84 A Century of Science 



mentary way. But it was the peculiarity of You- 

 mans that while on the one hand he could grasp 

 the newest scientific thought so surely and firmly 

 that he seemed to have entered into the innermost 

 mind of its author, on the other hand he could 

 speak to the general public in an extremely con- 

 vincing and stimulating way. This was the secret 

 of his power, and there can be no question that 

 his influence in educating the American people 

 to receive the doctrine of evolution was great and 

 widespread. 



The years when Youmans was travelling and lec- 

 turing were the years when the old lyceum system 

 of popular lectures was still in its vigour. The 

 kind of life led by the energetic lecturer in those 

 days was not that of a Sybarite, as may be seen 

 from a passage in one of his letters : "I lectured 

 in Sandusky, and had to get up at five o'clock to 

 reach Elyria ; I had had but very little sleep. 

 To get from Elyria to Pittsburg I must take the 

 five o'clock morning train, and the hotel darky 

 said he would try to waken me. I knew what 

 that meant, and so did not get a single wink of 

 sleep that night. Rode all day to Pittsburg, and 

 had to lecture in the great Academy of Music over 

 footlights. . . . The train that left for Zanesville 

 departed at two in the morning. I had been as- 



