original Tibbits façade. Speeches and lectures continued to be a regular offering on the Tibbits stage. These included such lectures as Wallace Bruce's "Philosophy of Wit and Humor", Charles Hampton's "Hard Times, Their Cause and Cure", and Robert G. Ingersoll's "Liberty of Man, Woman and Child." Capturing the rhetorical might of such lectures, the Weekly Courier described Judge Yaple's lecture "Personality", with the following words: "A flowing crystal of words, here and there sharply broken into prisms of color, through which one caught a glimpse of crimson sunsets, the majesty of the mountains, the waving flowers of the meadow, the sweetness of the lilies of the valley, the stillness and solemnity of the leafy woods, the songs of birds, the celestial harmony of the starry heavens and the roar and thunder of a thousand Niagaras." A number of political speeches were offered as well by the likes of Gov. Rich, Senator J. C. Burrows, Gov. Shaw of Iowa, and Adeli Stevenson, a vice presidential nominee. Variety and Vaudeville continued to increase in popularity during the Jackson years with repeat performances by Humpty Dumpty companies, pantomime, and even magic shows. Shows also took an eerie turn with Anna Eva Fay's spiritualism performance, Mysterious Oneida's séance, and Hermann the Great's show on occult phenomena. As technology improved, so also did the kinds of innovative performances Tibbits was able to put on stage. Such obscure technologies as cinematoscopes and luminere cinematographs offered the promise of displaying moving pictures. Kleine's Lumiere Cinematograph promised families the chance to see their sons in the Spanish–American War march toward the camera. Thomas Edison's Magniscope never reached Coldwater because it exploded en route, but his Animotoscope did. Eventually the Lyman H. Howe Company offered genuine moving pictures with its Vivograph Graphophone, which depicted a train ride through the Rocy Mountain's Frazer River Canyon. While such technologies had much to be desired in terms of quality, they were nonetheless important steps in the march toward the modern cinema. Although he had fallen on financial hard times, Barton S. Tibbits lived long enough to see his dream survive and prosper. It is only fitting that upon his death, his memorial service would be held on the very stage that he erected at his own sacrifice for the benefit of Coldwater and the wider community's citizens. His funeral was held August 27, 1889. The opera house also offered memorial services for