Judge Alfred Ellison

              SUBJECTS:

Figure



1


—Kings and Queens, Or Earth's True Royalty


2


—Which Way are We Going?


3


—Keys to the Outer Gate




DIRECTIONS OF REDPATH LYCEUM BUREAU CHICAGO
BOSTON
PHILADELPHIA





LULLABY LAND



The Lullaby Land is a wonderful land


Not found on the maps of men;


For the dimpled hand of the Lullaby Land


Knows nothing of pencil or pen.


And the only way you can reach this land,


Is to take up the thread of years,


And follow it back life's winding track


To a mother's smiles and tears.


And there you will find the Lullaby Land,


With its Rock-a-by River of Mirth,


Flowing on to the deep of Sleep Baby Sleep,


The sunniest ocean of earth.


And up 'round the lake they call Wide-a-Wake


Is many a goblin, and fay,


And fairies, and elves, that swallow themselves


To frighten the people away.


O, a wonderful land is the Lullaby Land


Where little wee folk are found,


Who only coo when they talk to you,


And laugh with a lisping sound.


Their hair is sunny, their eyes are blue


As the depth of a summer sky;


And their breath is as soft as winds that waft


When spirits go floating by.


These little, wee folk have the funniest ship


That, like a pendulum, swings


In perfect time to the wordless rhyme


Of a song their mother sings.


And these little, wee folk get into that ship,


And go sailing, and sailing away,


Exploring the streams of the land of Dreams


All night, till the break of day.


And when they get tired and long for a ride,


No saddle nor bridle have they,


But they mount in glee on their father's knee,


And go racing and chasing away.


Prancing and dancing, with sway and swing,


Of fears they have never a one;


For when their steed increases his speed,


It only increases their fun.


Isn't it cosy, and rosy, and rare,


To live in the Lullaby Land?


Where skies are as blue as the sun shines through,


And life is so lovely and grand!


If I could but take my own choice tonight


Of all the countries of men,


I would take up my stand in the Lullaby Land,


And never would leave it again.





TESTIMONIALS



Endless numbers of the highest testimonials could be furnished.  But space only permits the use of a few sentences from voluntary reports to the bureau from committees last season.




Charming and eloquent, and full of deep human interest.
—Albert J. Beveridge.




Our people were delighted with him.  He is certainly fine.
—P. M. Robinson, Carbondale, Kas.




We were delighted.  Concensus of opinion that it was the best lecture ever delivered here.
—L. Z. Stewart, Wathena, Kan.




Never had an entertainment that gave as entire satisfaction as Judge Ellison's lecture on 
Uncrowned Kings and Queens.
—Mrs. R. W. Spence, Macomb, Ohio.




He was able to please a class of people, which, to my knowledge, never have been pleased before.
—Rev. H. E. Wright, MacArthur, Ohio.




The course here has been running for several years and such men as Judge Ellison insure it permanent success.
  L. R. Charter, Jr., West Union, W. Va.




Best we have ever had at this place.  He said so many good things that at times we could hardly refrain from shouting Amen!
—C. J. Speaker, Milan, Kas.




Judge Alfred Ellison has lectured twice for me in my Institute course.  He is easily the most popular man I have had in five years.  He is strong, bright, witty and eloquent, and best of all, impressively earnest in his work.
—Clem Chestnut, Superintendent Fulton County, Pennsylvania.




We have had Judge Alfred Ellison on our lecture course for County Teachers' Institute twice, and he pleased immensely.  His efforts here were both eminently successful and his return to Chambersburg would call forth a rousing audience.  I regard him as one of the best lecturers that has ever appeared before our Institute.  No one need have any fears about Ellison.  He is all right.
—W. F. Zumbre, Superintendent Franklin County, Pa.




I am glad to hear testimony to the excellent qualities of Judge Alfred Ellison, of Anderson, Ind., as a lecturer and platform orator.  He has appeared twice in our course within the last two years, once in 
Kings and Queens
 and once in 
Does the World Move?
 and has in each case given entire satisfaction.  He was one of the very few lecturers who were recalled by the general consent of the community.  His lectures are extremely interesting, full of wholesome truth, sparkling with native humor and radiant with brilliant flashes of a highly poetic imagination.  His own poems which are interspersed through the lectures are rare gems of poetic power and beauty.  Judge Ellison is sure to delight, entertain, instruct and inspire wherever he goes.
—O. S. Kriebel, Principal Perkiomen Seminary, Chairman of Lecture Committee.






PRESS COMMENT



Does the World Move?
 by Judge Alfred Ellison, was a brilliant success.—


Harrisburg (Pa.) Daily Call.




He first has his listeners convulsed in laughter and in the next moment they are deeply affected with his pathetic stories.—


Kokomo Tribune.




Edward W. Bok, of the Ladies' Home Journal, writes:  
The mothers of Indiana are no longer speaking to their children of Riley alone.  The one has become two.  It is Riley and Ellison, with the fame of Ellison resplendent in the horizon.




The people of Indiana, not content with having given us James Whitcomb Riley, announce that a second poet has risen from Hoosier soil, and at present they are both saying and writing a great deal concerning him.  The new poet is Alfred Ellison.—


New York Commercial Advertiser.




It is not given to many, the dual power to wield the pen and adorn the platform.  But Judge Ellison has won the warm approval of the verse-reading and lecture-going public to an extent that ought to satisfy the ambition of many an older contestant for honors in the arena of intellect.—


Chicago Record.




The Judge so blended pathos and humor that his audience was at one moment convulsed with laughter at his telling sallies of wit and at the next moment deeply affected with emotion.  The Judge is a very fluent speaker and a word painter of strong ability.—


Kokomo Dispatch.




Many say it was the grandest speech ever delivered here.  Judge Ellison has been on the lecture platform for some time and his manners are easy and graceful, his language simple and perfect and his fund of anecdotes large.  His powers of analysis are remarkable and his logic exhibits the strength of Whately himself.  The audience was the largest of the season.—


Indianapolis Daily Sentinel.




Judge Alfred Ellison, of Anderson, Ind., is a very entertaining talker.  His address was marked by frequent and hearty applause.  He mingles in a very happy way, logic, wit and pathos and he kept his hearers last night vibrating between a laugh and a tear.  He was at times quite eloquent, at others humorous, and then tender and pathetic.—


Lexington (Ky.) Daily Press.




The teachers at the County Institute had another interesting day yesterday, which ended by a splendid lecture by Judge Alfred Ellison, the Indiana poet-jurist, who spoke from the theme, 
Does the World Move?
  The lecture was the best of the course and drew a very large audience which heard with deep interest the strong and entertaining lecture.—


Harrisburg (Pa.) Daily Patriot.





BETTER LAUGH



When you feel like bein' blue,


Better laugh,


Sighs won't bring sunshine to you,


Better laugh,


You can't conquer fate with frowns


In a fight o' fifty rounds.


So in all your ups and downs,


Better thing to do by half


Is jest to laugh.


When you feel like cussin', don't!


Better smile.


When 'skeeters bite, an' fishes won't,


Better smile.


When your hook an' line git stuck


On the limb o' some bad luck;


Better way to show your pluck,


'Stead o' grumblin' all the while,


Is jest to smile.


Strike a stretch o' muddy road,


Better grin.


Growlin' won't reduce your load,


Better grin.


Ef your team, 'at ort to pull


Balks, don't git onmerciful,


An' slash an' splash around, for you'll


Find the better way to win


Is jest to grin.





SOME OTHER DAY



There are wonderful things we are going to do,


Some other day.


And harbors we hope to drift into,


Some other day.


With folded hands and oars that trail,


We wait and watch for a favoring gale


To fill the folds of an idle sail,


Some other day.


We know we must toil, if ever we win,


Some other day;


But we say to ourselves, there's time to begin


Some other day.


And so, deferring, we loiter on,


Until at last we find withdrawn


The strength of the hope we leaned upon,


Some other day.


And when, at last, our race is run,


Some other day;


We fret for the things that might have been done


Some other day.


With faltering feet, and eyes grown dim,


We wait at the world's faint outer rim


For the dolorous chant of a funeral hymn,


Some other day.







Lovers of lectures who failed to hear Judge Alfred Ellison on 'Kings and Queens' in the I. O. O. F. Temple, Sellersville, last Friday evening, missed the most enjoyable entertainment of the kind ever given in this vicinity.  The Poet-Judge, of the 50th Indiana Judicial district, held the rapt attention of a very delighted audience for one hour and thirty-five minutes.  The telling manner which he used in referring to homes and home environments brought forth the heartiest applause.  The novelty of listening to poems composed by himself, added to the interest of the entertainment.  His exceedingly delightful manner of rendering 'I Want to Go Where Mother Is' and 'I've a Letter from Home Tonight,' will forever linger in the memories or his hearers.  Those of our citizens who had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ellison only regretted that he could not remain over night with us and partake of Sellersville hospitality.
—


Sellersville (Pa.) Herald.




Judge Alfred Ellison, of Anderson, Indiana, captivated his audience completely Tuesday evening, Feb. 9, by his lecture on 'Kings and Queens, Earth's True Royalty,' in Whitehall Opera house.  For two hours all sat as if enchanted by his superb diction, or were convulsed with laughter by his original puns and humor.  The power of Judge Ellison does not consist so much of elegant speech, which is either poetry or poetic conception expressed in prose, as the fact that every sentence which is intended to instruct has a heart in it.  He believes what he says and his ideal is personified by honesty and industry shaped and directed by Christ.  Judge Ellison will be favored by an enthusiastic audience if he lectures again in Whitehall, as all who heard him trust he will in the near future.
—


Whitehall (Ills.) Register.




I have but one regret, on reading your Lullaby Land.  That is, that I am not its author.




EUGENE FIELD.




Judge Ellison is a speaker of rare ability, and possesses many of the qualities of the perfect orator.  His brilliant, intellectual face, easy movements on the platform, graceful gestures, clear, well-trained voice, bright wit and humor, sweet and tender pathos and masterful eloquence, at once captivated the audience, and not until he had said 'Good night, good night,' was the audience released.  Never before did we see a Manheim audience so perfectly helpless in the clutches of oratory as was Tuesday night's audience.  Mr. Ellison very deservedly bears the name of 'Poet Judge.'  At different intervals he recited selections from his own poems, and among which 'A Letter from Home Tonight,' 'I Want to Go Where Mother Is,' were the most beautifully, sweet and touching.  The entire lecture was replete with wholesome thoughts, beautiful rhetorical phrases and soul-stirring climaxes, and by 'alliteration's artful aid' was delivered in a most telling manner.  If Judge Ellison should return to Manheim he would be greeted by an overflowing audience.
—


Sentinel and Advertiser, Manheim, Pa.





BUREAUS'S ANNOUNCEMENT



JUDGE ALFRED ELLISON is a deep and profound thinker.  And what is better, he carries his delighted audience with him in his excursion into the realm of thought and logic.  Distinctively, he is a man with a message.  And he brings this message to his listeners in such a way as to stir the purest and noblest emotions.  It has been justly said of him that no man gets closer to the hearts of his audience than he.  By his true, genuine eloquence he lifts his hearers to rare and lofty impulse; by his exquisite wit and humor he calls forth the most delicious amusement; and with his touching and tender pathos he moves the listener as few other men are able to move them.  His lectures are rare literary entertainments, and there is a laugh on the lips and a tear in the eye of his hearers, and a glad, warm memory lingers lovingly in the soul long after he is gone.