Albert L. Blair

              ALBERT L. BLAIR

Figure


(Of the Boston Press)
Journalist and Lecturer

Address:  Brooklyn, N.E. (10 St. Francis Place) Summer home Huntington, Mass. R.L.D. No. 1


Figure


ASSOCIATE MEMBER
AMERICAN
LYCEUM
UNION
S. B. Hershey
Presy & Genl Mgr.
ROCHESTER, N.Y.



DIRECTION
THE WHITE ENTERTAINMENT BUREAU
925–926 Colonial Building,   BOSTON, MASS.
K. M. WHITE, Manager,
A. J. BAKER,   Associate Manager. C. H. WHITE, Treasurer.




Albert L. Blair
Is well fitted to talk upon the subject of newspaper making and newspaper makers, for he has spent his life amid the roar of presses and the click of type.  He is bright, witty and entertaining, and his ability to turn a phrase in a most interesting and unexpected way serves to keep his audience alert and constantly on the watch for some new rhetorical gem.

In referring to the numerous remarkable improvements in the mechanical departments of the newspaper office, 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?

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 flash-light 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.



Subjects

No. 1.
The Ideal Newspaper.
With Criticisms on Current Modes of Journalism.
No. 2.
The Press—What Does It Represent?
Showing the Place of the Newspaper in Our Civilization.

Committees engaging Mr. Blair for the first time should select No. 1.



Tufts College

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.)



Colgate College

The third annual address before the Colgate Press Club was delivered in Academy Hall to a large audience Thursday evening by Mr. Albert L. Blair of the Boston press.  His theme was The Whirr of the Printing Press Mr. Blair's lecture was sturdy and Anglo-Saxon, and was not characterized by maudlin sentimentality.  He showed a wealth of epithet and adjective in parts that was truly surprising.—
The Hamilton (N. Y.) Republican.



R. I. College
It gives me great pleasure to inform you (Entertainment Lecture Bureau) that the lecture delivered here at the college by Mr. A. L. Blair on The Ideal Newspaper was highly satisfactory.  He held the attention of his audience in a remarkable manner.

H. J. WHEELER, (Acting President of R. I. College and the Arts, Kingston, R. I.)



Personal Letter
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.)




Press Comments

The lecturer (Mr. Blair) received the closest attention, and the audience was liberal in the bestowal of applause at the end of his glowing periods.—
Waltham (Mass.) Evening News.


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.)


At the close of his (Mr. Blair) address on Journalism, he was tendered an ovation such as is only given when an audience are aroused to the depths of their innermost being.—
“Our Paper, ”published at Concord Junction, Mass.


Mr. Blair has the ability and has the experience in newspaper work which assure an evening of pleasure and instruction for his hearers.  He is an orator of force and real power, and a newspaper man of more than 20 years experience.  He knows the faults of the daily press, and he paves the way for his conception of the ideal newspaper by pungent criticisms of current modes of journalism.
The Presbyterian Visitor (of Boston).


Albert L. Blair, A. M., was the speaker at the meeting of the Somerville Forum, Sunday afternoon.  His address on The American King dealt with a subject which had not before been presented; and was received with cordial manifestations of approval.  The lecturer, who is a practical newspaper man and in constant touch with the affairs of the day, told of the corruption which had crept into politics through and because of the lack of interest of the great mass of the people.  His language was vivid and strong, and his ideas and presentation of his subject are original and graphic.  He is a speaker whom one would desire to hear a second time.—
Somerville (Mass.) Journal.


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.


It was an interested audience that filled the City Hall last evening, and heard the lecture on The Citizen King, by Albert L. Blair of the Boston press.  He defined the duties and privileges of the American citizen in a lucid manner, and held the closest attention of his hearers throughout.
Manchester (N. H.) Union.


At the last regular meeting of the Young Men's Social League connected with the First Baptist church, Mr. Albert L. Blair of the Boston press spoke upon the Press and What It Stands For.  He displayed a thorough familiarity with his subject, and his quaint comparisons and witty descriptions were very well received.—
The Chronicle (Brookline, Mass.)


Albert L. Blair, A. M., of the Boston press gave his interesting lecture entitled, The Press—What Does It Represent? in the Congregational church Wednesday evening.  Everybody who heard this remarkably gifted man was impressed with the power of his personality and the wealth of information which he crowded into an hour's talk.  His presentation of the subject was indeed straightforward.  The faults of the press were not merely glossed over, nor was there any failure to claim fully all the merits allowable.  The speaker's delivery and his impressive mannerisms were features entirely unique to a Georgetown audience.  That they took with all would be summing up the situation in a mild way.  Mr. Blair is one of the best newspaper men in New England.  He has been a close student of history, sociology, politics, religion and men, and the reflection of his keenest observations are seen in all his lectures.—
Georgetown (Mass.) Advocate.



The speaker (Mr. Blair) showed that he was thoroughly conversant with the social and political questions of the day.  At times he rose to the sublime degree of a preacher of the loftiest moral citizenship.—
St. John's Record (North Adams, Mass.)


Mr. Blair's lectures are noted for their common sense treatment of live public questions, and his thoughts are clothed in terse and rugged English which is very effective.—
The Hamilton (N. Y.) Republican.

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, Recently appointed director of the National Census Bureau.

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.


The rain storm interfered with the attendance at the closing lecture in the Hunt Course at the City Hall last evening.  Those, however, who braved the storm were well paid.  The lecture was one of the most interesting and educational which has been delivered during the course.  It bristled with short and pithy paragraphs, humor, suggestions and conclusions that kept the interest of his hearers and gave them something to think and talk about.  It was indeed a capital lecture, the pleasing humor, as well as the good sense of which may be as fully appreciated by a miscellaneous audience, as by those who endure the hardship and perplexities of editing copy.—
Nashua (N. H.) Daily Press.

Mr. Blair is a speaker of unusual force, and his clear nervous style and the frequent surprises in thought and expression kept everybody alert.

REV. JAMES T. BLACK, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, East Boston, Mass.


At the Presbyterian church last Tuesday evening, an appreciative audience listened to a very interesting lecture by Albert L. Blair of the Boston press on The Ideal Newspaper.  Mr. Blair spoke for over an hour in a manner that delighted his auditors.  The address was full of sound sense, practical suggestions, strong and pertinent illustrations and wholesome truths concerning the conduct of the daily newspaper.—
East Boston (Mass.) Argus-Advocate.

The presentation of the subject (The Press,—what does it represent?) was straightforward.  The faults of the Press were not merely glossed over, nor was there any failure to claim fully all the merits allowable.  The fine rhetoric and many pleasing surprises in diction were not the least interesting features.  The delivery was vigorous and effective at all points, and in several fine passages truly eloquent in the best sense of that much abused word.  Mr. Blair fully met the high expectations of his hearers, and that is not an easy thing to do, either in matter or manner, with an audience of ministers.

REV. JAMES T. BLACK, President of Boston Presbyterian Ministens' Meeting on June 12, 1897.

While the humor of your lecture was original and side-splitting, it was of the purest kind without the slightest suggestion of coarseness, and the pathetic passages impressed every one with their depth and sincerity.  The lecture is quite out of the ordinary course, and Hamilton, being an educational centre, you were peculiarly exposed to criticism.  But I heard many allusions to your lecture, and they were all expressive of warm and enthusiastic admiration.

REV. EDWARD JUDSON, D. D., of New York City, who heard the lecture on The Press.