The morning call., 1894-04-08

"But few people outside of the business
have any IDEA Of the number of men Gu
gagged the year round as lecturers, or the
perfection of the machinery through which
these lecturers are brought before their
audiences. They have something like this
bat in much smaller wayIn England and
her Australasian colonies, but the lecture
system, as we understand it, is thing IN
known on the continent of Europe"
From the same authority | learned that
there are scores Of local ''lyeeum bureaus"
TO be found in all our large cities; that The
business Tor the whole country is done by
four large, weli-organiZed and splendidly
equipped concerns. These are the Red
path of Boston. with a branch in Chicago
the Slayton Of Chicago, with a branch IL
New York; the Star Bureau of New York
and Major Ponds bureau in the same
city. These four concerns have a national
reputation, and, to use their phraseology,
they handle such attractions only as
have a national interest"
Before speaking more fully of lecturers
and lyceums in the broader sense, il may
be we'll TO glance at the smaller agencies
that are TO be found ii all our cities, and
which are ready on the shortest notice to
supply Talent for one night or for
regular course, for the public hall or for
the clubhouse and the parlor. In all the
small towns clustering about our larger
cities, there are literary CT social associa-
tions that give public entertainments, for
the sake of the amusement they afford. or
in order to replenish their trea suries. The
same is true of many Of the city and coun-
tIg churches in The winter season, so that
there is a constant demand for illustrated
lectures, often with the addition of music,
or for entertainments of a more varied
character, in which number of attrac-
tons appear.
The committee, representing the CON-
munity to be amused, or the organization
to be benefited financially, calls on the
manager of the lyceum or entertainment
bureau in the nearest eitF. or commun-
Gates with him by correspondence, and
agrees with him upon the time, the ''talsnt"
10 be supplied and the terms With such
people the lecturer, who requires the
whole evening TO himself. is not popular,
they want variety, and the lyceum mana
ger finds it to his advantage to supply IL. A
'musical quartet" each usually "a dis
tinguished soloist," or "a musical
phenomenon On many Instruments"
"a story teller" "a reader" with
ventriloquist. or sleight OF
hand performer, make up the talent fur
nished by the bureau for from $50 to 500
or more a night. The bureau manager
rays his artists from IS to $40 night net,
depending on their pOt ularity, but he al
ways manages II so that not less than 10
per cent of the receipts come TO himself.
AS he may have from one TO te1 or more
parties out every night in season, the
profits Of a properly managed local bure au
are not insignificant. Track is kept of the
talent. and some OF these people are
'.booked" for weeks or months ahead, and
very often ability developed through the
lycAums finds larger field on the reeog-
niZed stage.
Americans are not only the best story
tellers in the world, but they delight in
stories more than any other people. This
fact is so we'll understood by those journal
isIs who keep abreast of the times, that
stories, humorous, graphic or dramatic,
find place in our crowded newspapers.
Indeed. every separate report in a news
paper has come to be known as ''a story"
The public entertainers have awaited
themselves of this taste, and the conse-
quence is an ever-increasing supply Of
''story-tellers." good, bad and Indifferent,
principally the latter, who are ready to
market their mmetic and narrative powers.
A few OF these platform story-telers, like
Alfred E. Pearsall and Marshall =. Wilder,
are men of marked ability. but it must be
confessed the great majority are deusion
and a snare and might be eliminated
from the crudest programme TO its great
advantage.
But while the en- tertainment bureaus fire.
uueutly employ lecturer and the great lee
ture bureaus frequently send ont "a COM
bination" their methods and the fields of
their enterprise are entirely different.
Each annually sends out volumnOus and
handsomely printed catalogues of their
attractions, with the prices and press puffs
attached.
The four bureaus of national reputation
manage between them something like 20
lecturers and foriy-five musical people
and readers. These give during the year
over 5000 entertainments, the prices
for which. for talent alone, vary from
800 to $1,000 a night But few of the
popular lecturers on the platform
at this time are such by profession. There
are a few scientists-the least popular. IN
less their fame. like Tyndall and Huxley's.
Is world wide-but as might be supposed a
majority of the platform speakers are
preachers or lawyers. Curiously enough,
though the medical procession has given
many able men to general literature. there
10 no physician to be found among the list
of public lecturers. This may be account
ed for by the exacting nature of their pro-
fessonal duties that keep them necessarily
aear home.
As these bureaus are managed on strictly
h0ain acs prinPinlas the nripas Maid laafur-