Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-11-09
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS
NUMBER IA

speech. that the day of oratory, like
that of ehivalry, has gone, never to re-
turn. 1t is also true that the telegraph,
the photograph, the stenograph, the
daily paper and the steam car have
rendered the divine art of the orator
more difficult and that public speaker
to win fame in this day and generation
must not only possess vast store Of
information and that indefinable thing
called personal magnetism, without
which there is no oratory, but he
must possess a style at once unique
and attractive and mannerigms which
distinguish him from all other men.
But the change is not so much In the
speakers as in the auditors. The gen.
eral diffusion of knowledge has lifted
up the great body of the people amaz-
ingly in the last hundred years, and
consequently they are harder TO con-
vince or persuade. AS a matter Of fact,
the power Of persuasive or convincing
speech is only one of the signs of intel
Iectual force, but it is one. A man
may be a profound original thinker In
politics. as was Thomas Jefferson. or
wise statesman, as was Washington,
without facility in speeehmaking, but
they laid no claim to that distinction.
A Big Little Man.
submit, however, that if a man sets
up for an orator he owes it to suffer
ing world to do his work excellentiy
well. The wire pullers, the pipe layers,
the practical politicians and the boo
dlers may erect their standards Of
craftsmanship, excluding the orators,
and may gobble up the nominations,
but they can't crowd them out Of the
peoples hearts and prevent them from
swaying the multitude and molding
public opinion.
Physically, as everybody knows, Sem
ator Vest is what is generally called
big little man. Some of his admirers
have tried to fasten on him the title OK
'sThe Little Giant but Stephen A.
Douglas had patent on that sobriquets
and the people are unwilling to in
fringe it.
Vest is one OF those rare men whose
personal appearance improves with
age. He is a great deal better looking
now than he was 21 years ago. when
first saw him. The only pull back TO
his being the ideal orator is his voice,
which is neither strong nor musical,
but when he is once under way this
defect is forgotten in the torrent Of his
eloquence and the tempest Of his pas
sion. His wonderful vocabulary, his
rich fancy, his polished dietion, his
Attic salt, his yehemenee, his pathOs,
his biting sarcasm, would entrance any
audience in the world except a lot Of
deaf mutes. He has one gesture, IL
gesture it may be called, which l have
never seen in any other man, though /
have seen others try it and fail utterly.
| It is this
In some way known only to himself
he stiffens his entire anatomy from
heels to atlas, cocks his head on one
side, rises on his toes and iurches for
ward in emphasis of point in man
ner which never fails to bring down
/ the house
Imitation is said to be the sincerest
fIattery, and l know Of two young ora
tors in Missouri who have nearly
sprung their spinal columns essaying
that unequaIed caper of the senator.
Vests large head is set squarely on
his broad shoulders, while his imita-
tors have cranelike necks, and the sue
cess of the trick lies largely in the
shortness of the neck. The only resem-
blance between the senator and his ad-
mirers is that originally all three had
red hair 1 suppose 1t would be more
polite to say Titianesque. The other
two still have flaming polls, but the
senator's poll is now decidedly frosty,
like that of "John Anderson. my Jo
John"