Robert Parker Miles, dramatic lecturer

              Robert Parker Miles
Dramatic Lecturer
An Appreciation
NINE YEARS ago the name Robert Parker Miles was first presented to Lyceum com¬mittees for their consideration. It did not take long for them to discover that here was a unique and original lecturer who delivered his message in his own pe¬culiar way—a way that delighted his auduices.
More than eighteen hundred audiences have heard Mr. Miles during the past ten years. Everywhere "Tallow Dips" and "Sparks" have been received with enthusiasm and have been characterized as unique, original, dramatic, intensely interesting, with a helpful, inspiring message fcr everybody.
Mr. Miles has had an exceptional opportunity for studying seme of the great world problems and of meeting many of the famous world characters who were helping to work out those problems. By virtue of his great dramatic power he is able to reproduce, upon the platform, these celebrities as "Tallow Dips," with striking vividness, until they live before his audi¬ence as exponents cf great fundamental truths and give the lesson of their lives to the world. Mr. Miles might have been a great actor—he has great dramatic ability and his audiences carry away vivid pictures of the great personages whom he has characterized as "Tallow Dips" or "Sparks"—pictures as clear and clean-cut as cameos. You cannot help liking Mr. Miles and his lectures.
A tribute from one who has known Mr. Miles both as a man and as a lecturer
TWENTY-FIVE years ago, Robert Parker Miles passed the turnstile of Castle Garden, a penniless English lad. His ambition was without limit, because he had all to get. He strove under the lash which impels drowning men to attempt swimming. Yet in his thirties, he had wrested from life fine academic training. He had been the co-worker of Moody and Booth Tucker, the visitor of Gladstone and Pope Leo XIII.—comrade cf the leading American literati. As a star writer upon the New York Journal he has startled and moved a million readers into practical, religious thought and forced New York into humanity towards its working girls and its fallen; and while still a boy preacher he out¬stripped the wheels ol justice and moved the vilest murderess of this century to confession, with burning and pathetic words. A success while in the eye of the nation and while the simple paster of a village flock—a marked man. A moralist, treating vice with that true sympathy which influences the vicious for good, a Bret Harte in sunny analysis of the good side of bad men and things. A natural dramatist, emotional, vivid, picturesque, he also tem¬pers the sorrows of life with a good wit and consoling, quaint humor. Teachers are as much in demand as ever. But they must be able to impart with moving words the gleanings of a life of achievement. This striking individuality has that title to lecture.—Ben] I. Salinger Supreme Court Reporter of Iowa.
Lecture Subjects
Tallow Dips Sparks Dawn
ROBERT PARKER MILES    Author & Reformer
Press & Personal Comment
Breckinridge (Mo.) Bulletin—Who will ever for¬get Gladstone, Pope Leo XIII and George Francis Train, after having them presented in the vivid manner of Mr. Miles' genius? The im¬pressions of this forceful lecture will last forever and carry with them a de¬sire to know more of these   people.
Philadelphia Inquirer—He shows strong dramatic power in his wonderful descriptions.
Chicago Times-Herald — Characters and scenes, taken from real life, re¬lieved and idealized, by being seen through artis¬tic eyes.
Cripple Creek (Col.) Daily Press—The lecturer is an unusual man. He has no double. His lecture can¬not be imitated or coun¬terfeited. Hs is unusual as Roosevelt is unusual. Both are their natural selves. The criticisms on his lecture have been without exception lauda-tory.
Denver (Col.)  Republican
Robert Parker Miles is one of the first lecturers of the country. His word pictures are gems. His lecture abounds in wit, hu¬mor and pathos, brilliant flashes of eloquence and inspiring illustrations.
Sioux City (Iowa) Jour¬nal—The whole lecture was replete with wit, elo¬quence and inspiring illus¬trations. The large audi¬ence was delighted.
Paris  (111.)  Daily Gazette
—Robert Parker Miles de¬livered his lecture, "Tal¬low Dips," and fairly cap¬tured his large audience. He was easily the best number on the lecture course.
Chas. H. Parkhurst, D. D.
—A good man with a va¬ried  experience.
Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette—By the simple narration of a few of the interesting events in which he has played a prominent part he can hold an audience spellbound for hours. The Iowa newspaper men who have made his acquaint¬ance have decided that the profession has suffered loss and the platform has gained a prize.
Madison C. Peters, D. D.
—His wide experience as a newspaper writer for a metropolitan journal, cou¬pled with his experience as a speaker, makes him a valuable addition to the Lyceum platform.
George    Francis    Train—
Bulwer Lytton in '57 made me his Margrave in "Strange Story," Jules Verne made me Phineas Fogg in his "Around the World," Yates, Sala, Stan¬ley, all have me in their books, but you will be my editor.
New Orleans Picayune— "Tallow Dips" gave Rob¬ert Parker Miles an excel¬lent opportunity to dis¬play his charming elo¬quence and his wonderful powers of impersonation. He gives more than a glimpse of great and fam¬ous men he has met dur¬ing his extensive travels, and with the vividness and intensity of his striking personality makes them appear real and present to his hearers.
Erie Daily Times—"Tal¬low Dips" is a lecture of unique interest as pre¬sented by Robert Parker Miles, a brilliant speaker and impersonator. Many familiar world figures passed in review before a spellbound audience.— (Headlines of a column notice of a lecture.)
Dwight L. Moody—A con¬secrated and talented man.
Miles as a Newspaper-man and Reformer
HE VISITED every court in Greater New York as well as the penal institutions of the state of New York and reported his impres-sions of the way justice and pun¬ishment were administered, and these articles created a great sensation and brought about some reform legisla¬tion which occupies a prominent place on the statute books of the Empire state today.
He fought the American Tobacco Company in their sale of cigarets to children, until the storekeepers re¬fused to sell to minors. He discovered the immoral side of Chinese women in Chinatown, New York, and successfully exposed and stopped it.
He compelled every one of the great department stores in New York to provide seats for shopgirls when they were not engaged in their duties. With Commander Booth-Tucker of the Salvation Army, and the Volun¬teers of America, he fed 15,000 per¬sons in six hours and talked religion to them as they ate. In the capacity of religious editor of one of the New York City news¬papers, The Journal, Mr. Miles was given free rein and twice went around the world writing syndicate articles which were widely published. CHe interviewed the prominent men of Europe—Gladstone, Balfour, Bis¬marck, President Carnot, King Ed¬ward, the German Emperor and others; had an audience with Pope Leo XIII, and wrote his impressions of these great personages for The Journal.
He got the "'scoop" in the Thorn-Gulden-suppe murder and witnessed the electrocu¬tion of Martin Thorn.
He was for a number of years the intimate friend and confidential secretary of the great George Francis Train, the eccentric one time millionaire, and wrote out for the aged phil¬anthropist and former financial king the sheets and story of Mr. Train's last book. He was one of the fifteen celebrities present at the great dinner given bv Mr. Train at the Mills House in New York City, where the entire ex¬pense was $2.25. He knew Mr. Train probably better than any other American.
ROBERT PARKER MILES   Traveler & Reporter
Press  & Personal Comment
Bixby, in Lincoln, Neb. State Journal—Dr. Rob¬ert Parker Miles has been doing Nebraska in a series of Chautauqua lectures, and the people who have heard him want him to come back and say it again. The doctor is a man who has seen the world, with his eyes wide open all the time. He has known tribulation, and in life's severe discipline, has acquired the capacity to enjoy. He has a message of wholesome and helpful good cheer for the people, and a way of delivering it that is unique and inter¬esting from "My fellow citizens" clear to the ben¬ediction.
Kearney, Neb., Daily Hub
—"Sparks" was his sub¬ject and certainly the hour and a half was filled with sparks of humor. Dr. Miles was an innovation to the audience. He is here, there, and every¬where about the platform, illustrating this, illustra¬ting that, every word en¬tertaining, every gesture a thought.
Lafayette Morning Jour¬nal — Miles' lecture, "Sparks," was one of the most entertaining that has so far been heard from the Chautauqua platform, and bristled with all the good things. He is not only a speaker of remark¬able force, but injects into his illustrations a dramatic art that adds a refreshing force to his logical lec¬tures.
Nashville, Tenn., Demo¬crat—Dr. Miles' "Tallow Dips" is a masterpiece in oratory. He spoke for an hour and a half and held an audience of three thou¬sand throughout.
Osage City, Iowa Free Press (Editorial) — It would have been better to have been bored by an entire course of mediocre people than to have miss¬ed the lecture of Robert Parker Miles.
Beloit, Kansas Daily Star—Dr. Miles has a won¬derful power of riveting the attention of his audience derived from two sources: one, the eloquent and, at times, picturesque language he employs to give expres¬sion to his thoughts, and the other the entertaining manner in which he im¬ages the scenes he is de¬picting upon the mental visions of his hearers. He can turn from the serious to the humorous like a flash and depict the home¬ly and the sublime with equal facility of language and like felicity of expres¬sion.
McConnellsville, O., Daily Herald — Miles' lecture, "Sparks"—his second here —gave this former Victor¬ian subject full sway in all the dramatic intensity of the consummate actor.
S. Parkes Cadman, D. D. —I knew your remarkable power of portrayal, con¬sidered apart from your other gifts, would insure you success.
Warren,  O.,  Daily Times
—Robert Parker Miles' lecture two years ago on "Tallow Dips" made his audience look forward with anticipating pleasure to another evening with him. In future "Sparks" will rank with "Tallow-Dips." Every moment of the lecture is filled with intense interest, the vivid scenes, picturesque de¬scriptions, and amusing incidents presented by this natural dramatist lin¬gering long in the mem¬ory.
St. Joseph, Mo., Daily Herald — Robert Parker Miles' lecture, "Tallow Dips," was one of the fin¬est ever given here. He is a man of many and va¬ried experiences of which he tells with so vivid a manner that the audience is held spellbound.
Miles'   Lecture   Record Briefly Stated
Over 1800 lectures in 9 years.
More than half of these were return dates.
In more than 200 towns he has lec¬tured three or more times.
There are many towns where he has lectured three or more times in one season, and in at least one city, Clin¬ton, Iowa, he lectured seven times in one year.
In two seasons he has lectured nine times in Cleveland and is book¬ed for several appearances this season.
Has been a great Chautauqua fa¬vorite for six seasons, appearing on many of the largest in the country, and for a second, third, and even fourth time.
James Whitcomb Riley's Tribute
AT AN Indiana Chautauqua several years ago, Mr. Riley heard Dr. Miles and after the lecture presented him with an autographed copy of his "Green Fields and Running Brooks," en the fly leaf of which he had writ¬ten:
"There are many sorts of measures For our joys and for our pleasures, And the changing years still bring us
newer styles; So we hazard the conjecture That the test of a good lecture May best be made if measured off by
'Miles "
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