The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-12
HOW RILEY ONCE ERRED
INDIANA AUDIENCE OBJECTS TO
HIS LEVITY.
Review of Anthony Hopes New
Novel, Colonel Dieppe," Indi-
Gates It Is a Fascinating Story
Sale of 'Penelope's Progress''-
Conan Doyle's Painstaking Work.

| the lecture platform, wholly unac-
quainted, as they are, with the local
prejudices and peculiarities of the COM
munitiess they visit, often make most
| Iudicrous plumbers in their dealings
with their audiences. Even the nativy
| lecturer is far from escaping such
| plumbers. l once saw James Whitcomb
Riley walk into one with all the disin-
! genuouSneSS of a child; and, taken in
all its features, it was as pretty an
entertainment as ever came under my
| eye.
On Mr.. Riley's list of delights at this
| time was a character sketch, studied
| closely from a man in real life well
known to Mr.. Riley, and, indeed, to
| half the people of Indiana-one of that
familiar type of temperance evange-
| lists who from being deep in the gut
] ter one week, have mounted, the next,
to the height of the rostrum, whence
| they shout impasSioned, emotional ap-
peals and warnings to their fellow
| drunkards, and even administer strong
rebukes-for want of tenderness and
| fellow feeling-to the habitually tenn
perate. No one who had seen Mr.. Ri
| ley on the platform need be told that
| he made the impersonation with great
| art. The character was we'll defined in
his imagination; it interested him;
and it came off with a reality and gusto
| that even Mr.. Riley'S HoOSieT farmer at
| his best could not surpaSS. But 1t was
not the demon of intemperance that Mr..
| Rileys eXhorter assailed; it was the
demon of baseball. The small, insid-
| ous, serpentine way in which the base
ball passion planted itself in the hu-
man heart was described in low, hiss
| ing phrases that made one feel as if
there were burglars in the house. Then
| followed in high, feCvid, appalling
phrase, that made you feed like a per-
son who fears he has something grow
ing in hin-the account of the sudden
bursting forth of the passion, from this
unobserved planting, into devouring
parasite that, almost in the twinkling
of an eye, took the whole man into its
deadly embrace. In this ensued a stf-
ter. gentler strain-a generous appeal
to the better nature of the victim and
a like appeal on his behalf to the aid
and sympathy of those whose better
strength had enabled them to escape
his error. These latter were especially
urged not to take pride in their
strength and not to disdain a weaker
brother; and in setting forth to them
the manner in which they should labor
with the weaker brother, the orator,
remember, once cried out: L would go
to that first baseGnan, and I would plead
with HMM the name of his mother,
his fatheT-for the sake of his children,
his wife-to break away from this mon
ster; to free himself, to- forget the
rest.
Well this sketch delivered in about
the words and manner that 1 have out
lined was given by Mr.. Riley, on the
enc occasion when | heard it, in an In
diana town where temperance, even to
the point of total abstinence and prohi-
bition. was the militant conviction of a
large part of the community, and TO an
audience drawn almost exclusively from
this part The lecture was one of a
course presented under the auspices of
the local Y. III. c. A Tickets had been
sold mainly for the entire course, and
they had been bought largely by people
who looked with little favor ON pub
lie entertainments in general. but felt
that they might safely indulge in a
lecture, especially lecture provided by
the Y. NJ. c. A.-hOnest, earnest PEG
pie, not unintelligent, but from want of
experience. entirely without quickness
in anything like satire or traversity.
The effect of the performance on this
most ill-adapted of audiences was g
clearly marked progress. You could see
it travei like a low, wide wave on
water. Almost at the second sentence
they were in roar of laughter: the
mere mention of baseball with Sarcas-
/
joy was unrestrained and without mis-
givings; it simply weAled forth. And
this continued through about One-third
of the harangue. Then there came a
change barely perceptible at first, but
becoming moment by moment better
defined The laughter still continued in
scarcely diminished volume; and, in
deed, it so continued to the very end;
but it began to have an undertOne of
conjunction a terminal rash of hold
ing back, as the laugher We're any
thing but pleased with himself for
laughing; and this became finally so
to the laughter. The effect was most
ludicrous.
But the best came when the enter
tainment was over and the people We're
dispensing. AS they made their way
slowly toward the door, in low, but
quite audible, condolences to each other,
they gave their opinions of what they
had been hearing. Some young women
with whom the seriousness of life had
not yet crystallized into a too rigid con-
viction would say to a graver father:
Wasn't that baseball thing funny?"
And he would answer with a stutter:
-um-ye-tolerably tolerably."
The dislike of the caricature, 1 af-
terward learned continued to grow on
reflection The young man who man
aged the cOurseT of the lectures for the
Y. NJ. c. A. told ne that so much Of
feGse was taken that, in the succeed
ing courses, they did not dare to include
Mr.. Riley, and he has, | think, never
lectured in that town since-certainly
newer under the auspices of the Y. Nj.
C. A.