Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-16
TWO GOOD LECTURES.
Clergymen Talk of Plain Truths and
the LongfelloW Home.
THE COUNTRY'S MORALS DRIFTING
Because Of Too Many Evil Influences Bear
ing on the Young.
TIE POETS LIFE IN HAPPY CONTRAST

Rev. W. r. Mackay last evening deliv-
cred the second of his series OF Lenten leo
ture in st. Peters Episcopal Church. The
lectures are given under the auspices of the
Kings Sons His subject was 1.-THE Plain
Truth About What Every Man Knows"
His remarks were interesting and directly
to the point The moral plane of the people
of this country was, he said, gradually
being lowered by their familiarity
with vice and immortality. One hundred
years ago men would not look at such
pictures or read such books as are to-day
exhibited and sold at public news stands.
The speaker deplored the exhibition of sug-
gestive pictures, which tended to make the
young people familiar with crime. The
widespread advertisement of certain and
uncertain theatrical attractions were con-
demned.
Realistic novels, which are so much read
to-day, were taken up and the folly of the
authors, in defending their writings by say
ing they were real, was answered with more
common sense than elegance.
HOW TO RETAIN RESPECT.
A high tribute was paid to the men of
America for their respect and defense of
women; but, he said, if they wished to re-
tain this regard they must avoid certain
pitfalls which were becomming so common.
In his closing remarks he said true men
avoided those who would tend to lower
their moral character. He deplored the
freedom ofspeech of some men, and said, if
continued it becomes disease of the brain.
Women were of higher spiritual class
than men, and were to be revered and hon.
ored.
The pardon of the man who is stepped in
crime is always given; but woman's sins
are never forgotten.
DR.. W. B. Watkins lectured to the Ok
ford League last evening in the Smithfeld
Street NJ. E. Church, his subject, ''The
Home of Longfellow." He began BY a
pleasing description of the surroundings of
the poets home and the house itself, on the
banks of the Charles. The house was built
in the first halt of the last century, and be-
came the headquarters of General Washing
ton after the battle of Bunker HILL
Longfellow became an inmate in 1887 of
house which had sheltered George
Washington, Edward Everett, Jared Sparks
and Worcester, the photographer. The
situation and society had something to do
with Longfellow's style, everything he
wrote being suggestive, and more or less in
spired by association and surroundings.
His domestic life was serene yet stimu-
lating. Longfellow purchased the house in
1S45.
DEATH BROUGHT OUT BEAUTY.
The death of the poets first wife in Hol-
land caused the writing of his most tender
effusions, and the death of the second in
1861, being tragic, caused a break in his
journal, and it was some considerable time
ere Longiellow was able to weep for his loss
in verse.
The lecturer ran rapidly over the gems
written by the subject of the lecture and
showed they were largely generated by as
wished to cease writing, but could
not, his muse being constantly
goaded into activity by active sympathy
with human aspiration and endeavor.
He loved children and they loved and
reverenced him. His whole life was bathed
in sympathy and the love that forglves even
to 20 times z, and he died mourned in two
hemispheres by the greatest and. the least.
Lite with him was real, was earnest. AS
has been said Of another of the great
dead, he was an ardent Christian and
didn't know it. His was a finely rounded
life and had he known his end was at hand,
the last lines he wrote, those found on the
unfinished manuscript, could not have been
by design more appropriate. In conclusion
DIR. Watkins classed Longfellow among
those creators without whom the world
would lose much of its charm.
At the conclusion of the lecture Rev. Mr..
Locke, pastor of the congregation, an
nounced that hand-shaking was in order
and that a social would I'LL out the re-
mainder of the evening,