(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
(This volume presents the first publication of the famous ...)
This volume presents the first publication of the famous lectures of Governor Robert L. Taylor. His great popularity as an orator and entertainer, and his wide reputation as a humorist, have caused repeated inquiries from all sections of the country for his lectures in book form; and this has given rise to an earlier publication than was expected. The lectures are given without the slightest abridgment, just as delivered from the platform throughout the country. The consecutive chain of each is left undisturbed; and the idea of paragraphing, and giving headlines to the various subjects treated, was conceived merely for the convenience of the reader.
Lectures and Best Literary Productions of Bob Taylor: Beautifully Illustrated With Views From the Scenes of His Early Life in His Beloved Happy Valley (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Lectures and Best Literary Productions of Bo...)
Excerpt from Lectures and Best Literary Productions of Bob Taylor: Beautifully Illustrated With Views From the Scenes of His Early Life in His Beloved Happy Valley
Since books were first written, the never-failing Preface has obtruded itself between the banqueter and the banquet sometimes to whet, sometimes to dull his appetite; sometimes to boast the richness of the pages that follow, sometimes to irri gate their dryness with rivers of praise.
Far different is the mission of this Preface. The excellence of what these pages offer is self-evident, and our excuse for this book is the genius of Bob Taylor.
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Robert Love "Bob" Taylor was an American politician, writer, and lecturer.
Background
Taylor was born in Happy Valley in Carter County, Tennessee, in July 31, 1850. He was the fourth of the nine children of Nathaniel Green and Emmeline (Haynes) Taylor. He apparently absorbed more politics from his mother's brother than from his father, with the result that from early boyhood he and his elder brother, Alfred Alexander Taylor, consistently took opposite sides on political questions.
Education
He was educated at Pennington Seminary in New Jersey and at Buffalo Institute (later Milligan College), Milligan, Tenn. , and later studied law.
Career
Immediately following his admission to the bar in 1878, he became a successful candidate for representative in Congress. He served in Congress (1879 - 81) as a Democrat from the same district that his father had represented as a Whig and that his brother was later to represent as a Republican. He was defeated for reëlection in 1880 and in 1882. Following his retirement from Congress he engaged in the practice of law and became publisher of the Johnson City Comet, but met with little financial success in either undertaking.
In December 1885 he was appointed federal pension agent at Knoxville, a position which he held until 1887. In 1886, as the result of factional strife between the old state-rights group and the new Whig-industrialist group within the Democratic party, the rural element, which had little sympathy with either faction and which had been leaderless since the death of Andrew Johnson, joined the young men of the party to force the nomination of Taylor, who was recognized to be a rising young leader, as the Democratic candidate for governor. He was accepted by the party leaders only when it became evident that any other course would bring a victory for the Republicans, who had already named his brother, Alfred, as their standard bearer. The result was the picturesque "War of the Roses, " in which "Bob" and "Alf" canvassed the entire state in joint debate and through their inimitable skill as entertainers kept the campaign from becoming centered around issues which might arouse strife. "Bob" won the election, but as governor soon faced the opposition of the party leaders, who sought to prevent his renomination. In 1888, however, the same forces which had brought about his success in 1886 staged a determined fight in the party convention, and he again led his party to victory in the election.
During his two terms as governor (1887 - 91) he applied his political philosophy that more could be gained by cooperation and conciliation than by antagonism, and succeeded in securing a more equitable distribution of the burden of taxation, in providing for improvement of the state educational system, in starting a movement for reform of the state prison system, and in encouraging the development of the natural resources of the state. At the end of his second term, turning to the lecture platform as a means of making a living, he established a reputation through his ability to combine humor and pathos in describing the life and thoughts of the common man in such lectures as "The Fiddle and the Bow, " "Visions and Dreams, " and "Castles in the Air. " When in 1895 his brother joined him in a lyceum lecture tour, the two are said to have taken in $40, 000 in seven months with a joint lecture on "Yankee Doodle" and "Dixie. "
In the meantime the condition of the Democratic party in Tennessee was once more becoming precarious because of the development of the agrarian movement and the extreme conservatism of the controlling faction. As a result Taylor was again drafted in 1896 as his party's nominee for the governorship and after a strenuous campaign succeeded in defeating his Republican opponent by a small margin. The opposition of the party machine had repeatedly frustrated his ambition to become a United States senator, but in 1906, when he opposed the popular Senator Edward Ward Carmack for the Democratic nomination in the first senatorial primary election held in Tennessee, he received a majority of the votes and took the seat in 1907 which he held until his death.
In 1910, however, he was again drafted by his party to become a candidate for governor in an attempt to close a break that had occurred in the party ranks. Again the young men in the party were in revolt, and for the first time in his life he was the favorite of the party leaders and organization. But he was now an old man, the people failed to respond to his appeals, and the Republican candidate was elected by a large majority.
For a time, between his last term as governor and his first term as senator, he lectured and published Bob Taylor's Magazine, which in 1907 became the Taylor-Trotwood Magazine. In 1912 the Lectures and Best Literary Productions of Bob Taylor was published.
He was married three times, first in 1878 to Sarah L. Baird of Asheville, N. C. , second to Mrs. Alice Hill of Tuscaloosa, Ala. , and third in 1904 to Mamie L. St. John of Chilhowie, Va.