Mr. Christie Murrdy's Lecture.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 71, 29 March 1890, Page 2

Mr. Christie Murrdy's Lecture.

+ " HOW I CAME TO BE A NOVELIST/ Mr. David Christie Murray, the celebrated novolist, delivered an autobiographical looturo in the Thoatre Boyal last evening. There waß rather a sparse andionoe, but those who were present were treated to a couple of hours' ohatty disoourse of rare interest, in whioh graphio word-pictures, ohoice humour, and deep pathoß were judioiously blended. Mr. Murray has a power of mimtory whioh any actor mipht envy him, aild his reproductions of snatches of the affooted utterances of a Disraeli. the fnuere»l tones of a Newdegate, the rasping toioo o! Dr. Kdhoaly, or Sir Wilfrid Lawson, wi«b " the aristooratio plum ia his month," were only enrpaaeed in interest by *» imitation of John Bright in one of his fow oholorio mooda, and again in one of his noblest speaoheß, Disclaiming in the outset any intention ot instructing his audience dogmatical ly, Mr. Murray related how hv had been led into jon^naligm through his desire to write » soathlntf article about Dr. Eonealy (known to fame tCtf oonnael for tho Tichborne* Claimant), who bad replied offensively to an interruption by the lecturer of one of hia high-falutin speeches. After contributing to the paper of his nattve town for nix months he became junior reporter for tho Birmingham Morning News, started by Mr. George Dawson, to whose eloquence and abilities he paid affectionate tribuf*. In this situation he gained his first insight intothe oomedfes and tragedies of police court*, and had his eyes opened to the divine pity and sympathy that belongs to the poor— virtues to which, ho says, those of broad-cloth people are positively plain. Then followed a year of d«ty as speoial correspondent to his paper In the country districts. While thus acting he witnessed a deed of heroism whioh he dea«ribes with striking; power— that of several misers who volunteered to descend into a burniagr mino, with their lives in their hands, and who succeeded in rescuing their imprisoned maim. Talk of the decadence of British valonr ! While our oountry breeds men like those she need not fear though the world be arrayed against; her. His firat view of an execution gar* Mr. Murray an opening for the study of the emotions, and the abject terror of the oondemnerd roan was vividly described. Humorous anecdotes about a journalistic comrade were then brought in to relievo tho sombre colouring of these two incidents. Bnfr to get on with the speaker's history— his paper changed hands, and he had to go. To London he hied, and met with the discouragements iuoidental to the lives of most young authors, sought the assistance of " his uncle," and! spent four nights in wretchedness on the Thames Embankment, before ho gothfi foot on the first rung of the ladder on which hehas since climbed so high. Having rubbed elbows with somncb poverty and rascaldom, he became desirous of farther acqunintanco with the ways of the poor, so when once the tide of fortune had turned be took the disguise of a mechanio seeking for work, and made a tour through the country districts for the purpose of investigating the poor law system, taking his share of workhouse fare and oakum - picking. Anecdotes about the strange cbaraoters met with in this tramp wore followed by a series of clever sketches of English statsemen and Parliamentary oddities. Mr. Murray's opinion of the political game is that it is one of " pull devil, pull baker," and that if all the political talking h bops in the world were shut up, and hermetically sealed for 30 years, it would be an nnmitigated good to hnmanity at large. Gathering together the widely spread threads of his lecture, Mr. Murray pointed out that all incidents and experiences such as he had related were of use to tho novelist, whose motto should always be " to give delight and hurt not." With an enthusiastic eulogy of the purity of English literature, and a testimony to tho high motives and aims of the novelists of the present day, Mr. Murray conoluded amidst applanse an address whioh had received the keenest attention from his audience. We can only regret that pressure on our space forbids more than a mere glance at its subjeob matter. On Monday evening he will leoture on " Leaves from * Novelist's Notebook," and those who fail to hear him will lose an unusual opportunity for entertainment and instruction.