The record-union., 1892-10-28
WATCH YOUR VOWBLS.
How Roscoe COnkIing Gained Fame
as Speaker.
Some Valuable Hints to Aspiring
Orators. and Advice to Ann
bilious Youths.

Roscoe Conkling gained fame as an
! orator when he was only % years of age,
and he used to advise lads and young men
to give earnest attention to Presidential
! campaigns if they desired to become in
tluential and conspicuous on account of
their abilities in public life. He believed
that any young man of fair ability, good
education, honorable and ambitious,
could become man OF influence, pro-
vided he would cultivate the art of ora
tory necessarily and wisely. He thought
/ that it was no more difficult to become a
pleasing speaker than to get mastery
over a musical instrument
Conkling's power as an orator was due
to years of patient toll in his youth, and,
in fact, throughout his life, and he be-
slowed Cn everyone of the great orations
which he delivered much labor and great
| care. In his early days he made it a
habit to read at least an hour or two
every morning from one of the best writ
ers OF English prose. He read Milton
that he might gain a rhythmical and
| melodlous flow of language. He studied
/ Aacaulay, committing many passages,
and to that habit he attributed whatever
| gift he atterward revealed of fascinating
narration. An incident related by the
! New York San will illustrate this. When
| Mr. Conkling was serving his second
| term i'll Congress he was one of the
youngest members of the House. The
! war had just begun. AT Ball's Bluff, on
| the Potomac, the Union soldiers had
| fallen INTO trap, and the slaughter had
/ almost annihilated several regiments.
| Congress resolved to take official notice
Of the battle so that it might fix respon-
| sibility for the defeat.
| Combines FIRST GREAT EFFORT.
Mr.. Conkling, then only 80 years of age.
| delivered a speech in which he described
the battle of Balls Bluff with such bril-
liancy Of narration, with such power of
| vivid description, and withal with such
| clearness of statement, that it seemed to
| those who heard the speech as though
| they could see the battle progressing on
that bloody field and could almost wit
ness the struggles of the soldiers who fell
down the bluffs to meet death in the
| waters OF the Potomac. That speech gave
| MIR. Conkling national fame, and from
| that day he was spoken of as one OF the
! greatest orators Of Congress.
| A friend, speaking to him of this
! speech, asked him how it was possible
for him, a man who had not seen the bat
| tie, to describe it with such accuracy of
detail and with such perfect word pict-
ure as he made of it. Mr.. Conkling re-
piled that he owed such success that he
| had won to diligent study of Macaulay's
variations, especially that of Lord Gives
contest in India. The power which he
had was acquired, and the patient study
he had given to Macaulay in his youth
had enabled him when the opportunity
came to gain such fame as Macaulay him
self won with his ESSAYS
! Senator Thurman, Vice President Ham
| lin, President Harrison and other dis
| tinguished men have spoken of his won
derful huency, his copious and rich die
ton and his astonishing command of the
! English language. Mr.. Conkling once
said that he had been accustomed to read
| Byron's poems, the book of Job, some OF