The Continental Monthly, Vol. I. February, 1862, No. II. | Page 5

dust. Aye, strengthen the government; and let its first
manifestation of strength and will be the settling of the negro question.
Give the administration as full power as you please--the more the better;
it is only conferring strength on the people. There is no danger that the

men of the North will ever lose a shadow of individual rights. They are
too powerful.
And now let the freemen of America speak, and the work will be done.
A great day is at hand; hasten it. The hour which sees this Union
re-united will witness the most glorious triumph of humanity,--the
greatest step towards realizing the social aim of Christianity, and of
Him who died for all,--the recognition of the rights of every one.
Onward!
* * * * *
BROWN'S LECTURE TOUR.
I.--HOW HE CAME TO DO IT.
My last speculation had proved a failure. I was left with a stock of fifty
impracticable washing-machines on my hands, and a cash capital of
forty-four cents. With the furniture of my room, these constituted my
total assets. I had an unsettled account of forty dollars with Messrs.
Roller & Ems, printers, for washing-machine circulars, cards, etc.;
and--
Rap, rap, rap!
[Enter boy.]
'Mr. Peck says as how you'll please call around to his office and settle
up this afternoon, sure.'
[Exit boy.]
_New York, Nov. 30, 1859_.
Mr. GREEN D. BROWN,
TO JOHN PECK, Dr.
To Rent of Room to date $9 00
_Rec'd Pay't_,
I came to the emphatic conclusion that I was 'hard up.'
I kept bachelor's hall in Franklin Street, in apartments not altogether
sumptuous, yet sufficiently so for my purposes,--to wit, to sit in and to
sleep in; and inasmuch as I took my meals amid the gilded splendors of
the big saloon on the corner of Broadway, I was not disposed to
reproach myself with squalor. Yet the articles of furniture in my room
were so far removed, separately or in the aggregate, from anything like

the superfluous, that when I calmly deliberated what to part with, there
was nothing which struck me as a luxury or a comfort as distinct from a
necessary of life. I took a second mental inventory: two common chairs,
a table, a mirror, a rocking-chair, a bed, a lounge, and a single picture
on the wall.
I declare, thought I, here's nothing to spare.
But things were getting to a crisis. I must 'make a raise,' somehow.
Borrow? Ah, certainly--where was the benevolent moneyed individual?
My credit had gone with my cash; both were sunk in the
washing-machines.
I lighted my pipe, and surveyed my household goods once more.
There was the picture: couldn't I do without that?
Possibly. But that picture I had had--let me see--fifteen, yes, sixteen
years. That picture was a third prize for excellence in declamation,
presented me at the school exhibition in ---- Street, when I was twelve
years old. That was in 1843, and here, on the first of December, 1859, I
sat deliberately meditating its sale for paltry bread and butter!
No, no; I'd go hungry a little longer, before I'd part with that old
relic--remembrancer of the proudest day of my life. What a pity I hadn't
permitted that day to give a direction to my life, instead of turning my
attention to the paltry expedients for money-making followed by the
common herd! I might have been an accomplished orator by this time,
capable of drawing crowds and pocketing a thousand a month, or so.
But my tastes had run in other channels since the day when I took that
prize.
Still, when I thought of it deliberately, I made bold to believe there was
that yet in me which could meet the expectant eyes of audiences nor
quail before them.
A thought struck me! Was not here an 'opening' for an enterprising
young man? Was not the lecture-season at hand? Did not lecturers get

from ten to two hundred dollars per night? Couldn't I talk off a lecture
with the best of them, perhaps? Well, perhaps I could, and perhaps not,
but if I wouldn't try it on, I hoped I might be blessed--that--was all.
I thought proper, after having reached this conclusion, to calculate my
wealth in the way of preliminary requisites to success. By preliminary
requisites to success, I mean those which lead to the securing of
invitations to lecture. I flattered myself that all matters consequent to
this point in my career would very readily turn themselves to my
advantage. The preliminary requisites were as follows:--
1. Notoriety. I could boast of nothing in this line. I had no reputation
whatever. I had never written a line for publication.
When I had satisfied myself that I lacked this grand requisite, I turned
my attention to the subject again only to find