The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-04-07
HOW TO MAKE A SPEECH.
pr JOHN D. LONG.


 Few men make speeches without carefully preparing them beforehand. It Is rather amusing that 60 many speAkers try to produce the impression that they speak without having made ready. Sometimes 1t is by beginning with the conventional statement that the call upon them is unexpected or that they have been absorbed with other demands upon their time. Sometimes in the opening or close, which has been so carefully fixed in the memory that the speaker is secure of 1t, he injects a word or reference caught from the pending occasion, thus giving the impression that the whole thing is present inspiration. Then, too, not to put too fine & point on the matter, there are some who on this subject do, with the most uncon- scionable abandonment, verify the scripture, that all men are liars. l remember most distinguished man telling me that long speech of his at & public meeting was sextemporaneous, when had read 1t the evening before set up in cold type for the forthcom- ing morning paper.
 Some of the best stump speakers very wisely repeat the same speech almost in totidem Ver6ts as they go from place to place, as you VII! learn when you go with them. Some of these frankly acknowledge this method; others will so emphatioally 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 dinner speech, however glibly it rolls, that has not been wrought ad unguem.
 I should say, therefore, do not hesi- tate to make the most thorough prep aration, or to let it be known, if need be, that you do. It isa good thing, too, ! to mix in something of humor, never coarse, but of a fine sort, giving flavor as mite of red pepper flavors a salad. Helpful also is touch of pathos, or sentiment, of which, in a reasonable degree, do not be afraid. Without humor or sentiment no speech ev r goes close to the heart of an audience. ! have often found that some little in- cident, scene, reminiscence or bit of | landscape has given a source from which to derive speech. Sitting down to write it, the theme expands, not forward, but in circle. Some leading thought controls, and around that argument, illustration, applica- tion group themselves. The very pro- cess of writing, especially second copying, will develop new trains of l thought and illustration or reference. A word as you write it becomes sug- gestion, and your pen creates almost as if it were independent of your mind. A vocabulary is, of course, A vital resource 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 a speech is earnestness of purpose and espe- cially of delivery. would not advise the slightest attention to gesticulation, for that will take care of itself with an earnest speaker, and some of the most earnest and effective seem to dis pense with it altogether. The manner is every thing in public speaking You may hear two speakers, one stir ring you to the depths, the other drowned in your own yawning, and yet had you read them in your cven- ing newspaper they would have been equally good, or equally common place.
 A good speech consists of sound, wholesome array of facts, thought or argument, relieved in the treatment by 8 picture, a touch of humor, or a play of fancy or sentiment, not afraid of the establishment of a reasonable fringe of the rhetorical flourish, clearly enunciated in the speaking, and de- liyered with all the force, feeling, earnestness and appeal that you would put into struggle for your lite.- March Writer.