Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1873-02-08
Mrs. Woodruff.
SHE DELIVERS TWO LECTURES IN Will
MfNGTON


Mrs. Victoria C.. Woodruff delivered
her lecture epttled "The Naked TRUTH"
in the Grand Opera House, on Saturday
evening 10 a very slim audience Of, pr, b.
bly,, not mLre tnan 500 people. Tue audi
encr woule probably have been larger but
for the fact that the announcement that
the Institute Hall had been refused to
her agepts after they had engaged II had
created general impression that the lee
ture would not be delivered. There is, so
lar as we have heard, but one opinion
about the acton of the Institute Directors
~ this matter, and that is, that they &C ed
foollshly and unfairly.
Their authorized agent rented the hall
to tue par,irs VINO brought Mrs. Woodruff
here, Nj, James Deviue, Formerly pub
Usher Of temperance paper here) Mr.
5. c. File, and others, who accordingly
went 10 considerable expense in adver-
Using IL. On the day before the lecture
the Hall Committee Of the Institute held a
meeting and decided that Mri. Woodruff
should not lecture in their hall, and sent q
telegram TO her notifying her that she
stould not have the hall, which she had
never engaged of them, while the gentle.
men who had rented IL declare that the
first they knew Of the matter was the
notice Of the committees action who
appeared In the papers Friday evening
/ Whether, under the circumstances, the
/ committee will cue the lnstitnte for dam.
ages is question quite freely discussed
With such brief notice as could be given
on Saturday the committee Transferred
their engagement to the Opera House, and
with the result We have mentioned.
Mrs. Woodruff was introduced to the
audience by Mr.. Samuel D. Forbes. sh,
is rather handsome woman, Of about
thirty-fve years We should Judge, will
nothing 1ashy in her appearance. sh,
proceeded al once to her spt ech, which
was a history, from her standpoint, of th,
prosecutions 10 which she has been sub
jected In New York by the U. s. authori
lies, on charge Of sending obscene matte
through the mails.
Her speech was able, eloquent, and argu
mentative, and in the course of II sh,
Incidentally alluded 10 the Beecher-Tiltor
scandal which is the cause of her presen
difficulties, aud explained her doctrine o
free love. Her claim is that love lie the onl,
Thing which sanctions marriage and tha
when love ceases law should not bind dis
cordant people by hateful yoke, but sh,
declares that she no more believes tina
the removal Of legal compulsion Of con
tinnanee in marriage relations will resul
In universal prOmlscuous associations
than the establishment Of freedom o
worship has resulted Gas some OF its oppo
nents apparently feared) in all our peopl
rushing Into the worship OF the Devil.
Her denunciation. Of the crime in def
ance OF marriage and all other laws TO
the preservation Of virtue, we're as yigor
Gus as her descriptions of the miseries i
enlalled were graphic, and che was fire.
quently applauded.
OF course, in treating such subjects, sh,
used some language not customary in III,
parlor or the social circle, out there wa
nothing obscene or indecent in her dis
course, no desire TO minister to prurien
tastes, aud the impression Of all who lis
tened 10 her was very different from tina
which most entertained before hearln,
her. She impressed people who disagreed
with her most heartily as in no sense
iioald, licentious woman, but as a fanati
In behalf Of certain ideas which the grea
mass OF ali christian people consider OK
treme and perniclous
She lectured again SUNDAY evening in III,
Old Union Church on Second street. 10 /
crowded house. and her audience then, a
on Saturday evening, included many o
our most respectable citizens. She deliy
cred powerful address and was snthu
BiaSticauF applauded,