Robert Nourse

              ROBERT NOURSE



THE GREATEST DRAMATIC ORATOR OF THE WORLD



IF one were asked to name the two men who stand at the head of the ranks of American lecturers, there might be some difficulty in making a prompt reply.  However, there would be no hesitation in naming Dr. Nourse as one of them.—


The Public Platform.


Figure



List of Lectures…



DRAMATIC:  {Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Bells


DIDACTIC:  {John and Jonathan, Foolish Virgins, The Belief of Unbelievers, The White Man's Burden


EVANGELISTIC:  {Why I am not an Infidel, Why I am a Christian, God and Business




The MUTUAL LECTURE BUREAU




La Porte, Indiana





In presenting the name of ROBERT NOURSE nothing more need be said.  It is a household word.  For years he has been heard in all the large cities of the United States and Canada.  Nobody lectures like him.  No one ever did.  Perhaps no one can.  His combination of gifts is remarkable.  He is the only man who combines the moral earnestness of the pulpit with the skill of an actor.  Moreover, he is a great humorist and deeply philosophical.  At one moment you roar with laughter, the next you shudder with horror, then you listen to a flow of sentences that surprise you by their simplicity and philosophy and when all is over you say 
That is the best sermon I ever heard.




ROBERT NOURSE on 
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde



In all probability this lecture has been delivered more times to the same audience and in the same place than any other.  There has never been another record like it.  It has been delivered in:—




Oakland, Cal., three times.


Washington, D. C., six times.


Chicago, Ill., four times.


Lincoln, Nebr., twice.


Cleveland, O., four times.


St. Louis, Mo., eight times.


Indianapolis, Ind., four times.


Jackson, Mich., twice.


Detroit, Mich., twice.


Delaware, O., twice.


San Francisco, Cal., twice.


Milwaukee, Wis., five times.


New York, four times.


Boston, Mass., three times.


Cincinnati, O., three times.


Oxford, O., three times.


Salem, Ore., twice.


Vancouver, B. C., twice.




The demand for it is as great as ever.  Hearers say that they get more out of it the more they hear it.  The immediate impression is tremendous, as the following notice, taken from 
The Charlotte Observer
 shows:




Nourse Has Not Been Surpassed by any Platform Speaker Charlotte Has Yet Heard.




Dr. Robt. Nourse last night delivered his lecture, 
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
 to a large audience in Association Hall.  Save to the few who follow the platform closely, Dr. Nourse came as a stranger, but he made a place for himself last night in the hearts of his hearers.  
Great
 is now slang, but no less a word would adequately qualify this production.  It is a great lecture; a master theme in master hands, a sermon, a lesson as well as an oration.  As one expressed it, the pleasure derived was not the kind to talk about, but to think over, to pray over.  It is not too much to say that no lecture delivered in Charlotte has in theme. matter and delivery surpassed this one.  In personality Dr. Nourse is striking.  An Englishman by birth, he, though Americanized, still retains a slight accent that is both pleasing and peculiar.  His voice is excellent, his humor rich, his illustrations striking, his dramatic powers intense, his earnestness real.  Those who failed to hear Dr. Nourse have a rare pleasure yet ahead of them.




One who has watched audiences under various circumstances, last night said that no Charlotte audience, in his recollection, had ever been under such perfect control of the lecturer.  A joke would convulse it with laughter, when, bringing from his illustrations some hidden truth touching the deepest recesses of one's soul, he would make it shudder with horror.




A grand lecture throughout, the closing scene, the death of Dr. Jekyll, in the person of Mr. Hyde, beggared description.




As the grand old man bowed his good night, he received a storm of applause.




Besides all this there is no lecture that pays better.  Frequently the door sales have exceeded the lecturer's fee.  At Painsville, Ohio, the manager of the course reported that fifty dollars more were taken at the door than for a Grand Concert Company which was supposed to be the supreme attraction of the season.  It draws like a drama.




Read the following from Rev. G. C. Adams, D. D., formerly of St. Louis, now of San Francisco, Cal.:




We have had Robert Nourse 
four times
.  Each lecture was a grand success.  The last one was held at the Entertainment Hall of the Exposition Building, and he gave 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' 
the second time for us and the third time in the city.
  It happened to be an evening when a very popular symphony concert was given in the great hall at the other end of the building, and thousands of people had free tickets.  At the same time every theater of the city had some special attraction, and several other lectures were in progress.  A more unfortunate combination against us could hardly have occurred.  Notwithstanding all this, and the fact that many had heard the lecture before, and the additional facts that it 
was his thirteenth appearance in the city, and his third appearance during the season,
 and that it rained, we had a good audience and cleared nearly two hundred dollars over and above all expenses, with the returns not all in.




(Signed) GEO. C. ADAMS, 
Pastor Compton Hill Congregational Church, St. Louis, Mo.




TRIBUTES OF EMINENT MEN



Announce Nourse widely.  He is a great success, full of sense and fun.
—
Bishop J. H. Vincent, Chautauqua.




Dr. Nourse is the only lecturer that I have cared to hear more than once, and I am never tired of hearing him.
—(
The late
) 
Dr. E. E. Higbee, Lancaster, Pa.




Just now, in my opinion, Mr. Nourse is the greatest platform orator going.
—
Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D. D., Editor the Advance.




One of the most eloquent, wise and witty talkers you ever heard.
—
Washington Gladden, LL.D., of the Century Magazine.




You may say what you will about Nourse, you cannot say too much.
—
Robert J. Burdette, Brooklyn Eagle.




You may speak of Nourse in terms that will appear extravagant until you have heard him.
—
Rev. F. A. Noble, D. D., Chicago.




In breadth and scope of thought, in clearness and beauty of language, in eloquence of style and utterance, in wit and action, he is a marvel.
—
Rev. T. F. Brasse, D. D., Pasadena, Cal.




We know of no man on the platform who pleases and instructs us so much.
—
Rev. Dr. Parkhurst, Editor Zion's Herald, Boston.




He is a true man of extraordinary gifts, earnestness and purpose, and a speaker of remarkable ability and power.
—
Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D., Oakland, Cal.




In presence he reminds me of Phillips; in philosophical grasp of his subject of Beecher; in dramatic action, delivery and control of his audience, of Gough.
—
J. R. Danforth, U. S. Consul, Spain.




It is a rich treat to listen to him.
—
Rev. Dr. Van Cleve, Los Angeles, Cal.




His lecture on 
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
 I have never heard excelled.  From beginning to end it was intensely interesting, and the entire audience was charmed by the dramatic power displayed.
—
Hon. E. N. Morrill, M. C., Washington, D. C.




I have heard Beecher, Phillips, Gough and other great orators, both living and dead; but without exception I say that this lecture of Mr. Nourse's on 
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
 is the greatest thing I ever saw on the platform, and it is the first time I ever saw or heard of the finest dramatic talent being consecrated to the highest moral purpose.
—
Rev. A. Hamilton, D. D., Battle Creek, Mich.




His lecture on 
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
 with its wonderful dramatic characterizations, was very fine.
—
Rev. A. P. Foster, D. D., Boston, Mass.




The greatest human utterance I ever heard.
—
O. O. Howard, Major General U. S. A., San Francisco.




Unique on the lecture platform.
—
E. M. Turner, Esq., LL. D., President State University, W. Va.




I have no hesitation in pronouncing it (
Jekyll and Hyde
) one of the very greatest lectures which the whole history of lecturing as an art has ever developed.
—
John S. Van Cleve, Professor of English Literature, Cincinnati.





JOHN AND JONATHAN



This is the first lecture that Dr. Nourse ever gave and was a discussion of the relations of England and America as they were by a man who had the good fortune to be born in England and the better fortune to be born again a citizen of the United States.  Not long ago 
The London Spectator,
 which is the leading political weekly in England, had an article on Dr. Nourse's work with this lecture, and asserted that he had done more than any other one man to bring about the happy relations that now exist.




The lecture has been re-written to fit the times, and is a humorous, philosophical and intensely entertaining discussion of the relations of the two greatest parts of the English speaking world, and also a discussion of the great question who shall govern the world, Slav, Celt or Anglo-Saxon.




FOOLISH VIRGINS



This is a new feature in the Lecture Course.  There have been scores of lectures about women but none to them.  
Foolish Virgins
 has been given many times.  It shows the follies of women in their relations to business, citizenship, society, men and their own sex.




THE BELIEF OF UNBELIEVERS



In this lecture Dr. Nourse demonstrates that the unbeliever believes more than the believer and on less evidence.  It can be used in Lyceum Courses, and is especially adapted to Y. M. C. A.'s.  There ought to be in every course of lectures given by religious societies at least one in defence of the faith.





WHY I AM NOT AN INFIDEL



This has been published in response to the universal demand for it.  Its companion WHY I AM A CHRISTIAN is equally powerful and convincing.  They are especially commended for Sunday P. M. Services, and are used by Dr. Nourse in his evangelistic work.





PRESS OPINIONS



The audience was very large.  The 
Standing Room Only
 sign was out.  The lecture was a remarkable one in many ways, and from a dramatic standpoint was excellent.  Dr. Nourse possesses all the arts of the dramatic orator; and in the recitation of some of the grisly dramatic passages of Mr. Stevenson's wonderful tale, he held his audience as with a fairy's spell.—


Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, March 11, 1889.




DELAWARE
, O.




Rev. Nourse is indeed an eloquent and strong speaker.  His eloquent words were eagerly drank in by his large audience.  Every one present listened to his tragic details in breathless wonder, or were enraptured with the brilliancy of his thought and wit.  The great truths were thrust home to the hearts of his hearers by that power and eloquence which marks him as one of the greatest of speakers.—


College Transcript, Delaware, O., February 19, 1898.




There is nothing commonplace about either the man or his lecture—both are original.—


La Crosse Republican and Leader.




LEXINGTON, KY.




Dr. Nourse is a happy speaker; at one moment he is ploughing deep into the recesses of thought and the next is skimming as lightly on the surface as the swallows on the buoyant air.  He moves his audience to laughter by irresistible humor, sweeps them upward on the tide of eloquence, dashes them here and there on the waves of logic and reason, only to drown them in tears by touching pathos.—


Kentucky New Era, May 1, 1888.




His wit, keen, cutting and pleasing; his anecdotes; his laughable impersonations; his pronunciation and imagery; his frequent flights of true eloquence—must all be considered in forming an estimate, and then you do not know him until you have heard him.  We echo the desire of all when we say, 
Let us have Mr. Nourse again.
—


The Morning Transcript, Lexington, Ky., February 12, 1887.




MILWAUKEE, WIS.




The dual characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were vividly contrasted and described last evening at Grand Avenue Congregational Church, in a lecture delivered by Robert Nourse, of Washington, a large audience having gathered to hear him.  Dr. Nourse is not a stranger to Milwaukeeans, and his reception last night showed that as a platform speaker he is popular here.  He is quite a mimic, something of an actor, and pictures out some of his propositions with cleverly acted stories that are very taking.—


The Sentinel, Nov. 24, 1889.




ST. PAUL, MINN.




Mr. Nourse is a remarkable example of the class of speakers who can charm an audience, and yet say little that does them justice in print.—


Pioneer Press, November 27, 1889.




NEW YORK
.




This orator—orator in every sense of the word—holds his audiences spellbound for hours under the charm of his graphic, racy diction and resistless torrent of sound sense and unimpeachable argument.—


The Christian at Work, July 16, 1885.




NORTHAMPTON, MASS.




No report can do justice to this masterpiece of oratory.  For nearly two hours the speaker held his audience with intensest interest, now thrilling them with his dramatic portrayals of character, now convulsing them with laughter by his sallies of wit, and anon moving them to tears by his pathos.  It is safe to say that it was one of the greatest lectures ever given in this vicinity.  The last scene in the laboratory, when Mr. Hyde had become hopeless of reformation, was a most consummate piece of dramatic presentation.  His impersonation of the hopeless despair, and the raving, devilish rage, was awful.—


Northampton Daily Herald, July 20, 1889.




PORTLAND, OREG
.




No speaker, not even Henry Ward Beecher, has ever given upon the lecture platform in Portland matter which could more fitly be called a great lecture.—


The Morning Oregonian, Aug. 29, 1889.




PORTLAND, MAINE
.




The lecture, 
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
 given by Robert Nourse in the Union Course last evening, drew a crowded house.  For nearly two hours the audience listened to such a flow of eloquence, combining strength, pathos and humor, as has never been heard in this place before.  Dr. Nourse's presentation is a deeper conception than the story itself.—


Portland Daily Press, Jan. 7, 1890.




The Star Course has given many delightful entertainments this season, but from an intellectual and instructive standpoint Dr. Nourse's lectures eclipse them all.—


Morning Star, Wilmington, N. C., March 9, 1898.




A large audience heard Robert Nourse lecture at the opera house last night on 
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
  It was a literary treat such as has not been furnished a Glens Falls assemblage since the days of John B. Gouch.  Mr. Nourse is somewhat of a counterpart of Gough, a splendid actor and eloquent lecturer.  Gough, Dougherty and Nourse might be classed among the most charming talkers that Glens Falls audiences have had the pleasure of hearing.  At the risk of inviting the charge of poor taste instituting comparisons, it may be said that Gough and Nourse led in lending force to their subject by introducing the qualities of the finished actor, while Dougherty surpassed both in the art of polished oratory.—


The Morning Star, Glens Falls, N. Y.





Read the Press Notices.  Observe from whence and whom they come.  They are all genuine.  Thousands more could be added.  If all were printed that have been published concerning Dr. Nourse and his wonderful orations, a large volume would have to be presented instead of this circular, and yet, during the many years Dr. Nourse has been on the platform he has never written, asked for or paid for a notice.  His work has always been his best advertisement.



As a lecturer Nourse is a grand success.  He impresses his audience at once with his masterful description and wonderful versatility.  His wit is pure and his dramatic effects faultless.—


The Evening Herald, Braddock, Pa., Nov. 14, 1899.




The Bells
 is an even greater effort than the 
Jekyll and Hyde
 lecture delivered last year.  It is sufficiently full of the dramatic to please persons who like the theatre, and there is enough of the pulpit oration in it to delight those who care not particularly for things that are secular.—


Augusta Chronicle, March 15, 1898.




SARATOGA SPRINGS
, N. Y.




For two hours the audience was held spellbound by the eloquent language that flowed like lightning from the tongue of the lecturer.  And at times when he paused to take a breath, a pin could have been heard to fall in any part of the house, so perfect was the silence.—


The Saratoga Union, Jan. 31, 1890.




VANCOUVER
, B. C.




As was expected, the lecturer, while full of that which was intensely humorous, was above all things dramatic.  It is too late in the day now for Mr. Nourse to go on the stage, but many a 
star
 in some of Shakespeare's dramas could learn a lesson from this preacher.  The closing part of the lecture, the transformation of Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde, the despair, the outcry, the picture of the gibbering, idiotic, sin-mastered wretch, were marvelous.—


The Daily News Advertiser, September 13, 1888.




Dr. Nourse is a man of great personal attractiveness, of unusual eloquence and power, he belongs to a class all by himself.—


The Religious Herald, Hartford, Conn., April 6, 1899.




Of the distinguished lecturers of the season—Drs. Dowling and Nourse, the Hon. Daniel Dougherty and G. R. Hoar—Nourse undoubtedly takes the palm. —


The Daily Times, Somerset, Pa., Jan. 5, 1899.




Rev. Robert Nourse is a large-brained, eloquent man, to whom it is a pleasure to listen.  He is a thorough American, English born, almost devoid of prejudice, full of human nature, pathetic, humorous, sarcastic, interesting, compelling attention, and thoroughly enjoyable.  One moment melting to tears, the next convulsing with laughter; intensely dramatic, replete with pathos and true oratory, his lecture was a treat.  Such a lecture is a part of a liberal education.  This sounds like strong praise but it is fully deserved.  He is an unusual man, and is entitled to unusual mention.  To report his lecture would be like attempting to report the rendition of a symphony by a superb orchestra.  Such things must be heard; they cannot be told.—


The Daily Astorian (Ore.), Aug. 27, 1888.




Those of our people who have previously listened to this famous lecturer knew what to expect, but to those who were unacquainted with his glorious work, his lecture was a revelation.  Rev. Mr. Nourse is unquestionably the most satisfying man now before the public as a lecturer.  His style is so bright and crisp, that one is charmed from the start, and follows him closely to the very end of what he has to say.  He grasps his subject in a manner to impress one favorably, and handles it with so much eloquence that one is actually filled with enthusiasm.  He is a capital story-teller, has great power of mimicry, and wit of the brightest order.  His subject was one in which all could feel a deep interest.  Every sentence revealed some new thought, and his eloquent delivery cast a spell over the audience that was not broken until he had finished.—


Great Falls (N. H.), Journal.




Dr. Robert Nourse delivered his lecture on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde before the Columbus Lyceum last night.  It was one of the most powerful lectures that has been heard upon the platform this season.  Dr. Nourse possesses a remarkably fine voice, capable of expressing every human passion.  He is a man of fine stage presence and has full mastery of the English language.  Dr. Nourse was educated as an actor, and his work last night showed conclusively that had he given his attention to the drama he would have become as famous as he is a lecturer.  At times when he would transform himself from the character of the dignified and courtly physician to the hideous and repulsive dwarf into which he was transformed, his work was thrilling, and his audience listened spellbound, first to the sweet voice of Dr. Jekyll, and then, almost an instant afterwards, to the hellish laughter and hiss of Mr. Hyde.  Parts of the lecture sparkled with jewels of wit and flashes of humor that made it all the more attractive.—


The Enquirer-Sun, Columbus, Ga.



THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN



THE MOST TIMELY LECTURE.  ITS TITLE IS ATTRACTIVE.  IT IS A LIVE SUBJECT.  GIVEN BY DR. NOURSE AN AUDIENCE MAY BE SURE OF A MASTERLY PRESENTATION OF IT.




It is well known that Dr. Nourse made his own dates and broke down last season from over-work.  The Associated Press dispatches had it that he had 
entirely lost his voice,
 
would never recover,
 and then, he was 
dead.
  We are happy to say that although Dr. Nourse's life was in great peril he is now in fair health and able to do a limited amount of lecturing.  HE HAS PUT HIS BOOKINGS INTO OUR HANDS.  The demand for him is so great that he cannot fill half the applications already received for next Season.