The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-10-13
STUDYING ELOCUTION
Milwaukee Sentinel.


 jed in all parts of the world, though in no country is it so popular as in the United States" said popular Mill waukee elocutionist.
 "One of the greatest difficulties l have with my pupils is making them read correctly. The majority of the people, it is surprising to say, have little or no idea of punctuation, and skip over their lines without regard to commas, colons, semi -colons and periods. I have had people come to me for lessons who had naturally fine voices, but never succeeded in making elocutionists of themselves on account of their inability to punctuate. They would go through A whole page speech without any infections or modulation, and the consequence wal that their delivery became not only monotonous, but grating and re- repulsive. There are others who have some idea of punctuation, but who have no voice and whose attempts at gesticulation are worse than the gira- tions of QutI0te's windmill.
 "It would surprise you to see the number and different sorts of people who come to me to find out if there is any hope of their becoming fine elocu tionists. Men and women from all stations in life come for the purpose. Many of them are stage struck, and want to study elocution simply as a preparatory step to going on the stage. Others are prompted simply by a desire to become elocutionists, and have no particular end in view other than to be fitted to give parlor recitations and take part in amateur theatricals. A few come to me and want to study elocution for the benefit of their lungs, it being an old theory that exercise of that sort strengthens the lungs. It is rather odd that all the people who want to study elocution are afraid to recite when they first come here. have had young men and women, whom I have known 10 declaim in public on more than one occasion, come here and get all excited and un- strung when would ask them to re- cite something, so as to show me what they could do. It seems to trouble them much more to recite before one person than before a multitude.
 "One of the most amusing cases ] ever had was that of young girl who came in one day and announced that she wanted to learn to speak. asked her why she wished to learn elocution, and she said that she had decided to go on the stage and wanted to talk like the stage people. After talking to her a while I handed her 8 book, and, pointing certain passage asked her to read it for me. You may imagine my surprise when she looked up and said, tAh, marm, can't read. She seemed somewhat disappointed when I told her she must learn to read before she could become an elo- cutionist and an actress. She went away asserting she was going to learn to read right away and sure enough she did. Almost a year after she came In one day and announced that she had learned to read and was ready to take lessons from me. did not re. cognize her at first, but as soon as she recalled the incident I knew who she was. gave her the same passage which had asked her to read on hel former visit, and she read it of with ease and fiuency. I found her very bright and she promised to become ar unusually good elocutionist. She took lessons from me only short while and then went of, saying she was going to Chicago to get on the stage, have not heard of her since and she may by this time be a leading footlight favorite.
 "One of the best pupils ever had was youth who came in here from some little interior country town He looked seedy and worn and was long and lanky, and had serious misgivings about him when he told me what he was after. I asked him to recite something and in response he delivered The Dream of Eugene Aram' as well as had ever heard it recited by an amateur. I immediately became interested in him and found before long that he was naturally an orator. He had Q splendid voice, which he controlled to 6 nicety, he r6ad cor rectly and his gesticuhtions were almost perfect. His great trouble was extreme difiidence and nothing could induce him to get up and de- claim before crowd. He would have made . capital actor and I advited him to 90 on the stage, but he could not got his courage up sufficiently to make the attempt, and when he left