The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-12-01
AMERICANS GIFT OF ORATOH7.
Awkwardness of Englishmcu A. Speaker.
& PeculiaritY of Our Own PennIe.


4 Peculiarly of Our own People.
Every American who has attended the
regular or occasional sitting OF civic bodies
or participated in formal dinners in Great
Britain must have been struck with the uif1i-
Guilty and awkwardneSs with which the speak
erS convey their ideas, or the absence thereof
Through sympathy he must have felt at times
that he would gladly have allowed them to
stop. or have volunteered to help them out Of
their dilemma.
How very different is all this over here!
When Americans come 70 argue or discuss
anv question. or TO be merely entertaining,
they as d rule acquit themselves well 1t Is
not necessary that they should be regu-
LARRY educated or trained; that they should
be professional men, or that they should have
had experience in thinking on their feet, as it
Is called They may be occupied IN business;
they may be unaCcustomed 70 the sound OF
their own voices i'll any sort OF assembly; they
may be without suspicion of their lingual
talents; but the moment they are requested
to say something they rise, and, opening their
mouths, appropriate words flow thence Hun
dreds of Americans are surprised every year
to find that they can speak without prepare
ton or premOnitiOn Speaking is unques-
tionably natural to them; while with nearly
every other nation it IS the result of culture.
All Europeans observe and comment on
this popularity Of ours, and are at a loss to
account for it 1t may be in measure as
cribable to the richness of our mother tongue
which enables us, if we wish, to talk an hour
without putting forward anything in par
ticular Our great language is eXcellently
qualified for conveying glittering generalIties
and many of our politicians employ II TO-
that purpose The character Of our inStitU-
tions, the constant intercOmmunication be
-.
of the atmosphere, the variety of climate
causing high degree of nervousness and
cerebral sensibility, have doubtless their share
in making Us think quickly and utter our
thoughts freely. But these do not explain our
facility and pertinency of speech under all
circumstances, universally regarded as our
birthright. The special gift must be accepted
as one of the American traits, which belongs
to US like our quaint humOr and our constitu-
tional love of liberty.
This gift IS not restricted to the east or to
the social centers; it inhereS in the people at
large, and is oven more conspicuous and more
widely spread in the west and in the sparsely-
settled districts than in the big cities border
ing on the Atlantic seabOard. We see this la
the mining regions of Colorado, Montana
Nevada, California and elsewhere-an along
the frontier, indeed where men without the
regular restraints of law or the checks of
organized society show on the smallest provo
cation a native eloquence that is remarkable
and surprising ROugh-looking, half-educated
fellows, scmi-savage from their habits, speak,
when moved. with force and fervor that per
suades, melts and dominates This is the voice
of nature, coming through nature and address
ing nature; what should prevent its full effect!
These spontaneous outbursts are racy of the
soil, whenever and however they are appar-
ent Often they are not revealed, especially
in the older parts of the republic, in formal
declamatory manner, but rather in an easy,
lucid. pertinent fashion which seems colo
quail, so simple and direct is it.-Cor. Chicago
Times.