Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-05-03
PREPARlNa A spEEcH.
Points From One whom Success Has Quail
ned tn Give Advice.

Points From One whom Success Has Quail
He'd tn Give Advice.
Few men make speeches without
carefully preparing them beforehand.
1t is rather amusing that so many
speakers try to produce the impression
that they speak without having made
ready. Sometimes it 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. Some
times in the opening or close. which
has been so carefully fixed in the MEM
| DRY that the speaker is secure of it, he
injects word or reference caught
from the pending occasion. thus giving
the impression that the whole thing is
a present inspiration. Then, too. not
to put too fine point on the matter.
there are some who on this subject do,
with the most unconscionable abandon
ment. verify the Scripture, that all men
are liars l remember a most distin-
guished man telling me that long
speech of his at a public meeting was
| extemporaneous, when l had read it
the evening before set up in cold type
for the forthcoming morning paper.
Some of the best stump speakers very
wisely repeat the same speech almost
in totidem verbs 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
dinner speech, however glibly it rolls
that has not been wrought ad unguem.
should say, therefore, do not hesi-
tate to make the most thorough prepa-
ration, or to let it be known, if need
be, that You do so. 1t is a good thing,
too, to mix in something of humor,
never coarse, but of a fine sort, giving
flavor as a mite of red pepper favors a
salad. Helpful also is a touch of
pathos or sentiment, of which in
reasonable degree, do not be afraid.
Without humor or sentiment no speech
goes very close to the heart of an aud
fence. L have often found that some
little incident, scene, Renaissance 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 a circle. Some
leading thought controls, and around
that argument, illustration, application
group themselves. The very process
Of writing. especially a second copy
ing. will develop new trains of thought
and illustration or reference. A word
as you write it becomes a suggestion,
and your pen creates almost as if it
were independent of your mind. A
vocabulary is, of course. vital re-
source for a speaker, though some
seem to have been born to a full one.
The great aid to this is reading and
also committing good authors, disci-
pline doubly valuable because it fur
nishes a stock of facts and stock of
words.
think the great thing in . speech
is earnestness of purpose and especial
ly 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 dispense
with it altogether. The manner is
every thing 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 good. or
equally commonplace.
A good speech consists of a sound,
wholesome array of facts, thought, or
argument. relieved in the treatment
by picture, touch of humor, or
play of fancy or sentiment, not afraid
of the establishment of a reasonable
fringe of rhetorical flourish, clearly
enunciated in the speaking, and deliv-
cred with all the force, feeling. earn
estness and appeal that you would put
into struggle for your life.-John d.
Long, IN Writer.
BUSINESS EDUCATION.