The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-03-01
INGALLS, "CRITIQUE."
The Kansas Ex-senator Gem
ments on VIM. J. Bryan.
Why Bryan's OratOry Fails To
Garry Out It's Promise.
ingalls, Says It is Commonplace
Adds Some Thoughts on the Lee
Sure Platform in General
TFrom the Kansas City start

<AbSAlSOAs 0eAA-B L CT. q. - -
gals today wrote the following inter-
view in regard to w. J. Bryan as
statesman and lecturer:
coincidence of three things is neces-
sary to a great speech. There must be
a speaker, an occasion, and an audi
ence, either sympathetic or hostile. OF
these the audience is perhaps the most
important. Shakespeare, who says
everything better than anybody else,
hits the truth when he makes Rosalind
declare that
"A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
OF him that hears it, never in the
tongue
OF him that makes it,
This is as true of an grafton as it is
of a joke. The prosperity of a speech
lies in the ears of the audience; never
in the tongue of the orator. This was
pre-eminently true of Bryan's speech
at Chicago, which will probably stand
as a historic example among the con-
spicuous oratorical triumphs of the
nineteenth century.
Taken as an intellectual effort the
address was distinctly commonplace.
1t had neither depth, conference nor
originality. It's platitudes were the
canned goods of the trade. Its orna-
mentS were tinSel. It's climax was
borrowed without credit.
But notwithstanding the defects and
infirmities, judged by results, it must
De taken as one Oh the IuOSl 10I1AuA1 n
able achievements of our times Its
prosperity was in the ears of the con-
vention, not in the tongue of Bryan
he was like the rod that conducted the
bolt from the surcharged thunder cloud.
He said at the Opportune instant what
the frenzied multitude wanted to utter
He was the crater of the volcano; the
vortex of the cyclone. He was the CEN
trail figure in an unprecedented drama.
He eliminated in that tremendous cpl
sode which cannot be duplicated.
Opportunity knocked at his gate and
he heard and obeyed the summons. The
campaign that followed was hysterical
and laborious. Thronging myriads as
sembled, expecting to have the miracle
at Chicago repeated in their presence.
They listened with incredulity and con-
Sternation to the mechanical declama-
ton of actor reciting familiar
phrases. Wherever he appeared, Bryan
sank in public estimation, not through
any fault of his own, but because the
people had measured him by their i'm
agination and not by their judgment.
They demanded the impossible, and he
emerged from his unprecedented can
vass with the verdict that he was a
versatile, commonplace, shallow poll
tician, and not a great, inspired public
leader and tribune Of the people
Bryan is what Mrs. Darlington called
a very fluid speaker Facility of speech
is a fatal gift. The man who, without
much meditation, study and fore
thought, can depend upon an uninter-
dience on any subject with which he is
but imperfectly acquainted is exposed
to a well nigh irresistible temptation
to mer tai Incidence. The disposition
to rely on the inspiration of the mo-
Enent grows with indulgence, and at
last becomes the habit of the mind.
From what I heard at Atlanta I
should Judge that Bryan came to that
engagement without much preparation.
Not long before the hour he professed
to be in doubt what he should say,
though this may have been one OF the
tricks of the business.
But the quality of Bryan'S speech at
Atlanta exOnerateS him from the impu-
tation of stage play, because it did not
reach a high level in any part. He
had a. large house and his reception was
cordial, but the general verdict of
friends and opponents was unfaVorable.
The material of the discourse was not
novel, nor was it's treatment original.
The delivery was sing-Songy and mon
otono1s. Illustrations, epigram, rhet-
oric were absent. The temperature of
the audience sank lower and lower un-
til it reached zero, and a popular idol
left the stage dethroned and I'M
crowned.
Men whose fame has been won on
political fields or in public affairs, as a
rule do not succeed on the lyceum pro-
gramme, for reasons that are obvious.
The resentments engendered in partl-
san battles accompany them and they
continue to be objects of indifference
. or aversion to those whom they have
! antagonized, so that their constituency
is limited practically from the begin
ming to those with whom they nave
been politically identified
Then, too, the reputation of the
speaker, large or small, precedeS MN
and he is confronted by an audience
critical and expectant, whose minds are
made UP, whose estimation is precon-
ceived and who are prepared to judge
and measure the orator not so much
by what he says or does in their pres
NV Vx~h a
said or done elsewhere. He IS con-
trasted and compared with himself I'M
der neutrality-suspicious.. Inc pas
6ionate tumu1t and exultatlon OF the
stump and forum, the environment OF
the gladiator cannot be transferred to
the calm, didactic precincts OF the lee
ture platform, so that the result IS usu-
ally depressing to the speaker ana as
appointing to his hearers
Besides the photographers or the
press have cast some aspersions upon
the Iyceum which have hurt it in public
esteem. Formerly it was a great We
hicle of instruction, a medium OF COM
xnunication between prophets ana
teachers and the people. the perloo
from 1850 to 1870 was notable for the
activity of men like Bethune, Chaplin,
Garrison, Sumner and others of similar
rank, who delivered messages of ire
mendous import upon the questions OF
that day from the lecture platform.
But in recent years the degeneration
has been accelerated by the amusement
xnongers who furnish a heterogeneous
tumble of lecturers, singers, imperson-
ators, reciters and prestidigitateurs for
courses of entertainments at so much
per head, with window hangers, clrcu-
lars and other advertising matter
thrown in. Taking advantage OF the
innocent and legitimate curiosity to see
and hear men famous, infamous and
notorious, these purveyors of public
recreation dispatch upon disastrous
tours political freaks and decadentS,
dialect story tellers and poets, profess
sional clowns and globe trotters, her
aided by advance agents, who work the
newspapers and bill the towns like the
avant couriers of the worlds greatest
aggregations of trapeze performers