New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-09-16


a quarter of century before.
THE VALUE OF HUMOR
John Van Buren, one of the most accept
able speakers on the public platform. His argu-
ment was dull and uninteresting but at inter
walls there would be flashes of wit worthy Of the
genius of Sydney Smith. He always spoke sew
eral hours, and his audiences invariably waited
patiently to the end for the purpose of catching
the stray diamonds.
1t is almost fatal 10 the political advance
ment Of speaker to be humorous and yet the
humorous speaker who is also fully equipped in
other departments of elOquence is infinitely more
effective and valuable to the cause than the
&rgumentauve orator. Very few in a great
miscellaneous audience can follow an argument
which is unrelieved. will make the unaccus-
toned effort to do it. But an anecdote or a
humorous skit viii fasten the argument indel-
IDLY In The minds Of the audience. The effective
speaker however, gets nothing like the reputa-
ton OF the ponderous and platitudinous orator.
II may be personal, it is much easier and
requires much less thought to make close argu-
ment than it does to relieve an argument by wit
humor and aneCdOte. and il requires less labor
to be dull than 10 be bright l had d personal
experience in that line in one Presidential cam
p&ign when l spoke the night after speech
had been delivered in the hall and before
practically the same audience by a statesman of
first rank and orator of National reputation.
/ read his speech the morning l arrived. and so
profound, erudite and close its reasoning
that I had to read it twice before l compre-
hended its strength. and it was strong argu-
ment if you could give the time and considera-
ton that it required.
MY speech was relieved by much humor and
anecdote. He occupied two hours, and I took
two and quarter hours We both had at the
beginning audience which filled every seat,
the standing room in the aisles and the space
behind the speaker on the platform. At the end
of the first hour he had lost two-thrds of his
audience. These what the knowing
called the 'grounderings' but they were all
voters just the same. At the end of my speech
there had not a soul left the hall and the groun-
derngs' were bowling for Now as
fame. The local newspapers of that city
ported in full the speech of the great statesman.
editoriaIly they said that it was the most won
derfuI effort every delivered In the city or pos
sibIy in the country and that it should be placed
in the hands of every voter. They dismissed my
speech by publishing the stories and the humor-
Gus parts with the remark that Chauncey
Depew had delivered one of his enthusiastically
humorous addresses.
Now from the standpoint of a campaign
committee which wants to win. it is my judg
ment that my speech did more good by far.
But except with those who had heard both
speeches the statesman's effort was most valu-
able and mine was of no account. 1 tried few
DAVIS afterward to speak on the statesman's
Ines. II was easy to prepare such an address,
as all the facts were within easy reach, but the
speech bored me, it wearied the crowd, yet it
found standing room for every line in the local
rapers and 1 received a compliment similar to