OCR Text |
Show Anna Dickinson. It is natural to turn from a male scold to a female scold, though in this case the transition is not unlike the passage from the sublime to the ridicu-lous-from Wendell Philifg to Anna Dickinson. This notorious young woman wo-man delivered a lecture here this week, on Joan of Arc. I was foolish enough to go and hear her, and got terribly bored for my pains. Ah I thought I, as this bold-fronted, obdurate-looking woman, her face set in contemptuous indifference, and her ungraceful figure clad in heavy black velvet, with cherry-colored trimmings, stalked forward on the stage of Music Hall, and began to speak, can this be ti.e fa r. fresh, natural and earnest girl who u;ed to thrill patriotic thousands ou:y a lew years ago ? There could be no doubt about it : this is the same girl grown rtO"H'5tirrgentle womaDhood, which finds its delights in flahy diamond rings and luxurious dinners in Parker's public dining-hall,with costly wines and "fast" conversation. She announced her subject sub-ject to be Jeanne D'Arc, and proceed ed. When it became necessary to mention men-tion again the Maid of Orleans, she called her Jenny ! Why not Polly or Sally, or Betsey? Either would be as proper a- Jenny, whhh is not a French name, and cannot can-not by any reasonable license be applied to Joan of Arc. The most charitable explanation of the orafrix's eccentricity supposes that she didn't feel perfect conndeace in her French pronunciation, pronuncia-tion, and would venture to speak Jeanne d'Are but once. The lecture itself could have been written by any third-class newspaper man; it was a thing of shreds and patches, made up from Hume and the old chronicles, and spiced with sneers and jokes at all who opposed woman suffrage. It was over two hours long, and before its middle had been reached there was yawning on every hand; oue head I saw nedding in the early stages of slumber; here and there was a man absorbed in a newspaper; and so through those two long hours sat the crowd; cold, unapplausive, aud generally gener-ally disgusted. I don't believe Annie's next audience iu Boston if she delivers de-livers this same lecture will number many of those who made up the last one. Annie is entertaining in a political politi-cal harangue, because she is naturally shrewish and scolds with a vigorous eloquence that it is enlivening to hear; but outside of that narrow sphere she is dull and feeble. It was worth somethingsay some-thingsay fifty cents to see Mrs. Livermore (the big gun of woman suffrage) suf-frage) embrace her as she turned at the close of her lecture. The two dropped into each other's arms in regular stage style. Huston Cur-iSftc. Cur-iSftc. Union. |