Henry Booth and others to Amasa McCoy

ELOCUTION AND SHAKSPEARE.

CHICAGO, 7th November, 1864.

To Professor Amasa McCoy, of Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: Noticing your labors in our State during the Presidential Campaign, in delivering, in response to the call of our worthy Governor, some sixty public addresses in different towns and cities of Illinois, and observing that you are now speaking to the people of our city, we respectfully request you to remain in Chicago long enough to give us a course of lessons in Elocution, such as you have been accustomed to give as Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory in the Ballston and Albany Law Schools, in the State of New York.

We are the more desirous to receive these lessons because we learn that your elocutionary exercises are all on the speeches and other celebrated passages in Shakspeare; and thus we shall enjoy the double advantage of instruction in the principles of reading and speaking by one whom John B. Gough has pronounced "a true patriot, a great orator, the perfection of rhetoric and the sublime in oratory," and scholarly expositions at the same time of Shakspeare, by a profound student of those masterpieces of English Literature.

We learn that, should you accede to our request, your terms would be fifteen dollars for fifteen lessons. Upon these terms we are most anxious to become members of such a class.

Very respectfully yours,

HENRY BOOTH, President Chicago Law School. H. B. HURD, Professor Chicago Law School. HENRY M. SHEPHERD, Pres't Young Men's Ass'n. W. S. FRAZIER, Agent Metropolitan Hall. HORATIO N. WARNER, Attorney-at-Law. BARTOW A. ULRICH, " O. P. INGERSOLL, " H. R. BENSON, " HIRAM M. CHASE, " A. GOODRICH, " O. H. HORTON, " C. L. JENKS, " GEORGE KINGSLEY, Attorney-at-Law. CHARLES WRIGHT, " S. W. OSGOOD, " RICHARD F. KEY, " CHARLES M. WILLARD, " JOHN S. QUINN, " I. W. HAYES, " W. C. LYON, " L. M. ANDRICK, " O. M. POWERS, Conductor of Normal Gymnastic Institute. E. M. BOOTH, Professor of Elocution.

The signers to the letter requesting Professor McCoy to give a course of lessons in Elocution and Shakspeare, have great gratification in announcing to their professional brethren, that that distinguished orator, elocutionist and scholar, has accepted their invitation, and will comply with their wishes. Also, that this class, although originating with members of the Bar, is open to gentlemen of other professions. Clergymen, physicians, editors, public writers and speakers, college professors, school teachers--all whose duties require them to speak or read in public--professional and literary students, and admirers of Shakspeare generally, are cordially invited to become members of this class, and to partake with them the high intellectual pleasures of exploring together, the beauties and the wisdom, the poetry and the philosophy, of that immortal bard, whose writings are at once the food and the delight of every scholar in the world. Application for membership may be made at the law office of Messrs. Ulrich & Warner, room No. 3, 98 Washington Street.

The signers to the above call have the further pleasure to announce, that prior to the opening of the above class in Elocution and Shakespeare, a preliminary meeting of the class will be held on the evening of Friday, 2d of Dec., at 7 1/2 o'clock, at Powers' New Academy of New Gymnastics, No. 116 Randolph St., on which occasion Professor McCoy will read from Bully Bottom, Falstaff, Hamlet's Soliloquy, the decline and fall of Cardinal Wolsey, in Henry VIII, and the passage from Richard III, which he read before the President, his Cabinet, and a great audience in Washington, in July, 1861; and which was equally applauded for its artistic and powerful rendering, and for its striking pertinence to the circumstances of the pending Rebellion. A limited number of tickets, each admitting one lady and gentleman, to this preliminary meeting, may be had gratuitously, by applying to the above members of the class.

[The above movement on the part of members of the legal profession, has suggested to some ladies to try and secure the same rare opportunities of literary culture. It has been ascertained that Professor McCoy will give elocutionary and Shaksperian instruction to a class of ladies, providing it numbers not less than thirty. Any lady wishing to belong to such a class, may signify the same by signing the subjoined letter of invitation, and enclosing to Miss Haven, care of Dr. J. Hayes, 96 State St., Chicago.]

CHICAGO, 20th November, 1864.

To Professor Amasa McCoy, of Washington, D. C.:

DEAR SIR: Learning that you have been requested by members of the bar of Chicago and other gentlemen, to remain in this city long enough to give them a course of lessons in Elocution and Shakspeare, such as you have been accustomed to give, as Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, in the Ballston and Albany Law Schools, in the State of New York, we respectfully invite you to give a course also to a class of ladies, combining, as we learn they do, the double benefits of instruction, by a scholar of learned and classical literary taste, in the principles of correct and elegant reading, with conversational lectures, which form and refine the taste, by developing the beauties of thought and language of the finest and most-quoted passages in Shakspeare.

We learn that, should you consent to comply with this request, your terms would be fifteen dollars, to each member, for fifteen lessons. We deem such a fee very moderate, compared with the advantage which would accrue, and would be happy on such terms, to avail ourselves of them.

Respectfully yours,

MRS. DR. ALLPORT. MISS ALLPORT. MRS. DR. HAYES. MRS WISWALL. MISS SOPHRONIA HAVEN.

Prof. McCoy's Circular.

United States Senator Yates