ECCENTRICITIES OF GENIUS PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. LTD., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON [Illustration: _Faithfully Yours J. B. Pond_ ] ECCENTRICITIES OF GENIUS [Illustration: MEMORIES OF FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN OF THE PLATFORM AND STAGE] BY MAJOR J. B. POND WITH 91 PORTRAITS LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1901 COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY, NEW YORK To GEORGE R. PECK. A TRUE FRIEND, A TRUE GENTLEMAN, A GREAT LAWYER, AND MY IDEAL ORATOR, I Dedicate this Book. J. B. POND. CONTENTS ORATORS PAGE The Triumvirate of Lecture Kings, 1 John B. Gough, 3 Wendell Phillips, 7 William Lloyd Garrison, 13 Charles Sumner, 14 Chauncey M. Depew, 17 Gen. Horace Porter, 23 Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, 27 Frederick Douglass, 29 Booker T. Washington, 31 PULPIT ORATORS Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 37 Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, 77 Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, 83 Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker, 85 Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, 91 Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, 112 Rt. Rev. Bishop Henry C. Potter, 121 Very Rev. S. Reynolds Hole, 122 Rt. Rev. Dr. Boyd Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon, 130 Very Rev. Charles William Stubbs, D.D., 132 WOMEN LECTURERS AND SINGERS