SUMMARY OF THE TOUR. 235- 



not obtain all, even, that he had bargained for. And in 

 this American tonr he made the grand initial mistake of 

 not putting himself into the hands of one of the great 

 lecturing agencies, upon the usual understanding that a 

 certain fixed sum was to be paid to him under any cir- 

 cumstances, with a certain specified addition thereto if 

 the receipts should exceed a certain amount. In that 

 case he would have cleared his travelling expenses, and 

 returned home with a fairly substantial balance. But, 

 instead of doing this, he crossed the Atlantic solely 

 on the strength of the Lowell lectures, which, though 

 profitable enough as one engagement out of many, 

 were certainly not sufficiently remunerative to ensure 

 the success of the venture. It is true that after a time 

 he did secure the services of a professional agent. But 

 by some ill-fortune he contrived to select one whose 

 whole attention was practically monopolised by travel- 

 ling dramatic companies, while no stipulation whatever 

 was made as to the payment of a fixed sum in any 

 contingency ; so that the lectures fell into the back- 

 ground, and were not " pushed " as they would have 

 been in better hands. The consequence was that, on 

 more than one occasion, no lecture was given for a week 

 or ten days at a time. The cost of living in America 

 is very much higher than in England, travelling 

 expenses had to be paid, and, when all was taken into 

 account, the financial results of the tour barely exceeded 

 those which would have been forthcoming from an 

 average winter season in England. 



Of course the matter had also to be considered from. 



