Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-01-05
BISMARCK AS A SPEAKER.
Was Certainly Fully JUS
tilted.

The first time I heard him speak in
public was in the old parliament house
On Leipsic street. His seat was almost
on line with the box reserved for the
members of the diplomatic corps, IN
which, for that occasion, had a seat.
As the squire of lady who is the
daughter of distinguished American
officer, hal been instructed to secure
the services of a capable interpreter.
and the man employed was given seat
where he could hear and yet utter his
translation in low tone without dis
turbing the assembly.
When it came Bismarck's turn to
speak, his rising was an affair of delib-
Grafton; it began slowly, and continued
for some time, as the towering form as
sumed its full height. His great stat
IRE he had from his father. Standing
six feet one and quarter inches in his
stockings, and of course somewhat
more in his boots, he could not, even
with arms as dispropcrtionately long as
his were, reach the desk before him
with his hands; consequently he was
wont to stand for awhile, twitehing his
fingers and swaying his body as if to
find support. Failing in the instructive
effort, he would then tumble in his coat
tail pocket, and, producing his hand
kerchief, blow a stentorian blast
These preliminaries completed, he then
began to speak. His voice was a dis
appointment; it was the voice of an eff
Terminate man when in fit of nervous
ness, and at no time did it have any
resonant souorousness; sometimes it
was actually feeble, and not infre-
quently he would interrupt himself
with little nervous cough which left
the sentence unfinished.
81 am no orator." he says in one of his
published speeches; 81 have not the
gift of influencing your minds nor of
obscuring the real meaning of things
by a cloud of words. My discourse is
tor is seldom a good statesman" And
again: "When a man is too fluent of
speech, Le talks too long and too fire.
quently." As might be imagined, he
was no friend Of the great contem-
porary statesman and orator, Glad
stone, Of whom he once said to an ac-
quaintance: eff had brought as many
humiliations on my country as Glad
stone has on his, would be unfit to
rule"
In a sense his disclaimer of the ora
tors gifts was justified. Indifferent
to the audience directly before him.
his real speech was addressed to the
great German reading public and to the
world. Accordingly, that which was
delivered, even on the most important
occasions, was scrappy, and rather in
the nature of a chat with the deputies
Often his sentences were jerky, and left
the impression that the speaker was
not exactly certain what to say, and
not very much in earnest as to what he
actually was saying. Many heard him
with the bitterest disappointment. His
uncertainty of utterance was no safe
guard against prolixity; he seemed at
times to be INDUCING in that form Of
discourse which our slang designates
as talking through ones hat" and
consequently he often let slip the loos
est assertions. Moreover, the construc-
ticn of his sentences was frequently
portentous.
On the occasion to which have been
particularly referring, my companion
was as impatient as only an intellectual
woman can be to secure the intellectual
treat before her, and gave minute in
structions to her Interpreter. All went
well for time, as the low voice of the
painstaking translator rendered with
some adequacy the thought of Bis
marck. Then there were short pauses
followed by rapid little summaries Of
what had been said. AS these grew
more and more frequent, the lady be
came irritated. Finally there was ar
entire cessation on the part of the in.
terpreter, and yet Bismarck was going
right on with ever-increasing yehem-
ence. There was constant calls from
the lady of whats he saying? What's
he saying? and an increase Of impa-
tience in the box quite disproportion.
ate to the growing violence of the
speaker. Finally the wretched inter
prefer could endure the strain nc
longer, and, turning with a gesture Oh
fierce resen tment to his excited employ
err he hissed: Madam, [ am waiting
for the verb!"-Prof. William NJ
Sloane, in Century.