On October 19, 1900, Paul Laurence Dunbar appeared at a poetry recitation in Evanston, Illinois, intoxicated and nearly an hour late. The event was a church benefit organized by Dr. Paul M. Pearson, a professor of public speaking at Northwestern University.
Paul Laurence Dunbar is to give a reading at Evanston this week. The entertainment will be given at the First M. E. Church Oct. 19 for the benefit of the choral society of Wheadon M. E. Church. Professor P. M. Pearson of the Cumnock School of Oratory of Northwestern University is managing the entertainment.
"Paul Laurence Dunbar, Negro Poet, to Read at Evanston This Week." Chicago Times-Herald (Chicago, Illinois). October [16,] 1900.
Paul Laurence Dunbar created a scene at the First Methodist Church last evening with the remarks he addressed to his audience. He did not arrive at the church until nearly 9 o'clock. When he did start, his delivery was so poor that few of those in the house could understand what he was saying. He repeated one of his longest readings, evidently by mistake, and when a special request for one of his poems was handed to him he seemed to lose his temper. He stepped forward and said: "I wish this audience would let me alone. You have mixed me up so that I have already repeated one poem. If another request is handed to me I will" -- here he stopped to search for an appropriate word -- "ignore it. I am now going to read 'The Party,' and I hope there has been no request for it, for I would not read it if there had."
"Paul L. Dunbar Was Sick." The Chicago Post (Chicago, Illinois). October 20, 1900.
In May 1899, Paul had a severe case of pneumonia that developed into tuberculosis, and part of his treatment involved drinking alcohol. After the Evanston reading, Paul wrote a contrite letter to his wife Alice in Washington, D. C.
I have treated you shamefully in not writing before, and I have no excuse for my silence except that I had nothing good to write. I know that you by this time know that I have [been] playing the devil as usual. So no more of that. When I can lay my head on your breast like a tired child who has been bad all day, I will talk to you about it. I want to see you, dearie, very much. Will you promise not to scold me much, my own?
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Moore Dunbar, October 27, 1900. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
Several years later, Professor Pearson wrote a lengthy account of what took place in Evanston.
With a friend, I had engaged Dunbar to give an evening of readings at Evanston, Ill. We had thoroughly advertised the event, and a large audience from the university and the city were present to hear him. At eight o'clock a messenger brought me word that he had broken a dinner engagement at the woman's college, and that no word had been received from him. After an anxious delay he arrived a half hour late, and with him were a nurse, a physician, and his half brother, Mr. Murphy. The first number or two he gave could not be heard, but not until he had read one poem a second time did we suspect the true cause of his difficulty speaking. His condition grew steadily worse, so that many of the people left in disgust. The report was passed about that he was intoxicated. The Chicago papers printed full accounts of the incident, and it was copied throughout the country. The following letter, which has not been published, explains the situation:
Professor P. M. Pearson,
Dear Sir: Now that I am at home and settled, I feel that an explanation is due you from me. I could not see you as you asked, because I was ashamed to. My brother went, but you were gone. The clipping you sent is too nearly true to be answered. I had been drinking. This had partially intoxicated me. The only injustice lies in the writer's not knowing that there was a cause behind it all, beyond mere inclination. On Friday afternoon I had a severe hemorrhage. This I was fool enough to try to conceal from my family, for, as I had had one the week before, I knew they would not want me to read. Well, I was nervously anxious not to disappoint you, and so I tried to bolster myself up on stimulants. It was the only way that I could have stood up at all. But I feel now that I had rather have disappointed you wholly than to have disgraced myself and made you ashamed.
As to the program, I had utterly forgotten that there was a printed one. I am very sorry and ashamed, because I do not think that the cause excuses the act. I have cancelled all my engagements and given up reading entirely. They are trying to force me back to Denver, but I am ill and discouraged, and don't care much what happens. Don't think that this is an attempt at vindication. It is not. Try to forgive me as far as forgiveness is possible.
Sincerely yours,
Paul L. Dunbar
"Paul Laurence Dunbar: A Tribute," by Paul M. Pearson. Talent. March 1906. Pages 8 - 10.