The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-02-12
LECTURERS TO THE RESCUE.

On tomorrow evening the Ladies' Aux
Hilary Society of the Mercantile Library
Association will meet to devise a plan to
rescue that institution from pecuniary
embarrassment. AT the late election the
old members rallied CALAMITY to its sup
port as an independent institution, but 1t
Ia not enough to merely vote TO maintain
1t. Money must be got from some source
to pay the interest on the mortgage, and
to provide a sinking fund for its extinc-
ton, and q steady income for the purchase
of new books must be assured.
This is no time to go around with q sub
scription book asking for donations. The
profits of business are small, and the sur
plus income realized by those who are
doing well is needed to feed the unem-
plOyed. But the time is not unpropitious
for adding to the other attractions of the
library lecture and concert department.
There is large class of people. more or
less connected with the churches. who are
satisfied With oDe or two nights at a thea
ter in a season. Quite a number Of per-
sons do not 60 to theaters at all. Others
who have no prejudice against theaters
only go to hear an unusually good play or
a particularly famous actor or actress. All
these classes must 20 somewhere. and
they go to lectures and concerts. Ii Is
really surprising to note the number OF
ladies who pay money TO listen to concerts
which are more interesting to the per-
formers than to any one else. And it is
equally wonderful to count the audiences
which assent BILE to listen to lecturers who
cannot always be acquitted of dullness.
The Mercantile Library possesses the
best room in the city for lectures and con-
certs. The acoustics are fair, and without
much trouble the room might be arranged
so as TO seat two Thousand people. A
thousand is a large audience, and at 80
cents it would yield $500, all of which
would be profit. Twenty-Five or thirty
lectures or concerts might be given in the
course of a year, and thus the income Of
the institution might be doubled.
The success of such an experiment
would largely depend on the Judgment
displayed by the literary committee in Sc
lecting lecturers. There are in all cities a
certain number of banal lecturers who are
always invited to speak on these occa-
siops. Many of them are clergymeu, men
of the purest piety and the soundest doc
trine. They can be relied upon 10 say
nothing which will offend. or bring the
blush to the cheek of the young person.
But in the slang of the stage, they eaunot
be relied upon to draw. As Bourke
Cochran said of Cleveland. they are mostly
popular On every day of the year except
On election day. People do not care to go
to hear lecturers who will be sure to say
nothing new, and who, while they are in
structive, are not always entertaining
l.
goiGg to school. They like sometimes to
laugh. Life is pretty grave at best, and
when paterfamilias takes his flock out to
lecture by way of pleasure. they will go
more cheerfully if they expect TO be
amused.
History, science, travels, biography,
sociology. are full of themes which can be
treated in a light. entertaining way, so
that the digestion of the facts is assisted
by the gluten of pleasantly; and there
are men in the various professions in tn is
city who are capable of so treating them.
This is the class of lecturers to whom
the Committee should now appeal
for aid. They will probably raise
more money for the Institution than
the most learned professors in the world,
simply because young people will go to
hear them OF their own free will. whereas
they will only go to the heavy doctrinar-
ans under cOmpulsi0n. The successful lee
turers of the past-such Englishmen as
Thackeray, John Tyndall and Dickens.
and such Americans as Henry Ward
Beecher. Ingersoll and George William
Curtis-set before them as their first object
TO entertain and amuse their audiences
they conveyed instruction surreptitiously.
These are the examples to follow. Ii they
are intelligently studied, and the educated
class is canvassed for the right class OF
talkers-the lecture room may prove the
lever to lift the library out of its troubles.
a successful series of lectures and con-
ceris would open the way to a larger
membership. There are doubtless hum
dreds of young men and young
women in the city who could easily
be induced TO join. The library may
be likened to business firm which
has through the investm of thousands
of dollars reached point where success is
assured. But it has exhausted its capital
and just at presentits income is little be-
low expenditures. Without adding to the
investment the firm wants to increase its
revenue. Every new dollar that comes in
is clear gain. There is room and books In
the library for such an addition to it's mem.
bership at would put it in the way to pay
its debt. If the library should popularize
itself by a series Of pleasant entertain.
ments the few hundred new member:
or.1d ,otl ha h