The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-18
minutes Twenty minutes is better than
forty. and the speech should be short and

minutes. Twenty minutes is better than
forty, and the speech should be short and
pithy."
THE AGE OF THE AFTER-DINNER SPEECH.
"This is the day of the after-dinner
Speech" Mr.. Depew went on. stStump
speaking is to a great extent q thing of the
past. In the days of Webster and Clay
the announcement OF a speech by prom
inent statesman would have filed any nall
in New York. Now, were it not for
the machinery of the political clubs,
half of our great politicians would speak
to empty benches. The lecture platform
used to be the popular stage for the dis
semination of truth. 1t has. however,
been degraded by mountebanks, and it is
fast becoming thing of the past. The
dinner speech is now the spoken medium
of the communion of thought among all
bodies of men.
When the railroad men of the country
want to discuss the situation, instead of
convention or meeting. they have
dinner. When the great politicians want
TO lay out the intellectual part of q cam
paign, they give a dinner, and it is the
same with the scientists and all classes
and professions of men. The dinner
meeting and dinner speaking is becoming
part of church work, and some of the
biggest churches of New York find that
their best method of advancing the cause
and OF laying out the plans which will pro-
duce the greatest results, is through their
monthly dinners at which they discuss the
situation and the ways and means to bet
ter it. 1t is, think, a much better stage
than either the lecture platform or the
stump. You can say things in an after
dinner speech that you would not dare to
say in lecture or in the pulpit, and the
varnlsh OF good nature and politeness per-
nit much sensible advice to be adminis-
tered that must otherwise go unsaid."
CRITICAL NEW YORK.
'Mr. Depew, you have addressed audi
ences in every city of any size in the
United States. What is the most difficult
after-dinner audience to please?"
"a New York dinner party, by all
means" was Mr.. Depew's reply. There
Is nothing like such an audience on the
face of the United States. Take one of
our big dinners at which 200 men sit
down, and you have as able and as critical
an audience as you will find in the world.
Some people sneer at them as a collection
of do-nothing millionaires. They do
not understand the men they speak
of. Ninety-five per cent. of the guests
at such a dinner is composed of self-made
men. They have come to New York from
all parts of the United States because they
have grown too big for their surroundings
elsewhere and have needed larger field
New York city is made up of that sort of
men, and these are the successful men of
New York. Do you know what that
means2 Well, out of every 100 business,
men in New York, 9S fad. New York
takes the cream of the whole country,
and these men are the cream of New York.
They are well-read men and they are men
of brains. They are men to whom time is
money and who appreciate it. They feel
that they can't afford to waste a minute,
and if your speech drifts into prosiness or
is loaded with "chestnuts," their watches
come out and the eyes of every
man call "Time!" They want new
ideas, and unless you can give
them, they don't want you. The same
speech which will be applauded in a coun-
try town where the diners come in on the
broad grin, and expect to be pleased, will
fall fiat in New York, and most of our So
called 'silyer-tongued orators fail when
they speak at one of our big dinners. The
dinner itself to a New York dner-out
amounts to nothing. The men at the table
have not come to eat. They are used to
good dinners, and many of them have bet
ter dinners on their own tables than you
will get at any club dinner. They have
come for the feast of reason and the fiox
of soul, and they are not happy unless
they get it."
DEPEw's FIRST AFTER-DINNER SPEECH.
"Will you tell me, Mr.. Depew, the story
of your first after-dinner speech?"
at was at Yale college," was the reply.
"Myself and several of my chums had
been initiated into Greek letter society.
We found after we had gotten in that the
fraternity was insolvent. 1t had been
made up of a set of spendthrifts who
had been drinking and spreeing and it
was loaded with debt. We were too poor
to waste any money in this way and we
discussed the situation and debated wheth-
er We should change the character of the
fraternity or leave it. We decided to make
it good fraternity. We organized de-
batting society and before the end of that
year we had made it first-class college
literary ASSOCIATION. We then rented
hall and gave dinner, and at this dinner
l made my first after-dinner speech. I
don't remember very much about it, save
that got through with it all right"
"How about the English? Are they
good after-dinner speakers?"
mo, they are not, replied Mr.. Depew.
"The English lack that element of humor
which makes up such an important part
of the American character. and they don't
appreciate the after-dinner speech as we
do. They make some speeches at their
dinners, but it Is not uncommon for q
speech to be two hours long, and two
hour speech without the humorous ele-
ment has to be extraordinarily good to be
worth listening to-"