The Portland daily press., 1898-01-17

the faisesand. the wrong. The right te
examine into and discuss every claim o.
church and state, law and custom, openly
and fearlessly, having the fear OF no llont
) save God, before their eyes. Inc rlght &c
! entertain without coarseness OF ~lnode; te
GLADDEN. hearts and sh orten the face OF
hereditary constrainb with innocent
laughter; to carry native refinement on
ward to it's last degrees of beauty by tne
example of final finish; to teacn puIpl0s
and bar and all students ana aumlrers "
oratory that to be an orator ano 1ne
people Alright, a man does not neeu W yei. -.
and gesticuIate himself into redness Vi
facesand a physical sweat or say odd,
startling and grotesque things IN gro
tesque way. The debt which nperUy'
which freedom of thought, which woman,
whose. emancipation from oid-tlsne
bondage and splendid development is the
glory of our age and country; which the
pulpit and bar and the press, which all OF
us, whether in town or country, VINO are
not of the earth, earthly, owe to the old
time lyceum, can never be estimated. In
the enlargement of our minds, in our
knowledge of rights and duties, in our
higher and freer methods of thought ssand
/ life, in our wider range of vision and
capacityrof finished utterance her wreath
is woven and well woven, too, both
| flower and leaf.
| And they tell me that this magnificent
expression of our best culture and highest
need Is broken down! 1t is not broken
down If the people, wishes and willing.
ness to support it stand for it. But IT
you refer to the machinery which grew
up around 1t and demoralized 1T, convert
! ing it from noble service to mere
money getting employment; from sys-
tenn of noble education and persuasion of
the people to sordid bureaucracy of
money changers where clerical force
earned small income by making zap
pointments'' for nnsmaller folk able to
learn less,-if you mean this awkward
shell of a once noble embodiment is
broken down. admit it and thank God
| for it. But it is not the bureaus" and
'sagencies'' that are chiefly to blame in
| the matter. Their ooject was money get
ting, that and nothing more-and the
people knew it and that rendered them
comparativelyiharm But something
else. And will tell you, what it is that
has, beyond all else, broken down the
lyceum oflNew England.
The lyceum stood for system of edu-
cation and entertainment both. 1t was
neyerlarbitrary in the lines of.its express
ion. 1t was ever and always In each
locality the expression OF what the people
wished and wanted. Its platform WAS
fol no one class of men or themes. The
orator was -there-par excellence-always
as was fit among a people whose tradl-
lions, as with the Greeks, were or oratory
But, If the orator dominated, he never
monopolized the lyceum platform. For
to it the scholar came, too, and was well
coined. The poet had his audience. The
wit was greeted with laughter. Music,
in spite Of the handicap of mercenariness,
sang herself into popular favor. Patriot
ism, fresh from battle-tields, with one
blue sleeve armless or supported on a
crutch, told the tale of campaigns and
com bats in soldierly phrase to audiences
clothed in black and whose faces were
wet with tears Literary criticism in the
person of Whipple taught with acceptance
the method of just discrimination in let
ters. Philosophy, albeit little pale,
spoke through the colorless lips of Con
cord 8 sage Murdook, and Churchill and
Brown and Bailey of Yale showed to de.
| lighted audiences that elocution was an
art--a noble or sweet shade OF oratory,
and not matter of Grecian gowns and
decollete robing, SO dangerously near to
an exhibition of Living pictures" that
| it makes modest man timid in view of
the possible denouement. And even in
towns and villages where the vinegar of
aoid puritanism had never been drawn
off from the original casks, where laugh
| ter was. subject to the penal code and q
stray smile was arrested for vagrancy,
| Artemus Ward and Petroleum V. Nasty
got hearing. How their souls must have
| suffered
The lyceum platform was never mar
row one. 1t STOOD repeat, for what the
people wished to see and hear and they
were ready to pay, and pay literally, for
| it, And the y did. And the 1yceum
| throve and it continued to do so as long
as the people were taxed to support it
and no more! And now we afs come to
the gist of this matter-what has broken
| the Iyceum down and keeps it down?
l TT
| The lyceum platform has been broken
down because now it is not called upon
to merely support itself, but every imag
| Unable ''cause'' and Charity and fmost
worthy object has been saddled upon it,
| Of old time, If enough tickets were sold
to pay the local expense and the speaker,
it was called success. That was the
what they got. But now the people must
pay for what they get and good deal
more. The platform Is expected now to
not only pay its own expenses, but it
must also build hospitals, old ladies'
homes and newsboys' rooms. 1t must
help out the orphan girls fund and the
reading room for boys who would be bet
ter of if they were orphans. 1t must
help the circulating library. wipe out the
minister's back salary and buy the lum-
ber for the Methodist chapel. 1t must
helpSpurohase goat for initiation into
| Masonic rites and gold scabbard and
sword blade-of softest iron-for any
youthful soldier who hopes to be member
twixt this and eternity, Of the governors
staff. It must assist at benefits for
every local unfortunate and help resusci-
tate every moribund sewing society whose
rigor mortis, when it came, was the cause
| of mild but universal satisfaction.
| appeal to the wise and humane mem
| bers of that noble profession, which heals
by its blunders chiefly and whose inno-
cence is guarded by it's ignorance when
| it kills, to answer and declare if any
patient however staIwart, "leeched and
physicked'' in this manner could possibly
| live?
Now friends, you people of New Eng.
land into whose faces I have for so many
years looked,-suppose you quit this sort
of thing and give the lyceum platform q
chance. Suppose you ask the platform to
simply pay its own legitimate expenses
and no more. If when the bills are set
tied there still is money left. let it be set
apart and held in reserve for some future
entertainment for the people. Is not
that fair? Instead of the people being
unwilling to support the lyceum my
opinion is,-and l speak with the remin-
iscence of nearly 80 years-that they never