The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Reports in American Newspapers/The Hindoo Monk
THE HINDOO MONK
(Appeal-Avalanche, January 16, 1894)
Swami Vive Kananda, the Hindoo monk, who is to lecture at the Auditorium
[Memphis] tonight, is one of the most eloquent men who has ever appeared on
the religious or lecture platform in this country. His matchless oratory,
deep penetration into things occult, his cleverness in debate, and great
earnestness captured the closest attention of the world's thinking men at
the World's Fair Parliament of Religion, and the admiration of thousands of
people who have since heard him during his lecture tour through many of the
states of the Union.
In conversation he is a most pleasant gentleman; his choice of words are the
gems of the English language, and his general bearing ranks him with the
most cultured people of Western etiquette and custom. As a companion he is a
most charming man, and as a conversationalist he is, perhaps, not surpassed
in the drawing-rooms of any city in the Western World. He speaks English not
only distinctly, but fluently, and his ideas, as new as sparkling, drop from
his tongue in a perfectly bewildering overflow of ornamental language.
Swami Vive Kananda, by his inherited religion or early teachings, grew up a
Brahmin, but becoming converted to the Hindoo religion he sacrificed his
rank and became a Hindoo priest, or as known in the country of oriental
ideality, a sanyasin. He had always been a close student of the wonderful
and mysterious works of nature as drawn from God's high conception, and with
years spent as both a student and teacher in the higher colleges of that
eastern country, he acquired a knowledge that has given him a worldwide
reputation as one of the most thoughtful scholars of the age.
His wonderful first address before the members of the World's Fair
Parliament stamped him at once as a leader in that great body of religious
thinkers. During the session he was frequently heard in defence of his
religion, and some of the most beautiful and philosophical gems that grace
the English language rolled from his lips there in picturing the higher
duties that man owed to man and to his Creator. He is an artist in thought,
an idealist in belief and a dramatist on the platform.
Since his arrival in Memphis he has been guest of Mr. Hu L. Brinkley, where
he has received calls day and evening from many in Memphis who desired to
pay their respects to him. He is also an informal guest at the Tennessee
Club and was a guest at the reception given by Mrs. S. R. Shepherd, Saturday
evening. Col. R. B. Snowden gave a dinner at his home at Annesdale in honor
of the distinguished visitor on Sunday, where he met Assistant Bishop Thomas
F. Gailor, Rev. Dr. George Patterson and a number of other clergymen.
Yesterday afternoon he lectured before a large and fashionable audience
composed of the members of the Nineteenth Century Club in the rooms of the
club in the Randolph Building. Tonight he will be heard at the Auditorium on
"Hindooism".