Thomas Brooks Fletcher

              THOMAS BROOKS FLETCHER



REDPATH-SLAYTON LYCEUM BUREAU



REDPATH-BROCKWAY Pittsburg, Pa.




BOSTON NEW YORK PITTSBURG COLUMBUS, OHIO CHATHAM, ONT. COLUMBUS, MISS. CHICAGO CEDAR RAPIDS KANSAS CITY DENVER SEATTLE SAN FRANCISCO




REDPATH-PRIEST Seattle, Wash.






THOS. BROOKS FLETCHER, Lecturer



I
T IS the common consent of the critics of the Lyceum Platform that no man of recent years has achieved more brilliant success or met with higher favor in the estimation of Lecture Course patrons than has Thomas Brooks Fletcher.




At first it was feared by some that Mr. Fletcher's success was almost too great—that he would be like a brilliant meteor to illumine the Lyceum world but for a time; that he would not last.  But such fears have been transformed into wonder and admiration as they have seen this accomplished young orator with steadfast and indomitable purpose equal to the mighty task of proving himself one of the most brilliant and brainy men of the great Lyceum Profession.




In thought Mr. Fletcher is profound, keen and convincing.  In delivery he is powerful, fascinating and dramatic.  In personality he is cordial, refreshing and original.




Mr. Fletcher is eminently fitted by Nature for his chosen profession.  He has the personal gifts of the great orator.  With keen black eyes, with a profusion of jet-black hair, with the face of an Edwin Booth, and with a powerful and magnetic voice he holds his audiences as no other orator has been able to do since the days of Beecher, Phillipps and Grady.




Lecture Course audiences like Mr. Fletcher because 
he keeps them alive, alert and awake
.  Lecture Course Committees like him because of his sincere and cordial personality and they never forget him.




Mr. Fletcher's Lectures deal with 
live topics
 and are filled with apt and forcible illustrations which drive home to the minds of his hearers great 
Truths
 in a sometimes startling, but always vivid and effective manner.  He is as full of physical energy as an electric dynamo and has a wonderful brain that is 
A clear cold logic engine capable of spinning the gossamers as well as forging the anchors of thought.




Mr. Fletcher HAS COME TO STAY.  So that instead of being a 
meteor
 he has taken his place as one of the 
fixed Stars
, of the First Magnitude in The Lyceum Firmament.





SUBJECTS



Tragedies of the Unprepared.


The Martyrdom of Fools.


The Modern Judas.







The Supreme Test of Any Lyceum Lecturer is His Ability to 
Make Good.
  These Unsolicited Letters Speak for Themselves.





From One of the Oldest and Most Successful Course Managers in Ohio



MR. HARRY P. HARRISON,
Columbus, Ohio.




When I wrote you before I did not know how great was the satisfaction given by Mr. T. Brooks Fletcher in his lecture, 
The Martyrdom of Fools,
 but as reports come in from those who were present, I find that he pleased our people wonderfully well.  One of our leading lawyers said it was the best lecture ever given here.  As we have had Beecher, and Tilton, and Talmage, and Cook, and Conwell, and Wendling, and a host of other great lecturers in our courses, this is certainly a strong statement.  But I am sure that no lecture delivered here in years has called forth as much favorable comment.




Yours,
ORANGE FRAZER.




Wilmington, Ohio, January 28, 1906.





A Request for a Third Lecture



Winterset, Iowa, Feb. 2, 1909.




REDPATH CHAUTAUQUA SYSTEM, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.




Dear Sirs:—Thos. Brooks Fletcher was here again last week with his lecture, 
The Modern Judas;
 he made a hit again, and a number of people have asked me to write you that they would like to have him back here at Chautauqua with his third lecture, 
The Tragedy of the Unprepared.




Yours truly,
W. S. COOPER, Secretary.





From one Course Manager to His Neighbor Manager



MR. C. G. WHITMER
Chairman Y. M. C. A. Star Course, Xenia, Ohio.




Mr. Fletcher came to us last night as a substitute for the Chicago Lady Entertainers who were compelled to cancel their date.  We never heard of the man before yesterday.  We are delighted with the lecture and want to congratulate you on your good fortune in getting him.  We have had Hadley, Ham and Ridgeway this year and our people 
know a good thing when they see it.
  On the street today you might hear such expressions as 
best we have had,
 
it was good,
 
it pleased me mightily,
 
glad the ladies did not come.
  It was a strong lecture of high moral tone, and in places so comical that the audience laughed as I seldom have seen them laugh.




L. J. GRAHAM.




New Concord, Ohio, January 24, 1906.






Two 1908 Chautauqua Reports.



From the Waverly (Iowa) Independent.


One of the most brilliant lecturers on the American platform.  He is filled to the brim with physical and mental energy.  He dashes forward upon introduction and plunges eagerly, almost furiously, into his subject.  His personality is magnetic.  He is master of every phase of dramatic art.  A graceful Delsartean one moment, a thunderbolt hurling giant, the next; he combines impassioned oratory with the calm reasoning of a judge.  He is a master in the use of language, whether it be biting sarcasm, scathing condemnation, tender pleading, or strong exhortation.  And all this power in language and dramatic art is combined for one purpose—to startle, to awaken, and then to burn into the soul of his hearers, moral convictions, in matters political, social, and religious.  No one, unless he is a cynic or one who never allows his feelings any liberty, can listen to Thomas Brooks Fletcher without having a burning desire to go out and annihilate some brute of injustice and to stand erect on both feet with shoulders squared for every phase of civic righteousness.  His straight from the shoulder style of dealing with modern conditions, his honest sincerity, his powerful convictions, his contempt for any attempt to sugar coat injustice, wins for him the admiration of his audience; for the world admires a fighter and passionately loves him if his cause is just.




Belle Plaine (Iowa) Union.




Thomas Brooks Fletcher opens fire on his audience with the rapidity of a gatling gun and the force of a thunder storm…but by sheer force of an indomitable and irresistible personality, he drives home his facts, and exposes in all their hideous and contemptible deformity many of our economic, social and political acts of hypocrisy.  The preacher, teacher, and politician, and editor, who are afraid to sneeze until their constituents take snuff try to hide under their seats before Fletcher gets through with them.  He is the strongest man on the lecture course and his message ought to be heard in every town in the land.





REDPATH-SLAYTON LYCEUM BUREAU



REDPATH-BROCKWAY Pittsburg. Pa.




BOSTON NEW YORK PITTSBURG COLUMBUS, OHIO CHATHAM, ONT. COLUMBUS, MISS. CHICAGO CEDAR RAPIDS KANSAS CITY DENVER SEATTLE SAN FRANCISCO




REDPATH-PRIEST Seattle, Wash.