The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1883-03-25
MODERN 0RAT0RY.


a.d Houston aud finkney Henderson.
While listening to the eulogies of senator
IIill recently, was reminded Of the great
change in the complexion of the senate,
which the last two years have wrought.
How the body has suffered by the light
touch of time hard hand Then the demo
Gratis had Thurman. Eaton, Herman, Nc
Donald. Wallace aud Whyte. all now living,
but in the hurry burly Of politics lett out Of
the senate. These are gone, besides the
matchless orator whose memory was fresh
ened yesterday by many sweet tribute.
The other side OF the chamber has lost al.
most rs heavily. Blaine is out, TO enter
politics no more, unless he can do so as
presidential candidate. Conkling. without
even that hope. Carpenter dead. The three
brightest lights OF the left thus gone-and
every one replaced by men OF ordinary cali
bre. The democrats have supplied their
losses, as rule, with inferior
material, aud the senate of to-day
Is by no means what IL was in Jan
uary, 1850. Senator Illus loss is most
strikingly seen in the fact that 1t removed
the most popular, AS well as the most pow
orful orator OF those palmy days, Few good
speakers are left In tho senate, for every one
OF the men who came near rivalry with hun
In the wtchery of eloquence has disap-
peared from that high arena. do not ox-
cept Mr.. Voorhees, IA his latter days have
shown little of the tle that warmed his
earlier efforts into glowing beauty, aud he
has become close manuscript talker, with
something of afNctation IN his airs OF sena-
torlal gravity.
NO ORATOR IN THE SENATE.
Judged by their usual efforts, it must be
confessed that there is not an orator in the
senate, Mr.. Vest is at times imprisoned
ana powerful bat these are his best and oC-
casiOnal moments. lie is, however, tho
most popular of the speakers in the senate,
unless II be Mr., Ingalls,, whose excellence "
AS opposite to that of the impetuous Mis-.
souriau as the two poles. Vest IL warm,
impulsve and magnetic, Ingalls, Is cold
deliberate and precise. His tall, quaint iig-
ufe, his clear, metallic voice, and his salow
face, absolutely without any expression but
that Of penetrating intellectually make
him the representative of sarcasm aud
satire. His language IL the best that is
heard on the floor, and his sentences
would III into review with very
little emendation. lie has studied the art
OF expression deyotedly. The quail.
ties named make him stronger as an
opponent than as an advocate lie
could never win men TO any cause where
Their preiudiCes were set against H., but he
can use the artillery of ndicule with re
markable effect against the strongest logic.
In that one side of oratory he is the peer of
Mr.. Hill, so far as verbal expression goes,
without the power OF look and gesture
which gave a keener aud u double edge TO
the cutting satire of the Georgian Ben
/ la .aI InI ANA. 10 I,a -
with reputation as an orator based on his
stump speeches and what his friends con
sdered his worsting of Hendricks In the
Garfield campaign. lie has done nothing
IN the oraiory line since he began his sena,
toria career
Edmunds, the attorney OF his party. ia
the conversational talker of the courtroom
while John Sherman, the most active and
influential OF the republican leaders, IL de
void OF every grace of oratory, Senator
Beck has been aptly described as speaking
like Scotch bagpipe. Senator Bayard has
Il bad tenor voce, while Pendleton Is husky
and still. We all know what plain, homely
talk Senator Brown always gives at home.
lie talks to the senate the same way, and it
is effective talk here as it is there, because
1t carries freight train OF common sense
| every trip.
STEALING IN THE HOUSE.
The house il better or for orators tsan
the senate. Tho first place among them IL,
perhaps, held by Randolph Tucker of Nir.
! giniA who has the advantage of personal
| physique and bell-liko, voice. On the
| hastings his acute sense . humOr some
times calls into play power OF mimcry
| that on the stage would have made him She
| rival of Sothern.
General Hooker, of Mississippi, repre-
/ g,tb IN,
RreSS the pure type et southern Oratory
| His diCtion is rich TO luYriance. His every
thought is clothed and colored by tropical
fancy, His delivery is graceful TO rare
\ degree, and in the most impassionale mo
ments he is courty in every movement.
The quick and ready man OF the house
as everybody knows, is Sunset Cox, ii,
rings into his "extemporo" speeches ,luany
an expression polished up and trhlnet
down by scholarly study before but with
all due discounts Tor such tricks. he |!
still man of wonderful gin OF speech
| Trippcd dozen times, he never
fails to catch on his feet witt
II sharp repartce ready for his op
ponent. Ills memory is marvellous. Many
of his aptest illustrations are drawn from
the Bible and Shakespeare. | douot i
there are many doctors of divinity In the
country more familiar with the Bible thar
he, and will venture the assertion that h,
knows more OF Shakespeare than any maj
in America. Neither Mr.. Carlisle nor Mr.
Randall is an attractive speaker.
sTYLB or oRAToRY CHANGING.
kasson would be the best one ON his side
ifit were not for the apparent afleotatioI
and appearance of nicely rs il he wer
handling the subie with the tips of hi
fingers. Robinson, of Massachusetts, /
| Al "A La Ia. l; L...u
Reed, of Maine is rs keen as brier, con
suited on all his party does and ever read,
to fly to his feet but with face and
voice like an oyorgrown, fat boy OF IL
Robson IL ready always, but his Fnstnl
fan figure ana his bellows-likc deliver,
mako him remote from the most liberia
detlition OF eloquonco.
There can be no doubt that the style o
oratory III this country IN undergoing
marked change IL is becoming calme
and sterner. Trope and figure are beinl
severely pruncd, and rhetoric is falling un
der suspicion. The authentic clauses m,
the rounded periods that were indispensa
Bile In the Grafton of fifty years ago nr,
now rarely heard in the hest dliyerance.
A danger is seen by some in going too ia
IN this reform. II the search for make,
strength carries us back to the ponderou
and indigestible style OF the old Engisf
models, we may not gain much by tn,
death of tho American spread eagle.
hut whatever changes may como In Tia,
popular estimation Of true oratory, what
ever men may rise to charm with th,
tongues of oloQuence, no changes can dero
gate nom tn value OF the recorded words
no new fame can eclipse that OF the grea
Georgian, whose voice used to Command III,
attention of the nation, from both wings o.
hN fol I,t all. -