Thomas A. Boyer

              Figure

Thomas A. Boyer
Management of the
MUTUAL LYCEUM BUREAU
55 Auditorium Building
CHICAGO

Home Address, Oakland, Cal.



THOMAS A. BOYER

Foreword
AMONG the modern representatives of the platform, there are none whose efforts have been more uniformly crowned with success than have those of Thomas A. Boyer.  Dr. Boyer brings to this work a very high conception and a thorough preparation.  A man of finely moulded features and magnetic personality, he rivets attention the moment he steps upon the platform.  His lectures, while there is an unmistakable vein of delicious humor playing through them, lighting them up and giving to them a piquant flavor, are masterpieces of rhetoric, and show wide reading and painstaking preparation.  Moreover, they touch the lives of all classes in so sympathetic and helpful a way that it is impossible to hear them without feeling younger, happier, better, for having done so.

If our own personal taste is worth anything, Dr. Boyer is the most forcible and pleasing lecturer anywhere in the West, writes a contributor to the Pacific Methodist Advocate, San Francisco.

A Bureau, under whose management he has labored for several years, says in one of its annual circulars: We present Dr. Boyer again this season knowing positively that he will never disappoint his audience, and already, though it is early in the season, a return visit by him has been asked for by every committee that had him last year.

In presenting Dr. Boyer to our patrons, we bespeak for him the public favor that we know his worth justly merits.



LECTURE SUBJECTS

1
The New Renaissance
2
What Time Is It and Where Are We
3
Popular Fallacies
4
The White Man's Burden
5
Measure for Measure
6
The Tomorrow of America



Los Angles, Cal., Sept. 1, 1905, Robert J. Burdette—To the Bureau, the Committee, and the Audience, Greeting: Very well do I know the Rev. Thomas A. Boyer — I know the man, the Preacher, and the Lecturer, and with all cordiality do I commend him to the Bureau that wants Talent, the Committee that wants Money, and the Audience that needs Entertainment and Instruction.

Cincinnati, Benj. L. Smith, Cor. Sec. A. C. M. G.—An eloquent speaker!  He surpasses in descriptive powers any man I ever heard with the exception of De Witt Talmage.

Landing, New Jersey, Aug. 24, 1905, Edwin Markham—Rev. Thomas A. Boyer is a fluent and fascinating lecturer, a man with fountains of thought, flashes of Oratory.

Sacramento, Cal., Rev. W. C. Evans, Senate Chaplain, Thirty-fourth Session California Legislature—I have ever listened to Mr. Boyer, when given the opportunity (all too few), with profit and delight.  He was born an orator; he has been trained a thinker; the combined result is a master of pulpit and platform.  May his lectures give to others the pleasure and profit they have to his sincere friend.





PERSONAL AND PRESS COMMENTS

Syracuse (N. Y.) Standard
—The prince of eloquent speakers.


Atchinson (Kan.) Daily Champion
—He possesses many of the characteristics of both Beecher and Talmage.

Cincinnati, Ohio, F. M. Rains, in Christian Standard—He rivets attention from the moment he steps upon the platform.


Rock Island (Ill.) Argus
—A man of wonderful memory and fertility of thought; he had his audiences spellbound from first to last.


Watertown (N. Y.) Times
—High as is the place our people assign to him already as an orator, he was given a still higher place because of last night's effort.


Pekin (Ill.) Register
—Very few men can equal him in polish and beauty of style.

Oakland, Cal., Dr. Dille, First M. E. Church— Dr. Boyer is a born lecturer, and is destined to rank among the truly great orators of our country.


Chicago Daily Record
—Mr. Boyer possesses a very decided dramatic power; his ability to describe nature calls forth universal admiration and praise.

Havana, Cuba, Lowell C. McPherson, Christian Missionary—Mr. Boyer is a man of phenomenal attainments.  Since the beginning of his work he has been characterized as one of the most fluent and fertile speakers known to his auditors.


Virginia, Nev., Daily Territorial Enterprise
— Those who attended the lecture of T. A. Boyer last night at the Presbyterian Church were treated to an unusually fine discourse.  As a word-painter Mr. Boyer is an artist, and the pictures he depicted were magnificent.  His address is most pleasing and tempered with enough humor to keep his hearers in a pleasant mood.


Santa Cruz (Cal.) Daily Sentinel
—Mr. Boyer possesses a strong, resonant voice and pleasing personality, and when he talks he says something.  He bears a striking resemblance to Henry Clay, if one may judge from the pictures of the great Kentuckian.  Mr. Boyer is certainly the Henry Clay of the Christian Church of California, from an oratorical standpoint.  Words flow from him as easily and smoothly as a babbling brook dances over stones and between brush-fringed banks on its way to the sea.


Oakland, Cal., Pacific Prohibitionist
—As a humorist he compares favorably with Lieutenant Derby, Artemus Ward, or Josh Billings.


Galesburg (Ill.) News
—Mr. Boyer's powers of eloquence are unsurpassed, and there is so much of the dramatic in his manner that listening to him is a constant pleasure.


The Monterey (Cal.) Daily Cypress
—The lecture at Assembly Hall last evening on 'The New Renaissance' by T. A. Boyer was greatly enjoyed by those in attendance.  Mr. Boyer is an eloquent speaker.  He holds his audience as a unit.  His every word counts for much.


Greencastle (Ind.) Democrat
—At an early hour last evening the Christian Church was crowded even to the aisles and vestries, to hear Mr. Boyer, and it was wonderful how the people sat for an hour and a half so that at any time you could have heard the proverbial pin-drop.


Lompoc, Cal., The Telegram
—Thomas A. Boyer, the gifted lecturer and humorist, entertained a large audience at Music Hall last Friday evening.  His subject, 'What Time Is It, and Where Are We?' proved one of the most interesting on the 'New Era' we have listened to.  Very few men possess the polish and beauty of style that Dr. Boyer possesses.  Words are never lacking in his descriptions of nature, and he has at his command a ready flow of wit which pleases at once and keeps his audience continually expectant.


Stockton, Cal., Daily Record
—There are many men on the lecture platform with national reputations who possess less ability in the art of entertainment than does Rev. Thomas A. Boyer.  His lecture last evening at Masonic Music Hall was one of the very best ever heard in this city—barring none—and, be it known, the people of Stockton have had many distinguished lecturers.  The subject was, 'What Time Is It, and Where Are We?'  Mr. Boyer plays upon the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary with the easy grace of a master, exacting both pungency and eloquence.  He goes at full speed from wit to humor and from funnyisms to pathos, and at frequent intervals drops words of wisdom which indicate his wide reading and good judgment.  Mr. Boyer's lecture was scholarly, broad, entertaining, and elevating.  It would have carried any audience in the country with the same keen, undivided interest and appreciation that was manifest with the one which heard him last evening.





Visalia (Cal.) Delta
—Mr. Boyer is a deep thinker, a hard student, and a remarkable word-painter.

Northern Cal., D. A. Russell, Sec. State Board of Missions—Thomas A. Boyer is an artist combining the aesthetic taste of Talmage with the dramatic power of Frederick Warde.


Santa Rosa, Cal., Press-Democrat
—There was a large audience at the Christian Church last evening to hear a lecture by the Rev. Thomas A. Boyer on 'What Time Is It, and Where Are We?'  Mr. Boyer spoke for an hour and a half in a manner that greatly pleased his audience.  The lecturer is an orator and his flow of language and ideas is remarkable.  He plays upon the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary with the greatest ease and grace, exacting both poignancy and eloquence.


Ashland, Oregon, Valley Record
—Dr. Boyer lectured in the Chautauqua Tabernacle on the 16th of January.  Notwithstanding the show at the opera house, there was a choice audience of some three hundred.  Mr. Boyer is a first-class orator.  The thought and inspiration were good, and the word-painting 'a torrent of diamonds swiftly flowing down a rapidly descending stream, with here and there a declivity by which their brilliancy was most exquisitely displayed,' as one listener puts it.  He is an optimist, and firmly believes in passing over into the better century for everybody.  He was enthusiastically applauded.


Albany (Oregon) Herald
—A large audience greeted Dr. Thomas A. Boyer at the Christian Church last night, to listen to the lecture on 'What Time Is It, and Where Are We?'  The lecture was a genuine treat, and sparkled with wit, humor, and logic.  He held the closest attention for over two hours.  Dr. Boyer is a brilliant, scholarly orator, and is easily one of the best speakers on the coast.


San Diego (Cal.) Sun
—The fourth number of the Imperial series of entertainments—a lecture by Rev. Thomas A. Boyer—attracted a large audience last evening.  He developed his subject, 'What Time Is It, and Where Are We?'  in a most interesting manner, dwelling upon the huge forward strides of civilization.  He proved himself an orator of high class, with a marvelous flow of words and a happy blending of wit and words of instruction.  He spoke eloquently of America, her civilization and institutions.


Santa Ana (Cal.) Herald
—Rev. Thomas A. Boyer, D. D., gave the second of the high school entertainments, last night, in a lecture on the subject, 'What Time Is It, and Where Are We?'  The lecture was a treat to the many who heard it, and proved without a question the ability of Dr. Boyer as an entertainer and instructor of more than ordinary merit.


Pacific Grove (Cal.) Daily News
—The lecture of Thomas A. Boyer, at Assembly Hall last night, was well attended considering the weather.  The speaker was earnest in all that he said, and at no time did he fail to carry the audience with him.  He was free from mannerisms and slang.  Purity of speech and thought were characteristics of the lecture.  In every way it was a lecture of first quality.


Santa Paula (Cal.) Chronicle
—The character of Mr. Boyer's lecture would hardly be inferred from its title, which is non-committal.  It was a masterly and forcible review of the optimist and pessimist in life, showing strongly the advantages of the one and the disadvantages of the other.  It was, moreover, highly humorous, for Mr. Boyer is a wit as well as a divine, and presented its salient points so funnily as to keep the audience in a roar while they acknowledged the force of his logic.  It was, moreover, a most wholesome lecture mentally, full of sunshine and geniality, and calculated to promote the noble cause of looking on the bright side of life.  It will do any one good to listen to Mr. Boyer, and none should lose an opportunity.


San Francisco, Pacific Methodist Advocate
—We have been very fortunate in securing Dr. Thomas A. Boyer for our State League Conference at Fresno.  He is to give us his very popular lecture, 'What Time Is It, and Where Are We?'  If our own personal taste is worth anything, Dr. Boyer is the most forcible and pleasing lecturer anywhere in the West.  He combines philosophy and humor in a wonderful way; is a rapid speaker, at times becoming eloquent.  He is decidedly an artist; everything said is so presented as to be most acceptable by his audience; nothing mars the symmetry of his lecture as a whole; you get the impression of it as of a picture or a piece of statuary.  Most important of all, Dr. Boyer's tone is healthy, a wholesome tonic for pessimists or egotists.  When he has finished, you feel younger, happier, better for having heard him.