Paul M. Pearson

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PAUL M. PEARSON

THE PAUL PEARSON
LECTURE-RECITALS

Who He Is
PROFESSOR PAUL M. PEARSON, of Swarthmore College, was born in Illinois, but spent most of his boyhood in Kansas. He rarely spoke peices as a child, and it was not until after entering college that his natural bent began to manifest itself. At college he entered many of the oratorical and declamation contests, and often read to his friends, usually selecting Riley, of whose poetry he is especially fond. After his graduation he secured the position of principal of his home school, but had nothing to do that summer, and sighing for new worlds to conquer, remarked to a friend that he believed he could read Riley to the neighboring villages if he only had the dates. His friend, who had heard him and wished to bring others to the same state as himself, volunteered to get him all the dates he could fill. Sure enough, in a day or two came word that the first agony was billed for a night just ten days ahead. The unfortunate reader soaked himself in Riley until he radiated it on every side, and he says the evening was, in one sense at least, a howling success. His friend proved indefatigable, and kept him going all summer. Though in September they divided only thirty dollars of net profits between them, they made plans for the future. For the next two years Professor Pearson entertained the school daily and the nearby towns occasionally, and so earned the money to go to Northwestern University to study oratory. Making a favorable impression on Dr. Cumnock, the head of the department, he was allowed to finish the course in one year, and was then for six years in the faculty. He did graduate work at Harvard, after which he was invited to occupy the chair of Public Speaking at Swarthmore College, a co educational college near Philadelphia, where he has now been since 1902. In 1912 Professor Pearson organized the Chautauqua Association of Pennsylvania, which in four years has extended its activities to thirteen of the North Atlantic states, where it has conducted Chautauqua Assemblies in 166 towns in the summer, and more than 100 towns in the winter. With the manifold duties of his college and Chautauqua work, he still finds time to lecture. His success as a lecturer may be judged by the fact that ninety seven per cent of the towns where he lectured last year reported him very satisfactoryand a majority of them asked for him to be returned.
THREE POPULAR
LECTURE-RECITALS

Who Is Great

The Poetry of Life

The Joy of Living

THE PAUL PEARSON
LECTURE-RECITALS

What He Does
THE lecture recital, adopted by Professor Pearson for his public work, is just what its name indicates, a lecture and a recital. The theme is presented in such manner as any popular lecturer of experience would use, but the points of the lecture are charmingly and effectively reinforced by his recital of poetic masterpieces. Professor Pearson has made this form peculiarly his own. How well he has succeeded in bringing audiences to an appreciation of his method, his skill, and his purpose, is set forth in the comments that follow.
How He Does It
The popularity of the lecture recitals presented by Professor Pearson is attested by the important places where he has appeared, and by the frequency with which he has been recalled. To mention a few: he has been five seasons at Chautauqua, New York; four at Winona, Indiana; eight at Mariette, Wisconsin; six at Mt. Lake Park, Maryland; eight at Petersburg, Illinois. Of the important Y. M. C. A. Courses, Professor Pearson has appeared on several of the largest   Chicago and Philadelphia, for example. Many college courses are included in Professor Pearson's itinerary each season: Dartmouth College, Bucknell, Lehigh, Girard, Baker, Northwestern, and more than thirty others were recently included in a single year. Many Woman's Clubs have engaged Professor Pearson repeatedly, and he has given his lecture recitals for the state federations of Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

PROFESSOR C. B. WRIGHT, of Middlebury College, writing of Mr. Pearson's lecture recitals, says: It is not easy to duplicate an exceptional success, but Professor Pearson did it at the Congregational Church last Monday night, when he set his interpretation of Paul Laurence Dunbar over against the interpretation of James Whitcomb Riley that he gave us a year ago. The audience to which he spoke was thoroughly representative the college was there, the town was there, and the alumni and other commencement visitors added to the number of delighted listeners. It, was an audience, too, in sympathy with the speaker from the outset and enthusiastic in its expression of pleasure as one good thing followed another to the very close of the hour. In Mr. Pearson's work, brain and heart are admirably balanced; there is subtle, though simple, analysis mingled with no less subtle appreciation, and thought and feeling find full expression in a voice that proves a ready servant. The recital devoted to Dunbar is more than a portrayal of the gifted poet, vivid though that portrayal is it is a presentation of the negro nature in all its picturesqueness and possibility, with Dunbar as the exponent in art of its joys and sorrows, its life and love and longing. One comes away with a heightened respect for a race that can produce a man speaking forth so melodiously what the very heart of it means.
Mr. Pearson's art is uniformly delightful. He touches ‘the tender stops of various quills,' and always with the sure hand of a master. To many of his hearers, the range of the Dunbar poetry was a revelation, sweeping as it did, in the selections read, from the humor of pure fun to the humor lying near the source of tears; from the sereneness of  ‘The Poet and His Song' to the grim tragedy of  ‘The Haunted Oak.' It was an evening of rare enjoyment and we are Mr. Pearson's debtors.

Mr. Pearson has since given two other lecture recitals at Middlebury.

THE PAUL PEARSON
LECTURE-RECITALS

How He Does ItThe Hudson Republican (N. Y.)Dr. Pearson, s lecture was truly a masterpiece, and the lecturer further established himself with his many friends in Hudson, who will welcome him at any time. There are few men in the world who look upon the bright side of life as does Dr. Pearson, and it was the feeling of every one present last evening that we are better for having heard him.The Rockville (Conn.) JournalThe evening program included another concert by the Hackett  Florence Trio, followed by a lecture recital by Dr. Paul M. Pearson, a: forceful and entertaining speaker, who held his audience  under the spell of his eloquence. His subject was Who Is Great?and by the time he had finished, his hearers had a truer idea of what real greatness consists of. Every point that lie brought out was aptly illustrated by a poem.Mt. Carmel (Pa.)The lecture recital by Dr. Paul M. Pearson at Chautauqua last night was wonderful. The words of a well known Mt. Carmel clergyman,“Dr. Pearson’s lecture fully repays me for all that I have spent for Chautauqua, express the sentiments of everybody. The whole course ticket costs $2.00. The address last night was worth all of that, and more. In a forceful entertaining way, Dr. Pearson expressed the great messages the world's literary masterpieces have for us, and in analyzing the subject Who is Great? he lifted his audience to higher planes of life and purpose.Tom's River (N. J.) CourierProfessor Paul Pearson, of Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pa., the head of the Chautauqua movement in the east, was the Saturday evening lecturer, or as he called it, he gave a lecture recital. His theme was, Who Is Great? and he, found that greatness in, first, service, then work, courage, persistence and cheerfulness, and he seemed to rank the latter quality as among the very greatest of them all. His lecture was interspersed with recitals of poems and sketches to illustrate his point. . It will be a long time before some at least of his hearers forget his recitation of Joaquin Miller's poem, Behind him lay the grey Azores.  Professor Pearson is a disciple of the school that preaches the right of joyous living  and he looks as if he had acquired the art himself. He is the mainspring of the Eastern Chautauqua movement that this summer has had Chautauqua tents placed in more than Zoo towns of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and New England.Cafe Charles (Va.)Dr.  Pearson's address entitled Who Is Great? was delightful. Of pleasing presence, the good Doctor knows men and what will appeal to them, and he gives them that very thing.Rome (N. Y.)Dr. Paul M. Pearson in his lecture recital on The Joy of Living charmed his audience with his grace, marvelous voice and almost perfect rendition of his selection.Coatesville (Pa.)One of the very best lectures of the course was by Paul M: Pearson, on the Joy of Living which was full measure, pressed down and running over with brilliant thoughts; finely expressed.Bennington (Vt.) BannerThe lecture by Dr. Paul M. Pearson, Director of the Chautauqua, given in the form of a lecture recital was entitled Who Is Great? The force and beauty of the eloquence of the orator was brought home to the audience in Dr. Pearson's expression of the messages that the world's literary masterpieces have for us.

I.WHEN Pearson reads,—I seem to hear Old fashioned talk and country cheer; I seem to read from Riley's books Among green fields and running brooks; And Riley's kindly people walk Before my eyes and quaintly talk, —When Pearsons reads.II.WHEN Pearson reads,—I seem to hear Old Southern songs that echo clear; And o'er me murmer soft and far The tender lyrics of Dunbar, In wistful dreams I seem to see The darkies dance with merry glee When Pearson reads.III.WHEN Pearson reads,—I seem to know The inner hear of Edgar Poe; The pathos of his tragic years, The pity of it, that moves to tears. I seem to walk that wondorous shore, Where dwells the shade of lost Lenore, When Pearson reads.Old memories of vanished years, Old recollections dimmed with tears, Old joys and grieds that had their part In life’s best hours surge round the heart, —When Pearson read.JOHN RUSSELL HAYES.