Went to the Catholic Cathedral at eleven. A mass by Haydn was splendidly rendered by full orchestra and admirable chorus. The altar was a blaze of candles. The yellow of the lights and the plain mauve of two windows, one on each side of the candles, gave a most beautiful crocus-bed effect. I enjoyed the service. In the evening I dined with Mr. Lloyd Bryce, editor of the _North American Review_, at the splendid residence of his father-in-law, Mr. Cooper, late Mayor of New York. Mrs. Lloyd Bryce is one of the handsomest American women I have met, and a most charming and graceful hostess. I reluctantly left early so as to prepare for my night journey to Buffalo. [Illustration] CHAPTER IX. DIFFERENT WAYS OF ADVERTISING A LECTURE--AMERICAN IMPRESARIOS AND THEIR METHODS. _Buffalo, January 13._ When you intend to give a lecture anywhere, and you wish it to be a success, it is a mistake to make a mystery of it. On arriving here this morning, I found that my coming had been kept perfectly secret. Perhaps my impresario wishes my audience to be very select, and has sent only private circulars to the intelligent, well-to-do inhabitants of the place--or, I said to myself, perhaps the house is all sold, and he has no need of any further advertisements. I should very much like to know. * * * * * Sometimes, however, it is a mistake to advertise a lecture too widely. You run the risk of getting the wrong people. A few years ago, in Dundee, a little corner gallery, placed at the end of the hall where I was to speak, was thrown open to the public at sixpence. I warned the manager that I was no attraction for the sixpenny public; but he insisted on having his own way. The hall was well filled, but not the little gallery, where I counted about a dozen people. Two of these, however, did not remain long, and, after the lecture, I was told that they had gone to the box-office and asked to have their money returned to them. "Why," they said, "it's a d---- swindle; it's only a man talking." The man at the box-office was a Scotchman, and it will easily be understood that the two sixpences remained in the hands of the management. * * * * * I can well remember how startled I was, two years ago, on arriving in an American town where I was to lecture, to see the walls covered with placards announcing my lecture thus: "He is coming, ah, ha!" And after I had arrived, new placards were stuck over the old ones: "He has arrived, ah, ha!" In another American town I was advertised as "the best paying platform celebrity in the world." In another, in the following way: "If you would grow fat and happy, go and hear Max O'Rell to-night." One of my Chicago lectures was advertised thus: "Laughter is restful. If you desire to feel as though you had a vacation for a week, do not fail to attend this lecture."