Article May 18, 1907 Issue

THE LECTURES

with contributions from John A. Plummer , George A. Townsend, Jr.

Tuesday, April 23, was St. George's Day. At the Guild Hall there was a conference on Imperial education; at the Colonial Office the Prime Ministers of the Empire were discussing Imperial defense; it was the opening day of the Shakespearian Festival, and in the midst of all this people were asking how it came to pass that, for the first time in years, there was no celebration in the Albert Hall, and instead of the English Ballad Concert there was a lecture on Christian Science, and no one seemed able to answer them.

When London found there was to be a Christian Science lecture in the Albert Hall, London smiled, and asked who was going to fill it. The question was answered when the time came. The inspector in charge of the police outside the hall, when he saw the crowd collecting, declared he had never anticipated anything like it, or he would have had many more men; however, he had no need for them. The attendants inside thought it in the nature of a hardship that the doors were opened so long before the time. They smiled and said all the people who would come could easily get in much later. When the doors were opened and the audience began to surge in by thousands, they altered their minds. For the next hour they were kept busy trying to find seats for the crowd at the doors. Long before the organ ceased to play every available seat was filled, and numbers of people were going disconsolately away.

Inside the hall the scene was striking. With the exception of some seats held by private individuals, every place was occupied. Tier after tier of people stretched up to the roof, and all round the promenade at the top appeared a thick line of spectators. With the exception of the space on the platform, roped off with great palms and banks of flowers, the whole of the vast orchestra was packed with listeners. And when the organ stopped, and Lord Dunmore and Mr. Bicknell Young walked to their chairs, there were some ninety-nine hundred spectators present.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

MRS. EDDY TAKES NO PATIENTS