St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-08-11
oRATORY AS A FINE ART.

OhAIOh4 AS n FIN Ii AtSI.
An Eminent Englishman Says Its
Decay is Due to Cheap Litera-
ture.
Sir Moren Mckenzie in the Contemporary Re-
view.
In antiquity the training of an orator
was almost as elaborate an affair as the
training of racehorse is with US. Not
only the voice, but the whole man, ply
steal, intellectual and moral, was care
fully prepared, with conscientious
minuteness of detail, for the great bust
ness of life, the making of speeches. In
this system of education the develop
ment Of the voice naturally held large
place, and the phonascus, or voice
driller, was an Indispensable accessory,
not only of every school Of oratory, but
of many former orators. Of the meth
DDS OF the phonascus we know little, but
we find hints in some Of the classical
writers that, like certain of his profess
sional brethren in more recent days, he
was not disinclined to magnify his
Office. Senaca, in one of his letters,
warns his friend against living, vocally
speaking, in subsection to his phOnas-
Gus, and implies that he might as well
keep another artist to superintend his
walking. In our own day the phonas-
Gus still survives in public life,
though perhaps more as a luxury
A celebrated novelist, dramatic au-
thor and orator who passed over to the
great majority many years ago, used al
ways to put himself under the guidance
of vocal mentor before delivering
speech. Every tone, every pose and
every gesture was CAREFUL prepared and
industriouSly practiced under the direc-
ton of Frederick Webster, brother of
the celebrated comedian. Benjamin
Webster. That the elaborate training
of the ancientS was eminently success
full is shown by the powers of endurance
which it is clear they must have pos
sessed. They habitually spoke for five
or six hours, and even longer, and, in
order to appreciate their staying
power, it must be remembered
that they spoke in the open
air. amid all the tumult of the
forum, which was capable of holding
sc, OC0 people, and with an amount and
vigor of action of which the gesticula-
lions of an Indian preacher are but a
pale reflex. Longwindedness was at
one time cultivated as fine art by
Roman orators, when they had to plead
before judge whom they supposed to
be in favor of the other side. These
prototypes of our modern ObStructionistS
were aptly termed moratores, or delay
ers, because they postponed as far as
possible the passing Of the sentence.
The abuse finally reached such height
that law had to be- passed limiting
the length of pleadings in public
cases to the running out of one
clepsydra. 1t is impossible to say eX-
actly what period of time this was
equivalent to, as the water-clOcks OF the
Romans were of different sizes, and the
rapidity of flow must have varied under
different circumstances; from twenty
be taken as roughly representing the
average length of speech under the
strict system of closure"
If the Romans carried the culture of
the speaking voice to pedantic ex-
treme, we, on the other hand, un-
dOubtedly neglect it too much. 1t is
not that we speak less, but that we
have less appreciation than the an
clients had of Oratory as fine art, and
we are therefore more tolerant of
mumbling utterance and slovenly deliv-
cry. Many an inarticulate speaker who
in these days huns and haws through
an hour or two of dreary platitudes,
would have been hooted down in five
minutes by Greek or Roman audience.
The comparative decay of orators in
modern times is due to the diffusion of
cheap literature; the function of the
tent made obsolete by the daily newspa-
pers. Information and arguments
on political matters, which had for
merly to be supplied by word of
mouth from the rostrum, are now
served up, splced to each readers
taste. by innumerable liable editors"
But though the necessity for what l
may call professional orators no longer
exists, large part of the business of
the state in free country must still be
carried on OF controlled by talk, and the
living voice must always have power
of stirring and swaying popular senti-
ment-the collective feeling of large
masses of men, which is some
thing more than the sum of
their Individual feelings-far be-
Bright's exquisite purity of style would
have made him most effective writer,
but would his great speeches, if cut up
into leading articles, have stirred the
national heart as did his burning words,
thrown red-hot among mass of en-
thusiastic hearers? On the whole l
think we use the voice in public even
more than the ancientS, and there is,
therefore, all the more reason tor its
being properly trained. Good speaking
Is nowadays important, not only from
the artistic, but from the business point
of view; and, even for practical men,"
it cannot be waste of time to acquire
so valuable faculty.