Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1881 — Edward Everett. [ARTICLE]

Edward Everett.

The late Dr. Chapin waa once asked what he lectured for. “Fame,” he replied, “SSO and my expenses.” Those were in the days when lectures were becoming popular. Since then Mr. Beecher and Mr. Gough have been paid from S2OO to SSOO for a single lecture. A correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, gossiping about the pecuniary success of Edward Everett’s lectures, says : Everett was hardly a lecturer in theordinary sense of the term, and yet his address on the character of Washington, delivered in behalf of the Mount Vernon Association, was of this nature. The amount cleared by the various deliveries of this address averaged S4OO for each occasion, and it was repeated 130 times. In fact, Everett’s oratory has done more for charity than that of any other speaker on record. Including the Mount Vernon effort, the aggregate is nearly SIOO,OOO. I may add, as a special feature, that his address on the early days of Franklin, which was repeated five times, yielded $4,000 for charitable objects. Another address which was repeated fifteen times brought $13,500 for similar purposes. The eulogy on Thomas Dowse, delivered twice in behalf of two institutions, brought $1,500. Everett was the most accomplished man of his age, being at home in statesmanship, literature, oratory and the highest walks of learning. His versatility was such that it deserved the expression which Johnson applied to Goldsmith, that there was nothing in literature that he did not touch, and nothing that he touched that he did not adorn. Everett’s memory was really wonderful. As a preacher he frequently memorized the hymns to be used of a Sabbath, because it aided in reading them to the congregation. He committed to memory almost everything that came under his attention for many years ; in other words, what entered the eye was fixed upon the brain. To this is to be added rare personal beauty, statuesque dignity, and charming power of oratory. How surprising that this admirable concentration of gifts never inflated their possessor, who was through life so marked by simplicity of character!