William Rainey Bennett

              Figure

William Rainey Bennett

MANAGEMENT
Century Lyceum Bureau
Auditorium Building
CHICAGO



FOREWORD
WILLIAM RAINEY BENNETT is The Man Who Can.  He has been tried in the unerring crucible of public opinion and has stood the test.  Like most men who make good, Dr. Bennett was raised on a farm, and has warmed his bare feet on frosty mornings where the cows have lain down.  He worked his way through college, starting in with Ten Dollars and graduating with money in his pocket, having paid his way by singing.  Since then he has done post graduate work in two universities, and still has enough sense to farm.  At present Dr. Bennett has a side issue, a 200-acre dairy farm, which he oversees between lecture trips.  Dr. Bennett has held three pastorates; Chicago, Ill., Darlington, Wis., and Marion, Ind.  Two of these have recalled him after he entered the lecture field.  For five years he had the largest popular following of, perhaps, any preacher in the State of Indiana, crowding every Sunday evening the largest Church Auditorium in a city of 30,000 to the utmost with all kinds and conditions of men and women.  His sermon-lectures were published in full as a feature of the News-Tribune.  These articles, some of them, found their way to New York and San Francisco, and were published widely.  Dr. Bennett has been a winner in Chautauquas, and will make his third consecutive appearance in 28 Chautauquas next summer.  His voice is a rich robust tenor, which without strain reaches the uttermost part of tent or auditorium, his softest tones carrying easily.  And finally Dr. Bennett has in addition to educational experience, a personality that in itself is a great factor in his success.  He Looks the part—is five feet and eleven inches high, weighs about two hundred, believes in health and happiness, has a smile that is contagious, and a good digestion.  He is always at his best.  His entertainment, for he is an entertainer of the highest type, is a series of song, story and solid substance, mingled with the touch of a master.  He will thrill you, and still you and put a tonic in your blood.  He leaves his audience in a glow.  He is one of the Few Great Lecturers of this age.



I
The Man Who Can
Introduced by a Tenor Recital of Six Songs.  A great inspiring fusillade of facts, fun, and fancy.  Its theme is: He Can Who Thinks He Can.  In every brain is a sleeping genius; it can be awakened.  This lecture will do it.  It helps a young man or woman to find himself.  It gives him health, poise, power.  Absolutely different from this Anglo-Saxon Get-There type of lecture.  Every laugh comes in naturally.  Nothing is forced.  This lecture contains the famous Wolf Chase which Judge Ben Lindsey pronounced as good as the best Lew Wallace ever wrote.



I had more calls for Bennett back again than for any other attraction on my lists.  He makes good in every sense of the word.  I shall repeat him in every one of my twenty-eight Chautauquas.

CHAS. F. HORNER, Mgr., Redpath Chautauqua System, Lincoln, Nebraska.



II
The Master Thought
Prefaced with Tenor Solos.  A profound lecture on the art of having a strong face, and a fine body and a beautiful soul.  It is powerful, practical, enlivened with most beautiful description, and a great dramatic climax on the Crucial Moment or The Fight with The Octopus.  Through it all there is a fine vein of Humor that flows easily.  The whole program is a series of surprises.

The way the music falls in with the sentiment is truly entrancing and dramatic.



III.
The Young Man and His Sweetheart OR THE HARMONIES OF LIFE.
From the Infant crying in the night, and with no language but a cry, down to the Sunset and Evening Star, and after that—the dark.

In this entertainment, Mr. Bennett sings illustrative songs to suit the sentiment of his story, such as Sleep Little Baby of Mine, My Rosary, Love's Old Sweet Song, and many others.  There is Boy Life, Child Slavery, The Dawn of the Mustache, The Game, The Young Man's Religion, His Sweetheart, Her Sweetheart, The Proposal, The Wedding, The New Home, The Old Home, The Golden-Rod Age, Twilight.




SOME OPINIONS FROM MEN OF NOTE

SENATOR LAFOLLETTE, OF WISCONSIN.
You ought to do a lot of this lecture work.  You have the stuff in you.



THE LATE SAM JONES.
If I could sing like my brother here (Mr. Bennett), I would sing instead of speak to you.



B. F. MOORE, Ex-Pres. Ind. State Teachers' Ass'n.
William R. Bennett's lectures never fail to interest and instruct.  He is especially fine in Teachers' Associations and commencement addresses.  Hear him.



PRES. HUGHES, OF RIPON, WISCONSIN.
I see now why you are successful.  You touch life where we live it.



BOONE (IOWA) NEWS-REPUBLICAN.

The speaker of the day was Dr. William Rainey Bennett in his Man Who Can lecture, and he certainly made good.  He himself is rightly entitled to the name The Man Who Can, for he has a message and he speaks as one having authority.  His fine stage presence, his flashes of wit, his facial expression, his ease and elegance on the platform all combine to make him a popular orator.  The audience was demonstrative.—
Chautauqua Notes.



SIBLEY (IOWA) GAZETTE.

Dr. Bennett delivered a great address yesterday at Chautauqua.  There was a fine audience which did not hesitate to show its appreciation.  Dr. Bennett is an inspiration and leaves a crowd in a glow.  His illustrations and dramatic descriptions made his thoughts as plain as the light of day.  There is no mistake. Mr. Bennett is a Live Wire.—
Chautauqua Notes.



EVANSVILLE (INDIANA) COURIER.
Dr. William Rainey Bennett spoke to over seven hundred men at Evan's Hall yesterday at the big Y. M. C. A. meeting.  He gave a powerful lecture on The Master Thought.  In it were many humorous spots, but each story drove home a great truth.  The men were highly pleased and many crowded to the front to shake hands with the speaker.



MARION (INDIANA) NEWS-TRIBUNE
The Bennett Lectures that we print each Monday morning have boomed the circulation of the paper and have brought more results than any other feature.  The Temple is always crowded to hear him.



CLARINDA (IOWA) CHAUTAUQUA.
The three lectures given at our Chautauqua were the most thoughtful, substantial of any this season.  Many said that The Man Who Can was the most brilliant, and The Master Thought the deepest and most helpful of all our fine array of lectures.  Mr. Bennett always stimulates the mind.  [Three seasons.]

WM. ORR, President.



E. W. HOCH, GOVERNOR OF KANSAS
I have heard Mr. William R. Bennett deliver his splendid lecture, The Man Who Can, and came out from under the spell of it with the settled conviction that he is a fine illustration of his subject.  Mr. Bennett is a thinker, a philosopher and a young man of fine oratorical abilities and a master of good English.

E. W. HOCH.



BEN B. LINDSEY, THE KID'S JEDGE.
I told the boys that some of your descriptive work was as fine as some of the best that Lew Wallace ever wrote.  I was also impressed with the fact that your lecture combined a splendid optimism with certain warnings and cautions and descriptive material that made it an unusual combination, where entertainment, instruction and inspiration are demanded by the audience.

BEN B. LINDSEY.



GREENFIELD, INDIANA.
Dr. Bennett's lecture on The Man Who Can, was one of the most brilliant addresses we have ever heard.

O. STALEY, Pres. Teachers' Ass'n.



ROCHESTER, MICHIGAN.
William R. Bennett gave the second number of our lecture course, and he simply captured our large audience, and held it to the last.  He is one of the very best entertainers we have had in Rochester.  He is a fine orator, full of wit and humor.  As a tenor soloist, we have never had his superior.

(PROF.) A. L. CRAFT, Manager.



WESTPORT, INDIANA.
To the sick: If you have that tired feeling from torpid liver and have no aim or ambition, I, as a physician, would prescribe, The Man Who Can, by Dr. Bennett, in broken doses for two hours.  If that don't cure you and fill you full of blood, it's no use to try Peruna.  I have seen two large audiences take his medicine as if it were candy and they haven't got over it yet.

O. F. WELSH, M. D.




DWIGHT (ILLINOIS) STAR AND HERALD.
The Man Who Can was a big success.  It was philosophical, logical, witty, breezy, solid and eloquent.  Bennett is one of the sure great lecturers of the next decade.  He possesses a magnificent force and a wonderful voice, is at home utterly before an audience.  He made a great hit and we will want him again.  [Recalled.]
WIRT LOWTHER, Mgr.



MALTA, OHIO.
Your lecture gave the best satisfaction of our five numbers.  Many have asked that you be booked next year on our course.  [Recalled.]
(SUPT.) GEORGE M. STRONG.




CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
Your tenor recital and lecture on The Man Who Can, at our church, were greatly enjoyed by all who heard them.  I have heard nothing but commendation and praise for your evening's entertainment.  [Recalled.]

W. R. PARR, Pastor St. Paul's Cong'l Church, Chicago.



MOUNT VERNON, INDIANA.
Dr. Bennett was one of the best attractions that we have ever had.  The audience followed the speaker with rapt attention, and the repeated hearty applause by the audience showed that it was pleased in every way.  If Dr. Bennett should come again the hall will not hold the people that will want to come and hear him.  [Recalled.]

PROF. E. G. BAUMAN, Mgr.



EDGERTON, WISCONSIN.

He held his audience in a spell.  No stronger speaker has ever appeared before an Edgerton (Wis.) audience.—
High School Advocate.



GALENA, ILLINOIS.
He is a strong manly man.  He has a winning personality, an expressive face and a well stored mind.  He is intellectually tall with a pleasing voice and manner and a great heart full of love for humanity.  His words always live.  He made a great hit with Old Galena.



CORNELL (IOWA) COLLEGE.
It is my honest conviction that this lecture equals the best of anything in the way of lectures or addresses, to which it was my privilege to listen, during the five years I spent in that institution.  [Recalled].

REV. R. T. WESTERN.




ST. JOSEPH (MO.) NEWS-PRESS.
Mr. Bennett is an immensely popular tenor soloist, and his characteristically winning voice, united with his charming personality, makes him a favorite with all audiences.  [Three seasons.]





FROM COMMITTEES WHO PAY THE MONEY

ALFRED, NEW YORK.
William R. Bennett is a thinker of much power and knows how to say what he thinks.  He can melt the heart or brighten the eye; thrust rottenness through with his sword or pour the oil of peace upon the bleeding wounds.  He knows the gamut of the human heart and has dug into the depths of human thought.  He has a message.  [Recalled.]

OTHO P. FAIRFIELD, A. B. Mgr.



VINCENNES (INDIANA) CAPITAL.

William Rainey Bennett, of the Congregational Church, Marion, Ind., is a soloist of rare ability, to be surpassed by few.  For a number of years he has had great success as a choir leader and a director of Oratorios.  Mr. Bennett is also an orator of great ability.  Those who heard his two lectures, The Man Who Can, and The Master Thought, found him to be a deep thinker and a brilliant entertainer.  He has a magnetic personality and has no trouble in winning a place in the hearts of his hearers.  [Two seasons.]—
At the Chautauqua.



WATHENE (KANSAS) NEWS-PRESS.

Mr. William Rainey Bennett, first tenor of the famous Hesperian Male Quartet, gave his lecture, The Master Thought, to a large and enthusiastic audience in the Auditorium this morning.  The people had come primarily to hear Sen. Lafollette, who spoke later in the day, but all were loud in their praise of Dr. Bennett's lecture.  It was beyond doubt one of the most brilliant orations both in thought and expression ever delivered on the Wathena platform.  [There seasons.]—
Chautauqua Notes.



CRAWFORDSVILLE, INDIANA.

The Opera House was crowded between the four walls from roof to floor with over a hundred on the stage.  The class address was delivered by Rev. William R. Bennett, of Marion, Ind., and it was an interesting, snappy lecture, abounding in wit, instruction and liveliness.  Everyone said it was one of the greatest speeches ever delivered in the city.  His singing was superb.  [Three seasons.]—
Times-Journal.



DANVILLE (ILLINOIS) PRESS.

William Rainey Bennett is a new star on the lecture horizon.  His wit and humor anecdotes and sensible thoughts have amazed and delighted the audiences.  [Recalled.]—
Chautauqua Assembly.



MONROE (WIS.) EVENING TIMES.
Dr. William Rainey Bennett appearing at Turner Hall last evening under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A., treated his hearers to a most delightful entertainment.  He charmed his audience with his splendid tenor voice, and then carried the people away with his most beautiful word painting.  The Master Thought is a lecture filled with gems worth preserving.  This was Dr. Bennett's second appearance on the lecture plat-form in this city, and the people were enthusiastic.  [Recalled.]



BLAIR (NEB.) PILOT.
Bennett makes good.  The Man Who Can was one of the best lectures given during the Chautauqua.  [Rebooked.]



UNION CITY (IND.) EVENING TIMES.
The great feature of the evening was William Rainey Bennett in The Man Who Can.  A mere passing sketch could not begin to do him justice.  He is a wonderful entertainer with a style and manner all his own.  He works his audience up to the highest pitch of good feeling and enthusiasm, but best of all he puts in points at regular periods that are uplifting, in a way to make them stay for life.  Mr. Bennett preaches a splendid doctrine in an intensely interesting way.  [Commencement.]



CHERRYVALE (KAS.) DAILY REPUBLICAN.
Many pronounced Mr. Bennett's lecture the best of the season's entertainments.  [Recalled.[



SABULA (IOWA) GAZETTE.
Before a dozen words are spoken the personality of the speaker wins the audience and you are enlisted in his cause.  Throughout his address, you can not help but feel here is indeed a Man Who Can.  Besides giving his hearers something to think about Mr. Bennett is a ready wit—his laugh is contagious.  In oratory he is the peer of any speaker who has ever appeared here.  His Wolf Chase told towards the close was the greatest piece of fine dramatic description that we have ever heard.



FREDONIA (KAS.) DAILY HERALD.
A Bennett Program (Condensed from a column)—

Judge Ben Lindsey was scheduled for the afternoon and Mr. Bennett for night, but the Frisco was late, and Mr. Bennett took his place.  At night the train was still behind the wreck, and Lindsey was not there.  The crowd began to cry, Bennett, Bennett, so Bennett was produced by the management and proceeded to deliver a second lecture—much to the delight of the audience.

Mr. Bennett is truly a Dramatic orator.  His lectures are a succession of humor, pathos, dramatic recital, and good common sense.  His play of facial expression is remarkable, and his magnetic personality alone would hold the attention of his audience.  [Resold for third lecture.]



EUREKA (KAS.) HERALD.

Eureka has never heard a man who could handle an audience with more ease than could Bennett.  One minute he would sway his listeners with his dramatic ability, and almost in the same breath he would throw them into fits of laughter with his humor.  Mr. Bennett is master of dramatic oratory.  Be it said right here that only one application of William Rainey Bennett will cure the most persistent case of the blues.  [Recalled.]—
Chautauqua.



MINDEN (NEB.) COURIER.

The lecture on The Man Who Can by Mr. Bennett was the best of all.  We say this without any intention of disparaging the excellence of others.  They were all good, but this lecture towered above others as a giant above pigmies.  The pictures Bennett painted with words thrilled with intense anxiety.  They stimulated, encouraged, and compelled from every listener a vow that he would be better and try to make the world better.  His words burned into the brain until one can never forget them nor efface them.  [Called back.]—
Chautauqua.



HARBOR SPRINGS (MICH.) GRAPHIC.
William Rainey Bennett is a success—a gifted singer, a forceful speaker, an irresistible personality.  He captured the audience before he said a word, and held its attention by a hopeful, uplifting philosophy of life.  Mr. Bennett's original Wolf Chase is literature that would do credit to Hugo or London, and his delivery of it is worthy of the best melodramatic actor.  The more he comes to Harbor Springs the better audiences he will have.



MANSFIELD, OHIO.
We were delighted with Mr. Bennett.  He can come again and we shall want him.

MRS. DORA G. HYDE, Pres. Lecture Courses.



WARREN (ILL.) SENTINEL-LEADER.
The people who heard Dr. Bennett at the Opera House Wednesday evening are unanimous in their verdict that the lecture on The Man Who Can was one of the very best ever given in Warren.  His climax, the Wolf Chase was given with remarkable dramatic power, and vividly portrayed the fearful cost of much that the world calls success.  Mr. Bennett's song prelude captured the crowd completely.  He is great.  [Recalled.]