News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-11-26
The Lecture Platform Then and


Looking over the list of lecturers,
some old lecture-goer will think of
the former times, and say there is
nothing in the list to compare with
the giants of the old lyceum stage,
and he will tell of the thrilling things
said by Beecher, Cough, Greedy,
Chaplin, Whipple, Bayard Taylor,
Agassiz, John q. SAKE, Theodore
! Parker, Wendell Phillips, Horace
Mann, Ralph Waldo Emerson and
Thomas Starr King. Well, heard
some of them as they were vanishing,
caught sound of their last notes,
as it were, and | had the profit of
more than one friendly talk over
these things with two of them, the
two that overtopped them all-Phil-
lips and Beecher. | know from their
own lips that these two giants eX-
pected the platform to become a
greater power in the future than it
had been even in their day.
do not hesitate to say that Prof.
SWINGS lecture on 1.-The Novel in
Literature is a finer production
than the essayest Whipple ever
wrote, and its delivery more interest
ing than Whipple could possibly be.
Col George Balm of Kentucky deliv-
cred as eloquent a temperance lecture
as Cough ever did, and unlike Cough
is not a superficial man. On the
platform Horace Greedy was simply
tiresome, while Henry George or r.
q. Horn interests you exceedingly.
Agassiz, OF course, was instructive,
but certainly not more so than Rich
ards or DeMOtte. Among travellers,
Stanley, KEENAN, and DuChaillu, each
is a better Travelled man and talks
more entertainingly than Bayard
Taylor. 1t is a mere commonplace
to speak of Emersons superlative
greatness as a philosopher and
writer, but on the platform, when he
was far from Boston and worn by
travel, he was a man to look at but
not to listen to. Will Carleton is
more entertaining than John g. SAKE
ever was. Joseph Cook has been do
ing herculean work on the platform
these last Is years and never had an
equal along his line of study. He
was, and still is, one of the giants of
the platform. AS for Chaplin, have
you heard Russell Conwell, a Baptist
preacher of Philadelphia? Hewas as
brilliant as a diamond and as capti- |
waiting as ever Chaplin was, and as
for Thomas Starr King, there is Gun
saulus, one of the most eloquent |
takers and hardest students in this
country and wonderfully like King in
his thinking, writing and speaking.
and overworks himself as King did. |
If he lives he will show himself the
peer of King. | could call other
names from the list that have run
the gauntlet of many critical audien-
ces and deliver splendid lectures: DIR,
Frank Beard, Jahu Dewitt
Miller, Col. Copeland, who is very
able and popular. Gov. Cumback,
Dane, Sanford, Nourse, Hall. Hedley.
Leland and at least five others.
As for the men who go occasional
y on the platform, but ground their
reputation on their pulpit work,
where could you find % years ago in
5he American pulpit, setting Beecher,
jhapin and King aside, eight names
% match these; Bishop Vincent, J.
VI. Buckley, p. S. Henson, George C,
Lorimer, Robert Mcintyre, C. III.
Parkhurst, r. S. Macarthur and
Thomas Dixon, Jr? What authors,
uniting Thackery and Holmes, were
III the platform % years ago as lee
,urers who surpassed Lew Wallace,
]. W. Gable, Edward Eggleston,
Prof. Fiske and Thompson Nelson
Page? Were there any brighter
women lecturing then than Miss Will
ard or Miss Kate Field? | do not
hink you can name a woman of
hose bygone days who had the pow
r Miss Willard has to thrill and
move great audiences, and in saving
| do not forget Anne Dickinson, in
whose oratory, however, there was {
.lWaJs a vein of the theatrical which
Ietracted from its sincerity, In this
IS in many other things we run across
he perennial delusion that the men I
nd women of the past generation !
'ere brighter and better than those '
+ to-day. Any intelligent manager !
r committee in any town in this !
ountrY can obtain today as fine a t
purse of lecturers as any community J.
yer enjoyed at any period in our e
lstOry.-George R. Vending in st.
ouis Globe Democrat.