Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History

Book

Open Original Text

re ado the chalk "sesame"
was scrawled upon his portmanteau and rugs. He had barely established
himself in his hotel when representatives from several New York
journals came to interview him, and his arrival was advertised by the
press to such an extent that within seven days of landing he had seen
close upon three hundred newspaper notices of himself.[181]

[Footnote 181: We have a fairly full record of these visits to the
States in the weekly letters my father sent to the _National Reformer_,
in addition to numerous newspaper reports and private correspondence.
The weekly letters to the _National Reformer_ gave much information as
to labour questions in the various places visited by Mr Bradlaugh, and
this was at the time of the utmost value, and greatly appreciated by
his readers.]

On the Saturday after his arrival he was invited to dine at the Lotos
Club, where he received the warmest and most hospitable welcome, the
Directory afterwards voting him the privileges of the Club during his
stay in New York. A few days later he was asked to a reception given by
the Lotos to Wilkie Collins. The guests were received by the President,
Whitelaw Reid, and amongst them were Dr Ludwig Büchner and Bret Harte.
Mr Bradlaugh was called upon to speak, and I gather that he made a
very favourable impression. O'Donovan Rossa called upon him soon after
his arrival, and thanked him for his work for Ireland, and showed him
several small courtesies. On Sunday the 28th he was received by the New
York Positivists and welcomed in extremely kind terms by the President
of the Society. The religious journals were greatly irritated at the
attention paid to Mr Bradlaugh, and did not neglect to show it, one
even refusing to insert the advertisement of his lectures sent by the
advertising agency.

Misfortune met him within a few days of his landing in the shape
of a financial panic of unusual severity, which, commencing in New
York, spread through the States. Speaking of this panic in one of his
earliest letters home, he says: "I entered the house of Henry Clews &
Co., about five minutes after Jay Cooke and Co. had stopped payment.
Then the excitement was not so great; people seemed stupefied with the
incredible news, as Jay Cooke was a name like Baring and Rothschild.
Later every one seemed to grow delirious, and crowds gathered round the
doors of several banks, clamouring for admittance, the inside of each
bank being already filled with anxious and angry people waiting to cash
cheques, and doubting while they waited. On Friday things got worse,
and the sight on Friday night, in the hall and reading room and smoking
room of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, was something to remember. There was a
dense mass of men, packed together--Jay Gould, Vanderbilt, Clews, and
hundreds of others who had commenced the week with enormous fortunes,
some entirely ruined in the last two days, and others not knowing
whether or not bankruptcy awaited them in the morning. The _élite_ of
New York as seen in that seething crowd did not show to advantage; the
Money Devil had gripped their entrails and disfigured their faces. On
Saturday the President of the Republic arrived at the hotel in which I
was staying, and then staircases, hall, corridors, smoking and reading
rooms were besieged, and outside, in the streets, were carriages and
uneasy waiters to gather scraps of news or comfort. I guess that
very few went to church on Sunday, September 21st. On Sunday evening
President Grant left for Washington, but the multitude did not decrease
until midnight came. Each one who had seen or who had spoken to the
President was waylaid, buttonholed, and became the centre of an eager
group of questioners. The trouble was so intense that the bankers,
brokers, and railway contractors actually forgot whether they were
well or ill dressed." These financial troubles greatly affected all
lecturing engagements, as one might easily imagine, and Mr Bradlaugh
in particular found his difficulties considerably increased by the
suicide of his agent, whose affairs had become considerably involved in
consequence of the panic.

His first lecture was given in the Steinway Hall at New York, on
October 3rd. Considering the home troubles, the audience was a good
one, one which he himself felt to be very remarkable. Amongst those
present were many members of the Lotos Club, including their President,
Whitelaw Reid, and D. J. Croly, "Jenny June," Colonel Olcott, General
Kilpatrick, Andrew Jackson Davis, Theodore Tilton, Mrs Victoria
Woodhull, O'Donovan Rossa, the Rev. O. B. Frothingham, Colonel Hay,
Bret Harte, and Mr Andrews were also amongst his listeners. My father
had been feeling very nervous about this first lecture. When he arrived
in New York he was asked how long he expected to remain in America. "If
I fail at Steinway Hall on October 3rd, I shall take the next steamer
for England," was the reply. But there was no question of failure;
he met with an immediate and wonderful success; his audience came to
criticise and remained to applaud. In the papers of the following
day his speech was greatly praised, and he himself pronounced one of
"the greatest of living orators." The Brindley episode,[182] which by
covering him with ridicule might have done him serious injury, was, by
his coolness and quick wit, turned into a decided advantage. On the day
after his lecture he had numerous kindly callers and congratulations.
Amongst those who called was Mrs Victoria Woodhull, and Mr Bradlaugh's
impressions of this much-talked-of lady are not without a certain
interest. When Mrs Woodhull called he was talking to Stephen Pearl
Andrews, the author of a learned book entitled "The Basic Outlines
of Universology," and, "while chatting with Mr Andrews," said my
father, "a slightly built lady entered, who was presented to me as Mrs
Victoria Woodhull, the present President of the American Spiritualists,
and advocate of very advanced doctrines on social questions. The
energy and enthusiasm manifested by this lady in our extremely brief
conversation were marvellous; her eyes brightened, her whole face
lit up, and she seemed all life. It would have been impossible to
have brought together two persons more exactly opposite than Victoria
Woodhull and Stephen Pearl Andrews--one all fire, the other all quiet
thought; the one intent on active out-door war, the other content to
work almost isolated in his closet on a huge book, which few can read
and fewer still will care to read. Mrs Woodhull is evidently made for
sharp strife of tongue and pen. Her face lights up with a beauty which
does not belong to it ordinarily, but which gilds it as she speaks.
Mr Andrews uses his pen only to note down the record of his thought,
without the slightest regard to the never-ceasing strife around him.
His forehead is marked with the furrows hard thinking has ploughed upon
it. Many people here speak very bitterly against Victoria Woodhull; at
present I prefer to take sides with none. It is enough t

Previous Next