Charles E. Varney

              1911
248b

Figure


Charles E. Varney

A SLAYTON ATTRACTION




Charles E. Varney, Lecturer
IN presenting Charles E. Varney to the lecture public, we are merely adding a little impetus to the zeal with which the public has received this excellent young orator.  A breadth of experience, a liberal education, and a genial disposition, together with a goodly presence and a rich voice, make him a splendid platform speaker.

In the American Athens he spent a strenuous boyhood, with his nose to the grind-stone of daily struggle.  He labored until he won for himself the degrees of A. B. and B. D.  With further university work he fitted himself for a professorship, which he held for two years.  From the class-room he went to the pulpit, and from there to the lecture platform, and great success has followed his every move.

He served through the Spanish-American war as Chaplain in the First Wisconsin Volunteers.  Both in Chautauquas and in the regular winter lecture course work, he has won much praise from pleased and willing listeners for his humorous, instructive lectures.

An unusual blend of exact science and rippling humor is revealed in the popular lectures of Charles E. Varney, of Chicago.  Mr. Varney has been a worker with workingmen, a college, seminary, and university student, a clergyman, an army officer and a college professor.

He has a fine quality of natural New England humor, a beautiful voice, and an excellent presence.  He begins his fourth year on the Slayton list after three years of constantly growing success.



LECTURES

Apples of Gold
Hard Shells and Soft
What's the Use?
The Broken Sword



DESCRIPTIVE
Apples of Gold is a lecture that fits any course.  The science of human speech is given with an enlivening of humorous illustrations that pleases the thinker and amuses as well as instructs the youth.  Much of the humor is presented in an original manner and the lecture closes with an atmosphere of spiritual inspiration.  It is the most unique lecture on the platform today, is the pleased verdict of committeemen everywhere.

Hard Shells and Soft contains helpful suggestions in sociology and hygiene.  It shows why some of us fail to get the sunshine of life.  Some of the great struggle of life and the need of real human sympathy are clearly shown.  It is another combination of science and humor, and is a good return date lecture.

What's the Use? is a protest against modern fatalism and pessimism.  This is particularly a commencement address.

The Broken Sword is a lecture of encouragement for those handicapped in the struggles for existence.  (In preparation.)




Charles E. Varney, Lecturer

Amarilo, Texas The Daily Panhandle
A very appreciative audience heard Dr. Charles E. Varney Tuesday night at the Christian Church in Apples of Gold, a lecture that made the words fitly spoken gleam like Apples of Gold in pictures of silver, or filigree baskets of silver, as the speaker more perfectly translated the Biblical writer's figure.  The reasons for speech and the lack of it, Dr. Varney presented in a popular way from a psychological standpoint, and the use of speech and the abuse of it, he presented in a discourse tingling with suggestions and sparkling with wit.


Hobart, Oklahoma Daily Republic
The lecture, Apples of Gold, by Charles E. Varney at the Baptist Church was well attended.  A large and appreciative audience were delighted with the masterly way in which the entertaining lecture was given.


London, Ontario Advertiser
A very interesting lecture was delivered by Dr. Charles E. Varney, of Chicago, at the Y. M. C. A. Auditorium, before a very large and appreciative audience.  The lecture was full of humor and instruction, and proved very interesting.


Portales, N. M. The Times
The lecture delivered last Friday by Charles E. Varney, the fourth of the lecture course, was remarkably interesting and edifying.  If people had half realized the real merit of this lecture there would have been a much larger audience to hear it.  The lecture had meat in it from the start to finish, and at the same time was given in a way to make it pleasing, provoking continuous uproars of laughter on the part of the audience.


Monon, Indiana The News
Charles E. Varney, the fourth number of the lecture course, was with us Monday night last, and proved himself a master of the platform.  His lecture, Apples of Gold, was a beautiful story builded on science, embellished with the purest English and sparkling with the richest of wit and humor, and surely if anyone failed to get the worth of his money it was not Varney's fault, for it was a feast of good things.


Urbana, Illinois Courier
Charles E. Varney's lecture on one of his favorite topics, Apples of Gold, proved most interesting to the appreciative audience that heard him.  He evolved numerous and uplifting thoughts applicable to ordinary life, giving an illustration for each.  He is of such jovial temperament that he much prefers to have his audience laughing rather than sighing, though he is competent to do either.  He has a generous amount of natural wit and eloquence and his voice was of that quality that it carried his audience right with him during his entire speech.


Kerwin, Kansas The Kansan
On Tuesday evening a large and appreciative audience greeted Charles E. Varney, who gave the third number on the lecture course.  His subject was Apples of Gold, and his ideas clustered around Solomon's saying, A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in filigree baskets of silver.  He discussed the human speech in its physiological and psychological relations, and drew some strong lessons as to the good and evil one may do with the words fitly or unfitly spoken.  He kept his audience in a merry mood most of the time, but not so much so but that he touched the heartstrings of deeper feeling now and again with telling effect.



Marseilles, Illinois Plaindealer
It was a sore lot of people who returned to their homes after the lecture at the Methodist church by Charles E. Varney of Chicago.  Almost without exception each one laughed until his sides ached.  There were flashes of truth between the humorous to intermingle their wholesomeness, and all kept the crowd in anxious mood for what was to come next, and heartily pleased when it arrived.  It was there promptly on time without the dreary wastes that too often mar much of the lecture nature.  The lecturer has struck a rich gait in his platform work and if he continues to improve, the world will gain much that shall sweeten and brighten along the way.


Monroe, Wisconsin The Times
The subject of the lecture by Charles E. Varney was Apples of Gold, which, he said, were kindly words aptly spoken.  The lecturer is a humorist and an orator and is a constant delight to his audience.


Maroa, Illinois News-Times
The lecture on Apples of Gold by Charles E. Varney at the Opera House last Friday evening was well attended.  The lecture abounded in pleasantries and was well received by the audience.

Clarence Greeley, LL.D. Trustee of the University of Washington, D.C.

Charles E. Varney's lecture What's the Use?, delivered before the Central Association, though a popular lecture with flashes of wit and humor, touched very ably, with inspiring power, some of the deepest phases of life.


Paw Paw, Michigan Free Press and Courier
Mr. Varney is easy and natural in his manner and makes his audience feel from the first that he is simply talking to them.  He never uses oratorical flights for their own sake.  When he reaches the heights, he has carried his audience there so naturally that it is unnoticeable.  His voice is rich, deep and magnetic.  But his chief characteristic is his fresh, original humor, which also seems incidental or accidental, so continually does he keep his theme before his audience.

Professor Maynard Lee Daggy Washington University Seattle, Wash.

The lectures of Charles E. Varney possess those qualities that please the people.  They are instructive because Mr. Varney is a student and a thinker; they are popular because the speaker has a keen sense of humor and knows the temper of the people; they are inspiring because of the wholesomeness and enthusiasm of the true orator.  Whenever he speaks Mr. Varney makes a distinct impression, and people who hear him go away with something left over.


Brownwood, Texas Daily Bulletin
Dr. Charles E. Varney delivered his lecture, Apples of Gold, at the Library, Friday night.  In spite of the mud there was a fair sized audience present and all felt well repaid for the extra effort in getting there.  Mr. Varney talks in a different manner from most platform entertainers and is very pleasing.  He weaves much humor into his address, but through it all carries a lesson likely to be remembered.  The personality of the lecturer is pleasing, his style impressive and his theme interestingly handled.



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