The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-09-06

To the Editor Of the Eagle.
In former article, we reached, we
think fairly, the conclusions:
l. That no endowment however great,
could dispense with labor.
2. That no endowment however small
mot imbecile), could fail to make prog
ress under persistent and rightly directed
efforts.
This true, our next step is to try and
point out some of the processes IN this
development.
Law; The universal law of human
growth is exercise gives development.
The student of oratory is both encour-
aged and restrained by this law; encour-
aged that if he makes effort, he is assured
of growth; restrained from the enervat-
ing dream that success may come with
out effort.
LANGUAGE.
The first field to which the speaker
needs to direct attention is language.
| The work of the speaker is expression,
transmission of thought from himself to
others. Transmission can only take place
when there is some medium, vehicle of
| transfer. Goods at the depot reach the
store by some vehicle of transportation,
usually called the express, or transfer
wagon. Language is the speakers
transfer wagon-without this vehicle,
his goods may lie unused or unknown in
his intellectual warehouse for months,
years, possibly, for life. If the reader will
pardon my experience, will state that
young speakers usually find more trouble
in readiness of statement, from lack of
words than lack of ideas We do
not mean in this to flatter young speak
ers with the consoling thought that their
ideas are necessarily large or numerous,
but simply that in the utterance of those,
they are often impede by lack of words.
How often the young speaker and some
times the old, comes right up in front
of an idea and has no word to match it,
no vehicle to put it in, and so he stam-
mers and coughs while he rummages his
verbal store house in search of the suit
able word.-He has Thought, pack
age to deliver, but the express wagon is
around the corner out of sight.-Hence
without argument it would seem obvi-
GUS that the speaker must, in a good de-
gree, be ready in the use of language.
This means that he must have a. vocab-
ulary, abundont, varied and command:
.(2) he must have skill in putting
these words together which means
sentential structure, rhetoric, style.
These have to be learned; they do not
come by gift. inheritance, or chance, but
happily anybody who has patience and
perseverance can learn them. The
modes of so learning are different. Some
begin away off with the ancient classics,
so far off that they never get there, j. e.
TO the English. They are like boys who
run and jump. An ambitious but mis-
judging boy, resolved on a big jump.
makes big run, a half or three-quarters
of mile, and when he gets ready for
the jump. he finds his strength is all
used up in the run and nothing left for
the Jump. do not mistake me, classics
are valuable if properly used). Others
take other courses of preparation. AS
seen in the last article, the great Pitt
went straight to the English
dictionay where words are defined.
as used, and "went twice through the
same, examining each word attentively,
thus endeavoring to bring the whole
range of our language completely under
his control (see British Eloquence, p. 52k
Abraham Lincoln did much the same
that is, he studied English and mastered,
English; and SO some of his speeches are
taking rank as English classics. Let it
be borne in mind he studied, he did not
rely upon endowment nor upon TIE
lazy mans rule-absorption So let him
who aspires to be a speaker, remember
that among the first steps is a commend
able mastery of the English language.
Let him remember farther for his en-
couragement that this Is a learnable
thing. Anybody who will can learn it.
Let him remember still further as eau
ton against the seductive and mislead- |
ing doctrine often heard, name |
ly: ''f you know thing !
you can tell it." This is very soothing |
to laziness, but as misleading as sooth- |
ing. Taken in a stricter sense it is false, |
but in q shamefully loose sense, it per-
haps is true. When elegance, accuracy, !
force is wanted. il is false. When lazi- |
ness, inaccuracy and slovenliness are |
it is in sense true. You |
can i'll sense get there, but what |
sense. Yes, you can go to the jeweler |
store and bring home your watch, |
diamond, and your sweetheart's neck /
lace in a coal hod or a slop-bucket, but l
wouldn't carry it To her in that way. |
When Keats, in the first line of his |
uttered that gem of beauty /.
which has gone round the world as a !
quotation, he was not indifferent to his |
language. He delicately and exquisitely |
said: "A thing of beauty is a JOY
forever" and everybody quotes
Keats. You and l, dear reader,
no doubt had that same thought /
Of feeling before we ever read Kets, but
we did not know how TO express it.
We didn't have language, and so we
said ''purty" thing is an enjoyment for
a long time or good while, and so
when we got thro' nobody quoted u.s.
We were innocently illustrating the
falsehood, if anybody knows a thing he
can tell it.
Space does not allow us to do more
than state the means, namely: a. a
careful study of the English language,
more especially the dictionary, rhetoric
and the style of good authors. with fire.
Quent practice in writing. 81 Under
tHe law Exercise gives development"
there will come ease, accurscy, elegance,
readiness and force expression
GEORGE w. Hoss.
School of Oratory, Wichita. Kansas.
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