The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-07-15
JdArF ABOUT SPEECHES AND
STORIES.

There are great many men in the
world who can make good speeches,
in their minds. There are compare.
lively few who can make good speech
es, in the minds Of other people. AS
we sit and listen to another fellow
making a speech or delivering an
Grafton, or getting off a lecture, or
responding to toast, we may be
compelled to admit that he is doing
right well, but at the same time we
cannot overcome the impression that
we could do it great deal better or
at least quite as well. 1t is a very
easy thing to make funny speeches,
that is when you are alone beforehand.
thinking over what you are going to
say on some public occasion. You
already see your audience convulsed
with laughter at your funny anecdotes,
your telling hits, your pungent wit
and your splitting humor. but after
wards when you take your seat and
there has not been aripple of applause,
nor shadow of 4 smile on single
face all the time you were talking,
and you wonder why, and think it all
over and remember that you have
forgotten to relate your anecdotes,
and omitted your hits, and that your
wit has turned into a doleful, funereal
failure, you are then forced to the con
clusion that it isn't such an awful easy
thing to make good speech after all.
The fact is there is much more in
manner than in matter IN speech
making. One man gives you solid
meat IN an easy, quiet, undemon-
strative style, and another gives you
froth, and jumps all over the platform,
and roars and rants and tears, and
the latter is the one who nine times
out Of ten is considered the orator.
Action on the platform, and even in
the pulpit, often has more weight than
words. With most people the
excitement of the moment is prefer
able to words of deepest wisdom de-
livered in calm manner, which re-
qulre subsequent contemplation for
full digestion.
A witty man is not always witty
writer. Wit is largely spontaneous, and
humorous sayings are those which
come on the spur Of the moment. l
have heard men who have regulations
as wits, say that they cannot write
funny things because when they sit
down and attempt to grind it out, it
wont come. Many things that sound
very funny when uttered, are very flat
when putin cold type.
On the other hand, some Of the
humorous writers are most solemn men
in conversation. They were never
known to utter a joke, but when they
sit down methodically and turn the
crank they can grind them out by the
yard. The sayings of children are Of
times amusing because Of their quaint
ness and spontaneity, but when they
arerepeated by older lips, and especially
if you happen to live next door and
have been compelled to listen to what
Johnny said for the fortieth time, it
sort of loses its edge. Story telling,
like speech making is natural gift.
One man can tell funny story SO that
you will laugh at it every time if
he tells it twenty times over; another
man can tell the same story in exactly
the same words, and he will have to
tell it twenty times over before you can
discover single smile in it. He
simply knocks the stuffing out Of it by
his manner of telling it. There is a
class of people who spoil the pleasure
Of good story by waiting until the
teller has almost reached the funny
point and there interrupt him and break
the point off by telling it in their own
clumsy way. presume they are the
same people who sit near you at the
theatre and having seen the play once,
they tell their companion what is COM
ing next all through. This is highly
entertaining to everybody in the
neighborhood 1t is like having some
body tell you in advance just how the
novel in which you are deeply interest
ed closes in the last chapter. | al
ways feel like pounding such people.
But this article does not seem to be
coming to any conclusion, and there
is not any particular moral to it. |
didn't start out with anything special
in view and having adhered strictly to