The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-11-28 00:00:00

TNE f3TOITRIIRIDGE OBSERVER

PrBLIC SPEAKING.

Pm daily and nightly meetings, indicating the
the importance attached to the present national
crisis, held over the country for some time past,
have afforded ample opportunities for testing the .
skill in public speaking exhibited on innumerable
platforms. If the general opinion on this subject
of the millions attendiag those meetings were ob-
taivable, it would not be by any means of a com-
plimentary character. Among the Parliameet rs
leaders themselves there are very few who help to
sustain the oratorical reputation achieved by
the British Legislature in the days of Chatham,
Fox, and Burke; and the great repealer, Daniel
O'Connell. has no Successor in richness of voce
and power of declamation among the Home Rulers
of the present day, although eloquence is commonly
supposed to come as naturally to Irishmen as
mother-wit. It might be immagined that well-
educated gentlemen, before presenting themselves
to constituencies as candidates for seats in the
House of Commons, would take the trouble of
gaining some practical knowledge of the alt of
public speaking; but so fir is this from being the
case that rejections would be more frequ3nt than
they are if the sterling qualities that go to consti-
tute a workiug:member of Parliament did not serve
to outweigh, in all instances, all oratorical defects.
At political meetings the situation becomes really
irksome and painful when, after the chairman has
"hummed and hawed". through some preliminary
remarks, the movers and seconders of resolutions
grow semi-hysterical in their excitement ; and
the candidate himself, though provided with notes.
has to make spasmodic jerks at intervals to catch
hold of the threads of his speech, much in th
same way as drowning men clutch at straws. Bad
speaking has the effect not unfrequently of chang-
ing an orderly into a disorderly meeting. The
audience begins .* g It impatient, and relieves itself
by dc risive exel: mat' )ns when a speaker is more
emphatic in his geet res than in his words. The
impatience becoim s still greater and theexclamations
louder when the unhappy man on the platform, who
has reanovded to the call of the chairman,altogethee
fails in making himself distinctly heard, and who
seems quite content if what he says succeeds in
falling into the cars of the newspaper reporters
who are immediately under his eye. There is no.
thine more calculated than ;ie prov( cation of this
kind to cause an audience to lose its temper and to
get entirely beyond the control of the pleading and
beseechings of the chairman. In political assemb-
lies there is always an excitable element, ready to .
break forth at any moment, and this circumstance
should be carefully kept in view when the movers
seconders, and supporters of resolutions are under-
going selection. The public men who can venture,
at such meetings, to go on speaking more than an
hour are those only who poseehs some gifts of
eloquence, or who can enliven their argumentation'
with sallies of wit and telling anecdotes, which
have the effect of evoking loud laughter, and of
bringing the audience into an appreciative and en-
thusiastic mood of mind that fivds vent in rounds
of applause. It is certainly astonishing that so
little care is bestowed, in the majority of educational
institutions, on elocutionary training, and that even
University men, looking forward to the Church and
the Bar, do not spend more time in learning the
art of speaking in public in an effective way. This
neglect is all the more suprieing when it is con-
sidered that we are a clubable people, and that
societies of all kinds, in which members are eX -
pect ed to speak voluntarily or when called upon,
are very abundant in the metropolis and other
great cities. There never was a larger number of
political associations established in all parts of the
country than there is at the present time, and as
these associations are in the habit of appointing
delegates to attend conferences it is surely desirable
that those delegates should be able to speak in a
manner to command attention, Debating clubs,
which might be greatly increased in number with
advantage, form good training schools for public
speaking, but they are only commendable institu-
tions when conducted under different conditions
from those whica prevail at the well-known Cogets
Hall, in Fleet Street. Many a man, uuaccustomed
to public speaking. feels it to be the greatest ttial
in his life when he is unexpectedly called upon to
address a few words to a meeting, or to supply the
place of an absentee in proposing a toast at a public
dinner. The sound of his own voice when he sees
a number of listeners around him is apt to increase
his tremor whenever he opens his lips, and he is
supremely happy in resuming his seat, whether he '
is conscious of baring made a fool of himself or of
Laving got on much better than he expected to do
when he rose to his feet. Diffidence in facing an
audience does not necessarily spring from want of
courage; as bronzed, war-worn heroes have often
enough shown trepidation in such circumstances,
but Irons want of confidence in the memory giving
up at call the thoughts committed to its charge, or
from a similar want of trust in the readiness of the'
thoughts to express themselves, on the spur of the
moment, in appropriate words, This absence of
confidence is accounted for, in moat instances, by
the neglect of proper training practice, end any
change in our educational system would he a
change for the better that enabled full•grown men
to spa4k in public without sbaking in their shoes, or
feeling a parched dryness in the mouth fatal to
fluency of uttetance. The faculty of eoquence,
like the faculty of poetry, is a natural gift, but if

prof assorships of oratory were instituted in our
universities, the speeches delivered in Parliament by
ths ordinary run of members might surely be ex-
pected to grate less harAdy and irritatingiy on the
ear than they do at present, and we might also
as surely entertain the hope of a decided improve—
ment taking place in the style of speaking at pub-
lic meetings of every kind.

Jane Sarah Ruttel, employed as a clerk at the
office of the Ironmonger, said when they received
postal orders they stamped "Maatin and Co," on
them before cashing them, and if the 4s postal
order produned had been cashed, by them, it would
have had "Martin and Co." on it.

Kate Florence Crochter, assistant at the Astor.
Cress Post Office, identifiql the 4s postal crder as
one paid by her on September 23.
Wm. Mclntyre, clerk in connection with the
Private Enquiry Department of the General Post
Office, deposed to producing the 4s postal order,
and a king if he had signed it. Defendant denied
having done FO.
Mr. Whitley, the sub-postmaster, looked at it
and said, "But this is your writing," and his son
said, "I did not write it.
The defendant was committed to the Assizes,
bail being allowed.