we heard them with a feel
ing akin to tears. 1t was not the substance of
the lecture but the manner of its delivery that
made it so acceptable Cough is a perpetual
illustration of Bufins maxim that ''the style
is the man."
He began by saying tina. he selected ''Cir-
cumstances' for the title of his lecture because
the word is so comprehensive and embraces all
the Notwithstanding" of life. People tell us
| of the force of circumstances; that circum-
| stances make the man. 1t is not so. Men may
take advantage of circumstances, but are never
of necessity controlled entirely by them. The
speaker maintained his position by wealth
of historical and anecdotical illustrations. He
| then went on to show that circumstances may
| change mems fortunes, may change their ideas
of religion, may change their opinions of their
fellows. In view of this tho lecturer pleaded for
| the broadcast charity in Judgment and opinion.
| When we judge man we should put ourselves
| in his place, for his action is controlled to
great extent by his circumstances, bis surround
ings Take two boys, the one the typical good
| boy who has had the best of care and training,
the other the street urchin who has known
nothing but poverty and crime. Their
| courses in life will be governed by these
circumstances. Suppose them changed at the
cradle. Who then would be the good boy and
who the bad? The strong man is he who rises
| above his surroundings, who breaks from the
| tyranny of circumstances. This tive hours
| play on the word circumstances" was embel-
lished with thirty two stories, some humorous,
some pathetic, but all told with exquisite art.
OF course strong words were spoken for tenn
peranoe. He closed by an imprisoned appeal
for aid and sympathy for those erring and
tempted ones whom the tyranny of circum-
| stances has led and is leading astray.