Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-01-18
Is ORATORY A LOST ARrf
Belief That the Grafton OF the stump Still
Has Its Charms.

From the Chautauquan.
The greatest orators at the American bar are
not orators at all as the word was formerly
understood.
But if the greater lawyers have discarded
what was deemed to be true oratory in times
past. in other professions the power Of ora
tory to sway and convince is limited only by
the number Of those who have the gift of ora
tory and have had the patience to develop it.
A striking illustration of this occurred at the
meeting of the New England Society in New
York city some years ago. A young man
known only as an editor, and not widely in
that capacity beyond his native state, was in
vited to deliver the principal address at this
dinner. When he was placed in the seat
of honor something like amazement WIS
expressed that person Of such boyish APP
pearance should have been selected as tie
chief orator of the occasion. Famous men had
been invited to accept this honor in times past
But here was a youngster from Georgia OF
whom many had never heard and upon whose
shoulders was placed the responsibility of MAIN
tanning the reputation of this society the
friend of the greatest orators. When the young
man had finished his address. however, there
was still amaZement but il was due to another
reason. The company msrveied at this new
revelation of what oratory might be made in
this day of practical things. Young Grady
swept the throng, as the expression is, fairly off
its feet, and he might well have said with Byron
that he awoke in the morning and found him.
self famous. His speech and the enthusiasm
which it caused, well some of the after
effects. were refutation of the assertion that
oratory las had Its day.
In the pulpit also there never was a time
vince was greater than it is this very CAV. A
year or two ago the doors of Trinity Church in
New York city were thrown open at the noon
hour for q week.
1t was announced that giant of the pulpit
was TO appear; that Phillips Brooks was to
deliver an address Of an hours duration each
day, and then was seen an astounding sight,
a magnificent refutation of the assertion that
the day of oratory has passed and that il is a
lost art. Into this church there fiocked men
who had millions at their command; pressed in
promiscuous confusion were capitalists whose
names are known the world over and humble
clerks. Great lawyers and able jurists found
themselves side by side. Even the chancel was
packed and, had the building been large enough
to contain twice the number there gathered.
it still would not have been large enough to
hold those who wished to hear this oratory of
the pulpit. Fer six days this splendid tribute
to the sway Of oratory was maintained.
Nor Is 1t true that the oratory of the stump
has no longer charms MIR. Conkling attained
his great fame as an orator not only because of
his magnificent presence and his native gift,
but because he bestowed the most assiduous
toll upon every Grafton and had from child
hood practiced elocution, enriched his vocabu-
larry with constant reading of the classics,
trained his voice as a great singer does and had
become master OK the devices or what are
called the tricks of rhetoric, by which its power
is made most impressive to an audience
1t is safe to say, then. that when another
comes who has native gifts and subjects him
self to the discipline which was practiced by
Conkling and by every one of the greatest Of
orators-for Lincoln himself practiced it for
many years unbeknown to any but his most in
innate friends-then we shall have another
demonstration that oratory is not lost art