Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-09-12
EXTEMPORE SPEAKING.
Con1oeI IngersolI Says There Is No Such
Thing as Impromtu Oratory-His "Plum-
ed Knight" Speech.

| ed Knight Speech.
There Is no such thing as an extern
poraneOus address, said Colonel Ingersol
to an interviewer of the Philadelphia
| Press. 'Of course, mean by that, an
address which is dignifed worthy of the
| occasion, and commands attention and re.
! Spect. There never was and there never
will be an impromptu speech. OF course,
! | know that some men have delivered
! speeches which have attracted wide atten-
/ ton which are reported to have been in
! spired en- the moment But in the nature
! of things this is impossible. If you
| auaIyze a great speech, and consider what
! is necessary to make one. it Is easy to see
| such thing as impromtu oratOry is i'm
! possible. Now, a speech which is true
OratOry must, in the first place, suggest
| sublime. deep, and eternal truths. There
| must be thought, and it should oe thought
! which is capable of producing correspond
! ingly great emotion and sentiment in the
minds of those who hear it spoken. There
| fore, the thought can not help being
sin ere. It must reflect the very truth. as
| the mind of the utterer has conceived it,
and so no really great Grafton has ever
been delivered which did not spring from
the heart of him who spoke it.
Sometimes the thought is developed
| after excessive, and it might be said ex-
quisite. labor and travail of the soul. The
operation of constructing or composing a
speech which is truly great is precisely
similar to that which enables painter to
express great emotions by cOlors with the
painter brush upon canvas The max
ing of d great speech Is like the forrnulat-
ing of Il great painting. See how the
- Tba
ceives a great truth. an idea. capable of
suggesting the profodndest realities of ma
ture and OF calling into being the sublim-
est emotion of the intellect; he takes his
palette and his brush, and with infinite
patience mixes his coiOrs and develops upon
the canvas the thought which is In hislnind
He labOrs over 1t patiently, atfectiCnateiy
his whole soul wrapped up III :he desire to
express to the fullest that idea or emotion
which Is in his heart. Sometimes It is the
labor OF Years, delicate standings, strong,
vigorous strokes, defiance Of technical
rules if need be IN order thereby the more
strongly to bring out the idea upon the
canvas, the touch of the brush guided with
the surerb deiIcacy which truth and ,oye
compel: and IN this way the painter al last
produces upon canvas that idea which was
born within him and which makes clear
to men for all time the power. the beauty,
the strength, the loveliness Of that con
ceptIon.
Now, that Is precisely what the man
who Is to deliver an Grafton must do if he
Is true to himself and f he would make
Il impression Of the idea as it exists in
him clear, strong, persuasive, and emotion
stirring IN those TO whom he Is to disclose
1t by means Of word pictures. For great
Grafton, a true Grafton, Is but the painting
Of ideas by words instead Of by colors, and
tie truth that Is In it yiII be suggested
as impTessively and as surely, if the
speaker has been true to himself. as does
the wonderful painting upon which null
titudes, for generation after generation,
look with wonder and with the hest emo
tions Of their nature stirred within them.
Now. when We consider that it Is with
such methods as this that the true Grafton
Is perfected and delivered 70 the hearers. 1t
is easy 10 see that II Is impossible 10 form
ulate II while 5 man l. standing upon his
feet and to ate on the instant and de-
liver thought 5y words OF mouth which
shall stand the test which makes or breaks
an oratorical effort.