He was in no position to emulate Sir Henry Irving in forcing and directing the public taste.

But he did in America quite as much as Sir Charles Wyndham and Sir Henry Irving in England to elevate the personality, the social and intellectual standing of the actor and the stage, effecting in a lifetime a revolution in the attitude of the people and the clergy of both countries to the theater and all things in it.

This was surely enough for one man in any craft or country.
He was always a good stage speaker.

Late in life he began to speak elsewhere, and finally to lecture.

His success pleased him immensely.
The night of the Sunday afternoon charity for the Newsboys' Home in Louisville, when the promise of a talk from him had filled the house to overflowing, he was like a boy who had come off from a college occasion with all the honors.