Ladies and Gentlemen Whose Bearing Was That of Intelligence and Refinement

When the Boston Theatre is enlarged, it will be able to contain a greater audience than that which assembled within its walls last evening – not before. The announcement that Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll was to lecture caused so great a rush for seats that all the desirable sittings were taken two or three days in advance of the appointed time; and when the rotund figure and jolly countenance of the orator appeared upon the stage, last evening, and stepped forward to the reading desk at the footlights, he was greeted by an audience that not only filled every seat in the vast auditorium, even to the upper gallery, but overflowed into the aisles and doorways and thronged the lobbies.

There were over three thousand people present. It was an audience, too, which any speaker might be proud to address, for it was composed of ladies and gentlemen whose bearing was that of intelligence and refinement, and who, as far as outward appearance, would indicate, were fully on a level with the church-goers of this city.