Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1884-10-25
THE WORLD,s ORATORS.
Comparison of Americans with Glad.
stone, who Is Seldom Not an Orator.
6. W. Smalley's London Correspondence.

G. W. Smalley's London Correspondence.
have been asked often enough by r.y own
countrymen if any American was like Mr. Glad
stone. know Of none, nor of any European
either. IN appearance, the late Mr. Daniel Web
ster was slightly very slightly, like Mr. Glad
stone, but the massive features and form had
an addition of coarse robustness Of which in Mr.
Gladstone there is none | once saw and heard
Webster in Worcester when he spoke from the
step to the gate leading into the dOorvard of
the late Gov Lincoln, of Massachusetts, beneath
lantern. the rays from which fell straight on
MS face He almost exactly realized what Emer-
son had In his mind when he said that if Web
ster were first revealed to him by fash of
lightning he should not be sure whether an
angel or demon were standing before him.
We'll. it is no compliment to Mr. Gladstone
to say that nobody would take him for O.
demon, beneath flash of lightning or other
wise. / hope / am not dealing in commit
ments at all. My sole aim is to be descrip-
tive. But Webster was of the earth. Mr.
Gladstone has light on his face that seems to
come from the upper air. Webster was speaker
OF extraordinary powers of mind. As Theodore
Parker said OF him. he could state a case better
than any man in America. He was occasionally
an orator. IL is but seldom that Mr. Gladstone
is not i should like to draw much more min
ute comparison between Mr.. Gladstone and
Wendell Phillips. for it would, think. be much
more illustrative, though l should begin by
saying that neither Mr.. Gladstone nor ANYBODY
else had that Apollo-like beauty Of presence, or
that voice of gOld or that genius for conciliating
or controlling hostile audience which were
among Phillips many Incompatible gifts. But
cannot do that. have heard CASTELAR, address
six thousand Spaniards at Prices circus In
Madrid In all too copous Castiian supple
sympathetic, sinuOus and orator to the tips of
his fingers. ] have heard Bismarck, when In
the white uniform of the cuirassiers of whom
he was major, and booted to the knee he gave
his orders with military directness to the
parliament of Prussia heard Gambetta In the
greatest effort Of his life when in 1877 he closed
four days debate in the chamber at Versailles
with what am disposed to think the greatest
single effort Of oratory ever listened to in
England, and he. too-had a great deal in com.
mon with Mr.. Gladstone. Both had the same
miraculous hexibliity Of mind and inexhaustible
abundance OF various diction. Mr.. Bright, the
one Engfshman living whose greatest speeches
might be probably studied side by side with
MI Gladstone's, would be more profitable for
contrast than tor comparison. The lucid aow
OF Mr.. Brlghts simply constructed sentences.
always direct, always the best word In the best
place. always effective out of all proportion to
any machinery of rhetoric evident to the eve
scanning them In print-nothing could be more
unlike the method of Mr.. Gladstone and moth
ing could be more instructive than q full state
ment OF the secret Of each. But on the whole.
| not much Is to be gained by these brief reminis-
ences or great contemporaries for the most part
| SO essentially unlike Mr.. Gladstone.