The times., 1898-04-24

with a lame and impOtent conclusion.
Most speakers lack variety. They travel
a straight and dusty road. The great
orator is full of episode. He convinces
and charms by indirectiOn. He leaves
the road, visits the fields, wanders in the
woods listens TO the murmurs of springs.
the songs of birds. He gathers flowers.
scales the crags, and comes back to the
highway refreshed. invigorated. He does
not move in a straight line He wanderS
and winds like a stream.
''Of course, no one can tell a man what
TO do to become an orator. The great
orator has that wonderful thing called
presence. He has the strange something
known as magnetism. He must have
flexible, musical voice, capable OF eX-
pressing the pathetic, the humorous, the
heroic His body must move in ur1s-.l
with his thought. He must be a reasoner,
a logician. He must have a keen sense
of humor-of the laughable. He must
have wit. sharp and quick. He must
have sympathy. His smiles should be
the neighbors of his tears. He must
have imagination. He should give eagles
to the air, and painted moths should hut-
ter in the sunlight.
while l cannot tell man what TO do
to become an orator, L can tell him a
few things not to do. There should be
no introduction TO an Grafton. The ora
tor should commence with his subject
There should be no prelude, no flourish
no apology, no explanation He should
say nothing about himself. Like a sculp-
tor, he stands by his block of stone.
Every stroke is for a purpose. AS he
works the form begins to appear. When
the statue is finished the workman stops.
Nothing is more difficult than a perfect
close. Few poems, few pieces of music,
few novels, end well. y good story, a
great speech, a perfect poem. should end
just at the proper point A great speech
is a crystallization in its logic. an ef-
fioresence in it's poetry.
II have not heard many speeches. Most
of the great speakers in our country
were before my time. l heard Beecher,
and he was an orator. He had imagina-
ton. humor and intensity. His brain
was fertile as the vellayes of the tropics.
He was too broad, too philos0phic. too
poetic for the pulpit Now and then he
broke the fetters of his creed, escaped
from his orthodox prison and became
sublime.
Theodore Parker was an orator He
preached great sermons. His sermons on
Old Age and Webster and his address
on Liberty were filed with great
throughts, marvelously expressed. When
he dealt with human events, with reali-
ties, with things he knew, he was su-
perb. When he spoke of freedom, of du-
ty of living to the ideal of mental in
tegrity. he seemed inspired
webster l never heard. He had great
qualities, force. dignity, clearness. grand
eur; but after ALL he worshiped the
past. He kept his back to the sunrise.
There was no dawn in his brain. He
was not creative. He had no spirit of
prophecy. He lighted no torch. He was
not true to his ideal. He talked some
times as though his head was among
the stars, but he stood in the gutter. In
the name of religion he tried to break
the will of Stephen Girard-to destroy
the greatest charity in all the world
and in the name of the same religion he
defended the fugitive slave law His
purpose was the same in both cases. He
wanted office. Yet he uttered a few very
great paragraphs, rich with thought.
perfectly expressed.
Clay | never heard, but he must have
had commanding presence a chivalric
bearing. heroic voice. He cared little
Tor the past. He was q natural leader.
a wonderful talker-forcible, persuasive,
convincing. He was not poet, not a
master of metaphor, but he was practi-
CAL He kept in view the end to be ac-
complished He was the opposite OF
| Webster. Clay was the morning Web
| ster the evening. Clay had large views
| a wide horizon. He was ample, vigor-
Gus and little tyranucal.
! Benton was thoroughly commonplace
He never uttered an inspired word Tie
was an intense egotist. No subject was
! self Calhoun was a political Calvinist-