The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-11-15

NhAtN AAAAhAEDs HI tliE AAf1utE VI a AkAHSk
earnest and elaborate sentence he sud
denly stopped, gave a look Of comic de-
spair at the ceiling, cramped both hands
into his trousers pockets and deliberately
sat down. Everybody seemed to under
stand that it was one Of Thackeray's I'M
finished speeches, and there were ne
signs OF surprise or discomfort among his
audience. He continued to sit upon the
platform in a perfectly composed man
ner, and after the meeting was all over
he said to me, without a sign Of discon-
fture, My boy, you have my profound
est sympathy. This day you have missed
hearing one Of the finest speeches ever
composed for delivery by great British
orator And / never heard him mention
the subject again"
His greatest fault as lecturer was an
Irresistible inclination to keep his audi
ence in waiting. This was strongly dis
played upon the occasion Of his FIRST
public appearance in this country. Ths
advertisements Of his lecture contained
the announcement that it would begin at
half-past o'clock, and when he read the
line in the newspapers he very soolly said
that he would endeavor to he ready By
s o'clock, but that he though it extreme
ly doubtful His friends were horrifed
at this declaration and earnestly pleaded
with him not to annoy his first American
audience by keeping them waiting, pie
turing to him all manner Of probable evil
consequences " men called upon al
quarter of z o'clock to be escorted to the
Metropolitan, in Boston, from whose
stage he was to talk, he was found not
only unskaved and undressed but alb
sOrbingly engaged in making for a lady
a charmingly executed pen and ink
drawing, intended to illustrate a passage
in "GOethe's Of Werther," and he earnest
~ protested that he would not move one
step toward 1.-THE damn Melodeon" until
he had completed his task. But he fin
ished it quickly and his audience found
themselves so entranced with his charms
Of person and manners, and OF delivery,
that they forgave the lecturer his long de-
lay. 1t was at the conclusion of his
public talk upon this evening that q shah
by-looking and shabbily dressed man
stepped up to him in the ante-reOm Of
the hall, and, grasping him vigorously BY
the hand, introduced himself as the pre-
prietor OF the Mammoth Rat" and suK-
gested an interchange OF season tickets
for the two great shows, the ether being
Makepeace Thackeray. Without a
change OF countenance the novelist made
the proposed excange, and promised that
he would pay the Mammoth Rat"
visit
But if people in this country found
fault with his prOcrastination, they loved
him for his invariable good humor and
for the exuberance of his delight with
Things American. When he was told that
the tickets to his first course Of readings
had been sold he shouted like n boy and
danced like a mailman. His gratitude
to the American public knew ne bounds.
and he did not know how to express it.
hut when he rode from the fremont
House to the Melode0n he thrust both his
long legs out OF the carriage window in
Difference, as he said, to his magnani-
mouse ticket-holders. From every city
he visited he wrote little missives to his
frineds expressive OK his delight at the
manner in which he was received.
Nearly all of these bear strong testimony
to the humor that broadly streaked the
mans composition. Most of them were
illustrated in the funniest manner inn
aginable, and, at times, to plague his
correspondents, he wrote notes in NINA
ture that could only be read with the aid
of a magnifying glass. Yet 50 fine
penman was he that even these minute
effusiOns, when enlarged that they might
be deciphered, were 4Ound to be perfect
in their caligraphy. In fact, he ence said
that if all other trades failed he could
earn sixpences by writing the Lords
Prayer and the Apostles Greed in the
size of that coin. One letter that he
wrote from Philadelphia is preserved.
1t runs this way: "Should any letter ar
rive addressed to the care of J. T. f., for
the ridiculous author of this, that and
the other, f. is requested to send them to
Mercantile Library, Baltimore. Ny
ghostly enemy viii be delighted f6r will
CRASH his teeth with rage) to hear that
The lectures in the capital Of Pennsyl-
vania have been very well attended No
less than seven hundred md fifty people (
paid at the door on. Friday night, and
though last night there was a storm Of
Snow so furious that no reasonable mort
al could face it, five hundred, at least,
able maniacs were in the lecture rOors
and wept over the fate OF the last king
Of these colonies" The description Of
PHILADELPHIA as the capital of PennsyA
vania was worthy of an EnglishmaA.
His lecture, by the way, was on "The
-Four Georges" which, in this dissolute,
age, would have been ser-
tainly made famous by being described as
4 good hand to hold.
At another time he wrote 10 q friend.
n burlesque cockney style, of having ian
immense hawdience last night" Again
he says: II find l have a much bigger
voice than / knew of and am not afraid
Of anybody From New York he sent
-hese words: II make no doubt you have
seen that admirable paper, the New
York Herald and are aware of the ex-
,ellent reputation my lectures are having
N this city. 1t was a lucky Friday when
first set foot in this country. l have
nearly saved fifty dollars you lent me Ia
Boston"
Thackeray was an improvident wretcb,
md his eXDpDsps nparlv q lvra,g nvaoIAl