Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-11-14
Writers and Takers.


hear - - deliver an Grafton is one
thing; to read it the next morning
in newspaper is quite another thing,
even when the newspaper report is
accurate, which does not often hap
pen to be the case. The glowing
words, which SO thrilled us the night
before, somehow do not seem to glow;
we have the hnsk, the cold corpse OF
the lecture the soul has flown. The
fire, the grace, the music of the flu
ent periods have been lost some,
where between the orators lips and
the printing-oflice. The thing served
up to us in formal, rigid type, is not
at all like the thing that was spoken
1t will be hard for posterity to I'M
derstand how this man time after
time held thousands of his contem-
porsries breathless and entranced by
the magic of his words. The words
themselves are tame enough; look
ed at in the broad daylight their
magic is nowhere discov CRADLE
Here is what he said" says posteri-
ty turning over the portly volume
in halt-calt sit must have been no
difficult matter to fire the heart of
our forefathers." There is what he
said, to be sure, but not the way he
said it. That was a quality which
could not be preserved and trans
mitted.
Great orators who are not also ex-
cellent writers are very indistinct
historical shadows Of the generation
that follows them. Their published
speeches, lacking literary attraction
and dealing with questions that no
longer have significance, fail to ex-
cite the power which the speaker
welded, The great actor who leaves
no tangible record of his genius, has
q decided advantage over the mere
orator. The tradition of the actors
voice, manor and presence is asso
ciated with works of enduring beau
ty. Turning to the immortal pages
of the dramatiSt we can picture to
ourselves the greatness of Garrick or
Sddons in this or that scene, in this
or that character. 1t is not so easy
for the imagination TO coniure up
the impassioned orator from the pag-
es OF dry and possibly illogical ar
gument in favor of or against some
long since exploded measure of gov
ernment. The laurels of an orator
who is not a master of the literary
art wither very quickly, unless his
career is linked with important
events.
To como back to the point, from
which we have strayed somewhat,
il Is worth noting how few authors
who have written we'll have also
been good speakers. We do not
mean public speakers, but takers
in society and private life AS ciasf
literary men do not shine in CONVEX
sation. The brilliant and playful es-
sayst whom you picture to yourself
as the most genial and entertaining
OF companions, turns out to be the
most shy and untalkable individual,
who chills you with his reticence
whom you meet him at Mrs Leo
Hunters conUerSG.ione. The poet
whose delightful volume you always
drop into your carpet-bag on your
summer vacation the poet whom
you have SO long desired to know
personally-is a moody and abstract
ed young gentleman, who doesn I
catch your name on introduction,
and who seems the embodiment OF
the commonplace. The witty and
ferocious critic, whom your fancy
had painted as a blood thirsty liter.
airy cannibal with a morbid appetite
for tender young poets on the half.
shell, the writer Of those slashing
and scholarly reviews which you
never fail to read-this critic, we
say, destroys your illusion by APP
rearing before you as a parsonage OF
slender limb and deprecating glance,
who stammers and bushes and
makes painful exhibition of him
self when you ask his opinion of
1.-THE Glee5 of Gulches," by Popocat.
apetl Jones, the new American poet.
Who that has CHANGED to meet his
"iavorite author" has not been dis
enchanted in some such shocking
manner? Who has not been, at least
a little disappointed 2 Now and
then you will meet a man of letters
whose conversation is as happy or
learned as his writings; but good
takers are generally not authors
1--WE find" says an eminent English
essayist, who was also an eminent
talkor, "that the greatest authors of
ten make the worst company in the
world and again, some of the live.
lest fellows imaginable in conversa-
zion or extempore speaking, seem to
lose all their vivaoity and spirit the
moment they set pen to paper"
A man can not excel in every
thing. 1t is expecting too much TO
expect a novelist to be as clever as
the clever people in his novels
Writing and talking are arts as dis.
tinct as music and painting. The
talking mind and the writing mind
have been admirably defined by Ba.
con: "Some minds are proportion.
ed to that which may be despatched
at once or within short return o.
time others to that which begin.
afar off and is to be won with length
of pursuit. The habit of writing
with care and reflection is desLruct
i've OF the readiness Of thought anC
expression required in conversation
Literature has turned out some not.
able bad takers, the worst of whom
was possibly Corneille, who did not
even speak correctly the language o
when be was so skiltul q master
The prattling Ioe.A Addison was com
pared by a gentleman who passed al
evening in his company, TO "a silen
parson in a tie-wig" Dryden sale
of himself, any conversation is slow
aud dull, my humor saturnine ant
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