The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-09-01
nr- IhnIn,err, EnrIish.

A writer in Macmilldns Magdsinc gives the fol-
lowing account ofDr. Chalmers speaking
Again, as nature had given TO Chalmers a mind
capable of great cOntemplations, so she had given
him in a marked degree the os magma SoHitVUn-
the mouth formed for great utteranCes. Whether
he knew it as yet or not, he was born to be an
orator. lt was not in his habitual teryOr alone
that this was apparent-in the blazing enthusi-
asm which he carried into everything; in the
force aud eanestness with which he felt his own
meanings; in the deep fund of indignation from
which every now aud then there would
be a surge that would bear him TO the
verge Of frenzy; or even In (what, l
think, is the one infalihle indication Of true
orator. the reserve which he always had Of rage
beyond rage, and the power which he always
had Of becoming more and more able, more and
more Intellectually invectiye, MS he became more
and more excited. In all the minor indications
resulting from these and belonging to them, the
orator was p oclaimed. The style which he had
formed for himself, and which, rs | have said,
remained Chalmers TO the last was style for
the ear Tath her than for the eye. There was the
y tim and cadence OF the spoken sty le the sense
Of impulse upon living resistance, the structure
Of the sentenCe for fAce-to-tacc uEterince before
an assembly. And, as the thoughts were big,
there was a certain bgness and uuweldiueSs ia
she expression. Though he had pithy and rscy
Saxon or Scottish words in abundance as com
mand, there was tendency, when he wrote, 90
the pOlysy Liable aud the Latin, and especially TO
words ending in alton, or otherwise containing the
sound Sh.
There was the roll and ringing emphasis of the
voice in the act of delivery, the grip of each syl
liable Rs il came, the baianCe tO-and-frO move
ment OF the body, the nervous rush tn the face,
and at least, by way of gesture, the frequently
uplifted arm. What WAS the strangest pecIiilrity
OF all, however-the incap lcitAting pecu!iarity AS
IL might have seemCd-was the provincial rude
ness OF the pronunciation. The question that
would have bt asked by any Euglishman, on
first hearing him, would have been, how this
mouth, "folmed for great utterances." would
evIr be able to manage them in that eXtraordi-
nary Fiieshire dialect. He pronounced adam"
"Ajdan." "Parish," "PdiTiSh; ;""Pope of Rome"
"Popp of Ronm;" tissue of which," "isshy of
iChuch."
BY no chance did he pronounce any three
words In any one sentence correctly according to
the English Standard and for all his country
men out OF Fifeshire, he was equally vocal
wonder II was impossible 10 cure him. All the
pebbles on the beach of st. Andrews would never
have brought the mou h and tongue OF this young
DemO,thenes into conformity with the rules of
Attic eocution As it happened, 1t did not m It 'er
much. To his fellow Scots, when they came to
b ar him, the Fifeshire dialect as good as any
Other of the provincial dia ects of which hey had
Their choice aud racicr than most; and when his
audiences came to ne English as welt, there was
no thought OF the dia ect after the stunning
astonishment Of the first few sentences.