one of the best trained and most talented recitationists now living. The most popular comedians and humorists of the day,—the best actors of New York, as well as “Nasby” and “Mark Twain,”—and the press of every city in which he has appeared, have united in extolling his histrionic powers. His lecture gives specimens of nearly all the dialects of the United States and several dialects of the British people. Every dialect is illustrated by a humorous story or poem. He made a decided hit in Boston on his first appearance. (Lyceum 1873, 3)

The name and fame of Mr. Francis Bret Harte were not such as to collect a very large audience in Music Hall last evening, and those who assembled to listen to such remarks as the man who was once pronounced the “representative American novelist” might be inspired to make on “The Argonauts of ’49” were disappointed, for, to use the words of Mr. Redpath, in his spicy little speech of apology, “for the third time the Heathen Chinee insulted a Boston audience.” “The first time,” said Mr. Redpath, “was at Cambridge, when he promised to deliver a first-rate poem, and read a second-rate one; the second time was when he promised to read to the Grand Army of the Republic, and sent a third-rate poem; and the third time is this evening, when he does not come at all. His engagement with us was made last June for the thirty-first of October, a date afterwards changed at his request. On Saturday, he telegraphed to us, asking that his lecture here and at Hartford should be either postponed or cancelled. We wrote to him immediately, telling him that his lecture could not be postponed, and requesting him to telegraph to us forthwith. This he did not do, but yesterday we received a letter saying that his lecture must be either postponed or cancelled as he could not come, and immediately cancelled his engagement. It is our rule, whenever we are compelled to disappoint our ticket-holders, to substitute a better lecturer than the one whose name we withdraw, and, in accordance with this custom, I invite your attention this evening to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes.” (“Bret Harte as a Breaker of Engagements,” Hartford Evening Post, 15 Nov 72, 2, reprinting the Boston Globe of 14 Nov 72)

For the last two years Messrs. Redpath and Fall of the Lyceum Bureau have repeatedly solicited me to enter the lecture field under their auspices. I finally acceded, and in August last in an interview with Mr. Redpath stated very clearly the conditions, and the only conditions, under which I would lecture. On the first of November I received from them a list of engagements whose conditions were totally at variance with those I had named. I at once informed them by letter that I would not accept them, and reiterated my former demand. To this I received no reply, but on the 9th of November, four days before the date of my Boston engagement, not wishing to disappoint a gathered audience pending these purely private and personal negotiations, I telegraphed to Messrs. Redpath and Fall that they must postpone that date. They replied by telegraph the same day that it was impossible, adding that Hartford (my first engagement) would accept my conditions. I at once wrote to them that until all my engagements were made equally satisfactory, they must postpone or cancel both, and that I would not permit Hartford to be forced, at the last moment, into accepting conditions of which they had not been previously aware. To this I added that the Boston fire, then burning, was a sufficient excuse for postponement—an excuse that afterward in the case of two distinguished lecturers was considered valid and not particularly “insulting” to a Boston audience.

With a perfect understanding of these details, and with my letter in his pocket, Mr. James Redpath rose before an audience which he had permitted to gather to hear a man who he knew would be absent, charged me with insulting them, depreciated the wares he had asked permission to peddle exclusively—all in the most extraordinary performance, I trust, ever given before a New England lyceum.

I have only to add that it is still my intention to lecture before a Boston audience, but not for Mr. Redpath, nor of him. (Harte 1872)

We received no notification whatever from him of his intention not to lecture in Boston until the Saturday preceding the lecture—before the fire. It was in these words: “N. Y., Nov. 9, Redpath and Fall: Must postpone Boston lecture on 13th. Bret Harte.” Just so much and nothing more. Not a syllable of explanation. Although we telegraphed at once, and, in a letter sent by that evening’s mail, urged him to telegraph us on Monday if he could not keep the engagement, we received not a word from him until Tuesday, when he not only refused to appear, but made—or seemed to make—his intention of lecturing in Boston at all conditional on the readjustment of fees in western Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Moreover, the letter showed that his lecture had never been written. (Redpath 1872)