The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-07-21
LIVE QUESTIONS.
A Series 81 articles Contributed By
-Sdvancct; Thinkers.
AMeRIcAN ORATORY.


man call the Americans nation of or-
ators. 1t was in a dinner speech that he
did so, but | think he meant it, and I
believe there is in America a general
impression that there is something in
our institutions, as we are won't to
say, which trains men to be orators.
I once heard tie late Charles Francis
Adams, our minister to England during
the war, say that the blacksmith work
ing at his forge acquires facility for
public speech which no university is
able or ready to give him. With great
feeling, even with passion, he said that
without the ability to speak we'll to
men whom he wanted to convince no
American could enter on the first duty
of an American citizen. He really i'm
piled that no American citizen had a
right to be unless he could speak we'll,
more than a blind man has right to
enlist in a regiment of sharpshooters.
All the same, this is certain: The
summer and autumn which are before
US will organize literally millions Of
public meetings, to which will come
millions on millions of men, eager to
be instructed in their duties as voters.
The audiences are sure. They will be
addressed by hundreds of thousands Of
speakers, many Of them young men just
entering public life. Those young men
will find this business of public speech
to an eager assembly the most fascinat-
ing business open to men. From the
hundreds Of thousands of them many
men, perhaps many thousand men.
will become known in their OVID circles
Or beyond as coed public speakers, per
haps as distinguished orators.
So little is it true that oratory is a
lost art, or that the need Of it or the in
terest in it have been dying out in
America Yet it is frequently said that
orauory is lost art-ingeniously said
perhaps by orators who know that their
first business is to conceal their art
am no orator, as Brutus is.
am a plain, blunt man. 1 speak right on.
Antony has the wit to say this to the
Roman mob, but the intelligent reader
observes that he says it in his blank
verse, while poor Brutus speaks in prose.
Oratory will be a lost art when con-
versaticn is lost art. The forms Of
oratory in one century will differ from
the forms in another But while men
have ears and tongues and while speech
is free the man who knows how to per-
suade his companions will persuade
them, and he who does rot know how
will fail.
Undoubtedly, however, the speaker
gains a point who catches his hearer on
an unguarded side, who takes him on
the flank, so to speak, and does not at
tack him in front. Here is Antony's
art. and hence comes his success in his
appeal, as it contrasts with that of Bru-
tus. And the person who is called "the
orator of the day" is thu at certain
disadvantage, because L called so,
when compared with thes~ other gentle
men, the Depews, the Choates, the Nc
Elroys Of the hour, who have just hap
pened in TO eat a chop at the dinner,
but who, as all the world knows, are
not the orators Of the occasion. Even
the omniscient and experienced writer's
for the press are sometimes confused
and measure "the orator" by different
standard from that which measured the
other puh1ic men who surround him.
You shall see Washington letter where
the writer expects eloquence from the
address which has been announced days
in advance and is read, indeed, from
printed copy, and where the same writer
does not understand that the true elo-
quence is more like to be found in the
quick reply, the happy, sudden infer
ence Of conversational debate. He does
not understand that for such triumphs
the preparation has been made very
likely in the studies of 20 years. Such
a writer tells as that oratory is a lost
art.
This statement simply means that the
old fashioned grafton, which belonged
in the first half Of the century, is now
in less repute among the chamberlains
and committees who arrange public oc-
casions than it once was. The custom
still fingers of saying "the Grafton was
delivered" by Mr. Thus and-thus, as if
the same oration were repeated. 1t is as
though one said 'the Declaration cf In
dependence was read by Master Good
child But CD the whole "the oration"
drops out of the programme and certain
addresses are substituted. Or per-
haps, without being named On any pro-
gramme, the man who has something
to say says it and carries with him a
body of people who say of him after
ward that, although he is no orator, he
has very much his own way with a pub
lie assembly. It should be remembered
by the young men who are going to adj
dress Us this summer and autumn that
such are the real triumphs of the orator.
He does not succeed when he is called
IL 4 L I. j