Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-02
DEPEW ON ORATORY.
The Great After-Dinner Talker Tells
How He Gets Up Speeches.
SECRETOF ". q. SEWARD'SSUCCESS
An Instance Of Roscoe COnkling's Remark
able Gift of Memory.
EFFECT OF HUMOR UPON AN ADDRESS

CORRESPONDENTS OF THE DIsPATcH.I
NEW YORK, February 1.-No other man
in America, and probably no man in the
world, makes as many public speeches as
Chauncey NJ. Depew. His great popularity
as speaker is due as much to the humor
which he puts into his addresses as to the
ideas which they contain and the oratorical
effect with which they are delivered. The
description which the preacher, Spurgeon,
applied to Henry Ward Beecher would
fit him: He is mYriad-minded man. It
is as easy for him to make speech as it is
to carry on an ordinary conversation. The
bright side of life is the one he looks on,
and to that fact is due the unction of his
words when on the rostrum. Few profes-
sional or business men have greater duties to
perform. He is rapid worker and rapid
thinker. Otherwise, he could never find
time to talk in public. While he is work.
ing ideas are tumbling into his mind that
reappear in his speeches and make people
wonder where he gets hold of all the won
derful things that he repeats to them.
Your correspondent asked him for his
ideas of oratory and orators. To the in
JURY which opened the conversation, he re-
piled:
Can any man with good voice and the
requisite intelligence become a successful
public speaker? 1 answer, no. He must
have a special gift. He may be brilliant
writer and have a fine voice and
an excellent memory, and yet be un-
able to put things in a way to
hold and interest an audience. once knew
a preacher who wrote admirable sermons and
had one of the best stored and most logical
minds. He subjected himself to the most
frightful modification in an indomitable
effort to learn to speak extemporaneously,
and, after trying for % years, informed me
one night, after having an empty hall, that
he thought he grew worse instead of better.
HOW HE PREPARES SPEECHES.
SIN talking with people who make good
speeches, find that the majority OF them
prepare their speeches very slowly. They
take from three days to a week in making
up each speech. In fact, have known
some of the most eminent men to take two
and three months to prepare an oration.
However, as I speak nearly every day, if
undertook to do this should have to aban-
don business altogether. As rule, when I
am to speak in the evening, 1 prepare
my speech after leaving my Office, which
is anywhere from 4 to 6 o'clock. 1
make no notes except mental ones. NY
speech at the Holland dinner, for instance,
was prepared after o'clock. The next
morning at 10 o'clock, after having ridden
all night, I delivered before the Senate
committee in Washington my argument in
favor of New York as the location for the
Worlds Fair In 1892. This argument was
thought out the day before, but had made
no written notes. The same evening spoke
for 45 minutes at the reception given by
Congressman Flower and Belden to the
Worlds Fair delegates, and gave
DO other thought to the speech
than to hang on to one sentence until
could think of the next. At the Chamber
of Commerce dinner, 1 began the prepara-
tion of my speech just as the speaking
started. had not been notified until then
that q speech was expected from me. Ny
speech at the St. Nicholas dinner was per-
pared while on my way to 1t in a Fifth
avenue stage, and in the hour before was
called upon after I got there.
HOW SEWARD PREPARED SPEECHES.
"Having made study of the methods of
most of the great orators, find that very
few have ever permitted themselves to
speak unless they had time to care
fully prepare, revise and commit to memory
their speeches. William II. Seward, who
was the most finished and eloquent speaker
of his period. told me that he never
allowed himself to make public
address unless he had written it
out and committed it to memory.
"One reading, however, fastened it in his
mind. have no verbal memory myself,
and must either speak without notes or
read my speech. Henry j. Raymond told
me q story illustrative OF Mr.. Seward's
methods. It was while Mr.. Seward was
Secretary of Ssate in Johnson's cabinet.
He was on his way from Washington to his
home in Auburn, N. Y, and stopped at the
Astor House. He sent to the Times Office
for Mr.. Raymond, and requested him to
have man from the paper at Auburn to re-
port speech which he was to deliver there,
The best reporter on the paper, of course,
was sent. On arrival, the man could not |
find that any meeting had been advertised. |
He went to Mr.. Stewards house. Mr.. |
Seward told him to sit down, and then pro- |
oeeded to dictate a speech. That speech |
was rewritten no less than six times. It was |
to few friends, and was the next |
lay printed in every paper in the United |
States, and stap ds in Mr.. Seward's works as |
.he most polished and eloquent of his pro-
auctions.
Combines WONDERFUL MEMORY.
''Roscoe Conkling had remarkable men,
,ry. John G. Reid, managing editor of the |
New York Times, followed him with printed |
jlips when he made his great speech occupy
ng four hours, at the Academy of Music,
n the Garfield campaign. Mr.. Reid told |
ne that Mr.. Conkling neither interpolated
,r omitted a word in the entire speech,
Edward Everett and the old Boston school
If orators first elaborately prepared their
peeches and committed them to memory.
Then they practiced not only the enuncia-
ion but the gesticulation before
looking glass, so that to
he audience the speech was not
lone finished literary production. but the
lelivery was an admirable piece of acting.
4 local flavor and an extemporaneous ap-
,earance were furnished by the interpola-
ion of an account, also care ully rehearsed,
f some recent incident at the place where
he speech was delivered. This method of
made the speech OF that period
he classic of the school book. 1t is the
Arrest thing now to find the speeches of any
f the orators OF this generation in the
looks from which the future Clays and
Vebsters are learning upon the academic
tage, listening Senators to command.
THE AFTER-DINNER GRAFTON.
The man who attempts to deliver speech
+ historical, commemorative or national
should carefully prepare it in ad-
ance. The man who is compelled to speak
ften upon great variety of subjects and
n occasions of widely diversified import
nee should acquire the habit OF being able
o draw at will and on short notice upon his
ntire knowledge Of the subject in hand, or
lse he should abandon that branch of in
elleetual activity. A good deal of