Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-02-20
M,1D.4.ME ROLAND.
Ex-Gov. Davis, Lecture Last Night.

Ex-GOv. Davis Lecture Last Night.
What the audience lacked in numbers last
evening, at the Opera house, on the occasion
of Hon. c. X. Davis lecture was compensa-
ted for by the great attention they seemed to
pay to every word that was uttered. There
were about four hundred present, including
some of our most prominent ladies and gen
tlemen, and Notwithstanding the fact that
the gentleman read from manuscript
great disadvantage to Mr.. Davis
the most intense interest was preserved
to the end of voluminous essay, spreading
over a hundred and twenty pages of closely
written foolscap. The subject was nominal
ly Madam Roland, but the lecture treated
of that part of the eyentful history of mer-
curial France, leading to and embracing the
reign Of terror. The state of society, the
state of morals, the growth of skepticism and
the prostitution of religion were touched up
on during the time of the greatest despotism
of modern times-the reign of Louis XIV.
There was not province subject to human
thought, the lecturer said, which was not in
vaded and oyerrun. The abstract rights of
man We're asserted. Proscreptive theology
was challenged. Science spurned forever
considered everything from the infusion of a
tear to ''Spidery Saturn in his orbs of fire.
and rose on an archangel's wing to higher
and wider flights than she had comprised in
all the centuries before. The men and cir
cumstances which brought about that mighty
political CONFUSION which deluged France in
blood were treated Of with singular attrac-
tiveness and perspicuity.
The lecturer then nlaced before his audi
ence the beautiful and gifted girl who was to
become bright star of pure, unsullied vir-
tue and nobleness when the gloom of icen-
tlousness and unrestrained diabolism hung
like pail over the zenith of France. He
developed her into magnificent woman
at fifteen years of age, told her charms in
her own words, describing them from her
well-turned ankle to her rich tresses of nut
brown hair, which fell like veil
of glory to her knees. He spoke
of her loves, and ultimately of her
marriage to her middle aged husband-of
her devotion to him and her domestic Duties
The lecturer quoted largely from Madame
Roland's autobiography advice to house
wives. which many one would do well to
follow. Il Think she says, 'that wife
should keep the linen in order, suckle her
children, give directions concerning the
cooking, or superintend it herself, but with
out saying word about it, and with such
command of her temper, and such manage
ment of her time, as may leave her the means
of talking of other matters, and pleasing no
less by her good humor than by the graces
natural to her SEX The lecturer graphic
ally described her life up to the time of the
birth of her daughter. Then he passed over
the time till her husband took
conspicuous place in the councils
of the nation. The downfall OF royalty, the
establishment of "a republic; at length her
Imprisonment, her mock trial, her unjust
sentence, the ride through the cold streets
on the rude cart to the place of execution,
when the knife fell and the world darkened
in the death of the queenliest woman who
ever lived and loved. In this life of Madame
Roland, the lecturer succeeded in twining
in literary garland of rare beauty, the stir
ring occurrences wherein despotism travelled
and gave birth to liberty, which, in it's
vigor and intensity destroyed itself.