Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-08-29

Interesting Comments and Observation
Furnished by Major Pond.


Interesting Comments and Observations
Furnished by Major Pond.
The growth Of the lecturing and platform
entertainments generally, to make use of q
word that is rather overdone in the news
papers (says Major J. B. Pond in the Epoch),
has been phenomenal. The first lecture
bureau was started only eighteen years ago
in Boston, its founder being James Redpath,
the present manager of the North American
RerfeD. He engaged such speakers as
Charles Sumner, Henry Ward Beecher,
Wendell Phillips. Lloyd Garrison and other
speakers who were great favorites with
the Northern people at that time, after the
recent triumph Of the Union cause Lecture
courses became popular all over the Eastern
part Of the country and finally the supply of
lecturers exceeded the demand.
Times have changed since then; you can
not now carry on course of lectures unless
it is done under the auspices of some society.
What used to be considered first-class plat
form attractions must, in order to be sue
cessful now, have the push of some local
organization.
After lecturing began to be overdone,
concerts came into favor. There was, for
instance, the Redpath English Opera Com
pany, which consisted of only four persons,
This organization netted to the Redpath
bureau SIS, 200 the first year-1S74-5. Ioften
paid in those days as high as 81 600 for q
single nights performance by Misses Kel-
logg and Cary and their company. Other
concert companies started, and where there
was one company then there are twenty
now. Then came "Pinafore'' and the other
Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and they dam
aged the concert entertainments to a con-
siderable extent. There can be no success
full concert troupes at the present time
unless they travel under the auspices of
some local organization, excepting, of
course, phenomena like Hofmann, Patti or
Nilsson
Cheap lecture courses, of which there are
great many throughout the country, have
developed large amount of mediocre tai
ent; but, on the whole, such entertainments
have educated the people and prepared them
to appreciate something better In the
State Of Ohio suppose there are as many
as fifty courses, each course including ten
entertainments, and for which tickets are
sold at the small price of 81, or 10 cents an
entertainment AS many as a thousand
tickets are sold to these cheap courses.
But the OVERRIDING of the lecture business
has really served to develop great deal of
native talent that otherwise would never
have received public recognition. There
are now in America as good lecturers as
can be found in the world; some of them
are young men who, having devoted their
whole time to certain special branches Of
science, are considered, to large extent,
authorities in such branches. Garrett p.
Serviss, of the New York Sun, may be men,
toned to illustrate this point He is yet
young man, but he is one Of the best as
Economical lecturers in the world. Fifteen
years ago he would have made his fortune
as lecturer, now he has to suffer from
enormous competition, and the changed
taste of the American public for lighter en-
tertainments.
Among the leading lecturers of the day,
Rev. Talmage is probably the most popular
among the clergymen. He receives from
500 to $500 lecture, the price depending
on the size of the city where the lecture is
given and its distance from New York.
Daniel Dougherty gets 500 to $500 lecture;
"Bin Nye," 500 to $500; Henry George,
800; Henry w. Grady, Of Georgia, $500;
Joe" Howard, 500; Will Carleton, $50;
George w. Cable, a cultivated public
speaker, 500. Then you will find less pop-
ular lecturers who receive $50, SIS, or even
$1Qa lecture.
Women are not popular as lecturers or
readers; should say they are not largely
successful Anna Dickinson and Mary A.
Livermore were the two greatest women
lecturers we have had, and in the early days,
when the lecture fever was at It's height,
large crowds went to hear them; but there
would have to be special causes to make
woman successful as lecturer at the pres
ent time. Among the women readers, Mrs.
Scott Siddons, Miss Nellie Brown and Mrs.
Margaret Chester Calhoun are the only
nF0nlnQnf i
Slddons and Miss Brown each receive 500
to $500 reading
Many foreign lecturers and readers are
successful, though they could do better
financially in the interior Of the country If
the people were more familiar with their
writings. "Max O'Rell" is an excellent
lecturer and does well in large cities where
people are familiar with his amusing book
about England. Charles Dickens, in spite
OF the refusal of the newspapers to be COM
forted because he was not his own father,
is now admitted to be the best story-teller
on the platform; he is certainly doing well
financially, both in New York and in the
small cities and towns near the metropolis
where he has appeared. Matthew Arnold
and Rev. DR.. Parker both did well when
they were here. James Whitcomb Riley is
our own rising reader. He reads his own
poems, ana the puDnc wants readers to-
day who are the authors of what they re-
cite The old-time readers who favored us
with "Curfew shall not ring tonight"
the Charge Of the Light Brigade" etc. d, is
out Of date.
One curious feature about lecture enter
tainments is the change in the tastes of the
residents of certain localities. The lyceum
field was once the whole of New England
especially the State of Massachusetts,. To-
day Ohio has more lecture courses than any
other State in the Union. Next to Ohio
comes Kansas, then Iowa, Minnesota, Wis
consin and Illinois. New York is better
field for lecturers than New England. In
those puritanical Eastern States they would
not formerly permit an entertainment with
drop curtain, and the theaters in New En-
gland had to struggle for an existence. To-
day, in small towns; the city opera-house or
the village academy of music, fully equipped
with scenery, is where theatrical combine
tions play regularly, and lecturers and con-
cert companies are now obliged to appear in
the churches, or accept odd open dates not
required for other shows, and then they
need to be under the auspices Of some local
organization.
JOE SMITHS MIRACLES.