The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-02-25
The aalieta Daily eagle Tuesday sormo ebruaru IS 1896

drivel OF a lawyer without clients, an
editor without readers, a Benedict with
out offspring his bifurcated hab.lia-
mensts his sole sign of viriiity, assum-
ing TO annis1ilate the abstruse pnilOS-
oDhy of the very patron saint of the
women. a few of whom he was address
ing with silly mOuthings and Tar fetch
ed jests. This abjecJ genuflectiOn Of
ladies literary cult 10 the improvised
Hermes of a tailor's goose, who from
his hypercritical diatribe evinced as
little knowledge Of the therapeutic ele-
ments OF the psychic forces, or or the
spiritUalistic manifestations or the
occult. or of the impulses of odyhc hfe
deep mysteries that have engrossed
savants and philosophers, ancient and
modern, and which are now challeng-
ing the brightest thoughts OF our
times: that he knows as little OF all
these as a novice knows or the origin
| or the ultimates of Roentgen's Y ray OF
| light. his entire emination Tor very
1 truth becoming 20 the enforced listen
er. a huge travesty on intelligence.
This great event whereby chronic
/ fakir essayed 10 expose fakes and
pronounced faddist desired TO criticise
/ fads had been advertised for TWO weeks
/ in the fonetic organ and yet only forty
/ six men. women. boys and Populists at
tended There would have been more.
evidently, If il had not been for the
/ extraordinary fine evening which pre-
vented people from going out-for fear
/ OF getting sun6urnt. Even that great
( friend OF practically free lectures, old
( man Jennings, was not present.
/ One Of the peculiar features OF the
meeting was that the male sex pre-
I dominated Notwithstanding the fact
/ that the show was given under the au-
! spices of a WOmans'-a progressive
I Womans'-club. The suppOsttion is,
/ and the reporter would not have alb
served il if policeman had not called
: his attention to the fact-the public
/ thought, from some articles in Colonel
/ Gregory Westinghouse Ceilings pho
netic paper. that it was an entertain
ment for men only; hence the number
of men present and the corresponding
/ scarcity Of ladies. Of course this sup
position was wrong, il was arrived at
! from false reasoning; for while Colonel
] Ceilings paper may have lead them 10
! 50 suppose yet the very advertisement
] that announced the evena stated plain
/ " that the lecture was under the au-
! spices of Hypatia and every man in
( this city knows enough about this pure,
/ intellectual and distinguished body 10
know that il would never descend TO
the vulgar. There are no finer ladies
on this continent than the ladies of the
/ Hypatia club of this city. but they were
imposed on Colonel Ceilings lecture
was mainly an attempt TO show how
/ easily the American people, especially
! the Amrican ladies, could be humbuS-
/ ged by frauds, takers and faddists-
I he showed ii admirably in the fact that
( he was engaged TO lecture by this dis
! tinguished body of ladies-Or at least
/ by some of them.
The lecture was announced to take
place promptly" a s O'Clock but the
audience was not present. When there
are 600 empty chairs and % occupied
ones, the acoustic properties OF Sedg-
1 wick hall are very bad and Colonel
! Ceilings, of course, with view TO his
! reputation as an orator, did not want
TO tackle the lecture under such dis
advantages. Besides that the money
| in the plate lacked about $1.S0 of being
I sufficient 70 pay for the advertisement
of the lecture. A few more kept drift
ing in until the plate showed about
$50.
The entertainment opened with a pi-
anO duet by two most amiable ladies
I who. doubtless, will sometime thank
I
| their names in connection with this
humili6ting fiasco. They played we'll
too good for the occasion. The lady
who was president-no names men
| toned for aforesaid reasons-the-
| introduced Colonel Ceilings and the
fiabby old gad-fy mounted the rostrum
I amid great applause from the door
| keeper who, it must be necessarily,
though painfully said, was his wife.
! He announced-amid solemn silence
disturbed only by two kids crawling
/ over the VaStnesS of empty chairs and
some more boys throwing gravel on
the tin roof-hjs theme and 10 the
great relief of the reporter said that he
was responsible for it himself and that
/ Hypatia should not ze blamed or held
responsible for anything he would say.
! This was encouraging then and fairly
glorious, to an admirer of Hypatia, af-
ter the meeting was over. He also an
nounced that he would have 10 read the
lecture from manuscript. He attempt
ed at times 20 get in a joke but IL fell
fat and that kind o. worried him. He
then proceeded with his lecture like a
despairing miner in poor dirt At this
time Dale Snively came in, his little
old dime dropped in the plate with
sucn a merry and hopeful jingle that
the speaker pricked up his ears and
proceeded with more animation If
! Dale CHANGED 10 have complimentary,
il is doubtful whether Gregory West
inghouse Ceilings would have the nerve
10 continue his-well, Hypatia said IL
was a lecture. The merry jingle OF
Dale Snively's dime inspired Colonel
Ceilings TO crack joke on a spiritual
istic gentleman named Allcot. but his
Wit was TOO course and nobody caught
it. At this point Huse Taylor walked
out with disappointed look on his
face and his retreat was admirably
covered by a boy falling over a chair.
The speaker still continued 10 snarl al
the religious ideas OF the Orientals and
just then a woman left and that rather
I embarrassed the colonel. He soon az
forwards retired himself and three
pairs of hands applauded him.
After the colonel most charming
young lady entertained the audience
Her name is always worthy Of mention,
but entirely too worthy 10 mention in
4 l.