Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-02-17
THE LECTURE FIELD.
Passing Away of n Once Popular Form of
 Entertainment.
Special Correspondence.I

Special Correspondence.l
 BOSTON, Feb. l3.-The passing away of the lecture as a popular form of entertain ment has been a favOrite subject for news paper leader writers for some time and there is little doubt that from frequent writing thereof many editors have come to believe the story true. In certain sense it is true That is, no lecturer of these days is able to arouse such general interest, not to say en- thusiasm, was felt in the platform talks of Mrs. Livermore, John B. Cough, Henry Ward Beecher and the other stars of the old time galaxy.
 But it is also true that there are more leo turers making living now than there ever were in the past, and it is quite likely that they are earning in the aggregate, even dur ing this winter of financial shortage, all round, greater sum of money than fell to to the galaxy of the winter of say, 1870.
 A man who was famous manager of ia nous lecturers in the days when people used to fight to get reserved seats to hear John B. Cough extol the desrability of water as a beverage over wine, or Mrs Liv- ermore set forth the need of emancipating our wives and sisters and daughters from the chains of social bondage, said few days ago:
 There are 50 mediocre lecturers today to one great one 20 years ago. Each of the 50 is probably making a fair years income, net, during the season, and in the total the earnings of the present 50 are perhaps greater than the one of the past, but there Is a vast difference between the lecture de livered then and the lecture delivered now"
 In this last the old time manager is right as usual" but he is not right if he holds that there are no good lecturers nowadays There were never more informing lectures than those delivered by Lieutenant Peary, the arctic explorer who is now in the frozen regions on his second trip of ex- ploration. Peary did a good business, too-a business that netted him enough, as has often been stated in print to pay the expenses of his present trip Henry M. Stanley is also still making money, and so are Eli Perkins, the truth full man, and George Kennan, the Sibe- rian traveller. Mrs. French Sheldon, the only woman who has travelled alone among the African savages, gathers good annual income from the people who go to hear lectures, and host of lesser lights are prof. itably in the field on every conceivable sub ject.
 The "club course" of lectures is great thing nowadays, whereas it was hardly in evidence at all a score of years ago, and the private lecture' has similarly increased vastly in popularity. The army of persons who subsist managers and attaches of lecture bureaus is an evidence of the con tinued prosperity of the business. In the seventies there was but one lecture bu- reau worth mentioning Now there are probably 75.
 A feature of the lecture business of today is the greater practical character of the lee lures and the larger percentage of women who pace the platform. A very large num- Der of our speaking sisters devote their talk to physical culture in one form or another, and another portion speak upon such prac- tical questions as housewives desire to re ceive instruction upon. But the lecture that strives to be simply amusing appears to be in the sere and yellow leaf, Bill Nye being almost the only very successful speaker of this sort. PAUL MENTOR