Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-11-20

ana nleQ OUT, Jones pulllng Ills Qeceaseu dOg
by the tail. Atkinson went to bed raging in
his soul; and the next morning he put a
sheet iron bottom, fastened with rivets, upon
that folding crib.
SPEAKER AND WRITER.
One of the results of the printing press, the
telegraph, and the rapid spread Of news, is a
decline of oratory, and corresponding vast
increase in the number of writers. We read
of the great orators, Pitt and Fox. in the
British House of Commons, of Patrick Hen
ry, and the great orators of our own Revolu-
tion, and there is mild regret that we have
none such now. The breed is extinct'in po
litical life, and would have no place should it
reappear at the present time. The House Of
Commons would stare at such orators as those
/ of the last century and consider them theat.
rical and unsafe guides Clay and Webster
and Calhoun would be anachronisms in our
present Senate, and they would soon be OBJ
liged to learn that they were addressing larger
audiences than listened to their eloquence in
the old days. A century ago the British
Parliament was not open to the press report
ers. The statesman who would carry meas
ure, found it necessary to persuade the body
he addressed as well as reason with them.
The argument must be made vivid and the
passion sympathetic. The utterances Of the
orator were for the moment. There was no
report next morning for members to read over
coolly and ponder upon, but the immediate
effect was all in all. It is told of an old
Greek, of the ancient time, who wrote orations
for the orators, that on one occasion when he
had finished an Grafton, the speaker was Won
derfully taken with it at the first perusal at
the second he liked it less; and on the third
he found abundance to criticise. The writer,
however, pointed out that, whereas, he, a crit.
ical orator, had been highly pleased at the
first reading, and the hearers would only lis
ten to the Grafton once, they would be sure,
likewise, to admire, and 80 they did. Oratory
is ephemeral for the Immediate impression,
and the short hand writer, the telegraph and
the daily paper have made it impossible
Whitfeld's sermons are dreadfully dry read
ing, although he was so vivid in his oratory,
when he delivered them.
We should not care to read the flights Of
eloquence of our political orators Of the last
generation their sentences were fitted for the
occasion, and with it the life and soul have
gone out of them, and what was eloquence
once, is now, for the most part, trash. The
modern parliamentary orator scarcely ad-
dresses his immediate audience. He speaks
to larger body, to his constituents; or, if he
be really great man, to the country and to
the world. So long ago as when Mr.. Seward
was in the Senate, although he had oratorical
eloquence, he was accustomed to read his
speeches, leaning against his desk, having
printed slips, and reading without any attempt
at oratorical display. He knew that next
morning the people Of the country would read,
study and criticise his utterances. Thus it
was necessary that they should be carefully
prepared for criticism. It would not do to
trust to the spontaneous outbursts of eloquence
which would be conned over next day, by
hundreds of thousands of hostile as well as
friendly critics. 1t is said, too, that Mr.. Sum-
ner never spoke in the Senate, except in short
speeches of from three to five minutes, with.
out writing out and revising carefully what
he had to say. .
The orator has been superseded by the wri-
ter and has become himself writer The
most obscure weekly country newspaper ad-
dresses larger audience than listened to the
thunder of eloquence of the orators of CEN
tury or more ago. Before the great increase
of writers and readers, greater portion Of
the people got their knowledge of public af:
fairs, and largely their opinions, from the pull
pit The New England ministers had large
share in stirring up the people to the Revolu.
tim hv which we senarated from Great Brit.
ain. They performed much Of the function
now laid upon the newspaper press. Their
words did not often 60 on record those of the
newspaper do, and they can thus be more
carefully considered. Moreover, to the news.
paper there is the opportunity for reply.
They are of every party and every political
shade of opinion, and what of truth one does
not give, the other will and so the people are
more thoroughly instructed and enlightened
than they could be by pulpit or forensic ora
tors. Oratory is now more for amusement or
entertainment than for serious business The
habit of reading, and criticising what is read,
has become settled with our people, and the
report of speech or lecture Of any impor.
tance, is looked for with more interest than
the public delivery thereof by the orator.
The man in the little room at the newspaper,
or magazine, or review Office, convinces and
influences hundred, or perhaps thousand,
where the orator can influence one by the
mere power of his voice; and SO he brings in
the press as an aid and accessory, and so it
comes about that there is decline Of oratory.
Nswburyport Herald.