Part 1
ECCENTRICITIES OF GENIUS
PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. LTD., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON
ECCENTRICITIES OF GENIUS
BY
MAJOR J. B. POND
WITH 91 PORTRAITS
LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1901
COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY, NEW YORK
To
GEORGE R. PECK.
A TRUE FRIEND, A TRUE GENTLEMAN, A GREAT LAWYER, AND MY IDEAL ORATOR,
I Dedicate this Book.
J. B. POND.
CONTENTS
ORATORS
PAGE
The Triumvirate of Lecture Kings, 1
John B. Gough, 3
Wendell Phillips, 7
William Lloyd Garrison, 13
Charles Sumner, 14
Chauncey M. Depew, 17
Gen. Horace Porter, 23
Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, 27
Frederick Douglass, 29
Booker T. Washington, 31
PULPIT ORATORS
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 37
Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, 77
Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, 83
Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker, 85
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, 91
Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, 112
Rt. Rev. Bishop Henry C. Potter, 121
Very Rev. S. Reynolds Hole, 122
Rt. Rev. Dr. Boyd Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon, 130
Very Rev. Charles William Stubbs, D.D., 132
WOMEN LECTURERS AND SINGERS
Susan B. Anthony, 144
Julia Ward Howe, 147
Anna E. Dickinson, 152
Mary Livermore, 155
Lucy Stone, 161
Clara Louise Kellogg, 163
Emma Abbott, 166
Helen Potter, 170
Annie Grey, 172
Maud Ballington Booth, 177
Mary Proctor, 178
HUMORISTS
Josh Billings, 185
Thomas Nast, 188
Petroleum V. Nasby, 192
Samuel L. Clemens, 197
Mark Twain and George W. Cable, 231
Mark Twain, Nasby, and Josh Billings, 232
Paul Blouet (Max O’Rell), 234
Bill Nye, 237
James Whitcomb Riley, 241
EXPLORERS, TRAVELLERS, AND WAR CORRESPONDENTS
Sir Henry M. Stanley, 263
George Kennan, 289
Frederick Villiers, 291
Dr. Frederick A. Cook, 293
Robert E. Peary, 295
Capt. Joshua Slocum, 299
John L. Stoddard, 302
ACTORS AND DRAMATIC CRITICS
Joseph Jefferson, 305
William Winter, 306
Sir Henry Irving, 312
Charlotte Cushman, 315
Ellen Terry, 319
LITERARY LECTURERS
Matthew Arnold, 323
John Boyle O’Reilly, 326
Hamilton W. Mabie, 329
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 330
William Dean Howells, 333
George William Curtis, 341
MISCELLANEOUS
Henry Watterson, 345
The Hon. William Parsons, 347
William E. Gladstone, 348
P. T. Barnum, 350
George H. Daniels, 355
Ed. Heron-Allen, 367
Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, 361
Elbert Hubbard, 368
AUTHOR READERS AND LECTURERS
Sir Edwin Arnold, 375
The Rev. Dr. John Watson (“Ian Maclaren”), 405
Hall Caine, 452
F. Marion Crawford, 455
Gen. Lew Wallace, 465
Israel Zangwill, 469
William Webster Ellsworth, 474
Anthony Hope Hawkins, 477
George W. Cable, 490
Walt Whitman, 497
Dr. A. Conan Doyle, 503
Joaquin Miller, 510
Alexander Black, 512
Ernest Seton-Thompson, 515
William Henry Drummond, D.D., 519
John Fox, Jr., 523
Thomas Nelson Page, 521
Rudyard Kipling, 525
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE LYCEUM FIELD
James Redpath, 533
The Lyceum, 539
Ole Bull, 545
Index, 555
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
J. B. Pond, _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Ann Eliza Young, xxi John B. Gough, 2 Wendell Phillips, 7 William Lloyd Garrison, 13 Charles Sumner, 14 Chauncey M. Depew, 17 Gen. Horace Porter, 23 Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, 27 Frederick Douglass, 29 Booker T. Washington, 31 Henry Ward Beecher, 37, 41 Lyman Abbott, 77 Newell Dwight Hillis, 83 Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker, 85 T. DeWitt Talmage, 91 Charles H. Spurgeon, 112 Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, 121 Very Rev. S. Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester, 122 Dr. Boyd Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon, 130 Very Reverend Charles William Stubbs, D.D., Dean of Ely, 132 Susan B. Anthony, 144 Julia Ward Howe, 147 Anna E. Dickinson, 152 Mary A. Livermore, 154 Miss Lucy Stone, 161 Clara Louise Kellogg, 163 Emma Abbott, 167 Miss Helen Potter’s Impersonation of John B. Gough, 170 Annie Gray, 172 Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth, 177 Miss Mary Proctor, 178 Josh Billings, 185 Thomas Nast, 188 Petroleum V. Nasby, 192 Mark Twain, 197 Keeping the Letter of the Contract, 208 The Last Snapshot Before the _Warrimoo_ Sailed, 224 Mark Twain and George W. Cable, 231 Mark Twain, Nasby, and Josh Billings, 232 Max O’Rell (Paul Blouet), 234 Nye and Riley, 237 The Nye-Riley Program, with Mr. Riley’s Decorations, 242 Henry M. Stanley, 263 George Kennan, 289 Frederick Villiers, 291 Dr. Frederick A. Cook, 293 Robert E. Peary, 295 Mrs. Peary, 297 Capt. Joshua Slocum, 299 John L. Stoddard, 302 Joseph Jefferson, 305 William Winter, 306 Sir Henry Irving, 312 Miss Charlotte Cushman, 315 Miss Ellen Terry, 319 Matthew Arnold, 323 John Boyle O’Reilly, 326 Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie, 329 Ralph Waldo Emerson, 330 William Dean Howells, 333 George William Curtis, 341 Henry Watterson, 345 Hon. William Parsons, 347 William E. Gladstone, 348 P. T. Barnum, 350 Mr. George H. Daniels, 355 Mr. Ed. Heron-Allen, 357 Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, 361 Elbert Hubbard, 368 Sir Edwin Arnold, 375 Dr. John Watson (“Ian Maclaren”), 405 Hall Caine, 452 F. Marion Crawford, 455 Gen. Lew Wallace, 465 Israel Zangwill, 469 William Webster Ellsworth, 474 Anthony Hope Hawkins, 477 George W. Cable, 490 Walt Whitman, 497 A. Conan Doyle, 503 Joaquin Miller, 510 Alexander Black, 512 Ernest Seton-Thompson, 515 William Henry Drummond, D.D., 519 Thomas Nelson Page, 521 John Fox. Jr., 523 Rudyard Kipling, 525 James Redpath, 533 Ole Bull and His Wife, 545
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
I want to acknowledge, with thanks, the kind permission of _The Cosmopolitan Magazine_ and _The Saturday Evening Post_ to reprint in this book parts of articles originally published in those periodicals; also the kind permission of the photographers, Rockwood and Falk, of New York; Gutekunst, of Philadelphia; Wood, of Chicago; Taber, of San Francisco; Elliott & Fry, Lombardi & Co., Alfred A. Ellis, Barraud, and Window & Grove, of London, to reproduce several of their copyrighted photographs for this book.
J. B. POND.
PREFACE
There are over 3,000 prefaces in my library. None of them suit me. They are all better and more appropriate than I can write, so I extract from different ones as many as I think are needed for this book of mine.
* * * * *
“If the perusal of these pages should cheer some fainting wanderer on the world’s highway, and lead him far from the haunts of evil, by the still waters of temperance, my labor will have been well repaid.”--_Autobiography and Personal Recollections of John B. Gough._
“The author has taken the liberty to dedicate this book to certain enterprising gentlemen in London, who have displayed their devotion to a sentiment now widely prevailing in the music halls, by republishing an American book without solicitation on the author’s part.”--_Mr, Dooley, “In the Hearts of His Countrymen.”_
“Yes, take it all around, there is quite a good deal of information in this book. Information seems to stew out of me naturally, like the precious ottar of roses out of the otter. Sometimes it seems to me that I would give worlds if I could retain my facts; but it cannot be. The more I calk up the sources, and the tighter I get, the more I leak wisdom. Therefore, I only claim indulgence at the hands of the reader, not justification.”--_“Roughing It,” Mark Twain._
“A blaze of splendor is the pictorial part of this book, an art gallery on the wing. You need not visit New York, or Dresden, or Berlin, or Rome, to see the masterpieces, for the best part of them is now, my dear reader, _between your forefinger and thumb_! The publishers of this book have ransacked the earth for these three, hundred and thirteen gems (313).”
“_GREAT is the responsibility!_ of the publishing a book, especially in _this_ case where the publishers, a MONTH BEFORE THE BOOK IS PUBLISHED! HAVE SOLD! 250,000 COPIES THEREOF! An unprecedented occurrence in the history of LITERATURE!” (the capitals, italics, and astonishers are mine.--J. B. P.).--_“The Pathway of Life,” Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage._
“It is not to illustrate any heroic achievements of a man, but to vindicate a just and beneficent principle, in its application to the whole human family, by letting in a light of truth upon a system esteemed by some as a blessing, and by others as a curse and a crime.”--_“My Bondage and Freedom,” Frederick Douglass._
* * * * *
“Look in the hearts of average men; The tragedies of doom are there, And comedies of glad delight, And hopeless wailings of despair, And hopes and sorrows infinite-- Shall not a poet now and then Look in the hearts of average men?” --_“Waifs from Wild Meadows,” Sam Walter Foss._
FIRST QUESTION ANSWERED.
My friends often ask how I got into the Lyceum business. I drifted into it, the same as most people do who have to find some place for which they are fitted, or try to. It was my fortune to be raised on the frontier. My father was one of the pioneers of Wisconsin. He was an abolitionist. The Bible and the New York “_Trybune_,” not _Tribune_, were almost synonymous in our family, and about the only library we had.
Wisconsin was a sort of refuge for the fugitive slave, and my father kept an underground station. Many a night I have slept out on the prairie with some runaway slaves, with father and the neighbors protecting them against the United States marshal. I found myself, when eighteen years of age, carrying a Sharp’s rifle in 1856 with John Brown, in Kansas.
I was between thirteen and fourteen when, after my father had given me a severe drubbing for telling a lie, which was not a lie, I ran away.
Then I was in Fond du Lac. I remember the wooden sidewalks, and seeing boys wearing shoes in the summer time. How I pitied them; I thought it dreadful! I was looking at the wonder scenes, gazing with intense interest into the shop windows. All of a sudden I heard a noise in a shop. I looked in. It was a printing office. It was so wonderful I ventured to step inside the door. Just then the man working the press (who proved to be the foreman) said to me, “Well, what do you want?”
I replied, “Nothing,” and stepped back.
He said, “Don’t you want to learn the trade?”
“Don’t know, sir.”
“Don’t you want to be a printer’s devil?”
At that I was still more frightened. He said:
“You see the editor in that sanctum--” Just then a man came to the door from an adjoining room and spoke very gently to me. _I never forgot that._
He said, “I want an apprentice to learn the printer’s trade. Would you like to try? I will give you $25 for the first year, $30 for the second, and $50 for the third.” I agreed.
“You go in there and roll that press,” said the foreman.
It seems the regular “devil” had had an altercation with the foreman and left, and one of the journeyman printers was rolling a handbill, while a man outside with his sulky and horse was waiting for it, and that poster I can always recall. It was a rude cut of a stallion, with black letter announcements relating thereto. That beautiful clean white paper and the glossy black ink startled me. I never got over it. I have been using black ink and white paper ever since.
To make a long story short, I was behind that press and covered with printers’ ink in a very few minutes. After the handbill was printed, the foreman lifted the form, called me to his side of the press, and said:
“Take this form to that sink and wash it.”
I started, and right in front of the sink it seems a little of the lye had accumulated and the floor was slippery. I slipped and down I went. The chase went over my head and the type flew in all directions. The foreman said:
“There! by thunder, you leave!”
The editor stepped out of the sanctum and said,
“What’s the matter?”
“He’s pied that form,” replied the foreman.
“Did you show him how to wash it?” asked the editor.
“He leaves, or I do,” said the foreman.
“You can leave if you want,” said the editor.
Probably the reader can imagine my feelings at having such a friend to take my part.
So the foreman left, and I did the best I could, picking up the type until it was about time to quit, when the editor told me to come with him to his house.
I went there and looked in; at first I did not dare enter. There was the first upholstered furniture I had ever seen, a white tablecloth, glass tumblers and napkins--such things I had never seen. There were figures on the carpet. Two beautifully dressed ladies came downstairs and took seats at the table directly opposite me. I must have turned crimson. I was completely dazed by their beauty and so embarrassed I must have betrayed my feelings. I was glad my feet were under the table, for I was barefooted. I went through some motions, but ate no supper. Next morning I was to be at the office, open it, and have it swept by seven o’clock. I had the key in my pocket and it fairly burned there, so anxious was I to be at my new work and to turn that key in the lock.
I was at the office before six to sweep it out. I hunted around and found a broom and began sweeping everything toward the door. I swept the sanctum, a corner partitioned off from the main room, of the printing office. I dared not pick up the loose exchanges lying on the floor, but swept around them, and had almost a winrow of dirt moved up to the door, amid clouds of dust, when Walker Rouse, the elder apprentice, came in and exclaimed:
“Whew, what a dust! Why, you haven’t sprinkled before sweeping!”
I did not know what he meant until he got the sprinkling pot and showed me how to sprinkle the floor, and then how to dust the bank and cases and the editor’s sanctum, pick up and fold the exchanges, and tidy up his desk. All this Walker showed me how to do by doing it for me. At seven o’clock the printers came around. The editor came in at eight.
“Boy,” he said, “what is your name?”
“James--James Pond.”
“James, your office is looking fine. You are beginning well.”
And so it has been going ever since. I think I have had credit a great many times for what somebody else has done.
The Fountain City _Herald_ survived but a few months. I went from Fond du Lac to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where I obtained work on the Oshkosh _Democrat_, served my time as an apprentice, and then went to Madison, Wisconsin, and worked as a journeyman. In the summer of 1856, with Charles G. Finney, Jr. (son of the president of Oberlin College), I found myself in Kansas, working on _The Herald of Freedom_, at Lawrence; a little later carrying a Sharp’s rifle (“Beecher Bible”) with old John Brown. In the fall I went to St. Louis, to work during the winter. Then back to Wisconsin.