Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IX. Scientific men and others have been much interested in a few cases where certain persons, when at church or other places, sometimes attract the entire attention of the speaker, who addresses his discourse to him or her, unconsciously ignoring the rest of his hearers. To see a clergyman who reads his discourse direct his eyes alternately on his manuscript and over the heads of his congregation to the farthest corner of the gallery perhaps, and keep this performance up for half an hour, is somewhat edifying to the sexton at least. And when prima donnas, and lady " stars," tenors, and " leading men," musicians, and others, become puzzled, pleased, or " mashed," as the case may be, and even his royal highness of the barnyard, the rooster, exhibits his acknowledgment of the presence of such an one in his own way, my reader may be pleased to know a little of my experience in this direction. I give the names of the men to prove, if necessary, what I say. Mr. Beecher was the first one that I remember who picked me out among the crowd some seventeen years ago. Feeling the magnetism of a pair of eyes directed on me, I glanced up from the book I was reading and found him regarding me with a clear and penetrating eye. As our eyes met we " read " each other instantly. In a few minutes, while the choir were singing, I found his eye on me again. This time the expression appeared to be one of curiosity—" I wonder who he is" sort of look. But as he then aroused the curiosity of a gentleman in front, who turned around to see what interested him so much, he stopped. My impression of him was : a man of great power, with the quick perceptions of a woman. After visiting Plymouth Church once or twice Mr. Beecher appeared to know just where I was without looking, and by that me...