The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1864-11-17

grammer, bad reasoning, bad taste, and
even bad principles. We know we
ought to be ashamed OF ourselves to
applaud such empty mouthings; we
know we shall be ashamed OF ii the mo-
ment we reflect upon 1t cody at home;
but somehow the contngion of the blood
makes fools of us for the time, and there
are few men phlosophic enough TO with.
stand, in impassive mood, the influence
Of splendid eclamation-howeve barren
Of thought il may be. -H
Is it the stage, the pulpit or the stump
that has debauchcd our eloquencc, and
made rant respectable! The player who
has the best iangs is almost always
voted the best fellow. The preacher
who can keep up the resonant flow Of
periods with the most vigor is commonly
reckoned the most eloquent" And the
orator who can vociferate the loadcst
patriotism in the shortest tim ;, is tolera.
bly, secure Of always finding stump aud
an audience upon which to display his
powers. But little preparation, too, is
required to make successful stump ora
tor. A few generalities of political
knowledge, derived from the newspapers
Of the day; ready command Of the
common places Of speech; good voice
- and unbounded f.confidence--such
is the inventory of accomplishments
necessary 10 make q political stump
speaker in these days Of cheap eloqucnce
and cheaper patriotism.
When BORON, the weaver, in enid.
summer Nights Dream" was to enact
the part Of the lion, he was informed, ),
"Ycu may do it ex:emporc--ior tits moth.
ing but roaring"
How many American BoTToMs play
the political lion on precisely the same
easy terms! But lately, all the stumps
In the loyal otutes were vocal with elo-
quence; stump orators swarmed like bees
in city and country; the speakers were SO
numerous that they almost outran the
audiences, large and eager as they some-
times were. Not satisfied with the herd
of orators at home. more orators were
imported, "regardless of expense"
from abroad; caravans of cars and
wagons mpticd their throngs into the
capitals to listen; and yet, when all was
said and done, what did anybody hear,
anywhere, but a rehush OF the political
newspapers-and of very poor n9wspa.
pcrs at that! Is it altogether certain
that the game of buncombe is quite worth
the candle!
We believe il was never our 6rtune
to hear but one or two political speeches
which did not begin with an apology
However we'll meant and much needed
these signals of distress may be it cannot
fail to strike us that apologies to on audi-
cnce for appearing before them are in
dreadfdlly bad taste. The offence Of pre-
suming to speak may be bad but the excuse
is worse. What possible good is it to
an audience who are invited to listen to a
speech, to hear beforehand that the speak =
er is not prepared, or has a hoarseness
in his throat, or is fatigued with travel, or
didn't sleep any last night, or has been
talking every day for month. These
little personal egotisms are natural
enough to a speaker--but they are great
bores to an audience. No doubt the
orator has all these failings-and many
more; but why not leave il to his audience
to find them out! Why be always ad-
vertising his fellow w-citizens OF the awful
things he could do, il only he were not
unfortunately indisposed! (and we never
yet were SO fortunate as TO catch any of
these gentlemen of the stump when they
were not somehow "indisposed.') II a
man has really got any thing to say, let
him say it without preface, or apology, or
dodging. Ifhe is realty conscious that
he hasn ':anv thing to say. or can't say
1t in a way that is worth the hearing, let
him be honest about 1t and hold his
tongue. Life is too short to be wasted
in apologies.
Another unfailiDg Characteristic of
your genuine stump orator is, that he
rounds off every speech with thanking
his "friends," or his "fellow. citizens"
for their "patient attention." to his "im-
peri ect remarks" Now, however praise
worthy the spirit of murtyrdom msy be in
crowd which has stood in the most un-
comfortable posture, listening attentively
TO two hours of political bosh, they
would rather, nine times in ten, that the
speaker would spare his thanks and
finish his speech. Time wasted-in COM
pliments, whea an orator has any serious
business before him. is as bad an invest
ment as the time spent in apologies.
Our stump orators greatly need re-
form in their dialect no less than in the
matter oftheir speeches. The language
of the stump has been terribly corrupted
since revolutionary days--if we ore to
take as criteria the samples which have
, come down to US. Even our National
Congress, which i, really but eonyen.
tion of stump orators, with the advantage
Of standing on stumps which overlook
the nation, is pefpetdally disgfacsd by