The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-05-31
How to Make a Speech.


Few men make speeches without carefully
preparing them beforehand. 1t is rather
amusing that so many speakers try to pro-
duce the impression that they speak without
having made ready. Sometimes it is by be-
ginning with the conventional statement
that the call upon them is unexpected, or
that they have been absorbed with other de-
mands upon their time. Sometimes in the
opening or close, which has been so carefully
fixed in the memory that the speaker is Sc
cure of it, he injects word or reference
caught from the pending occasion, thus CIV
ing the impression that the whole thing is a
present inspiration, Then, too. not to put
tee fine point on the matter, there are some
who on this subject do, with the uneonscion-
able abandonment. verify the Scripture. that
all men are liars. L remember most distin-
guished man telling me that long speech of
his at public meeting was extemporaneous,
when l read it the evening before set up in
cold type for the forthcoming morning pa
per.
Some of the best stump speakers very
wisely repeat the same speech almost In
totidem uerbiS as they go from place to place.
as you will learn when you go with them.
Some of these frankly acknowledge this
method; others will so .emphatically assure
you that they never speak twice alike that
you are bound to credit them with an honest
delusion. You rarely listen to an after-din-
ner speech, however. glibly it rolls, that has
not been wrought adj unquem.
should say, therefore, do not hesitate to
make the most thorough preparation, or to
let it be known, If need be, that you do so.
1t Is good thing. too. to mix in something
Of humor, never coarse, but of fine sort,
giving flavor as mite Of red pepper tiavors
salad. Helpful also is touch Of pathos or
sentiment, of which, in a reasonable degree,
do not be afraid. Without humor or senti-
ment no speech goes very close to the heart
of an audience. l have often found that
some little incident, scene, "reminiscences, or
bit of landscape has given a source from
which to derive speech. Sitting down to
in circle. Some leading thought controls,
and around that argument, illustration, APP
plication group themselves. The very pro-
cess of writing, especially a second copying
will develop new trains Of thought and illus
tration or reference. A word as you write it
becomes suggestion, and your pen creates
almost as If it were independent of your
mind. A vocabulary is, of course, a vital re-
source for speaker, though some seem to
have been born to full one. The great aid
to this is reading, and also committing good
authors, a discipline doubly valuable because
it furnishes a stock of facts and stock of
words.
think the great thing in speech is earn
estness OF purpose, and especially OF deiiv-
cry. l would not advise the slightest atten-
ton to gesticulation, for that Will. take care
of itself with an earnest speal and some
of the most earnest and effectfh, ,Eeem to dis
pense with it altogether 3 manner is
everything in public speaking. You may
hear. two speakers, one stirring you to the
depths, the other drowned in your own
yawning: and yet had you read them in your
evening newspaper they would have been
equally as good, or equally as commonplace.
A good speech consists Of sound, whole
some array of facts, thought or argument, re-
of humor or play of fancy or sentiment,
not afraid of the establishment of reason
able fringe of rhetorical flourish, clearly
enunciated in the speaking. and delivered
with all the force, feeling, earnestness and
for YOUR life.