Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-10-25

| and youthful bearing, though he has
passed his sixtieth year-a man whose in
diyidaality fmpresses you at once and one
| whose genial manner stamps him as II
gentleman OF the old school.
AT the beginning of his lecture be moved
uneasiiy, but not awkwardly, ever the
stage. Suddenly, startlingly and with
voice tina, sent thrill through every fiber
of his hearers. he exclaimed with electric
force;
Shakespeare, the creator OF the mighty
and marvellous works that bear his name?
Shakespeare, the poaeher, the habitue Of
| mug houses, the erony Of varlets' shake
sp-are, who never taught HE daughter how
to real, and whose osvn handwriting is Us
rude and crude as those of a 10 year old boy'
Yet Ingersoll says this fellow Of the
haser sort was greater than all the great
men the world has ever produeed-great
than all the great master minds of the cen
turtles combined"
With a scornful wave Of the hand, a curl
Of his lips, fash of his eyes, he cried ia a
voice that hannts me still
Shall Lord Bacon be robbed Of his lsu-
rels that they may be twined round the
brow Of an iiliterate play actor Of whose
private life hardly thing is known save
that he was landed in Jail for shooting game
that was hot his own, that he herded with
the vicious frequenters of low resorts and
withheld from the daughter of his house
all education whatever"
Mr. Donneliy went on: II think | have
sufficiently demonstrated in my book called
The Cryptogram' that Bacon wrote the
works that have been aseribed to the al
legged bard OF Avon" lie then proceeded
hy Ia
ing that his position WAS correct, or else the
series of condolences set forth by his CT
piers is one Of the strangest succession of
phenomena that the world has ever known.
"Ingersoll," continued the speaker. IN
gersotl cannot believe in the impeccable
qualities Of the Saviour. but he can believe
in the immaculate qualities of a Shake
speare-a literary imposter, whose immoral
character has been pilloried for posterity
even by his most enthusiastic conmenta-
tOrsf'
When Mr.. Donneliy reached the climax
of his utterances, he touched key Of elo-
quence that | have never heard surpassed
1t was not so much his words but his man
her that impressed itself so wildly upon
my memory. He said:
Lord Bacon was in the vortex Of public
life. 1t follows that he had his traducers.
All public men have had their detractors,
1t Is poor dog that has no enemies Il an
old saving, and one that is true as it l. tritc.
They charge that Bacon was miser, ausur-
er, thief. but Washington. Jefferson, Lin
coin, were slandered with equal venom in
their times II is the eternal price that in
tellect must pay to inediocrity.
But no one ever questioned the genius
of Bacon His learning was the gerry OF
the Elizabethan era His fame is immortal,
no matter whether Shakespeare continues
to ustlrp that crown as the master bard of
humanity or not.
But ever will right come uppermosi,
I And ever viii justice be dorle.
And believe that in the roll cali Of the
centuries he hour will yet strike when the
whole world will recognize The right oi
Bacon to the laurels that Shakespeare has
been permitted to wear 50 i0ngl'
have only drafted a rough outline of the
lee, Ire but a report Of it woTfi ff~ word
wouli lack the vital fire that marked its
delivery and held its hearers by a magic
spell
The lecture of Colonel Iugers oil was dis
tinguished for its impassoued rhetoric, but
il lacked the direct. irresistible, reci-t
logic that marked the reply df Mr.. Don
nelly. At the same time, both speakers
have many peculiarites of oratpry in com
mon. and it would be difficult to decide
between their merits IN the matter Of mag
ietic and marvellous elOquence