Judge Alfred Ellison

              M
anager's 
A
nnouncement



JUDGE ALFRED ELLISON is master of the emotions.  He does not come to you with complex problems of church and state.  His themes are the simple questions of everyday life.  And so his appeal is universal.  No man gets closer 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.




DIRECTION OF CENTRAL LYCEUM BUREAU FRED. PELHAM, MANAGER, CHICAGO, ILL.






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.





Better Laugh



When you feel like bein' blue,


Better laugh.


Sighs wont bring sunshine to you,


Better laugh.


You can't conquer fate with frowns


In a fight uv 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 uv some bad luck;


Better way to show your pluck,


'Stead uv grumlin' all the while,


Is jest to smile.


Stike a stretch uv muddy road,


Better grin.


Growlin' wont reduce your load,


Better grin.


Ef your team, 'at ort to pull


Balks, don't git onmerciful,


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


Find the better way to win


Is jest to grin.





Figure

Subjects



1


Kings and Queens


2


Which Way?


3


Keys to the Outer Gate


4


Studies in Character
 (Entertainment)







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




EUGENE FIELD




I have heard Judge Alfred Ellison speak.  His speech is charming and eloquent, and full of deep human interest.




ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE.





The 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.




Figure


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.



Figure




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 deep of a summer sky;


And their breath is as soft as winds that waft


When spirits go floating by.


Figure



These little, wee folk have the funniest ship


That, like a pendulum, swings


In perfect time to the wordless rhyme


Of a song that 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.



Figure




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.



Figure





O, 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.



Figure







One of the coming attractions on the American platform




KOKOMO DISPATCH.





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.






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.




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.




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.




Judge Alfred Ellison, of Anderson, delivered the strongest speech in this city tonight that has been heard here for some time.  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 lectured before our Teachers' County Institute last November on 
Kings and Queens,
 and I take pleasure in saying that his lecture was well received by the large audience present.  I heard many favorable comments on the lecture afterwards.  The lecture might be characterized as sparkling with bright things, and in a general way pleasing and entertaining throughout
—S. G. Rudy.




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. Zumbro, Superintendent Franklin County.




I am glad to bear 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 lecturers 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.




Lovers of lectures who failed to hear Judge Alfred Ellison on 'Kings and Queens' in the I. O. O. F. Temple, Sellersburg, 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 fourth 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 of 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.



Press Comment

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.




Three years ago Judge Ellison gave to the reading public his little poem, 
I Want to Go Where Mother Is.
  His success was at once assured, for it was as extensively reproduced as any piece of current literature.  Since that time he has been giving the public an occasional production and each has but heightened his fame as an author.  This literary work appears all the more remarkable when it is remembered that his time was fully occupied with official duties or on the platform, where, in that time, he has acquired an enviable reputation as a lecturer and on which occasions he recites many of his poems.  He made a trip through the East last winter and everywhere the press spoke of him in terms of praise.—


Chicago Sunday Times-Herald.




HARRISBURG, PA
., Jan. 28, 1896.




I consider Judge Alfred Ellison one of the most promising of the younger men on the platform of today, and destined to be known as the peer of the ablest and best of American lecturers.  An able jurist, a brilliant man of letters, witty and wise, a man of profound conviction and fearless devotion to principles of right and truth; genial and hearty, as a companion and friend.  He is certainly most eminently qualified to take rank with the 'Kings' whose characteristics he so eloquently portrays and to reign in the hearts as he seeks to better the lives of the people by his teachings.  I will underwrite him unqualifiedly as a most able, eloquent, witty lecturer, as well as a high-typed christian gentleleman[sic gentleman].  He is A 1, in all.
—L. F. Copeland.




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 the 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.




It was three years ago that Judge Ellison first let the people of his state know that he was a poet.  He wrote some verses called 
I Want to Go Where Mother Is.
  The author intended the poems simply for his friends.  But fate would have it otherwise, and Judge Ellison's stanzas appeared in one of the Indiana local papers.  There one of the Indianapolis papers found them and reprinted the poem.  Then followed a scramble among all the other papers in Indiana as to which would give the Judge's poetry the most prominent display and conspicuous position.  Almost the entire press of the state copied the poem.  This fact led the Illinois papers to feel that there must be something in the poem, and they reprinted it.  Finally the Eastern papers took up the poem, and for six months the verses were found in papers East, North, South and West.—


Pittsburg Dispatch.




Judge Ellison is a speaker of rare abilities, 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.




BULLETIN PRINTING CO., ANDERSON, IND.