The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-07

dppliCdtlOH Oh MS TOPIC, the value OF
influence. 1t was the influence of the
suggestion as made in the story which
produced the happy ending.
A Stammerer once asked to help out
in a certain thing replied that he had
no influence because he could not talk
plainly, but it was pointed out to him
that nearly every one who heard was
unconsciously initiating him Even
a wooden Indian before cigar store
has influence" said the speaker; that
is what he is put there for"
| Following out this line of argument
DR.. Pickard referred to the many
manifestations of suggestion, psyche
logy, hypnotism, and called attention
| to the well known contagious effect
| OF a yawn and told a little story where
a couple of lovers put it to practical
use and where love won out as it
always does"
| Suggestion is the most potent force
we have in education he declared
and furnished some illustrations of
| in business, in politics, in healing, and
other things, and related the well
known fact that the sucking of a
| lemon by a small boy where band is
playing will break up the concert.
| Examples of Suggestion.
| 1t may be for good or evil, an aid
to religion, of set the fashions, and
1
why. The action of crowd in a
| panic or mob is another example of
| the effect of suggestion. Mobs are not
| persons now alike by q common cause.
| he said, but are simply an aggrega-
| ton of persons who have stopped
| thinking. The superstitions of the
| earth, the belief in ghosts, the bad
| luck associated with Friday, although
some of the most suspicious events of
| history have happened upon that day,
the unlucky 13, and other fads were
referred to. Patent medicine vendors
are great users of the power Of sug-
gestion, and various other instances
were given
The human influence, that of char
acter, of voice, of looks, were treated
of. '@The human character is the tab
let upon which we engrave thought"
he said, land the characters talk on,
man may die, pass away, but his in
but that it still exists after we shall
have ceased to inhabit this sphere"
To show this he pointed out the inf1u-
ence left by traces of life of long ago,
of the books which have been written,
of the lives of great men, and asked,
"Can it be possible that our influence
upon life will ever be lost
Mohammedanism is the influence of
great individual, Calvin left us
Methodism, and Christianity is due to
Christ All of these influences have
had much ito do with the sha ping Of
our lives We are Influenced by books
by the minds of men we have never
SEEN Therefore he urged the Hopen-
ing of our souls TO the good and the
true to help lift the world toward
God"
Abraham Lincoln.
One of the finest lectures yet de-
livered in the course of the Chautau-
qua mid-winter assembly was that
Yesterday afternoon by Rev. DR.. S.
Parkes Cadman upon Abraham Lin
coin. Not because it brought much
that was new about the great .Amerl-
can, but for the way it was delivered,
the choice language of one or the
finest discourses heard in this city for
a long time. DR.. Cadman not only dis
PLAYED an intimate knowledge of the
character of Abraham Lincoln, but a
warm sympathy in telling of his
career and of the events and lnf1u-
ences which made Lincoln possible
and he made the prophecy that If the
people of the country live up to the
Martyred President that future Lin
coin is possible.
There was but little of the bio
graphical in the discourse as DR..
Cadman said during the past SO years
more than 80 biographies of Lincoln
them had been translated into nearly
all of the languages of the earth, so
that what he would be able to say
would neither add to or detract from
the fame of the man he talked about.
This fame was secure in the judg-
ment of the world, and the judg-
ment which the world has made is a
good Judgment.
In American history, he said, there
is but one other name which stands
beside that of Lincoln, that Of Wash
ington, and it represents the best in
this great republic of the west. But
Lincoln is owned by the whole world,
and from Manchester in England to
the southermost point of Australia he
is recognized as the leader of democ-
racy. These two names stand out be-
fore all Others above the names of
Webster, Franklin, Hamilton, or
Jefferson, and when the word is spo-
ken we are summarized by the names
of Washington and Lincoln.
OF Different Types.
Washington was of the 18th CEN
fury, an artificial period, and his en-
tire career was tinted with the ideas
and habits of his time. Lincoln was
of a different type, a pioneer, one of
the men who helped to subdue the
great empire embraced in the val |
Ieys of the Ohio. the Missouri, and
the Mississippi.
There was a great contrast be-