The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

THE HUMOR OF A LECTURER qS LIFE. 9

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think profoundly on the great questions now surging to the
front, that concern the bettering of the world: I have met
them here and there in my journeyings, and listened spellbound to their plans and prophecies, till I too "1have seen
distant gates of Eden gleam." Shall, not the dream of the
ages be realized? It was the belief in " Ia good time coming " that inspired Plato's 'divine "1Republic," - that planned
Sir Thomas More's "1Utopia," - that suggested the "1Arcadia " of Sir Philp Sydney, - that stimulated Harrington to
sing his "1Oceana," - that stirred Fourier to plan his blundering labor paradise, - that led Jesus and the apostles to
foretell the new heaven and the new earth. Shall this hope
which humanity has carried in its heart like a heavenly seed
through the ages never come to fruitage?
But is there no " fun " in the life of a lecturer? Is there
never a time when a frolic is in order, and a good laugh
comes in? Assuredly, and it comes at unexpected times,
and from unlooked-for sources. Vexed though I was at
first, I laughed heartily afterwards, when, on one occasion,
I opened my valise, to take therefrom the orthodox black
silk gown which I was to wear in the evening, and found it
missing. In its place, I beheld with dismay, the wedding
garments of a stalwart bridegroom, who was to have arrayed
himself for his wedding that night, in white satin vest and
necktie, white kid gloves, delicate hosiery, and patent
leather shoes of the latest fashion. A careless porter at the
hotel had misplaced the checks on our not dissimilar valises.
I began to feel the importance of revising my facial expression, when a woman who sat opposite me on a train, and
had stared me out of countenance for an hour, informed me