Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1898-08-01
BISMARCK AS A SPEAKER.
s'ot an ora,or Ia The Ordinary Sense-IIis
Appearance In the Tcici,stag.

s;ot an ora,or Ia the Ordinary sense-His
appearance In the Eciclstag.
Bismarck was Eot at all smooth. grace
FIJI orator, but when it was announced in
his days Of power that he YVES about to
make m important speech ell Europe held
It's breath. Ills voice was peculiar, high
pitched and not very powerful. 1t was by
some spoken ofs:s y thin voice, bat that e.
presses ONLY one of lis qualities Ii was the
voice of a yaur,: man. and one hearing it
for the first time withoG; seeing the speak
q could hardly believe that person long
past middle age was talking. 4 POLITICALLY
Inclined writer once liilene;l his speech to
a forest stream Running over stones and
roots. i more scientific observer described
it in this way:
Il thir!, knew = better though rather
technical conlpariso:l-nG: his speech
Is like quicksilver drawn ont. Take . drop
OF quicSsilvcrco containing some lead or zinc
put it Oh pane of glass and hold it slant
ingly. The drop swells and rolls, bat pres
entity it stops. becomes thinner ard longer.
rC'.!airs inEiovable for n moment, gathers
new strength to flow. becomes thin once
again, rI.d SO forth Thus it WIS with the
chancsllor's woris-Gf,st. if q sentence came
out, then lie hesitated. stopped or uttered
q short. irar.icalate sound and went on
again. II IVES always evident that to speak
WAS Il physical eXertion. bit even when in
first rate form lie did not talk fluently"
Close observation disclosed the fact that
the reason Tor ail this was that the form Ct
his speech Was always improviscd on the
spur of the moment; that, unlike many cX-
tcrnporacc0rs speakers. he did not use the
first expression coming into his mind, but
while uttering tie first half of n sentence
lac was thinking how 20 shape the second
half III order 10 exactly express his mea.l-
ing. When making a joke or some lighter
remark. there was no hesitation. but when
he turaed to more serious subjects the halt
ing form Of speech always returned.
IL follows that it was no easy task to re
port his words. Even the official stenoy-
raphcrs used often to trip on his words, and
before their work was passed Bismarck
always personally revised it.
During Il debate he used to make frequent
notes in coarse, scrswling hand. When
attacked by some keen opponents, he grew
nervous and shifted in his seat, his pen
shook bo:wcen his fingers. and very often
his hard went menacingly to his sword
hilt, for Bismarck, while the first civil Off
Ger in the empire, was at the same time a
general of cavalry and always wore his I'M
dress uniform in the reichstag.
When aroused, his ebullitions of passion
were frequently terrible. He was mercilcs
in retort, unsparing OF persons, no matter
their age, their personal services to himself
or to the empire. He possessed "A caustic
husior which he used with great effect y
master Of invcctive, his coarseness of speech
very often defeated his own Object. One
Of his countrynen speaking on this point
described hirlas ian Achilles in courage.
he is a Thersite in debate as often rs the
candid censure Of friends or the vicious
taunts of foes goad him into the loss Of his
temper"