The record-union., 1894-04-11
HENRY WAqFERNON'S LECTURE.
Money and Morals are Talked of
EIoquently.
A Few Points Concerning q Schol-
arly and Eloquent
Discourse.

Hon. Henry Watterson, the famous
editor-orator and one Of the most dis
tinguished of American publicists, lee
tured on money and Morals'' at the
Congregational Church last evening. He
had highly intelligent audience-a
thoroughly representative one. 1t was,
however, not large-indeed. it was hu-
miliatingly small and those present felt
that the intellectual reputation of the city
had not been honored by the size OF the
gathering,
The truth is that the individual lecture
effort has been greatly crippled by the
local bureau system, so that 1t Is almost
impossible on single admission nova
days to warrant the expenses OF lee
turer in coming here. There is both gam
and loss in the result. The people gain
by the season system variety of enter
tainment at a merely nomlnaI price; they
lose SO far as the system tends 10 steer
away fr0m US those the people wish TO
hear but who are not Within the bureau
engagements.
At the present time, too, there is such
an unwise thickening of taken dates for
entertainments, intellectual, musical,
charitable and dramatic. that the wonder
is how the city is going 10 stand 1t. Ger
tainly some OF the announced entertain
ments must suffer. 1t Is simply I'M
possible for so small a community to
maintain them all within the short space
of three weeks.
The people know this and their own
capacity, and have probably parceled out
each his own list. There is not one of the
entire lot, however, that we would not
have preferred to see fail completely
rather than the lecture Of MIR. Watterson
should not have drawn an audience meet
i'll number with its merits and the eX-
pense of securing 1t.
Mr.. Watterson was accompanied upon
the rostrum by President Lawton, Judge
M. +. Johnson, W. Stairley, eX-Mayor
Comstock, General I. W. Sheehan. y. Z.
Hinkson, Il. Weinstock and Hon. a. l..
Hart. The latter presided, and intro
duced the lecturer with IA few appropriate
words.
Mr.. Watterson is graceful, an easy
and charming speaker, and eloquent III
the high sense that persuasiveness is
eloquence; still more so i'll the sense that
poetic graces OF language uttered with
sincerity and depth OF feeling is elo-
Quence. Frequently in closing his sem
tences he is too rapid to be distinct, and
not intrequently the modulation OF his
voice is too low and soft for the satiSiac-
ton of the more distant nearer. But over
all there is the charm OF the cultivated
MIND, the earnestneSS, manline>s and
vigor of the fearless thinker, and the
power of a persuasive philosophy that is
In harmony with all the best OF human
impulses and emotions.
One did not, could not think that there
was the slightest vanity or boasting III it,
when he began with the declaration that
he spoke as patriot, not as partisan:
as an American, not as politician, anu
always as u nationalist. The actual truth
is what honest men want, ana what the
truth is ABOUT our country and our time
he had ontleavored TO ascertain.
lis introduction, punctuated as was
all the lecture with apt witticism and
humorous illustration: he followed up
with cilc of the most POLITICALLY beautiful
apUs.ropnes 10 America, a garden spot he
laid out in graphic bounds and metes, and
CrOsseu and reerOSSed IN paths of 1OWery
aiiu patriotic description.
Canada and Mexico, our two sisters
thanking us north and west. he believed,
though now the refuge OF sons who shame
us, Will sOuI9 Gay rap at our outer gates
and ask for admission TO the sisterhood OF
States.
Money he considered as relative
quantity, very relative quantity. He
Who las ten millions cuts but poor
figure alonside the man with hundred
millions, and the fellow with a measley
million Is by comparison but pauper.
While IN great population centers some
struggle OH with an income of 5000
year, he probably might rake around
even in this city and find some who make
both ends meet with half that sum per
year.
But he held IT to be a good thing to
have money in plenty, if honestly got
and wisely used; but it is not the chief
end IN life, indeed should be as he had
tried TO make it III his own case, an in
strument but never an end.
He dwelt at length and with deep feel
ing upon the danger of the commercial
habit SO growing into a m0ney-getting
life that it gives it all metallic ring and
hardens all out or which true happiness
springs. He inveighed against the
American habit OF discomfort that grows
out of mouey unrest; the castle-in-the-
air building, the g-home-from-
the-1ndies dreams, in which all indulge
were not in themselves ills, since in such
fancies we find our good impulses domi-
mating, and our chief delight in these
flights of imagination is the contempla-
ton Of the good we could do with money.
the lots we would make easier, the friends
we would aid, the loves we would sur
round with comforts.
Unless we except his splendid tribute
to the contented man, who is too busy
being happy and useful 10 be a money
getter, there was no finer passage in the
man whose poor hut is more TO him
k1va Nrfr 10 ,lN.. - es..o