The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-18
THE AFrER-DINNER STAGE.

Returning to Mr.. Depew's business life, I
waited for several hours to have an inter-
view at his office, but imperative work
kept piling up, and 1t was o'clock before
] got access to him. At 3:15 he had to
make the train for his summer home at
Pawling, two hours from New York, his
engagements were all full for the NOR
row, and he finally suggested that Jump
on the cars and run up to Pawling
with him, and we could have our
talk on the train. He ordered a pass for
me and ten minutes later we were seated
In q chair-car on the New York Central
railroad, the train going at forty miles an
hour and Mr.. Depew talking in reponse to
my questions at the rate of $50 words per
minute. The following is the substance of
our talk:
Said /: "Mr. Depew. how do you find it
possible TO get your mind away from your
business and railway down to your after
dinner speech?"
at Ii hard sometimes" replied Mr..
Depew, "but have the faculty OF leaving
my business at my Office, and such success
as have had in life, / attribute largely to
the fact that can drop my business and
get rest by thinking of other things. As a
rule whatever be the cares of the day, ten
minutes after have gotten to my house,
have dismissed them altogether, and I
do not take them up again until the next
day. i have a peculiar theory of the work.
ing of the mind, and that is that
1t tends to keep up the same pace in
which it has been running when it
enters new field. The trouble with most
men is that they have only one pace, and
they never get out of it. They contine
themselves to thinking about three things.
their business, themselves and their fam
-
sonal pace their lives through, and if they
ever chance to speak in public they use
business terms, and their language is that
of the commonplace. They surround
their souls with the most practical en-
vironment and they never get out of it.
Now the plane of the dinner-table is a
higher one than that of business life, and
In preparing for q speech l Ind | must
first get my mind on a different
level from the one have been working on
oil day. / do this by reading Macaulay's
essays. Ten minutes reading turns nv
thought into new channel. | cast off
the clothes of everyday work, and my soul
seems to be rehabilitated into more in
tellectual and critical garb. l can then
think of the audience am to address, and
by remembering the people l am TO meet
adapt my remarks TO them. Ii doesn't
seem to make much difference which part
of Macsulay l read, and a few minutes
changes the pace of my mind entirely"
"Do you write out your speeches, Mr..
'tNot my after-dinner speeches" was the
reply. 81 only write out such as have to
make for an important occasion, such as.
for instance, my speech at the
celebration of the Bartholdi statue. / try
10 think up my speeches before | 90 To
dinner. On most occasions | leave nv
office at O'Clock, and compose my talks
between 4 and 6. / first take taste of
aV1 =
thought, fixing as far as possible
what l am going 20 say. |
end that my speeches, however, that
make at the dinner are often far different
from those plan out. | have dictated, |
venture. at least hundred speeches in
the street cars and under the light of the
street gas lamps. Newspaper reporters
who are assigned TO report the dinners
hnd that IL is not convenient for them 10
be present, and they often come and ask
me for my speeches the afternoon of the
evening on which l am TO speak. They
sometimes come TO the railroad offices, but
o. l haven't composed the speeches / CAM
OF course give them to them. When they
tnsist, however, tell them TO come to the
house 80 @ O'Clock and / will dictate the
speech TO them before going TO the dinner.
As rule, however. don't get started Al
ny composition until nearly 5, and it is
often before l am dressed. If am not
ready for them when they call they wait
end often have them Jump in the cars
with me and dictate Whist am going to
say as We 80 along. The dictation is
sometimes concluded in front of the hsn-
quet hall, and l think dictated at least
twenty speeches in this way last wear.
When the speeches are published the diff
ference between the dictated speech and
that inspired by the surroundings of the
evening is often apparent, but | ind that
the dietation enables ME 10 make better
speech. lt clarihes my thought and gives
me better control of my ideas"
"How long, Mr.. Depew, do Won think an
aftev-dinner speech should be ?"
The platform orator OF today who
speaks more than az hour at time. :" re-
piled Mr.. Depew, ais a fool. and no after
dinner speech should extend over forty