Lincoln McConnell

              LINCOLN McCONNELL


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Direction of W. H. STOUT 616 Traction Terminal Building Indianapolis, Ind.





INTRODUCTION



L
INCOLN McCONNELL is a man with a mission on earth, and that to make it brighter, better, happier.  He is an optimist by birth, breeding and instincts.  He believes in God and he believes in man, and he has a way of making others share his faith.  Trained for a lawyer, few men forty years of age have had the wide experience that Mr. McConnell has had, and being an unusually keen observer, he has learned valuable lessons that he uses with tremendous power in dealing with men.




He has made over four thousand public addresses in the last twelve years, and wherever he has gone he is universally conceded to be one of the most original, forceful and unique speakers before the public.




He is a natural wit and humorist, and without the slightest straining after it, gets into instant touch with his audience and they laugh or cry as he wills, though they laugh more than they cry, for he says the world has enough to cry over without his adding to it.




But his success as a public speaker is not accounted for solely by his wit and humor.  He is a logician and reasoner of high ability, and he will stick tremendous truths to your minds with his inimitable manner that will abide long after the pleasure of the hour has passed and the laugh died.  His lectures are not 
a mere string of stories
 for he believes that life is too short for you or him to laugh over nothings when there are plenty of things helpful to be laughed over.  Thousands have gone with heavy hearts and feeling that life was hardly worth the effort, to hear this magnetic man, and have gone away with the blues all gone, and hope in their hearts, made better and more able to fight the battles of life, by the uplifting message of cheer that he so delights to give.




If you want to feel glad that you are living and have a share in the battles of life, then hear McConnell.






Lincoln McConnell—His Lectures



Rock Rapids, Iowa, Nov. 12, 1908.  Rev. L. McConnell, Cherokee, Iowa.




Dear Sir:—




I was disappointed in that I was not able to see you again after the lecture the other evening.  In default of telling you face to face, I desire to express, in this manner, the appreciation, not only of myself but of the entire committee and, in fact, the entire audience, of your lecture upon colored folks.  You entertained our people in a very rare manner and in a way which they will not soon forget, but better than all you gave them some solid mental food regarding the negro and the problem connected with him.  It has started many of us on a new line of thought.




We thank you heartily for your coming and trust that in the future we may have the pleasure of listening to you again.




Yours truly,
H. B. PIERCE,
Secretary Lyceum Association.




I rather think there is no other American lecturer such a rare combination of humor, pathos and eloquence as is found wrapped up in Lincoln McConnell.  There is laughter without a tinge of poison in his stories and caricatures, there are tears which relieve and sweeten the heart in his touching of the chords of memory, and there are mighty stirrings of determination in his eloquent portrayals of that which is noble and good.  You may take him as he is!  He does not need to be issued in 
expurgated editions
—Robert Graham Frank, Pastor of the Christian Church, Liberty, Mo.




Wayne, Neb., Dec. 28, 1908.




Lincoln McConnell's recent lecture here was a rare treat.  He possesses to a remarkable degree the power of giving wholesome instruction in a way that enables him to hold the closest attention of every one in his audience.  His humor, while captivating, illustrates the strong points in his lecture.  His lecture was one of the best numbers that has ever been given here, either on a winter lecture course or on a Chautauqua program.




E. P. WILSON,
Superintendent City Schools.



AN EDITORIAL FROM THE HASTINGS (NEB.) DEMOCRAT.


One does not have to listen to him three minutes to discover him to be a typical southerner.  He speaks with a southern accent that does not grate upon the ear but, quite to the contrary, his southern twang and his accent rather pleasingly add to his emphasis and expression.  While Rev. McConnell hails from Sam Jones' state, Georgia, he's a whole lot different from Sam.  He is far better looking, is tall and straight as an arrow, and withal has a physique that at once attracts attention.  Sam Jones can tell stories and lots of them.  So does Mr. McConnell.  We've heard both and from the number we have heard the latter tell we believe we would as soon, if not sooner, hear McConnell, for there is less of the swag and blunt.  We believe, too, McConnell is the better caricaturist on the platform.  In his witticisms and illustrations yesterday one would imagine him to be a trained elocutionist or to have drilled for the stage.  At any rate it seems to be natural for him to act things out.  Possibly no other platform speaker ever appeared here who possessed so wonderful a voice.  As one old lady expressed it after Sunday evening's sermon, 
he has a voice loud and strong enough for all out of doors.
  He has a voice of wonderful volume—almost, if not quite, as far-reaching and penetrating as Bryan's.  Considered in all his characteristics, he is about the most interesting man who has ever been here.




Topeka, Kan., Nov. 3, 1908.  R. N. Watts, Y. M. C. A.,Memphis, Tenn.




Dear Brother:—




You will never miss it in getting hold of McConnell.  He is one of the best Men's Meeting speakers that I have ever heard in my life.  He has a fine personality.




K. A. SHUMAKER,
State Secretary Y. M. C. A., Kansas.



Bedford, Iowa, August 19, 1907.  Mr. J. R. Ellison, Chautauqua Manager, Redpath




Lyceum Bureau:




My Dear Sir:  Among the attractions furnished our assembly, now just closed, you furnished us no one who better pleased our patrons than Lincoln McConnell.  I believe that the majority of our patrons would vote McConnell first place among the delights of our nine days' program.  He seems to possess ideas and experience sufficient to afford food for thought to the seriously minded; he has the vim and snap to dispel the effects of hot, sultry weather, and his humor of soul, lights up a face which is capable of the extremes in mimicry, and he was surely CREATED a story teller.  We are glad to commend him.




Respectfully,
Bedford Chautauqua Committee,
By W. E. Miller, Secretary.



Cape Girardeau's first Chautauqua was brought to a fitting close last evening by the most enthusiastic crowd of the assembly.  Lincoln McConnell lectured on 
The Fountain of Youth,
 and received an ovation.  The evening before he lectured on 
Colored Folks,
 and it is doubtful if there were a dozen people missing last evening who were there the evening before.  There's something away out of the ordinary about this man McConnell.  Usually when one hears a lecturer once or twice, no matter how entertaining he is, he is ready to hear another.  But this is not the case with Mr. McConnell.  He had lectured in this city at least a half dozen times before and most every one had heard him.  Then after a long list of the very best speakers and entertainers on the platform, McConnell gets the biggest crowds each time he appeared.  And it's no wonder.  He has a way about him that just naturally pleases the people—ALL of the people.  He deals out sound logic in a manner that a child can understand, and intersperses it with just enough genuine wit to make it a delight.  It's impossible for us to explain Mr. McConnell's magnetism, unless it is due to the fact that he is such a whole-souled, jovial, good-natured, big fellow that the people just can't help but like him and what he says.  When he comes back again next year, which he was made to promise, his audiences will be bigger than ever, even if he uses the same subjects again.—


Daily Republican, Cape Girardeau, Mo., September 16, 1907.





Lincoln McConnell Lectures


The Blue Coat and The Red Flag


A New Lecture on 
Lawlessness, Its Cause and Cure


DID you know that we have three times as many homicides annually per capita as Spain, ten times more than France, twelve times more than England, twenty-four times more than Germany, thirty times more than Canada?  Did you know that Germany convicts 80 per cent of her murderers while we convict 1 3/10 per cent?  Did you know that we have had more lynchings in the past twenty-five years than legal executions?  Did you know that crime costs the Federal Government over $140,000,000 per year?  Did you know that crime costs us each year over $500,000,000 
more than all our churches, schools of every sort, hospitals, asylums, and charities of every sort?
  Well, 
it does,
 and 
there's a reason!
  This lecture is 
not
 a muckrake, but it 
does
 deal in 
cold facts in a warm way.




The Fountain of Youth



SHOWS what 
man
 is, proving scientifically the fact that Man is a Spirit.  True meaning of the terms 
youth
 and 
age
 shown, and why 
youth
 is desirable.  Points out rules by which to escape 
old age.
  Scientific.  Philosophical.  Practical.  Humorous.




Those who listened to the Rev. Lincoln McConnell yesterday are united in the declaration that his lecture, 
The Fountain of Youth,
 was by far the best delivered from the Chautauqua platform this year.  For one hour and thirty minutes he held his audience with the grip of a master.  His utterances were clear and forceful, and one cannot listen to this talented gentleman without being better for it.  Beatrice will welcome his return.—


Daily Express, Beatrice, (Neb.).





Colored Folks, as I Know Them



FIRST.  An unprejudiced discussion of the negro, and the 
negro question
 from slavery until now, explaining the conditions causing much of the 
negro problem.




Second.  The 
funny side
 of the old-time negro, showing his religious extravagancies, superstitious fancies, personal peculiarities, etc.




Stansberry, Mo., August 10.




Lincoln McConnell's lecture of one year ago in the college chapel on 
Colored Folks,
 was the most popular lecture ever given in our city, and has been the most talked about.




People who attended McConnell's lecture will always be highly entertained, and will always 
hear something.




—D. S. Robbins, Pres. Stanberry Normal School.





Dead Lions



LECTURE based on a true incident, and distinctly an inspirational lecture, filled with fun.




On the evening of March 25 (1904), Rev. Lincoln McConnell delivered his lecture on 
Dead Lions
 in Grace Methodist Church.  Atlanta.…  This is a lecture with a purpose.  Wit, humor, eloquence, illustration and exhortation all bear on the point of unraveling the riddle of life, and furnish inspiration to worthy achievement.  He is a hopeless case indeed, who does not grow in purposefulness, energy, courage, optimism and love under the influence of McConnell's inspiring utterances.
—Rev. John S. Jenkins, in Wesleyan Christian Advocate, April 6.





A Happy Home and How To Make It



MR. McConnell lectured here this year on 
A Happy Home and How to Make It.
  He is the first lecturer in the history of our Chautauqua, who has succeeded in holding a crowd of three thousand people on a hot Sunday afternoon without one person leaving the tabernacle during the entire lecture.  He is not only a lecturer, but he is a man, one of those big, fine looking fellows whom one feels it is a delightful privilege to have met and known.
—F. L. Rain, Secretary Chautauqua, Fairbury, Neb., Aug. 15, 1907.






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