Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-09-18
EXTEMPORE SPEAKING.

EXTEMPORE SPEAKING
ConlOel Ingersoll Says There Is No Such
Thing as Impromtu Oratory-His "PIum-
ed Knight" Speech.
There Is no such thing as an extern
poraneous address, said Colonel Ingersoll
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 inlpromptu speech. OF course
| know that some men have delivered
speeches which have attracted wide atten-
ton, which are reported to have been in
spired On the moment. But in the nature
Of things this is impossible If you
analyze great speech, and consider what
is necessary to make one, it is easy to see
such a thing as impromtu oratory is i'm
possible Now, d speech which is true
oratory must, IN the first place, suggest
sublime deep, and eternal truths There
must be thought and it should be 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
sincere, 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-
| qulsite, 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
1Eg of a great speech is like the formulat-
ing of great painting. See how the
operations are similar. The painter con-
ceives great truth, an idea, capable Of
suggesting the profodndest realities Of ma
ture and of calling into being the subim-
est emotion of the intellect; he takes his
palette and his brush, and with infinite
patience mixes his colors and develops upon
the canvas the thought which is in hisnind.
He labors over it patiently, affectionately
his whole soul wrapped up In the desire to
! express to the fullest that idea or emotion
which is In his heart. Sometimes it is the
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 superb deIicacy which truth and love
compel; and IN this way the painter at 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 loneliness of that con
ceptlon.
| N'Now, that is precisely what the man
who is to deliver an grafton must do if he
| IS true to himself and if he would make
the imp sslon of the idea as it exists in
him clear, strong, persuasive, and emotion
! stirring In those to whom he is to disclose
it by means of word pictures. For a great
grafton, true Grafton, is but the painting
of ideas by words instead of by colors, and
tie truth that is in it viii be suggested
as lmpressively and as surely, if the
speaker has been true to himself. as does
the wonderful painting upon which null
tltudes, for generation after generation,
look with wonder and with the best 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 to the hearers, it
| is easy to see that it is impossible to form
ulate 1t while man is standing upon his
| feet and to create on the instant and de-
| liver thought by words of mouth which
shall stand the test which makes or breaks
an oratorical effort
reminded Colonel Engerscll of the cur
rent anecdote about his nasty preparation
of the famous address at Cincinnati in
1876, which has gone into history under
the name of the "Plumed Knight speech.
told him that it seemed to be pretty we'll
! authenticated that he had neglected
write the speech. although besought by
his brother to do so, until the night before
the nomination of Blaine was attempted,
and that then, after he had gone to bed,
he did get up in response to his brother s
request and taking few sheets of paper,
dashed off the speech in few minutes and
then returned to his bed There was a
suspicion of a smile about the colonel's lirs,
and it seemed to me as though this anec-
dote had brought humorous recollections
to mind of that midnight scene in the ho-
tel when, rather petulantly, he yielded to
| his brother request. But he said, speak
ing In seriousness:
Yes, it is true, so far as the writing is
concerned. | did sit down and put what
| had to say on paper all but the first para
graph The first paragraph was suggest
ed by something which | heard upon the
floor of the convention.
A speech had been made nominating an
other candidate than the one whom was
to put In nomination, and some reference
| had been made to Massachusetts, That
gave me an opportunity of saying in sim
gle sentence something contemporaneous
and suggested upon the moment, but af-
ter [ had spoken that one sentence | deliv-
cred the speech as | had written it out, but
the writing out of the speech was a mere
mechanical operation, 1t was no part
of its composition, the ideas which [ had
and which | uttered were those which had
been In my mind, and had been turn
ed over in my mind, and had been COM
posed long before
asked him if the same operation char
acterized the composion of the indianapolis
! Decoration Day address, which was deliv-
cred In the same summer that the ''P,umed
knight speech was. Colonel Ingersoll
did not seem to remember whether he had
written out that address beforehand
not, but he asserted thats its composition
had been going on in his lind for years
What Russian Persecution Is.
A good deal of light is thrown upon the
systematic persecution of the Jews in Rus
sia by an article in the Philadelphia In
quirer based upon letters received in that
city by relatives of the sufferers We have
already had something to say of the po-
litical aspect of the Cars recently adopt
ed policy; but the question is, after all
one chiefly of humanity, and as such it de-
serves the attention of the civilized world
There have been occasions hitherto in the
| history of Russian tyranny whom otbar ma.