The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-02-08


Black'oood, that every Englishman thinks be can
do two things, and is never convinced of his
error until he tries. One is that he can write
for a newspaper, and the other that he can
swim. To this we may add, that every Ameri-
can thinks he is an orator. The young lady of
ten, in all the glory of crinoline, silk, flowers
and kid gloves astonishes select company
with a reading from Tennyson. The young
gentleman Of the same age, with new jacket and
shining morning face" carries Off the palm at
q school exhibition by declaming the adven-
lures Of q :" boy" who remained unnecessarily
upon some burning deck" from which every
sensible person "had fed" The adolescent orator
passes next to the village debating society, dis
cussing with much temerity social and political
themes which grave men approach with fear
and trembling. When he retires from college,
with all the dignity of parchment, blue ribbon
and the bachelors gown, he pronounces Latin
valedictory, which he is quite certain is finer
than any of Cicero's oratiOns. At the bar, or in
the pulpit at the political meeting, the State
Legislature, or in the Congress Of the nation,
our orator addresses the people, and, as a rule,
fails. The number Of orators is quite dispro-
portionate to the number of speakers. In
all the debates in the Colonial Legislatures
previous to the assembling of the Continental
Congress, but few speeches are remembered. In
Congress but few great orators have ever ap-
peared, and they are all dead. But these facts
do not lessen the number of orators or abbre-
viate the speeches. So we'll il il understood
that every member of Congress must speak
ut some time or other. whether he has any
thing TO say or not, that the rules provide that
House may at convenient times resolve itself
into Committee of the Whole on the state
Of the Union, when any member may oc-
cupy an hour in talking about anything
that occurs to him The amount of dcsultory
nonsense that is spoken In committee is some
thing fearful to contemplate. Some members
are profoundly stupid, like Dogberry of Messi-
ma; some essay the rih Of the "motley fool" in
the Forest Of Arden;" others are hopelessly
dull like the Chamberlain in Hamlet The
speeches are upon all imaginary subjects, earth
ly and heavenly, terrestrial and celestial.
They are not unlike the speeches made by Rice,
the Snowman, at Niblos, who is the exponent
of the oratory of the ring as eontra-distin-
guished frsm the oratory of the forum. Rice
resolves himself into committee of the
whole every evening, and addresses the
audience upon the topics of the day.
He has lately incurred the wrath Of the
philosophers of the T11bune, who have come
down upon him In the usual neat aud elegant
style Of that journal The Snowman defends
himself exactly like member of Congress- He
begins by deprecsting the jOurnal as being be-
meath his notice; "but," said he, "as it might
get into come decent mans house, and create
false impression against inc, 4 am bound to say
that, though / am fool by. profession, have
some regard for consistency Now, don't
think that newspaper which Is, continually
preaching about hot corn, vegetable diet,
and 20 forth, should object to that Celes-
tial grain and South Carolina staple
rice" The chief use, however made
by the 7yibune people of grain, was in the
form Of whiskey under the influence of which
he had been assailed If he (Ricc) thought him
self as mean as some of these people, he would
desert the United States and go to live in Jer-
sey."
Now, as piece of denunciation, sarcasm ridi-
cule and wit, this specimen of the oratory of
the ring is not inferior to the average of Con-
gressional speeches. If it had been made by one
of the Ely Thayers Of the House, IL would have
been dotted all over with laughter" in psren-
thesis The concluding mot is entitled to great
laughter and would have been 30 received in
Congress.
There lisa growing disposition among our
orators of the forum to cultivate the joke de-
partment. It might be considered bad taste
foe a grave Senator to don the parti-colored
habt Of the bufoon, but the funny members
might take lesson from the Snowman above
mentioned Let the professional jokers of Con-
qress summon Rice to the bar of the House, aud