Mrs. Leonora M. Lake: lecture tour

              Figure

Mrs. Leonora M. Lake LECTURE TOUR

SUBJECTS:

When Man is King.
The Divine Rights of the Child.
The Corner Stone of Our National Superstructure, Our Homes.
What is Life, What can we do with it?
My Neighbor and I.
Flowers I have Gathered on the Journey of Life.



RLB

Redpath-Slayton, BOSTON, NEW YORK, CHICAGO, CEDAR RAPIDS. COLUMBUS, KANSAS CITY, DENVER, BUTTE, PORTLAND

Redpath-White, 100 BOYLSTON ST., K.M. WHITE, MGR, BOSTON, MASS.

Redpath-Brockway, 6101 PENN AVE, PITTSBURG, PA.




MRS. LEONORA M. LAKE, Lecturer

ANNOUNCEMENT
LEONORA MARIE LAKE was born in Ireland, of Catholic parentage, in 1849.  Two and a half years later her parents brought her to this country.  She lived all her girlhood on a farm in northern New York.  The summer she was sixteen she taught district school and boarded 'round.  She married when quite young and was widowed within ten years.  With three children looking to her for the necessaries of life, work was an imperative demand.  Precipitated thus suddenly into an hitherto unknown field, she became deeply interested in the conditions under which toiled the great industrial army of our land and soon developed into a champion of working women and children.

The Knights of Labor, at that time the most prominent labor organization in the country, appealed forcibly to her for many reasons, but most particularly because of the plank in its platform of principles demanding equal pay for equal work.  Under the auspices of this organization—which created for her the office of general investigator of the condition of wage-earning women and children—she was launched into public service.  While an incumbent of this office she drafted the bill which afterwards became the Factory Inspection Law of Pennsylvania.  This office of General Investigator of Women's Work created for her by the Knights of Labor was never filled again, as it was abolished after her marriage to Mr. O. R. Lake, of St. Louis, in 1890, when she left the glare of the footlights with a glad heart for the peace and quiet of home.

But it was not to be.  Her God-fearing character, her sense of honor, justice, and righteousness which had been instilled into her by her early training, was aroused by the many evils that existed and her conscience would not sleep.  Encouraged by her husband, she has kept up her work on the platform, making her plea for sobriety, right living, and fair dealing.

For fifteen years she has been honored with official position in the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America, and four years ago the White Ribbon Women of Illinois honored her by making her an honorary member of the National body.





My Neighbor and I
THE following letter was received by Rev. W. G. Irish, Mason City, Ill., from Mr. C. E. Gullett, Chairman of the Program Committee, Lincoln (Ill.) Chautauqua Association, on the event of Mrs. Lake's lecture in Mason City, Sept. 23, 1909:

Lincoln, Ill, Sept. 13, 1909.

Rev. W. G. Irish, Mason City, Ill.

Dear Father Irish:—

I am glad to have an opportunity to say a few words in commendation of Mrs. Leonora M. Lake, who will lecture for you at Mason City.  Mrs. Lake has lectured three times at Lincoln Chautauqua.  No man or woman is heard here more gladly and none presents a more vital message.  I am within safe bounds in saying that Mrs. Lake has been more cordially received here on each successive visit and heard by larger audiences.  Our people are anxious to hear her speak on every one of the half-dozen subjects on her list and then begin over again on the full list.  The reason for her success is not hard to find.  A speaker who appears on the platform merely to entertain has missed the spirit of the times.  Mrs. Lake is always intensely interesting, but she would scorn to hold an audience and do nothing more than entertain.  A purpose underlies her work.  She brings a great burning message.  Her words glow with vital truth.  She stirs her hearers to higher resolves, to clearer conceptions of individual and public duty, and to better citizenship.

Mrs. Lake has the gift of eloquence as it has been given to few men and women.  She classes herself, by her platform work, along with the best of the public men who have lately rendered such splendid service in arousing the public conscience—the reform Governors and Senators of our great Western States.

Very respectfully yours,
C. E. GULLETT.



Archbishop Kain, St. Louis

Leonora M. Lake, of St. Louis, is a devoted Catholic lady, an earnest worker in all charities, an ardent advocate of temperance; in every noble cause she has proved herself a gifted and interesting talker, and as such I commend her to all.

Archbishop Ireland, St. Paul

Mrs. Leonora M. Lake is one of the most gifted women to whom I have ever listened.  Her views on any question show deep and sober thought, a wide range of knowledge and profound judgment.

Bishop Watterson, Columbus, Ohio

I know Mrs. Leonora M. Lake, and am well acquainted with her work on the platform.  She is a good and safe lecturer, and, in my opinion, is the best woman speaker on the American platform today.

Hon. J. Frank Hanly, of Indiana

I have had the privilege of hearing Mrs. Leonora M. Lake in her lecture on The Rights of Childhood.  It is a message of great value and should be heard by all people everywhere.  In it, a great word is fitly spoken.

Hon. George R. Wendling

Mrs. Lake is unquestionably the greatest woman orator I have ever heard.  She has all the strength and ability that a man could have, and, at the same time, retains her womanliness and charm.  Mrs. Lake speaks from the heart.

Archbishop Keane, of Dubuque

I wish I could worthily express my appreciation of Mrs. Leonora M. Lake's splendid work for Christian morality in general during all those years that I have witnessed her career, but only the recording angels and their Divine Master could do it justice.




Praises from the Press

The stirring address of the evening was that of Mrs. Leonora M. Lake, of St. Louis, fraternal delegate of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union to the World's W. C. T. U. Convention in Toronto, Canada.  This Irish woman is a born orator, who was born again a better one when her heart was enlisted in the Temperance cause.  When she said that it was not indifference to home and children, but concern for them—not ambition, but conscience—which made women speak in public for Temperance, the heart of the audience felt the truth of this.—
The Outlook.


Mrs. Lake is one of the most gifted lady speakers on the platform today.  She has a splendid delivery, and her lecture, which was couched in language which even a child could understand, was full of wit, humor and good hard common sense.  She is a very rapid speaker, never lacks for a word, her illustrations are clear cut, her arguments are convincing and her talk charmed and delighted all who heard it.  That she made a decided hit in Hannibal was shown by the fact that she was frequently interrupted by vigorous applause.—
Hannibal (Mo.) Morning Journal, August 4, 1909.


Ireland's Best Gift.—In introducing Mrs. Leonora Marie Lake, who has a national reputation as a temperance worker, at the Chautauqua Monday afternoon, Platform Manager Atkinson said the best gift Ireland had given America was Mrs. Lake.  Mrs. Lake told some wholesome truths in a forceful way in the course of her lecture, The Divine Rights of the Child, which was one of the best yet delivered at the Chautauqua.  Mrs. Lake is one of the most able women orators of the country.—
Paris (Ill.) Daily News, August 2, 1909.


Once heard, never forgotten is a saying which is adaptable in the case of Mrs. Leonora M. Lake, who spoke at The Wilson Theatre Sunday evening.  An eloquent, daring, convincing speaker, she stirred the heart depths of her immense audience as none other could have done.—
Mason City (Ia.) Times Herald, March 4, 1907.


Mrs. Leonora M. Lake is a woman of plain speech but ponderous thinking; a woman who bravely casts conventions to the winds and tells wherein a purer social and political life is needed.—
New Hampton (Iowa) Tribune, July 13, 1909.


Mrs. Leonora M. Lake was undoubtedly a surprise to most people.  It is not too much to say that no more powerful and splendid address was ever delivered in David City than her lecture last night on The Divine Rights of the Child.  She has a real message, and delivers it with wonderful effect.  She is the peer of any lecturer, man or woman, ever heard by the writer.—
David City (Neb.) People's Banner, July 29, 1909.


The largest crowd of the week, and second largest in the organization of the Chautauqua, was that of Sunday, and it was a magnificent audience that greeted Mrs. Leonora M. Lake, who spoke upon The Divine Rights of the Child.  Mrs. Lake is, without a doubt, the most gifted woman now upon the platform.  For nearly two hours she held her audience enthralled by her eloquence and persuasive powers, as she pleaded for the helpless little ones, that they should come into their rights, for to be well born and well reared is the rightful heritage of every child, to be sound and healthy, both morally and physically.—
Sandwich (Ill.) Free Press, July 29, 1909.