Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1891-02-12
TIE GREATEST OF MANKIND.


peare Delivered at Helena for the
First Time..-for the Benefit OF two
Orphan Children.
Ingersoll's lecture on Shakespeare at
Helena, Friday night last, is pronounced
one of his greatest and best efforts. He
had prepared the lecture for a special
purpose, and had never delivered it be-
fore. He not only refused to take cent
for his services but Mrs. Iugersoll bought
the first theater box sold. The orphan
children for whose benefit the lecture
was given will be Sl165 richer on account
of the great agnostic's generosity.I Ignatus
Donnelly was telegraphed an invitation
to be present, but he declined IN the fol-
lowing reply-"What care for words?
Yet words do we'll when he who speaks
them pleases those that hear" The
speaker requested the Helena reporters
to make but brief extracts from his adj
dress which he expects to deliver soon
in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
The speaker said that the subject was
so great that he felt like one endeavoring
to grasp a globe. More than three cent.
urles ago was born the greatest of the
human race. He Was ushered into the
world like other men. He claimed NJ
God for his father, nor any goddess for
his mother; no convulsions of nature
marked his birth, no wise men sought
the couch of his nativity, no star left it's
orbit to note the wonderful event. None
realized that the greatest genius of the
English race was born, and only later
generations have appreciated that such
was the case.
Neither of bis parents could read or
write. 1t ia said he went to school, but
nothing is known of it. Efforts have
been made to prove that he was related
to the nobility. but it is not likely that
he set up the claim when he could have
rendered any of them immortal by simply
having kicked them.
Shakespeare's father, John Shakes
peare, was An ordinary man in an ordl-
nary time. The only record We have of
him was that be was reported for not at.
tending church regularly once month.
This as all right as far as it went. OF
his mother nothing is known except her
beautiful name-Mary Arden. The BIZ
ographles Of women were not much writ
ten in those days. A woman was born.
married, had children and died, and that
was all. Mary Arden was great woman.
believe this because she endowed her
son with passion, with imagination
greater than that of any other man the
word has ever seen. He took to pro.
fesslon that in those days was dlsreput-
able, that of the theater. He was a
sturdy vagabond, neither a soldier, a
noble, nor priest. He lived by his own
work. and neither killed bodies nor
damned souls; and SO he was of no ac-
count IN the times in which he lived.
We know little about him except that he
went to London, made a little money
and went back to Stratford on Avon. He
paid no attention to his works. He
made no effort to save one line from
oblivion, and seems neither to have
known or cared about the value OF his
writings.
1t was an age of activity and great
deeds. The face of the earth was
changed, the earth's surface doubled, and
yet in ali those wonderful plays he does
not mention single person that lived on
the earth when he did. 10 my mind
that is the most wonderful thing about
Il,
or lord, general or admiral, Of all the
by his pen. Some have pretended that
fancy free" applies to Queen Elizabeth,
but do not believe that the wrinkled
visage of the old queen, with her bad
teeth, her painted cheeks and red Wig,
could have inspired such beautiful words.
n Ii &c "a g 20
vagaboud, and it may be as we'll to say
that in all genius there is d touch of the
vagabond. Now all the world support
the stage and it is reputable. Fortunes
await the man who can produce a good
play and yet the play comes not. When
it WAS disreputable, the greatest OF
dramas We're written. now it is respect
able no more great plays are originated.
Now it is all scenery and the lines are
poor Shakespeare put the scenery into
his lines; he cared little for the plot,
nothing for surprise. In expression, in
the beauty and force Of his language he
was supreme. He belonged to all lands.
can never think of HIM as an English
man. He was a MAJ of imagination
reaching from horizon to horizon of the
world. He's seems to have experienced all
the emotions Of mankind. The out
stretched wings of his imagination en-
compass the world
With respect to the use made by
Shakespeare of the works of others,
he said the question is, not who
owned the stone or stone quarry.
but who chiselled the perfect statue.
Towards the close OF the lecture the
Colonel said he wanted every woman to
know what friend she has in Shakes
peare. He drew no perfect men, because
he knew there was no such thing, but he
drew from the life plenty of perfect
women.
The closing sentences Of this magnif-
cent Grafton were as exquisite as any
thing that ever fell from mortal lips.
The richness of the imagery and express
sion may be partly imagined from these:
From Shakespeare's brain fell Nj
agra OF gems" He was an intellectual
ocean towards which all oceans ran