Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1894-04-08

who read him. But as the basis Of all true
ontory, as with every other art and science
was truth, the effect OF the presentation
might be weakened IN the reading. but the
truth would remain, and be all the more per-
! ceptible and potent because Of its presenta-
ton by master. Great actors who add
nothing to the sum Of the worlds knowledge
OF truth, like great lawyers who add nothing
to the law, soon become traditions in the
professions but through the speeches that
survive, wesre brought face to face with the
worlds great orators, and 1t does not strain
the imagination to picture the effect Of these
mastery oations on the people who heard
them.
"Who do You think, Colonel Ingersoll. was
the greatest OF the ancient omtorsYn
Cicero. He was the lord OF language. He.
above all men expressed the greatest and the
grandest thoughts, and the most wonderful
concentrations. Hehad, In a supreme degree,
the gift Of Imagination, without which he
could not have been an orator. In corrupt
age he was a patriot and gave the best OF his
splendid efforts to- the denunciatlon oftreason.
There never stood before nor after him at the
bar Of Rome a lawyer who was worthy to
fasten his sandals, His splendid gifts were
exercised in no cramping rut Whatever
affected humanity interested him. and he
Illuminated It with the spendor ofhls genius.
The reverence for and the beauties OF old age
were better appreciated after they had been
framed in his golden sentences. Friendship
became holer for his treatment, and so men
became better and broader when they heard
Niaarf.fa nyFYtr.attlpu ,t. l.. =
on the subject
"Demosthenes is more or less OF myth.
He may have been as wonderful an orator as
tradition says, but II so the evidences OF his
supreme genius are lost, they are not to be
found In the phillipics, or In the orations on
the Crown. He may have been and no doubt
was cramped by his Attic environment, but
had he been man Of commanding genius
he would have risen superior to 1t, and the
truths he propounded would have been as
forceiul and vital to-day as when they were
uttered"
"How do the modern compare with the
ancient orators, in your opinion, / asked.
I'VE can compare the efforts OF the poets,
architects sculptors and painters ofantiquity,
particularly where their works survive In
Mllhlt OF IN INils Will liloSt OF the mpuefnS,
but In oratory so much depends on the indi- |
vidual peculArities OF the man, that It is al |
most impossible to make anything like a |
judicial comparison. The ontlons OF the
ancients were carefully prepared and to that
fact is due their preservation. The most
effective addresses Of the French Revolution |
We're largely extemporaneous, and no means !
having been taken In the tumult OF the times
to preserve them exactly, they were lost In |
the same way, many Of the mastorly speeches |
OF the elder Pitt died with the sound OF the |
voice that uttered them, yet enough remains
to show that he. in his limited field, was
great orator. Fox was powerful peader
rather than a great orator and while Burke's
speeches, prepared and penned by his fine
scholarship and exquisite taste. are models
Of splendid dletion and elevated rhetoric. we
know that he was called the dinner bell, for
his rising was a signal for friend and oppo-
nent TO empty the benches. Sheridan had
many OF the requisites Of a great orator, but
his training made him theatrical, and he
worked for effects, and one feels that the
curtain should have been rung down on his
ollmaxes. To my mind ourmn was the
greatest orator OF his day, and some OF the
in his speeches thrill the reader to-
day like a trumpet blast, and they will con-
tinue to thrill while truth sublimely uttered