The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1908-12-10


had the recreaat lecturers magic Ian
tern and all the rest of the gear, all
ready to be set up and put together
for the lecture. / looked the slides
over and found that they were a cork
ing fine lot of views.
i got a property man from the
new Walla Walla op'rey haouse who
knew all about magic lantern gear to
assemble the stuff and try it out
against screen in the hotel dining
! room after the supper had been
cleared away, and it all worked on
tallowed skids.
Then with the landlord backing
me up 1 rented the op'rey haouse for
the following Saturday evening-it
was then Tuesday-and inserted an
on tick ad. in the newspaper to the
| effect that Euripides Aristophanes
Athenesius, the famous traveller and
professor of the University of Athens,
would deliver his noted lecture on an
cient and modern Greece at the opera
house on the following Saturday eve
ming, with the finest set Of views IL
Illustrative of his subject that had
ever been got together. -
THE landlord, who was consider
able of a citizen in Walla Walla. got
busy plugging for me, and when the
tickets were put on sale at the drug
store they went like hot wafies near
a city cab stand. The lantern was
set up and the slides were thrown on
the screen in a rotation rehearsal,
and Saturday morning it occurred to
me that it wouldn't be such a bad
idea for me to think up something to
say to go with the pictures.
Il had never been any nearer to
Greece than Sandy Hook, but 1 wasn't
bothered much by that consideration.
| didn't stand in much fear that the
| Walla Walla folks would be sticklers
for the exact figures as to ancient
and modern Greece.
And, as a matter of fact, they
wern't. The lecture l gave them was
all right and it went through with a
clatter. 1 spread it on pretty thick
about the conquering hosts of Alex
ander of Macedon, and l let them
have plenty of The Isles of Greece.
the Isles of Greece, where burning
! Sappho loved and sung''-in fact,
think I handed them that quotation
| no less than nineteen times during
| the lecture. just to fill in the desert
| spaces. Sappho was always a great
| favorite of mine, anyhow.
81 mentioned, too, quite a number
of times, how the mountain looked on
| Marathon and Marathon looked on
the sea. and lugged in Aspasia and
her friend Pericles, and did the best
| knew to whitewash the little uncon-
ventionalities of those two. ! de-
voted few moments to Diogenes, as
well as Socrates, and 1 kind o. puz-
zled them and aroused their admira-
tion by dwelling upon the Peripatetic
| School of Philosophy - they didn't
know what 1 was talking about, and
when lecturer gets an audience in
siasm for him increases with each
ticE2of the chronometer.
| after it was over 1 counted up
the gate receipts and found that there
was $3.50 left for me after paying ex-
penses. / went back to the hotel in a
fever and fervoT of exultation. A
| squat, well dressed, curly haired man,
with swarthy skin and a thick
black mustache. was talking with the
landlord when i strolled into the hO-
tel office. The stranger turned and
smiled very agreeable smile when
he saw me.
Ny friend he said to me, hold
ing out his hand, L congratulate you
listened to your lecture. 1t was
and as he was a foreigner he halted
for a word-'immense When / re-
turn to my own country 1 am going
to give an illustrated lecture on IT.
bet
oh. you've been in Tibet, then p
1 said to him.
"'Oh, no. he replied, still smiling
that engaging smile. That's why
I'm going to lecture on it.
THAT squat manwas a sure enough
/ green tourist and scholar who had
just happened to drop into Walla
Waila in time to hear ne lecture
about Greece. The memory of his
saturnine grin Is nightmare to me
yet. Washington Star.