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

orators magic influence. Truth is the corner
stone of oratory, without that it Isl sounding
brass and a tinklinS cymbal.''
Here Mr.. Townsend, who believes in Amer-
can oratory, as lie does in everything elseAmer-
lean, went over the list of great men whom he
had heard. Ignoring many of them, Colonel
Ingersoll said in his epigrammatics way:
81 concede the supreme ability of Beecher,
and the great natural force OF Corwin. Webster
lacked sincerity; Phillips was a thorn rather
than a flower; Clay had all the orators physi-
cal attributes, but lacked thought; Kossuth,
now nearing his end, I regard as the greatest
orator Europe has given to the Nineteenth
Century. handsome presence and grace
full manner are of great advantage, partcu-
larry where the speaker is addressing a
strange audience, but think these physical
advantages have been overestimated. Sher-
dan was not proposing, Grattan was under
sized, awkard and apt to excite ridicule at the
beginning of an address. The same is true
of Curran. Prentiss vas boyish and lame:
Corwin dark as an Indian and far from hand
some. And so 1 might go through the list
to prove that the foremost orators have not
been handsome men. But it is conceded that
when the plainest face Lit up, with the soul
aflame, the homeliest OF these men looked as
if he were inspired
do you believe that certain races have q
strong inclination to oratory; the Indian, the
Irish and the French for instance?''
81 do not believe in Indian orations They
were all written, like Emmett's speech, long
after the event, and there is painful same
ness in them that reflects no credit on the
white authors. The Irish talk well but their
orators, like their poets, are not the greatest.
Curran gave utterance to the noblest para
graph in the English tongue. Danton to my
mind, was the greatest of all the French
orators, butt is mistake to suppose that an
impulsiue people must produce the greatest
orators. Of all the arts, this is the one that
depends most on accurate reasoning.
(Which do think the most important the
matter or the manner? Manner without mat
ter is nothing. Matter is the main thing. it
is that which fills the cup not the cup itself.
but the great orator regards BOTH He keeps
in mind the substance and the form. Sub
stance without form is a rugged rock: with
form it is a statue. The great orator is at
the same time dramatist and an actor
''What would be your advice, Colonel, to
one eager to become an orator?''
''Ifheis not born orator, then all he can do
is to pray to be born again. The elocutionist
is not an orator. Oratory is not simply an
art, though for its complete exposition it re-
quires the mastery of many arts. The real
orator has something to say, just as the real
poet has a song TO sing, and so sAong is his
desire to say it, that he becomes the servant
of the thought that urges him on. He loses
the consciousness of self, loses it in the
presence of the ideal that possesses him and
makes him for the time its mouth piece. No
the field of oratory increases with the vision
as men climb up, but the master spirits can
not be produced to ORDER
ALFRED r. CALHOUN.