The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-01-09
H0N0RED AT HOME
MRS LEASES NEW LECTURE CHARMS
AN IMMENSE AUDIENCE

vided Attention and Carries Them
Through the Centuries of the Past From
Whence She Brings Fruits of Love as
Taken From the Adoption of Christ's
Methods Instead of Those of Cesar
Issues of the Present Day Discussed
Many Requests to Repeat Her Lecture.
The lecture delivered by Mrs. NJ. E.
Lease last evening at the Auditorium
was a magnificent success in every par
ticular. BY o'clock there had gather
ed at the Auditorium the largest audi
ance that ever assembled in Wichita to
hear a pay lecture. The speaker was
introduced in eloquent, eugoistic re-
marks by Rev. DR.. Winters, pastor Of
the First Presbyterian church in this
city.
The speaker was at her best and fully
met the heightened expectations of the
great audience that earnestly applaud
ID sthe gifted orator whose fame has
crossed the ocean
Dressed simply yet elegantly in jet
of scarlet carnations and smilax, Mrs.
Lease advanced and began her lecture.
she Is absolutely at home on the roS-
trpm and for more than an hour she
held the closest attention of a select
and large audience, composed of the
elite of the city who were anxious to
{ show their appreciation of their justly
r-famed fellow tOwmswcman. 1t was
lecture never to be forgotten, FURNISH
cd with classic reference, full of pathos,
of power, of sentiment, Of abiding faith
In the triumph of right, and the ulti-
mate regeneration Of all the race
through the sublime precepts and prac-
tee OF Christianity.
Wichita should have this lecture re-
peated at an early day. And every
where last night after the lecture, the
sentiment WAS TO have Il repeated.
Everyone should hear Wichita's mag
Eettc orator.
After Mrs. Lease had addressed her
great audience at Cooper Union. New
York, all the great dailies declared Mrs
Leases voice TO be the most wonderful
possessed by any speaker in America.
The vast crowd at the Auditorium Will
fully concur in this statement Her
voice has a wonderful resonance and
carrying power and even when lowest,
she could be distinctly heard by the
farthest tier Of listeners.
Mrs Lease, in her lecture, Christ or
Caesar" proves a worthy foil to Max
Nordan and his Degeneracy The
egdtistical German professor would an
initiate all that is progressive in civil
hzatfon, in four languages, under the
single, sweeping stigma, "Degenera-
tfon-" Mrs Lease, from the confused
light and shadows, from the burthens
lights and shadows, from the burthens
poiTsting to the victories of civilization,
and TO the achievements of an age of
won deTs, declares that there is God
and Hope in it all In these two, no1
unlike in their lines of reasoning, but
IN all things antagOnistic, we have in
Nordau the despair OF the old and
worn, out, of the effeba and the cOnser-
uaftve, in Mrs. Lease, the glory and
promise Of the New. The Pre- Raph-
aelites were not aesthetic snobs. Tolls
tori a wGndIbag, nor is Wagner music
tom cats gone mad, rolling in comtor-
titionS over a root of Valerian, nor was
lbsen silly, or Zola sexually insane, but
each, with the world of Psychology
and mysticism, of scepticism and aes-
thetfciSm but touches of, and grasp
tngS after the Granscendenta which in
being acquired and aSSimilated will be
common, if glorious. Wherein Nor
dau heard nothing of the past but a
5leAting echo, nothing in the present
but the last mushroom on the dunghill
of degenerate Tomanticism, Mrs. Lease
sees the hand Of God and the prophesy
of Things to Be.
Beginning with the aspirations of Pla-
TO and the methods of Aristotle to ac-
complish the higher purposes of hui
manity, Mrs. Lease drew a broad and
comprehensive picture of the growth
of liberty and the evolution of govern
menlt- Taking her hearers back TO the
morning of the worlds childhood, she
said: when the confusion of tongues
fell upon the builders of the tower, the
germs Of the migratory races in sheep
skin and sandals, representing a Divine
idea, started on their great journey
westward, slowly shaping Through
iasping centuries the Civilization of to-
day. Ever as the generations came,
as the flockS and herds increased, they
overran the plains Of the west. settling
Asia, Asia Minor. the Golden Horn,
Rome and Britain. As difficulties and
problems presented themselves they
fled from them and sought safety in
settling new lands and founding new
cities. This westward march Of HUI
manfty il marked by the birth of ma
lions and the growth of cities. 1t is
the history OF the progressive develop
nents of the world. Nearly three
THOUSAND years ago the adventurous
Greeks in the army of Themistocles.
gravely debated as to whether II would
not be wiser and safer to abandon Ath-
ems to the b2rharous forces of Persia
and move farther on to inhabit other
lands. Two thousand years later. 10
escape from the gloom that rested like
a pail over all Europe, Columbus.
Whose part Il was 10 evolve the deeper
purpoSe of the Divine idea, the fusion
of races and the brotherhood of men,
turned the prows Of his frail vessels
toward the New Worlds unknown
shores bearing with him unconsciOusly
the fortunes OF mankind. A little
more than a. century later our Puritan
ancestors known IN song and story as
the Pilgrim Fathers. fed from the re-
iigfous intoleTa nee and persecution of
Old World deSpOtS and sought 10 es-
r2rhlish a government Of civil and reli-
f,;OuS liberty where no worm Of the
earth, though ro0ed in imperial purple
or crowned with diadem of pomp and
power. could say them nay. sill la,er
our sturdy New England ancestors
TUNED their faces toward the setting
sun. ana Yves tWard. westward evermore,
the great Streamof humanity poured Ks
tide. I'll at the fartheSt limit Of the
day, on the far Pacific slope. we meet
the Acknowledged MOngoianS from
whom our ancestors parted on the
plains OF Asia thousands Of years ago.
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Awarded