Semi=weekly graphic., 1898-02-23
|, MARION CRAWFORD HE GREAT NOVELIST AND
 LECTURER. bid Not Speak at the Opera House Friday Night for Want of an Audience-A synop-
 sis of His Lecture on
 Lee XIII.

G1OV &&AAA'
 F. Marion Crawford, the cele- brated Itallian-American novelist and lecturer, did not lecture at tEe opera house Friday evening, as ad- gertised, for want of an audience. To the shame and disgrace of the people of Pine Bluff, only about twenty people assembled at the Opera house Friday evening to hear the lecture. Of course MT. Craw- ford dismissed his audience without Delivering his celebrated lecture, For he could neither do justice to himself nor his audience with so small a number present.
 Mir. Crawford leetured in Little Rock Thursday night to crowded house under the auspices of the Lit He Rock Lyceum Association. The Arkansas Democrat of the 18th, gives the following synopsis of MT. Crawford's lecture:
 The speaker was introduced in a Jew brief ramarks by James Mitchell president of l4e Lyceum As. ocia- tion, and was greeted with ap- plause when he arose to address the audience upon the subject of s'Leo XIII in the Vatican. In the beginning he reviewed the eondi tions existing under Plus TX. Leo's predecessor. He said that not withstanding the sentiment that this nineteenth century has been one of peace, the revolutionary idea has been the potent cause of more carnage than during any previous period of the worlds history. The accession of the young Plus XT marked one of the greatest revo- Buttons of all, and pronounced de- .partures from the puerility that had distinguished the administrations of sa proceeding line of weak occupants Of the pontifcal chair. Plus great .ly improved the city of Rome, and gave to in much of his own beauty and individuality, transforming it 'from medieval to a represen tative modern city. Much of his good work was undone by certain car .dinal, a remarkable man, the terror of Rome, and would-be terror of Italy. But the cardinal died and the speaker was one of the few Ipriviliged to gaze upon the wizened, sbroken, remnants ol the man who was the last of the romantic era. A month later Plus TX died, and then sin 1878 Leo XIII was elected. The administration of this great man has been a most remarkable one in sthe advancement and development pof national prestige, of which he has been the patron. Leo was born in 1910 in little village a few miles south of Rome, ofa parentage in no wise distinguished. The speaker gave most vivid and inte- &resting personal picture of the pope. He is a mountaineer by character, a
 tall, sinewy and erstwhile strong pan; physically speaking, there is a b. seat similarity between the Pope, J fladstone and Lincoln, in stature, S;,muscular development, all with an 7hate air of melancholia. Lincoln 4as developed under a reign of hard Jeold facts, Gladstone received a high collegiate education before he became known, and Leo was brought up under the surveillance of spirit ual influence, and during the throes of revolution. His youth was spent in simple surroundings. His career was straight, unswervinq from the first. From priest to
 archbishop his course was gradual
 but sure. At this time there was 2
 great struggle going on between tht
 Vatican and the young United Italy
 and it was here that the character
 of the future pope began to show
 itself. He received at Peruggia th'
 officials of the Italian governmen
 and treated them with great cour