The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-05-14
MYSTERY OF ORATORY.
It's Masters Cannot Tell Wherein
Their Powers Lie.
1t Is an Inbiding Faculty - Bourke Cock
ran Describes HIS Physical Sensations
When Facing az Andience-Loses
Ills Own Identity.
COPYRIGHT. 1881

! lCOPYRIGET. 1873
| Most people think it is an easy thing
to be eloquent, and 1 suppose every
generous hearted boy has thought in
his heart that given due time and OPP
| portunity he, too, would move the
! hearts and wills of men. But when
the time came and he hazarded the at
/ tempt, some strange, paralyZing bar
rier erected itself between him and
/ success and he retired discounted.
/ Now, books enough have been writ
| ten about rhetoric and elocution, and
! the speeches of past masters of ora.
tory have been analysed down to the.
/ last sylla Bile and the secret of their.
effect has been investigated. The
hopeful student has spoken the same
words that were uttered aforetime by
Demosthenes, Chatham, Webster and
Phillips, sedulously observing all the
directions as to expression, information.
and gesture, and after all nothing mo-
mentous has come of it. There is q
mystery in the matter which the in
genuity Of the school books failed to
interpret, nor has any prophet arisen
TO declare It.
Under these circumstances it oc-
cured to me that it might prove a
wise thing TO go TO the living opponents
of the art, themselves, and induce
them TO reveal what is so curiously
hidden. They must have learned it
somehow, themselves; and why should
they not teach it to others? Looking
over the available field in this country
could not help noticing in the iHme-
diate foreground the figure of the
young orator of Tanlmany, Mr.. Bourke
Cochran, and to him, accordingly:
forthwith betook myself
am bound to admit, at the outset,
that after a conversation of some dura-
ton, in the course OF which Mr.. Cock
ran did all that courtesy and good will
could accomplish toward enlightening
my void, l came away, at last, charmed
and persuaded indeed, but with little
more practical ability to make the con-
vention speech, for example, than 1
possessed an hour before. | shall try,
however, to describe nay experience;
and it may be that some one more alert
than ! may succeed in catching the
subtle enigma by the tail.
The difficulty began with the person
al equation of the man himself-BouEi1e
Cochran. l perceived that in order to
speak as he does | should first have to
be made somewhat in his image. He
is certainly a superb human creature.
He is large man, and the immediate
impression he produces is that of quiet
and easy strength. His head is mass
i've, yet it is compactly built; thick
growth of brown hair covers it, and
the face is clean shaven. The features
of this countenance are eloquent and
harmonious. You see there the soul of
the artist, the lover of the beautiful
combined with the composure of the
man of the world and the insight and
experience of tho statesman. Beneath
the self-command you are conscious Of
the fire and passion which are held in
control, but which can upon occasion
be freed to do their appointed work.
1t is winningly sympathetic face,
and. for man of ideas and affairs,
remarka bly, cheerful one. should ven
ture to think MIR. Cochran man hap
py in temperament and circumstances
who uniformly does what he sets out
to do in the way he set out to do it.
Upon the whole, he bears likeness to
the portraits of another famous orator
Charles James Fox: the thick eye
brows. the wide space beneath them, the
strong nose, the well knit forehead,