St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-01

HENRY WARD BEECHER. >-s$se5sassas
izes all he touches, transfigures the common,
and changes the meanest metals into gold.
He is a creator. He is candid sincere poetic
winged with Imagination, sympathetic, per
suasive, convincing and almost IRRESISTIBLE
third person suggested here that man
might be all this through training, like an
actor, yet neither feel nor fully comprehend
the full import of what he was saving. This
COLONEL Ingersoll denied, while conceding
that the influence of the actor might be very
profound for the moment, but the effect of
the orator if the orator were, as he should be-
the apostle of truth, would be permanent, in
fiuencing the life of the individual and it
might be of the nation. ''To convince men the
orator must be himself intensely sincere, and
entirely fearless In giving reason for the
truth that is in him. Outside of other gifts
moral courage and profound human SYM
pathies are the first great requisites of the
orator.
eff we believe the legends connected with
the great orators of antiquity, Demosthenes
for instance, and of some modern ones" I
said, "the impression is forced on us that the
gift, if gift it be, is due largely to cultivation
the sister arts?"
mo man has more respect for patience and
practice, that is for hard conscientious work.
than myself" replied Colonel Ingersol,
"work, no matter the natural aptitude is
absolutely essential to the greatest success.
But when you ask me if the gift of oratory
can be acquired, [ say emphatically No,
Capacity cannot be acquired. By long study
and careful practice men can become good
speakers-but not orators. By studying the
laws of composition and the rules of syntax
and prosody, men can acquire wonderful
skill in rhyming, but not all the acquired
laws and rules in existence can ever make
them poets. A man might learn all the drills
and master all that has been written on the
art of war, and have even sublime courage.
and yet never succeed as a soldier. The
schools and the training can give nothing.
81 do not undervalue them, but all they can
do, at the most, is to develop the brains and
aptitudes we have. Education does not mean
giving of eanything its chronological sig
nificance is to draw out. Poets we are told,
and it is true, are born not made and so it is
with the orator. If we have not the brain of
the master, training can never teach him how
to reach and stir the hearts of men,
The Hon. Dwight Townsend, who was
present, volunteered the opinion that some
men had talent for public speaking and
that often this talent bordered on genius.
With this Colonel Ingersoll agreed, and then
with apt illustration he showed that this ap-
Piled not only to oratory, but to poetry paint
ing, music and all the arts, and to the
sciences as well, for men, like Darwin. Hulk
ley, Dana, Spencer, Edison and others had
, positive genius for the sciences abstract or
applied Many men, never heard of, had
quite as much acquired knowledge of the
sciences as the great men named, vet thew
were sponges, who absorbed everything and
never gave anything out.
Colonel Ingersoll continued:
1.-The great orator is a genius. He is a.
great artist and the most potent of all while
eXerting his influence. With words he paints
pictures that glow in the brain and set the
most prosaic heart throbbing. He chisels
statues with sounds. His voice is music that
thrills and stirs, and moves to resistance to
laughter, or to tears. He is the great master
of lights and shades, and he illustrates by
the most vivid contrasts. Like the great
painter, he knows the full value of color His
wit is keen, quick and to the point, and like
the lightning's fash it lights up all about it.
His humor is genial as the light of the har-
vest moon when it catches a glimpse of the
setting sun, and banishes the shadows in a