The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-10-17
Rev. J Joseph Cook Dissected Secundum
Artem
DY A RICHMOND scALPEI..

Artem
DY A RICHMOND sCALPEI..
Dear Dispatch: have just heard the
great Boston talkiSt, the orator, the lee
turer, Rev. Joseph Cook. OF whom they
say, "There is no denying the fact that Mr..
Cook is born orator. As popular plat
form-speaker he has few rivals, and no SUI
periorS." / suppose next to Mr.. Beecher
he is the foremost lecturer in all this North.
learn from ,unquestionable authority he
receives 1925 for each lecture. Mr.. Bee.
cher, from the same authority, learn, re-
ceivcs from $500 to S400. Mr.. Cooks every
day is engaged until 1st OF June next.
Lecturing is good business. Better 60
into it; it pays.) Mr.. Cooks physique is OF
the large, stout, aldermanic style-roupd
and +" "capor.lined." A 1925 lecture has nor
nal tendency to develop adepose tissue.
he puffs and 6lo1es under it. His eyes are
peculiar. Idefne them naturally very large,
very pale gray. He has wonderful way
OF stretching them larger as a means OF em-
phasis. He has Ben.-Butlerish' way
iwhom, by the way, lie does not love
mucb1 of dropping one Of the lids
so as TO almost conceal the eye. His
gesture is wild, irregular, angular, in
coherent, and sometimes, when he. @ saws
the air." frantic his voice loud, coarse,
rookish, until he affects the gentle and win
nine-then husky--and cultivated (but not
7natch); at times measured, slow, but closiDg g
his sentences very rapidly-so rapidly as to
clip his words. and rendering many of them
indistinctly. He hens and haws quite Of
ten, after that hateful, vulgar imitation Of
English speakers, which many OF our pub
lie speakers affect who have "been abroad !"
and admitted to the galleries OF the English
arlament-a-hem-aw, a drawl-aw. just
can't-remember-aw what I am-aw going to
say-aw-a sort of uncertain, drawing way
OF finishing sentences. Mr.. Cook has good
deal Of this. His head and forehead, and
indeed his whole face. is siDgularly like Mr..
Hayes's, only upon larger and coarser pat
tern. He is apparently about forty or forty
five-large, stout, robustiouS, and blowy.
He delivered his lecture in behalf OF q
ladies' missionary society in perhaps the
largest church in the city. The house was
by no means crowded, and fear the excel
lent ladies have not made very pecunlary
success. They deserve esuccess-better than
fear they made tonight. Mr.. Cooks sub
iect was Communism and St'tlceS "a
subject which is interesting the northern
mind Just now most intently and seriously,
and indeed we'll it may; for from my short
sojourn here think I, a stranger, can see
that it is the "big thing the mighty sub
ject in religion, law, and politics. The lee
turer divided his subject into four themes
viz, definition, source, present strength,
and cure Of communism. Definition, athe-
| istic infdelity; source, foreign, mostly
German; present strength, half million !;
cure, the more earnest preaching OF a pure
gospel and increased efforts to induce the
masses to attend church, and the duty OF the
| Church to make provision for the poor by
the erection OF houses OF worship.
With little about the orator 20 attract OF
fascinate, could not possibly find wherein
us popular lecturer His strength lay. His
arguments-indeed the entire lecture
would have been eminently proper and
| useful before Il grave body OF senator's, Oh
before high court. His style is arsu.
men judicial, and logi.
cal-with no rhetorical flights or fancies,
no stage-trick or clap.trap, no "poet's eye
in fine pbrenzy rolling" though it would
often "glance from heaven to earth, from
earth to heaven" for that was frequent
gesture OF his. Yet, with all this severe
and serious style, he held entranced large
audience, composed largely of ladies, for
an hour and a half. Or course there is much
power in such man, and the only explana.
| ClOu IVA utS 10 " NC 1Ouuus 1
think, in his immense good, common hard
sense-bis way Of looking at things as they
! really are, and laying bare, as with the
scalDel OF the skilful anatomist, the casus
mali, and, like the experienced ply
scian,- making o correct diagnosis, finds
appropriate remedy for relief. For in
stance, in treating Of the source OF com.
munism and strikes he had the daring to
say that the faborer is insuficiently paid.
. and that hunger and houselessness were the
prolific causes OF much of the communistit
4 Sentiment OF Americans. / like his bold
daring in announcing his convictions sc
fiercely on this point. Iagree with him thai
that is fruitful and frightful source OF
| half, IL not all, the riots and communlsut
sentiments Of the day. So long as 1t come;
| to pass that the owners and stockholders o.
the factories become suddenly rich by tht
large dividends they make it is demon
strated beyond the power Of successful con
tradiction that these enormous DIVIDENDS
are made at the expense Of cheap labor
and il the labor were better paid, While the
dividends would be less enormous, there
would be, er neceSSitQte rel, fewer strikes
and less socialistic communism. There II
| lies in nutshell; and he who runs may
read. Could not Vanderbilt, by dividing bis
immense colossal dividends little among
his thousands OF bard-working, poorly.
paid laborers, render it forever impossible
that strikes and riots should occur on his
lines: And so Of all those corporations
who have in few years from financial pig
mics become huge commercial colossuses.
There it is.
Rochester is large manufacturing city,
with az unlimited and incxhaustible sup
| plv os water from the Gannessee river, run.
ming through the heart of the city, with
fall Of 156 feet in the city, with the Erie
canal permeating the magnificent Gennessee
valley, and passing directly through the
city, with 144 daily trains-one train every
ten minutes, day and nights q very pro-
per field for the delivery OF such a lecture
But everything must have an end, and SC
must this prosy letter. You in Richmond
do not hear often from this beautiful flower
and -four city, and fancied an occasional
letter might interest your readers.
s.,ss lt....s7. w. 3. F.
ROCHESTER,, N. Y, October 13, 1878.
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