New-York tribune., 1901-01-05
THE LECTURE PLATFORM.
RECoLLECrIoNs OF SOME OF IT'S
CELEBRITIES.
ECCENTRICITIES OF GENIUS. Memories of
Famous Men and Women of the Platform and
Stage. BY Major ]. B. Pond Octave, pp XVI,
564. G. W. Dillingham; Company.

Major Pond seems TO have known most of the
men and women who have appeared within the
last generation upon the lecture platform-and
to the lecture platform, Notwithstanding the
decay of that all pervading institution,
most who have won distinction, particularly in
letters. still irresistibly drawn. An impor-
tant factor in drawing many of them has been
apparently Major Ponds persuasion which few
| have been able to resist. Those who have, have
had TO refuse his acquaintance, courteously like
Kipling, who wrote him that he might lecture
"as l had two mortgages on my house.
a lien the horses, and bill of sale the
furniture and writer's cramp in both hands; but
at present I'm busy and content to go on with
the regular writing business" Or. like Spur
geon, they have repulsed him with more decision
than cordiality. Major Pond has packed this
large volume full of his "reminiscences. written
in kindly and appreciatve spirit. He began
his experience as manager with Ann Eliza, Brig
ham YOung's nineteenth wife, whose recitals of
the inwardness of Mormonism had great public
effect in the early seventies; and his activity is
not yet ended
Nowadays people lecture because they have
become prominent in other ways; but in the
golden age of the lyceum platform of which
Major Pond gives entertaining sketch at the
close of his volume there We're lecturers who
won their fame thus and by nothing else Such
were Cough and Phillips and Mrs. Livermore
The first two. with Beecher. the author calls
the greatest of lecturers; and of these Phillips
held his pre-eminence the longest-from 1915 to
his death. nearly forty years afterward. Cough,
however, was the most popular with the largest
number Of plain people. Beecher almost
equally so, with a higher influence. Phillips
spoke for a cause, and not for the money it
brought him. Says Major Pond:
One morning Mr.. Phillips came into our office
to get his list of appointments. / said:
Mr.. Phillips. we have an open date. Spring
field offers $3.50 for il. Natick wants il, but
they can pay only So"
Whats the population OF the two towns?'
asked Mr.. Phillips.
We looked il up, and gave him the census re-
''Natick offers more in proportion to the num-
Der of inhabitants than Springfield Let Natick
have it, he said
1t is a curious fact that many experienced
lecturers have had stage fright that they never
could get rid of. Cough is a case I'm point. He
never broke down. and never failed to capture
his audience, says Major Pond:
Yet he always had mild sort of stage fright
which never went off until he began to speak
To get time to master this fright was the reason
why he always insisted being introduced
TO his audiences before he spoke, and he in
sisted even in places where the absurd custom
had been abandoned for years.
The humorous lecturer appears to have a
harder time of 1T than any other. Every human
who attempts to make a whole evening of fun
finds it irksome, and Major Pond quotes "BilI"
Nye's experience:
The audience would fairly bubble over with
laughter until every fun liking muscle of their
faces relaxed and left one sombre wet blanket
all over the assembly; and there they had to sit
and the humorist had to proceed TO the end of
the programme without response.
Even Mark Twain found Il so. until he took
running mate" and interspersed pathos by
introducing George w. Gable I'm a joint enter
tainment. Mark Twain's aversion to the plat
form, however. is pronounced. and Major Pond
quotes letter from him in which he says: 81
do not expect to the platform again until
the wolf commands. Honest people do not go
robbing the public on the platform, except when
they in debt" 1t is fortunate for the pleas
ure Of many people that this is not the uni
versal opinion. Major Ponds relations have ex-
tended as far as from p. T. Barnum TO Ralph
Waldo Emerson. 1t was his fortune to nego-
tiate with Emerson in his old age to lecture in
the Old South Church, in Boston, for the fund
| TO that historic building from demolition.
He tells the pathetic story of the lecture the
last Emerson ever delivered, thus:
AS he began reading his lecture the audience
was very attentive After a few moments he
lost his place. and his granddaughter. sitting in
the front row of seats, gently stepped toward
him and reminded him that he was ecturng
He saw at once that he was wandering and
with the most charming characteristic, apolo-
setic bow, he resumed his place-an incident
that seemed to affect the audience more than
anything else that could possibly have occurred
few moments later he took piece of manu-
script in his hand and, turning around with IT,
laid il a side table
Just then one of the audience said to me Il
think il was Mrs. Lvermore or Mrs. Howe)
"Please have the audience pass right out" and
| rushing Mr. Emerson. said. THANK
sc much for that delightful lecture; then. turn
ing around, waved the audience to go out. He
probably had been speaking about fifteen min
utes. The audience passed out. many of them
in tears. 1t was one Of the most pathetic sights
/ ever witnessed.
Few present day readers will easily figure to
themselves Barnum lecturer and under
| another's management; but Major Pond had
much experience with him. He was to give
| twenty temperance lectures for $1,000 and ex-
penses and in his management of expenses he
was the most prudently economical man the
| manager has ever known. 1T made no differ
| ence TO him who paid the expenses; if they were
| unnecessary he didn't them incurred"
The same rigid economy ruled all his dealings.
! There is constant entertainment to be found I'm
| turning over these pleasantly written and un-
pretentious pages with their sheaf of curious
| characteristics of many prominent and
women. We read of Sir Edwin Arnold's pro-
| digious memory-he could repeat perfectly any
| poem he once heard, and one evening he offered
| IL given the first line OF any scene in Shakes
peare at random, to continue with the rest of it,
| and fulfilled the test, saying afterward that he
could recte the whole Of Shakespeare from be-
| ginning to end When he visited Walt Whit
! man, he spent hour and half quoting the
| good gray poets" verses TO him from memory
| We are interested in Mr. Gladstone's interest
| In Major Ponds stories OF Western frontier life