Wit, Humor, Reason, Rhetoric, Prose, Poetry and Story Woven into Eight Popular Lectures

Wit, Humor, Reason, Rhetoric,
Prose, Poetry and Story Woven
into Eight Popular Lectures

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Poetry
and Story Woven into Eight Popular Lectures, by George W. Bain This
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Title: Wit, Humor, Reason, Rhetoric, Prose, Poetry and Story Woven
into Eight Popular Lectures
Author: George W. Bain
Release Date: October 12, 2005 [EBook #16858]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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HUMOR, REASON ***

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[Illustration: _George W. Bain._]
_Wit, Humor, Reason, Rhetoric, Prose, Poetry and Story woven into_
_Eight Popular Lectures._
by _George W. Bain._

PUBLISHED BY THE PENTECOSTAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
LOUISVILLE, KY.
COPYRIGHTED 1915
BY
GEO. W. BAIN,
LEXINGTON, KY.

To
Anna M. Bain.
So far as this life is concerned, I can express no better wish for any
young man who reads this book, than that he may be wedded to a wife
as loyal, loving and helpful to him as mine has been to me.

INTRODUCTION.
In offering this book to the public no claim is made to literary merit or
originality of thought. It is published with the same purpose its contents
were spoken from the platform, namely, to do good.

With the testimony of many, that hearing these lectures helped to shape
their lives, came the thought that reading them might help others when
the tongue that spoke them is silent.
As a public speaker the author admits, that how to get a grip on his
hearers outweighed the grammar of language; that the ring of sincerity
and truth in presenting a proposition appealed to him more than relation
of pronoun or preposition; besides in the "high school of hard knocks"
from which he graduated artistic taste in literature was not taught.
If it is true that "tongue is more potent than pen," then the mysterious
power of personality and delivery will be missed in the reading, yet it is
hoped the simplicity of the setting of anecdote and argument, incident
and experience, facts and figures, story, poetry and appeal will suffice
to make this volume attractive and helpful to those who read it, and
thus the lives of many may be made brighter and better by the life work
of the author.
George W. Bain.

POPULAR LECTURES.
Index.
Lecture Page
I. Among The Masses, or Traits of Character 9
II. A Searchlight of the Twentieth Century 59
III. Our Country, Our Homes and Our Duty 101
IV. The New Woman and The Old Man 137
V. The Safe Side of Life for Young Men 187
VI. Platform Experiences 233

VII. The Defeat of The Nation's Dragon 273
VIII. If I Could Live Life Over 307

I
AMONG THE MASSES, OR TRAITS OF CHARACTER.
Whatever criticism I choose to make on human character, I hope to
soften the criticism with the "milk of human kindness." As rude rough
rocks on mountain peaks wear button-hole bouquets so there are
intervening traits in the rudest human character, which, if the clouds
could only part, would show out in redeeming beauty.
To begin with, I believe prejudice to be one of the most unreasonable
traits in character. It is said: "One of the most difficult things in science
is to invent a lense that will not distort the object it reflects; the least
deviation in the lines of the mirror will destroy the beauty of a star."
How unreliable then must be the distorting lense of human prejudice.
I had a bit of experience during the Civil War which gave me
something of that whole-heartedness necessary to the service of my
kind. In the twilight of a summer evening, making a sharp curve in a
road, about a dozen men confronted me. They were dressed in blue, a
color I was not very partial to at that time. I had read that "he that fights
and runs away may live to fight another day." It occurred to me that he
who would run without fighting might have a still better chance, but the
click of gun locks and an order to surrender changed my mind to
"safety first" and I was a prisoner of the blue-coated cavalry.
The commanding officer who had me in charge (during my visit) was a
Kentucky Colonel. He afterward became a major-general. I looked at
him during the remainder of the war from the narrow standpoint of
prejudice and cherished revenge in my heart