Albert L. Blair

              Figure

ALBERT L. BLAIR
Redpath



Albert L. Blair, A. M. JOURNALIST and LECTURER
ALBERT L. BLAIR'S lectures are in a class by themselves.  In a bright, witty, entertaining and instructive way, he brings to the Lyceum platform lectures on live, pulsating, timely and entertaining topics.  While he makes a specialty on his first visit of his lecture The Whir of the Newspaper Press his other subjects are equally successful and entertaining.



SUBJECTS FOR NEXT SEASON

The Whir of the Newspaper Press
(With the newspaper as one of the live American institutions as a basis for his lecture, much is woven into the discussion about current events and the big problems of the day.)
Ben Franklin or a Picture of the Eighteenth Century
(Including incidents in Franklin's Life as related to the movements of his day.)
Jabs and Jolts or Wayside Philosophy
(A hit at many of the absurd fads and notions of the hour.)
The Citizen King
(A lecture for the promotion of good citizenship.)
The World One Hundred Years Hence
(A forecast.)



GLIMPSES OF THE FUTURE
In Mr. Blair's lecture on The Whir of the Newspaper Press he also gives glimpses of the future.  He says:

When one watches a mammoth Hoe press turning out say 96,000 printed papers in an hour he may feel that perfection cannot well any farther go.  Yet some invention may in 25 years sweep all the idols of the press room to the scrap heap.  A Brooklyn genius has gone to printing with the X-ray.  Who knows but that in a short time that magic pencil will have revolutionized the method of peopling the virgin page with messages of information?

Mr. Blair speaks with authority on this subject, for he has been a newspaper man for thirty-five years.




MR. BLAIR'S RHETORIC
Mr. Blair's rhetoric, as well as his keen insight, are nicely illustrated in another quotation from his lecture on The Whir of the Newspaper Press as follows:

What is a newspaper? asked Mr. Blair, and then he answered it by saying:  Put the accent on the first syllable of the word and you have a flashlight definition.  It is a vehicle for the conveyance of information about current events.  It is (to change the figure) a literature that is born in a day, and so far as public interest is concerned perishes in a day.  It is history written by hundreds of thousands of pens, driven by amateurs, by professionals; by novices, by veterans; by cobblers, by experts; by mediocrity, by genius; by fakirs, by truth-tellers; by the man with the wolf of famine at the door, by the gentleman with plutocratic leisure; by the mental bum, by the intellectual emperor.  In the newspaper, idiots, full of sound and fury, and arm-locked with slobbering rhetoric, tell their tale by the side of the philosophical Platos and the gifted Macaulays.  No experience, no degree of capacity, no variety of motive are absent from that marvelous workshop whence emanates the newspaper.  I know of no other agency that so constantly reflects the conditions, the progress, the aims, the achievements and the hopes of the race as the Newspaper.



COMMENTS ON HIS OTHER LECTURES
At Manchester, New Hampshire, Mr. Blair lectured in the city hall on The Citizen King.  The Manchester Union next day had this to say:  He defined the duties and privileges of the American citizen in a lucid manner, and held the closest attention of his hearers throughout.

His address on 'The American King,' says the Summerville (Mass.)  Journal, dealt with a subject which had not before been presented; and was received with cordial manifestations of approval.  The lecturer told of the corruption which had crept into politics through the lack of interest of the great mass of people.  His language was vivid and strong and his ideas and presentation on his subject are original and graphic.  He is a speaker whom one would desire to hear a second time.

On a lecture series under the direction of the Department of Education of the city of New York, Mr. Blair gave a lecture on Ben Franklin, or a Picture of the Eighteenth Century.  He has also lectured in the famous Plymouth Church, Brooklyn.



A STRONG PLATFORM SPEAKER, SAYS DR. HILLIS
Mr. Blair has some of the heartiest recommendations from men of national fame.  Among these will be found on another page of this circular the enthusiastic commendations of Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis, who occupies the famous pulpit where once stood Henry Ward Beecher, also a commendation from S. N. D. North, Director of the Census.




Plymouth Church,
Brooklyn, N. Y., Feb. 7, 1906.

Mr. Albert L. Blair gave his lecture, The Whir of the Newspaper Press and What It Says, for the second time last night in Plymouth Church.  It was a most fascinating lecture, full of the atmosphere of the great newspaper room, where all the telegraphic lines of the world converge, and where all great events and public measures and forceful men report themselves.  Mr. Blair is a strong platform speaker who holds his audience from the first word to the last.

Newell Dwight Hillis.



I have known Mr. Blair for 25 years.  He is gifted in many ways far beyond the average man.  As a speaker and writer he is remarkable for his power, for the originality of his ideas, and for his forceful use of language.

S. N. D. NORTH.


Editor A. L. Blair of the Boston press addressed the meeting at Y. M. C. A. Hall Sunday.  The discourse was an exceptionally able and interesting one.—
Brockton (Mass.)  Daily Enterprise.

Hamilton is still talking about your lecture.  One man said to me:  It is the finest thing we have had here for two years.  It gave universal satisfaction, and the Press Club is greatly pleased over its success.  If you ever have a tour in this state again, and have a date, let me know, and if possible we shall arrange for another lecture.  A larger hall will be necessary next time.  * * *

Prof. R. W. THOMAS, (of Colgate University, Hamilton, N. Y.)


The lecture delivered before the Colgate Press Club on Thursday evening was undoubtedly the best heard in Hamilton in recent years.—
The Academe.  (Hamilton, N. Y.)


Albert L. Blair, of Brooklyn, N. Y., the former newspaper man, who carried the Edward's Church Men's Club by storm last Wednesday, sounded in no uncertain words the call for a better citizenship when he spoke in the Y. M. C. A. Hall Sunday afternoon on The Citizen King.
Northampton (Mass.)  Daily Herald, Feb. 14, '10


Mr. Albert L. Blair of the Boston Press lectured in the college chapel on The Press—what does it represent?  There was a good attendance, and the lecture was full of wit and interest.—
The Tufts Weekly, (college publication.)

Mr. A. L. Blair of the Boston Press has delivered three addresses before The Parliament of Man upon subjects of a social, political and religious character.  I don't hesitate to pronounce him one of the strongest platform speakers in Boston.  His ability to combine entertainment with instruction, and also to inspire his hearers with an inspiration of a moral and religious character, is certainly remarkable.  His addresses are solid, suggestive and stirring.

JAMES LOGAN GORDON, President of the Parliament of Man, Boston.




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