Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-03-01

fore the cost of the course places it be-
yond the means Of any but very
wealthy women. At these lectures may
be seen practically the same faces that
are on view in the lower tier Of boxes
on fashionable night at the opera.
Miss Jane Meade WEIGH was the first
among women to take up parlor lee
turing, and she is, of course, one of the
most popular of the Lenten entertain
ers. She was once a Buffalo newspaper
woman, serving an apprenticeship of
ten years in journalism before she be-
gan to lecture on American history,
which she has made her field. She was
a college friend of Mrs. Grover Cleve-
land. and that lady, as wife of the
president, introduced her to Washing
ton and New York society and assured
her success. Miss WEIGH recently was
given an honorary degree by the Uni
versity of Cambridge. She is one of the
few women to be so honored. Her
beauty and personal magnetism We're
no small factor in her success She
has bright, interesting style and was
the first to popularize American history
among women.
Miss Jennie Melvene Davis has also
made her success as lecturer on Amer
lean history. She made her debut in
the New York free lecture course and
soon had a short lecture course to in
clude the small towns about New York.
From this the step to lectufing in the
parlors of society women was short
one. The parlor lectures are more pop
ular with the lecturers because the re-!
turns are larger and more certain.
Course tickets for 10 or - lectures sell
for $40 in advance, so that when the
lecturer is a popular one and gives lee
lures each day to about so or hun
bred women the results in dollars is
very soul satisfying, to the one on the
platform at least.
Miss Adele Field, whose business it is
to instruct on topics of the day, is one
Of the most popular and successful of
women lecturers. She devotes herself
to the giving of parlor talks and is
busy during the entire winter and
| spring.
| Miss Mary Proctor, daughter of the
famous astronomer, is one of the bright
particular stars of the Lenten lecture
galaxy. Her talks on the starry heav-
ems are as delightful as the most
charming bit of fiction, and, as she both
interests and instructs, she is at all
seasons one of the very busiest of per-
sons.
The subject of taking care of the
house and of cooking all sorts of dain-
ties to tempt the appetite has come to
be one of the methods of passing the
dull mornings of the penitential season.
Miss Parloa, Mrs. Rorer, Mrs. Christine
Terhune Herrick, Mrs. Lemcke all lee
ture. while the hosts of less well known
authorities on the culinary art do like
wise. There is a good deal Of amuse-
ment to be obtained from a practical
lesson in cooking, especially when wo-
man who is not accustomed to mixing
buildings and pies and sauces has a
chance to experiment in the originating
of mysterious compounds that may turn
out viands fit for the gods or substances
whose only value would be as building
concrete or paper weight material.
One OF last seasons Lenten pastiines
was the hearing of talks from women
of eminence in philanthropic work,
Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth and Miss
slJane Adams of Hull House, Chicago,
being two popular speakers in this line.
They told of what they had seen among
the poor the glimpse at the Submerged
Tenth" being most interesting to fash
Iicnable folk.
Miss Ida Bc.fy, whose adaptation
/ OF novels to the needs of the lecture
/. platform has made her famous, always