Hoeltje, Hubert H

English

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Masthead Logo The Palimpsest
Volume 7 | Number 9 Article 2
9-1-1926
Emerson at Davenport
Hubert H. Hoeltje
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Recommended Citation
Hoeltje, Hubert H. "Emerson at Davenport." The Palimpsest 7 (1926), 265-276.
Available at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/palimpsest/vol7/iss9/2
The Palimpsest
E D I T E D  BY J O H N  E L Y  B R I G G S
V o l . V I I  Is s u e d  in S e p t e m b e r  1 9 2 6  N o .  9
C O P Y R I G H T  1 9 2 6  B Y  T H E  S T A T E  H I S T O R I C A L  S O C I E T Y  O F  I O W A
Emerson at Davenport
Almost as soon as there were enough settlers in 
early Iowa communities to make a public gathering 
possible, lyceums were organized and lecture courses 
became a regular feature of social life. An old 
fashioned lyceum existed in Davenport in 1841 and 
not two years after the first log cabin had been built 
in Johnson County, a meeting was called for the 
purpose of forming a lyceum in Iowa City. Profes­
sional lecturing began as soon as means of communi­
cation and transportation permitted.
“ A spirit for instruction is abroad in the land,” 
according to the Davenport Gazette of January 27, 
1842, “ before which bows the demoralizing pag­
eantry of theatres and corrupting influence of grog 
shops. It shows itself in the gathering of the people 
to learn wisdom as it falls from the lips of the lec­
turer. Every city paper that we receive applauds 
the talents of gifted men, who are endeavoring by
265
266 THE PALIMPSEST
means of public lectures to reform and instruct tlieir 
fellow creatures. There is no better manner of im­
proving our minds and morals than by attending the 
drawing room of the lecturer. ” Within a decade 
after the admission of Iowa into the Union, the 
lecture system had become a well established insti­
tution in the State, and many prominent speakers 
appeared upon the rostra of the various cities during 
a winter season. Among the most notable lecturers 
who came to Iowa was Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 
profound New England essayist and poet.
It was mid-June in 1850 when Emerson first 
looked over the sweeping, boundless prairies of 
Iowa. After a visit to the Mammoth Cave, which 
inspired the famous essay on “ Illusions ” , he had 
gone down the Ohio River to St. Louis and then up 
the Mississippi as far north as Galena, Illinois, 
whence he had resumed his homeward journey.
Like most travellers of his day, he was impressed, 
not by the thriving cities which had already firmly 
established themselves in the new country, but by the 
novelty of the scenery, “ the raw bullion of nature.” 
“ In the Upper Mississippi” , he wrote to his friend 
Thomas Carlyle, “ you are always in a lake with 
many islands. ‘The Far W est’ is the right name for 
these verdant deserts. On all the shores, intermin­
able silent forest. If you land, prairie behind prai­
rie, forest behind forest, sites of nations, no na­
tions.” The cities which he passed and at which he 
stepped ashore escaped his comment.
EMERSON AT DAYENPORT 267
Not until December, 1855, did Emerson come to 
Iowa as a lecturer, one of twelve in the Davenport 
course of that season. Although the almost incon­
ceivable extent of the new land still stirred his fancy, 
he now travelled more leisurely, and took occasion 
to look about him more closely. At the Le Claire 
House in Davenport he copied two rules of the hotel 
in his journal on December 31st: “ No gentleman 
permitted to sit at the table without his coat” , and 
“ No gambling permitted in the house.” He also 
made a note of the fact that he had “ crossed the 
Mississippi on foot three times” , the previous cross­
ings having been made at St. Louis in January, 1853.
The entry is characteristically Emersonian. Even 
in the Far West gentlemen must not sit at table 
without their coats. Emerson noted the rule for his 
own guidance, said his son, humorously. And per­
haps his Puritanic morality was gratified though he 
considered it remarkable that gambling was pro­
hibited.
Crossing the Mississippi on foot, and that was 
about the only way in the winter of 1855, was an 
exciting experience. Any one who has walked over 
the ice at Davenport will agree that the undertaking 
has its thrills. But Emerson crossed in comparative 
safety. “ Our river” , said a Davenport paper a few 
days before his arrival, “ is pretty substantially 
bridged and hundreds of people are crossing on the 
ice; teams are also beginning to cross over and the 
old Father is considered as brought into subjection
268 THE PALIMPSEST
to the ice king until the warm weather shall set him 
loose. Before the river closed entirely several per­
sons managed to fall through the ice, but all were 
rescued without further damage than getting thor­
oughly wet.” Evidently Emerson was not among 
those who managed to fall through.
“ Soft coal, which comes to Rock Island from 
about twelve miles, sells for sixteen cents a bushel; 
wood at six dollars per cord” , continued the journal 
of the Concord householder; and the student of 
language could not refrain from noting peculiarities 
of speech. “ They talk ‘quarter-sections.’ ‘I will 
take a quarter-section of that pie.’ ”
The founder of Davenport seems to have inter­
ested the New England scholar. “ Le Claire being a 
half breed of the Sacs and Foxes (and of French- 
Canadian)” , he wrote, “ had a right to a location of 
a square mile of land, and with a more than Indian 
sagacity of choosing his warpath, he chose his lot, 
one [part] above the rapids, and the other below 
the rapids, at Rock Island. He chose his lot thirty 
years ago, and now the railroad to the Pacific runs 
directly through his log house, which is occupied by 
the company for wood and other purposes. His 
property has risen to the value of five or six hundred 
thousand dollars. He is fifty-seven years old and 
weighs three hundred and eight pounds.”
Antoine Le Claire’s log house, which Emerson 
passed in his walks about Davenport, still stands, 
although it no longer occupies its original site and is
EMERSON AT DAVENPORT 269
not to be seen in its original condition. After having 
been moved twice, it now stands at the intersection 
of Fifth and Pershing streets. The railroad which 
in 1855 ran directly through it did not, however, 
extend to the Pacific. That was only a popular 
dream. As a matter of fact it had hardly reached 
the capital of the State at Iowa City, and ten years 
elapsed before it was completed to Des Moines 
whither the capital had meanwhile been removed.
Emerson’s journal records that he was announced 
as “ the Celebrated Metaphysician” in Rock Island, 
while in Davenport he was described as “ the Essay­
ist and Poet.” No existing Davenport or Rock 
Island papers advertised “ the Essayist and Poet” 
or ‘ ‘ the Celebrated Metaphysician. ’ ’ Emerson must 
have referred to handbills or placards, none of 
which have been preserved. The newspaper notice 
which proclaimed his coming, hidden in small type 
on an inside page, was not pretentious:
YOUNG MEN’S LITERARY ASSOCIATION
ANNUAL COURSE OF LECTURES
The Seventh lecture of the course will be delivered at 
the Congregational Church on Monday evening, December 
31, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Lecture will commence at 
7y2 o ’clock.
Single Tickets 50 cents; for sale at the Book Stores and 
LeClaire House; Season Tickets $2.
W m . H all 1 
C. D eL ano  > Committee 
A. M orton |
270 THE PALIMPSEST
Although the New Year’s eve lecture appears to 
have been well attended Emerson’s auditors were 
not much impressed by his discourse if the news­
paper review may be accepted as a basis for judging.
“ B a l p h  W aldo  E m e r s o n .—  We were one of the 
many who had the pleasure of listening to this man 
of celebrity on Monday evening. Those who assert 
that Mr. Emerson is an orator are simply mistaken. 
That he writes and reasons well no one can doubt, 
but he is no orator. In that respect we were dis­
appointed, but in others we found him much as we 
had anticipated.
“ The first part of his lecture was by no means 
flattering to his reputation, but the latter portion 
redeemed it. That the audience appreciated the 
many good things that fell from his lips, was ap­
parent in the silence with which they listened to his 
remarks.
“ It would have been difficult to have given his 
address a name; indeed, we doubt if the author him­
self was not at a loss to give it an appropriate title. 
He treated laconically upon many subjects, and all 
of them he handled skilfully, leaving in his wake a 
train for thought which will come upon the mind at 
unexpected moments like a forgotten dream. His 
lecture, like Laocoon, should have been ascribed ‘to 
those who think’.”
Perhaps, after all, the lecture had no title. If the 
address went over the reporter’s head, he neverthe­
less was sufficiently acute to comprehend the miscel­
EMERSON AT DAVENPORT 271
laneous and mosaic character of Emerson’s thought, 
and his opinion of Emerson’s oratorical ability 
struck the keynote of the criticism which was to 
prevail in Iowa as long as Emerson lectured. At 
no time was Emerson highly regarded for his 
delivery. Although his Iowa engagements were 
comparatively numerous, he was not in demand be­
cause of his oratory; for he lacked the fire and 
dramatic ability of Wendell Phillips or John Gough, 
the great popular platform heroes of the fifties and 
sixties. His appeal was of an entirely different 
character. He did, in truth, address those who 
think, and thinking is neither a dramatic nor a spec­
tacular process.
The small space devoted to a review of Emerson’s 
1855 Davenport lecture is not conclusive evidence 
that his audience did not enjoy and appreciate what 
he said. Judging by the newspapers of that day, 
one would imagine that the whole duty of man was 
then politics, the whole duty of woman — silence. 
And the interest in front page advertisements, set in 
minute type, must have been exceedingly lively. 
Mere lectures were of little significance compared 
with politics.
The lecture in Davenport was Emerson’s only ap­
pearance in Iowa in 1855. Although as early as 1853 
there had been some discussion of an effort to secure 
him as a lecturer in Dubuque, it was apparently not 
until August, 1856, that he was definitely asked to 
speak there. But the Concord essayist came no
272 THE PALIMPSEST
farther west than Illinois that season and it was not 
until after the Civil War that he again lectured in 
Iowa.
Despite the fact that in Davenport he had been 
regarded as “no orator” , it was to Davenport that 
Emerson came first upon the occasion of his second 
Iowa visit. He had been engaged by the Associated 
Congress, the group of men sponsoring the lecture 
courses, to speak on “ Resources” at Metropolitan 
Hall, Friday evening, January 19,1866. “ Consider­
ing that Air. Emerson is quite as well and favorably 
known throughout this section as Bayard Taylor,” 
said one Davenport newspaper, “ and recollecting 
the crowded state of the Hall at the latter gentle­
man’s lecture, some time ago, it seems really useless 
for us to say a word in his favor.”
The paper which ten years before had announced 
his coming only in a formal advertisement this time 
said: 11 There will be an opportunity tonight to hear 
a lecture of the first order of merit . . .  As a 
thorough scholar and pronounced thinker, Ralph 
Waldo Emerson occupies an eminent position in this 
country. His published lectures are among the most 
valued contributions to American literature.” This 
announcement, too, predicted that the lecture on 
“ Resources” would be well patronized.
Unfortunately, the audience was not of the pro­
portions predicted. The weather was very in­
clement. Said the Davenport Gazette on January 
20, 3866: “ A large number of our citizens who had
EMERSON AT DAYENPORT 273
anticipated a rich treat last evening in listening to 
the lecture of the distinguished essayist, R. W. 
Emerson, were, thanks to the intense cold and 
furious gale which made outdoors venturers almost 
heroic, grievously disappointed. A few — about 
four score — braved the frost and blast, and with 
all the interest possible in a hall freezingly cold and 
amid the continual clatter and banging of windows 
and doors, heard and were amply repaid for the 
effort. Resources — in the abstract and concrete — 
formed the subject of the lecture, which was, of 
course, tilled with the deepest thought and most 
happy illustration. We regret that the hall was not 
tilled, as it would have been had the weather been at 
all favorable. That the hall was so miserably 
warmed was highly discreditable and deserving of 
severest censure.”
The Davenport Democrat agreed that “ a more in­
auspicious night could not have been selected for 
Mr. Emerson’s lecture than the last one. In addi­
tion to the most intense cold, the wind was furious, 
and the air tilled with snow. Yet, in spite of these 
obstacles, some sixty or seventy persons assembled 
at the hall, a third of whom were ladies, and the 
renowned lecturer began his discourse. The win­
dows and doors rattled incessantly, but in spite of 
the noise Mr. Emerson’s voice was sufficiently pow­
erful to be heard distinctly in all parts of the hall. 
It requires but little genius to interest an audience 
on a very interesting subject, but to interest it with
274 THE PALIMPSEST
abstract facts, and theories, is quite another matter. 
In the latter, however, Mr. Emerson succeeded to 
perfection, and notwithstanding the cold, scarcely an 
eye was diverted from the speaker during the whole 
discourse.” But with respect to the indifferent 
manner in which the hall was heated, the Democrat 
took issue with the Gazette. “ The furnaces were 
kept in full blast to the close of the lecture. The 
fault was in the atmosphere, and not with the man­
agers of the hall. ’ ’
Only a handful of people ventured out to hear the 
lecture, yet the lecturer was there, and may have 
travelled many difficult miles to meet his engage­
ment. Speaking under such circumstances was not 
easy, yet he was distinctly heard. In spite of dis­
tractions, a close interest wTas maintained, and this, 
too, in an abstract subject. It is a significant picture 
of the hardships which the scholar had to undergo, 
of the niche he filled as a lecturer — the speaker, not 
the orator, vanning attention with intangible mate­
rial. Even the little newspaper quarrel about the 
faulty heating is meaningful: generally the quarrel 
centered about the speaker, his political complexion 
deciding the editors’ opinions of his worth. Emer­
son, by avoiding disputed questions of the hour, lost 
somewhat of the glamour of immediate popularity, 
but received a more unbiased and lasting approba­
tion from those who had given their applause to the 
lecture heroes basking in the sunlight only for the 
day.
EMERSON AT DAYENPORT 275
Not quite two years elapsed when Emerson’s third 
lecture in Davenport was announced. “ Ralph 
Waldo Emerson” , said the Davenport Democrat of 
December 12, 1867, “ occupies to-day the highest 
place in American literature; honored, admired, and 
studied by the master authors of England, Germany 
and France, and has consented to lecture here on the 
evening of Friday, December 20th, 1867.”
The terrible cold and the inadequate heating of the 
hall upon the occasion of his former lecture were 
remembered, and the Young Men’s Library Associ­
ation thought it well to assure the public that this 
time Metropolitan Hall would be well warmed and 
comfortable. An additional furnace was to be in­
stalled, and a stove placed in the hall for use in case 
necessity should demand. This time Emerson’s 
audience should be able to listen to him without 
physical distractions.
In spite of these extraordinary precautions to 
make the evening’s entertainment and instruction a 
complete success, an uncontrollable element had not 
been taken into consideration — the lecturer him­
self. Emerson spoke from manuscript, which was 
not always in perfect order. Furthermore, the pages 
of his manuscript were merely distant signal fires to 
which he did not always directly proceed and which 
he sometimes entirely ignored. The result was occa­
sionally irritating to those who sat near enough to 
watch his actions clearly and who unfortunately 
could not avoid seeing the details of his movements.
276 THE PALIMPSEST
Emerson’s lecture in Davenport, wrote one of 
these front-row people, “ may have been about ‘Suc­
cess;’ but the peculiar hop, skip, and jump style of 
the speaker, commencing a page and omitting half 
of it, or beginning in the middle, and, while reading 
the last part, turning over and laying aside two or 
three full pages, certainly failed to make clear 
either what success is or how to attain it.”
The serene Amos B. Alcott, lecturing in Iowa in 
1872, and viewing Emerson’s literary efforts in 
retrospect, thought that his essays might be read 
either backward or forward. “ Does it make any 
difference” , he asked, “ where one begins to look at 
the firmament? Are not the Heavens all, in each 
constellation, beautiful?’’ Doubtless every group of 
stars is in itself beautiful, yet if these groups were 
shifted hither and yon before our eyes with no ac­
companying explanation, a certain amount of amaze­
ment would certainly arise in the minds of all save 
the most philosophical.
The hall, however, was well warmed to the satis­
faction of all present.
H u b e r t  H .  H o e l t j e


Emerson at Davenport

The Palimpsest

The PalimpsestE D I T E D  BY J O H N  E L Y  B R I G G SV o l . V I I  Is s u e d  in S e p t e m b e r  1 9 2 6  N o .  9C O P Y R I G H T  1 9 2 6  B Y  T H E  S T A T E  H I S T O R I C A L  S O C I E T Y  O F  I O W AEmerson at DavenportAlmost as soon as there were enough settlers in early Iowa communities to make a public gathering possible, lyceums were organized and lecture courses became a regular feature of social life. An old fashioned lyceum existed in Davenport in 1841 and not two years after the first log cabin had been built in Johnson County, a meeting was called for the purpose of forming a lyceum in Iowa City. Profes­sional lecturing began as soon as means of communi­cation and transportation permitted.“ A spirit for instruction is abroad in the land,” according to the Davenport Gazette of January 27, 1842, “ before which bows the demoralizing pag­eantry of theatres and corrupting influence of grog shops. It shows itself in the gathering of the people to learn wisdom as it falls from the lips of the lec­turer. Every city paper that we receive applauds the talents of gifted men, who are endeavoring by265266 THE PALIMPSESTmeans of public lectures to reform and instruct tlieir fellow creatures. There is no better manner of im­proving our minds and morals than by attending the drawing room of the lecturer. ” Within a decade after the admission of Iowa into the Union, the lecture system had become a well established insti­tution in the State, and many prominent speakers appeared upon the rostra of the various cities during a winter season. Among the most notable lecturers who came to Iowa was Ralph Waldo Emerson, the profound New England essayist and poet.It was mid-June in 1850 when Emerson first looked over the sweeping, boundless prairies of Iowa. After a visit to the Mammoth Cave, which inspired the famous essay on “ Illusions ” , he had gone down the Ohio River to St. Louis and then up the Mississippi as far north as Galena, Illinois, whence he had resumed his homeward journey.Like most travellers of his day, he was impressed, not by the thriving cities which had already firmly established themselves in the new country, but by the novelty of the scenery, “ the raw bullion of nature.” “ In the Upper Mississippi” , he wrote to his friend Thomas Carlyle, “ you are always in a lake with many islands. ‘The Far W est’ is the right name for these verdant deserts. On all the shores, intermin­able silent forest. If you land, prairie behind prai­rie, forest behind forest, sites of nations, no na­tions.” The cities which he passed and at which he stepped ashore escaped his comment.EMERSON AT DAYENPORT 267Not until December, 1855, did Emerson come to Iowa as a lecturer, one of twelve in the Davenport course of that season. Although the almost incon­ceivable extent of the new land still stirred his fancy, he now travelled more leisurely, and took occasion to look about him more closely. At the Le Claire House in Davenport he copied two rules of the hotel in his journal on December 31st: “ No gentleman permitted to sit at the table without his coat” , and “ No gambling permitted in the house.” He also made a note of the fact that he had “ crossed the Mississippi on foot three times” , the previous cross­ings having been made at St. Louis in January, 1853.The entry is characteristically Emersonian. Even in the Far West gentlemen must not sit at table without their coats. Emerson noted the rule for his own guidance, said his son, humorously. And per­haps his Puritanic morality was gratified though he considered it remarkable that gambling was pro­hibited.Crossing the Mississippi on foot, and that was about the only way in the winter of 1855, was an exciting experience. Any one who has walked over the ice at Davenport will agree that the undertaking has its thrills. But Emerson crossed in comparative safety. “ Our river” , said a Davenport paper a few days before his arrival, “ is pretty substantially bridged and hundreds of people are crossing on the ice; teams are also beginning to cross over and the old Father is considered as brought into subjection268 THE PALIMPSESTto the ice king until the warm weather shall set him loose. Before the river closed entirely several per­sons managed to fall through the ice, but all were rescued without further damage than getting thor­oughly wet.” Evidently Emerson was not among those who managed to fall through.“ Soft coal, which comes to Rock Island from about twelve miles, sells for sixteen cents a bushel; wood at six dollars per cord” , continued the journal of the Concord householder; and the student of language could not refrain from noting peculiarities of speech. “ They talk ‘quarter-sections.’ ‘I will take a quarter-section of that pie.’ ”The founder of Davenport seems to have inter­ested the New England scholar. “ Le Claire being a half breed of the Sacs and Foxes (and of French- Canadian)” , he wrote, “ had a right to a location of a square mile of land, and with a more than Indian sagacity of choosing his warpath, he chose his lot, one [part] above the rapids, and the other below the rapids, at Rock Island. He chose his lot thirty years ago, and now the railroad to the Pacific runs directly through his log house, which is occupied by the company for wood and other purposes. His property has risen to the value of five or six hundred thousand dollars. He is fifty-seven years old and weighs three hundred and eight pounds.”Antoine Le Claire’s log house, which Emerson passed in his walks about Davenport, still stands, although it no longer occupies its original site and isEMERSON AT DAVENPORT 269not to be seen in its original condition. After having been moved twice, it now stands at the intersection of Fifth and Pershing streets. The railroad which in 1855 ran directly through it did not, however, extend to the Pacific. That was only a popular dream. As a matter of fact it had hardly reached the capital of the State at Iowa City, and ten years elapsed before it was completed to Des Moines whither the capital had meanwhile been removed.Emerson’s journal records that he was announced as “ the Celebrated Metaphysician” in Rock Island, while in Davenport he was described as “ the Essay­ist and Poet.” No existing Davenport or Rock Island papers advertised “ the Essayist and Poet” or ‘ ‘ the Celebrated Metaphysician. ’ ’ Emerson must have referred to handbills or placards, none of which have been preserved. The newspaper notice which proclaimed his coming, hidden in small type on an inside page, was not pretentious:YOUNG MEN’S LITERARY ASSOCIATIONANNUAL COURSE OF LECTURESThe Seventh lecture of the course will be delivered at the Congregational Church on Monday evening, December 31, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Lecture will commence at 7y2 o ’clock.Single Tickets 50 cents; for sale at the Book Stores and LeClaire House; Season Tickets $2.W m . H all 1 C. D eL ano  > Committee A. M orton |270 THE PALIMPSESTAlthough the New Year’s eve lecture appears to have been well attended Emerson’s auditors were not much impressed by his discourse if the news­paper review may be accepted as a basis for judging.“ B a l p h  W aldo  E m e r s o n .—  We were one of the many who had the pleasure of listening to this man of celebrity on Monday evening. Those who assert that Mr. Emerson is an orator are simply mistaken. That he writes and reasons well no one can doubt, but he is no orator. In that respect we were dis­appointed, but in others we found him much as we had anticipated.“ The first part of his lecture was by no means flattering to his reputation, but the latter portion redeemed it. That the audience appreciated the many good things that fell from his lips, was ap­parent in the silence with which they listened to his remarks.“ It would have been difficult to have given his address a name; indeed, we doubt if the author him­self was not at a loss to give it an appropriate title. He treated laconically upon many subjects, and all of them he handled skilfully, leaving in his wake a train for thought which will come upon the mind at unexpected moments like a forgotten dream. His lecture, like Laocoon, should have been ascribed ‘to those who think’.”Perhaps, after all, the lecture had no title. If the address went over the reporter’s head, he neverthe­less was sufficiently acute to comprehend the miscel­EMERSON AT DAVENPORT 271laneous and mosaic character of Emerson’s thought, and his opinion of Emerson’s oratorical ability struck the keynote of the criticism which was to prevail in Iowa as long as Emerson lectured. At no time was Emerson highly regarded for his delivery. Although his Iowa engagements were comparatively numerous, he was not in demand be­cause of his oratory; for he lacked the fire and dramatic ability of Wendell Phillips or John Gough, the great popular platform heroes of the fifties and sixties. His appeal was of an entirely different character. He did, in truth, address those who think, and thinking is neither a dramatic nor a spec­tacular process.The small space devoted to a review of Emerson’s 1855 Davenport lecture is not conclusive evidence that his audience did not enjoy and appreciate what he said. Judging by the newspapers of that day, one would imagine that the whole duty of man was then politics, the whole duty of woman — silence. And the interest in front page advertisements, set in minute type, must have been exceedingly lively. Mere lectures were of little significance compared with politics.The lecture in Davenport was Emerson’s only ap­pearance in Iowa in 1855. Although as early as 1853 there had been some discussion of an effort to secure him as a lecturer in Dubuque, it was apparently not until August, 1856, that he was definitely asked to speak there. But the Concord essayist came no272 THE PALIMPSESTfarther west than Illinois that season and it was not until after the Civil War that he again lectured in Iowa.Despite the fact that in Davenport he had been regarded as “no orator” , it was to Davenport that Emerson came first upon the occasion of his second Iowa visit. He had been engaged by the Associated Congress, the group of men sponsoring the lecture courses, to speak on “ Resources” at Metropolitan Hall, Friday evening, January 19,1866. “ Consider­ing that Air. Emerson is quite as well and favorably known throughout this section as Bayard Taylor,” said one Davenport newspaper, “ and recollecting the crowded state of the Hall at the latter gentle­man’s lecture, some time ago, it seems really useless for us to say a word in his favor.”The paper which ten years before had announced his coming only in a formal advertisement this time said: 11 There will be an opportunity tonight to hear a lecture of the first order of merit . . .  As a thorough scholar and pronounced thinker, Ralph Waldo Emerson occupies an eminent position in this country. His published lectures are among the most valued contributions to American literature.” This announcement, too, predicted that the lecture on “ Resources” would be well patronized.Unfortunately, the audience was not of the pro­portions predicted. The weather was very in­clement. Said the Davenport Gazette on January 20, 3866: “ A large number of our citizens who hadEMERSON AT DAYENPORT 273anticipated a rich treat last evening in listening to the lecture of the distinguished essayist, R. W. Emerson, were, thanks to the intense cold and furious gale which made outdoors venturers almost heroic, grievously disappointed. A few — about four score — braved the frost and blast, and with all the interest possible in a hall freezingly cold and amid the continual clatter and banging of windows and doors, heard and were amply repaid for the effort. Resources — in the abstract and concrete — formed the subject of the lecture, which was, of course, tilled with the deepest thought and most happy illustration. We regret that the hall was not tilled, as it would have been had the weather been at all favorable. That the hall was so miserably warmed was highly discreditable and deserving of severest censure.”The Davenport Democrat agreed that “ a more in­auspicious night could not have been selected for Mr. Emerson’s lecture than the last one. In addi­tion to the most intense cold, the wind was furious, and the air tilled with snow. Yet, in spite of these obstacles, some sixty or seventy persons assembled at the hall, a third of whom were ladies, and the renowned lecturer began his discourse. The win­dows and doors rattled incessantly, but in spite of the noise Mr. Emerson’s voice was sufficiently pow­erful to be heard distinctly in all parts of the hall. It requires but little genius to interest an audience on a very interesting subject, but to interest it with274 THE PALIMPSESTabstract facts, and theories, is quite another matter. In the latter, however, Mr. Emerson succeeded to perfection, and notwithstanding the cold, scarcely an eye was diverted from the speaker during the whole discourse.” But with respect to the indifferent manner in which the hall was heated, the Democrat took issue with the Gazette. “ The furnaces were kept in full blast to the close of the lecture. The fault was in the atmosphere, and not with the man­agers of the hall. ’ ’Only a handful of people ventured out to hear the lecture, yet the lecturer was there, and may have travelled many difficult miles to meet his engage­ment. Speaking under such circumstances was not easy, yet he was distinctly heard. In spite of dis­tractions, a close interest wTas maintained, and this, too, in an abstract subject. It is a significant picture of the hardships which the scholar had to undergo, of the niche he filled as a lecturer — the speaker, not the orator, vanning attention with intangible mate­rial. Even the little newspaper quarrel about the faulty heating is meaningful: generally the quarrel centered about the speaker, his political complexion deciding the editors’ opinions of his worth. Emer­son, by avoiding disputed questions of the hour, lost somewhat of the glamour of immediate popularity, but received a more unbiased and lasting approba­tion from those who had given their applause to the lecture heroes basking in the sunlight only for the day.EMERSON AT DAYENPORT 275Not quite two years elapsed when Emerson’s third lecture in Davenport was announced. “ Ralph Waldo Emerson” , said the Davenport Democrat of December 12, 1867, “ occupies to-day the highest place in American literature; honored, admired, and studied by the master authors of England, Germany and France, and has consented to lecture here on the evening of Friday, December 20th, 1867.”The terrible cold and the inadequate heating of the hall upon the occasion of his former lecture were remembered, and the Young Men’s Library Associ­ation thought it well to assure the public that this time Metropolitan Hall would be well warmed and comfortable. An additional furnace was to be in­stalled, and a stove placed in the hall for use in case necessity should demand. This time Emerson’s audience should be able to listen to him without physical distractions.In spite of these extraordinary precautions to make the evening’s entertainment and instruction a complete success, an uncontrollable element had not been taken into consideration — the lecturer him­self. Emerson spoke from manuscript, which was not always in perfect order. Furthermore, the pages of his manuscript were merely distant signal fires to which he did not always directly proceed and which he sometimes entirely ignored. The result was occa­sionally irritating to those who sat near enough to watch his actions clearly and who unfortunately could not avoid seeing the details of his movements.276 THE PALIMPSESTEmerson’s lecture in Davenport, wrote one of these front-row people, “ may have been about ‘Suc­cess;’ but the peculiar hop, skip, and jump style of the speaker, commencing a page and omitting half of it, or beginning in the middle, and, while reading the last part, turning over and laying aside two or three full pages, certainly failed to make clear either what success is or how to attain it.”The serene Amos B. Alcott, lecturing in Iowa in 1872, and viewing Emerson’s literary efforts in retrospect, thought that his essays might be read either backward or forward. “ Does it make any difference” , he asked, “ where one begins to look at the firmament? Are not the Heavens all, in each constellation, beautiful?’’ Doubtless every group of stars is in itself beautiful, yet if these groups were shifted hither and yon before our eyes with no ac­companying explanation, a certain amount of amaze­ment would certainly arise in the minds of all save the most philosophical.The hall, however, was well warmed to the satis­faction of all present.H u b e r t  H .  H o e l t j e

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Emerson at Davenport

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