William Dent Atkinson, philosopher and wit

              FRANCES        E.         WILLARD:
Your beautiful words have been a great comfort to me and greatly enjoyed.      
William Dent Atkinson, Ph. D.
PHILOSOPHER AND   WIT
MANAGEMENT
MIDLAND  LYCEUM  BUREAU
DES   MOINES,  IOWA
WILLIAM DENT
ATKINSON
SEASON 1905-06
R. ATKINSON is a natural born orator, and to native gifts have been added the culture of the schools, and travel in many lands. He is a man of marked ability, brilliant in epigram, and a born entertainer. His career reads like a romance, and to few is given the endowment he possesses. Under the magic of his speech pathos and wit, aided by the sunshine of his good nature, blend into a rainbow of hope as he compels every listener to feel kingly, and with the ladder of his laughter assists humanity to rise. He is a universal favorite wherever he appears. We are pleased to be able to induce Dr. Atkinson to come west for the first time.                   Midland Lyceum Bureau

SU BJ E CT S
FOUR   FACED   PEOPLE        NOBODYISM
PYRAMIDS
AN      APPRECIATION
Dr. Atkinson's gifts — physical, intellectual and moral — are of a high order. He has a commanding presence, a voice of unusual virility and melody, and leaves upon his audience an impression of great reserve force, the limits of which are never taxed. At the close of the lecture he is apparently as fresh as when he began, and, what is more to the point, his hearers have not been exhausted by nervous sympathy with the speaker.
But it is difficult to speak of Dr. Atkinson's intellectual powers without seeming guilty of exaggeration. He is nothing short of a prince of speakers. While he is rapidly coming to the notice of the public, it is still true that he is yet to be discovered in an adequate way. Before long he will, in my opinion, stand second to none in point of reputation and place. His powers of wit, pathos and originality of thought and expression cannot be computed in words. His thought always goes to the root of every question, while his manner of expressing his thoughts is so simple and easy that what he says becomes at once self-evident to his listeners
Withal, he is splendidly equipped by world-wide travel, is a versatile linguist, and a philosophical scholar of high attainments. All is wrapped up in a personality charming beyond expression, and which amounts to nothing less than genius. In spite of a training and an experience which leaves nothing to be desired, the fact remains that he has been born, not made.
Last, but not least, he is a moral teacher. Everything he says is on the right side, on general principles, and leaves with his auditors a wholesome influence. One goes away after hearing him with a good taste in the mouth. You feel you have listened to a man, in every good sense of that term, and you know your own manhood has been inspiringly challenged to realize itself in high ideals. Strong, yet tender; vividly imaginative, yet severely correct in stating facts or in emphasizing vital truths; he is one that serves. Happy are those privileged to hear him. Many are those who, having heard him, will never miss an opportunity to hear him again. — George H. Burgess, D. D., Pastor Cong'l Church, Warsaw, N. Y.
AN  ORATOR   OF  GREAT  POWER
— Daily Reflector, Norwalk, Ohio
Col. John Sobieski, Los Angeles, Cal.: — Dr. W. D. Atkinson is a finished scholar, eloquent, incisive, racy, brilliant, logical and Christian. I know of no young man today that gives promise of a more brilliant future, and I heartily commend him to the public.
E. T. Hagerman, D. D., First Methodist Church, Des Moines, Iowa:- Dr. W. D. Atkinson is a man of wide experience. As a traveler, he has gone everywhere and seen everything. He has the instinct of the student, he sees and hears, and, what is far more difficult, he enables you to see and hear. With an attractive personality, an active mind, unusual descriptive powers, lucid yet concise, he attracts, entertains, instructs.
FRANCES E. WILLARD   SAYS:
D. F. Fox, D. D., Pastor California Avenue Congregational Church, Chicago:—Dr. W. D. Atkinson will be called to the front. God has given him a large endowment. He is a born leader and a linguist; also an orator.
P. S. Replogle, Champaign, Illinois:— Dr. W. D. Atkinson gave his great lecture before a crowded house. The audience that filled the great building was delighted, and manifested its approval by generous applause. Dr. Atkinson is a world-wide traveler and a magnetic speaker, scholarly and brilliant, and delights his audience everywhere by his masterly presentation of the living issues of the day.
T. F. Hildreth, A. M., D. D., Former
M. L. Johnson, Ph. D., Field Editor Herald and Presbyter, Allegheny, Pa.: — Coming before the people with his mind filled with the bright-
est   thoughts,  and
with the largest possible measure of vitality and nervous and mental energy for brilliant achievement in the hour of splendid opportunity, Dr. Atkinson is a tower of strength. His abundant wit is so well bred, and his unconscious humor so delightfully congenial, that one cannot have too much of it. His style is bright, fascinating and wonderfully entertaining. His delivery is characterized by genuine dramatic polish, vigor and power.
Marie C. Brehm, President Illinois State W. C. T. U.:—Dr. Atkinson has traveled extensively, with his eyes open, to behold that which is beautiful, interesting and instructive. He passes on to his hearers the best of all that he has seen and heard. As a lecturer, he not only entertains but instructs and interests.
My DEAR BROTHER ATKINSON —Your beautiful words have been a comfort to me and greatly enjoyed. Would that more good people would speak their words of inspiration while those that need could hear. God bless you, my brother, is the prayer of your Christian sister.                FRANCES E. WILLARD,
President National W. C. T. U.
Pastor Trinity M. E. Church, New York City:—Dr. W.D.Atkinson excels as a lecturer. He has the happy gift of combining wit and wisdom so as to make his lectures attract ive and brilliant, without sacrificing dignity or lowering the standard of truth on the platform. The doctor has several lectures of much literary merit covering a wide field of thought, and an audience which hears any one of them will much desire to hear them all. The bureau under whose auspices he goes out has been fortunate in securing him, as he has had much experience abroad, and is thoroughly informed in the genius and history of his adopted country.
A. D. Beechy, Ph. D., Supt. Schools, Norwalk, Ohio:—Dr. Atkinson is one of the most popular speakers on the American platform today. He is a natural entertainer and holds the undivided attention of his audiences with his remarkable descriptive powers.
THE   AUDIENCE   WAS  DELIGHTED
—News, Vermillion, Ohio
PRESS   COMMENT    PERSONAL
Press, Dewitt, Ill.:—Dr. W. D. Atkinson is a vigorous thinker and has a re¬markably smooth, pleasant delivery. He has the adaptability of securing and retaining the attention of his audience throughout.
Review, Decatur, Ill.:— Dr. Atkinson handled his subject in such a manner as to make a strong impression on his hearers, the practical points being brought out so plainly that none could misunderstand or fail to be benefitted.
TWO   CHAUTAUQUA   NOTICES
Daily Headlight, Pittsburg, Kansas:—The announcement that Dr. W.D. Atkinson was to lecture filled the church to overflowing, and his second lecture here brought many who had not been inside a church for years. Dr. Atkinson proved himself exceedingly popular, and will always be guaranteed a full house when he comes to this city.
Daily Reflector, Norwalk, O.:— Dr. Atkinson is able and eloquent, profusely illustrating his address with anecdotes, making his arguments more forcible, instructive and very pleasing. He is an orator of great power, with much natural and acquired ability, and made a favorable impression upon those who heard him.
Evening Herald, Norwalk, Ohio:— Dr. Atkinson, both in manner and thought, took immediate possession of his audience. In chaste diction, he swept the whole field. What he said was elegant and eloquent; the right word in the right place.
A. C. Folsom, Supt. of Pontiac and
Rockford (Illinois) Chautauqua Assemblies, and Secretary of International Chautauqua Alliance:- Dr. W. D. Atkinson is a most ready, brilliant and forcible speaker. He has an original way of expressing himself which holds the close attention of his audiences, gives them food for thought and leaves im pressions and results which are uplifting and helpful. His lecture, "Four Faced People," without question, strikes a popular chord. He has traveled extensively, has kept his eyes open, sees things as they are, and is able to tell about them in an entertaining manner.
Times, Maroa, Ill.:—Dr. Atkinson lectured on "Africa and India" at Forsythe M. E. Church Saturday night to an appreciative audience, many of whom expressed a desire to hear him again.
Herald, Marshall, Ill.:—Dr. Atkinson spoke to a crowded house, and paid beautiful tributes to those who had made America the greatest nation in the world. * * * We cannot follow his eloquent discourse through its entire delivery. It easily takes rank with the best we have had in the past and was well calculated to inspire lofty patriotism and enthusiastic devotion to country in the hearts of all who heard it.
Geo. M. Brown, D. D., Field Sec-reiary C. L. S. C, Chautauqua, N. Y.:—Dr. Atkinson's successful experience upon the platform, his extensive travel and his habits of observation, his devotion to study and fluency of language, his clever wit and appreciation of humor, qualify him to an unusual degree to please and profit his hearers.
The Enquirer, Cabery, Ill.: — Dr. Atkinson is a fine orator and a very forcible speaker, and gave general satisfaction.
Register, Sandusky, Ohio:—The doctor has unusual intellectual breadth and remarkable power of translating ideal views into practical application. If imagination is the province of the speaker as well as the poet and painter, and if beauty and love are its handmaids and service its aims, then the doctor's lectures are a potent factor in the development of the imaginative and sympathetic among his hearers. Genius and an artistic composition, added to a faultless delivery and high ideals lived up to, makes him a power on the platform. He is a teacher of the true measures of spiritual education.