The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-02-24
PUBLIC SPEAKING.

PUBLIC SPEAKING.
Some Hints and Suggestions to Young Men
How tn Gain the Art of Oratory.
D. p Baldwin, in the Earlhamite.
Manuscript and careful written pre-
paration gives elegance, but for force give me
the off-hand method of speaking. No class of
ticians and lawyers, who always speak ex-
temporaneousy No class OF speakers put
their cases elegantly the professional
lecturer or the preacher who, rule. always
speak either from written or from memorized
manuscript ga
II should advise, would put it thus to a
youthful orator: Begin with course of writ
ten preparation, and stick to it until you acquire
elegance and terseness of diction. After such
habit is &C auired, then discard the man
uscript and always speak extemporaneously,
but after the most careful preparation upon the
subject matter OF your discourse The man
that habitualy speaks from manuscript soon
loses that most desirabls of all oratoricai ac-
quirements-the art of sudden and effective
speech public speaker cannot always COM
nand his occasion. He is constantly required
to confront emergencies, and If he must stop
and write out his extemporaneous remarks he
will often make failure of it. as well as miss
that most desirable of all arts-''thinking upon
his legs"
What is oratory7 It is made up of several
things, chefest of which is clear yet unprepared
statement. The subject-matter must always
be worthy and weighty matter, but this matter
and force. and fire of statement that will carry
its way to conviction. A man awkward and
6ifident in his manners seldom makes an orator.
speaker that has not lost his self-conscous-
ness In the enthusiasm and excitement of the
occasion has not begun his work as an orator.
If he Is conscious Of any embarrassment, or
conscious of himself in any of its phases, it Is
30 much taken away from his oratorv. Our
vtump speakers seldom occupy less than two
hours in their harangues. Think OF preacher
reading a sermon two hours long Lawyers
ffarl Anrhl irua and
retain the attention of the judge and jury. In
zach case the speech is always f-hand. FL
oquence lies largely in the man-seldom IN the
pen and ink. It consists in awakening and
exercising certain indescribable magnetic in
fiuences. Often these reside in the audience,
as well as in the speaker. Audiences frequently
applaud to the echo very commonplace speeches,
simply because the orator finds them surcharRed
with enthusiasm and excitement. The per-
lection of the speakers art il TO find his audi
ence colo and Indifferent and to warm them up
with his own heat and fire, until he carries
everything by storm. and leaves his auditory
dashed up to a white heat.
Public speakers have strange experiences.
The late Senator Pratt excellent although
not great orator, once remarked to me that he
could never make two frst-rate speeches in
succession. IL he spoke well Monday the same
matter to another audience Tuesday would
fall fiat. This because his nervous mag
netic force was exhausted ono day, and nature
could not recuperate the next day.
/ have found, in my public speaking that the
first five minutes Determine the speech. If, at
the end of that time, had not mastered my
self, but was embarrassed or fretful, the audi
ence seldom came to me afterwards. But it, on
the contrary. the subtitle currents of sympathy
that must always exist to make speech effect
i've are set in motion at the start so that at the
end of Eve minutes you feel Richards himself
again." you will go on conquering and to con-
quer unit. the end
Often a speaker finds, after he has got well
warmed MP with his subject flood of inspira-
tiors pouring in upon him. Thoughts that
never occurred 90 him before will come, clothed
Ia elegant and forcible language Metaphors
and all the decorations of speech will come
throngng in upon him until he is lost in amaze
ment himself and his unsuspected powers.
The great depths of his nature will be broken
up and he will find himself giant. On the
other hand, am bound to say that the same
giant of yesterday will find himself the next
day tongue tied ana his audience out of SYM
patty and harmony with his most labored
efforts. When a man has this kind of perverse
fit upon him the part of wisdom is to avail him
self of the first opportunity and step down and
course it goes without saying ii that these Gibbs
and flows of inspiration come to the
reader of manuscript He never knows the
divine heights, as well as despairs, of the ex-
temporaneous orator.
1t il a most excellent exercise for the ambi-
tious young speaker to keep himself saturated
with oratory. To that end let him constantly
read aud re-read Webster, Burke Phillips,
Bsecher. Choare, Everett. aod Ingersoll. By and
by he will find himself framing his sentences after
these models: thinking their thoughts and carry
ing their spirit into his efforts. With the ex-
ception of Burke, our own country has produced
peerless oratory. Webster is my favorite for
ponderous sentences; Everett (now but little
ready for finished, gittering rhetoric; Phillips
for invective; Choate and Beecher for their
mastery over the emotions; while Ipgersoll is
the great prose-poet orator of the new world.
The after-dnner speech is almost always 10
be found in the orators vest pocket; at least,
that is my experience.
One of the vexations of public speakers is the
ne wspaper and the reporter. Almost all young
public speakers labor under the delusion that
their printed speeches read. This seldom
or never happens. unless with such man as
Ingersoll. with exceptionally bright
speech of not to exceed twenty lines in length
None the less does the youthful orator care
fully sean every word of the effort which he i'm
AGNES everybody is admiring. Invariably the
reporter spoiis his best passages, and makes
them say almost the opposite of what he in
IL young and green he madly rushes M to the
editors Office and cards the public After "a
few years of smiles and tears" he becomes hard
ened and let's the reporter have his own sweet
way. The orator that pines to have his speech
reported is most always afterwards to be found
In sackcioth and ashes A young public speaker
Is always the alert TO have his "oratory
pulled To that end in his salad days he has
endless cigars and bon mots for the reporter.
This is fatal mistake A real orator invari-
ably gives the news papers full swing at him for
better or worse, and never seeks to influence
the editor. He trusts himself entirely TO the
real judgment of his audience, knowing that
genuine eloquence can never be counterfeited.
much less supplied. by telegraphs of ''mastsrly
efforte,r ETC., so common in political campaigns
which deceive nobody, and In the end react
upon the speaker
Wanted to Sell One of Her Teeth and Get
Married.
City and Country
visited the dental rooms of Dr. Powell She
SAID she was from Haverstraw. and that she