The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-10-07

to address a meeting on certain even
ing. The manager of the SpellbinCerS
assumed that a man was wanted who
could talk a speech which would be
interpreted into the sign language by
a member of the club. a message was
sent to one of the best spellbinderS in
the service of the committee asking
him to address a club meeting on the
night specified. By an oversight he
was not informed of the character of
the club and arriving late he missed
the reception committee and interpre-
ter Finding a waiting audience and
no one speaking the spellbinder stepped
to the front of the stage and after a
brief apology for being late began to
speak He did his best He was elo
i-quenJ and emphatic, humorous and
pathetic, but when his best jokes failed
TO cause laugh, when his most elO-
quent phrases We're received in silence
and his pathos provoked faint smiles
he felt cold chills creeping down his
spine. Bracing up he went at them
again. He raVed and StOrmed until
his voice began to fail and perspiration
poured in streams from his face, with
! out provoking a handicap. The COM
mittee and interpreter, who had gone to
meet Dim, appeared upon the stage just
as the spellbinder sank exhausted into
chair. When the situation was ex-
planned to him he was compelled to
join in the general laugh that followed
and when rested repeated the speech,
/ which interpreted to the audience,
aroused great enthusiasm.
The Retort-Courteous By Tom Reed.
The falsetto voice of the Hon. Thomas
b. Reed was not familiar to the voters
of Indiana when he entered that state
In 1896 for a brief speaking tour, and
his first meeting survived an inter-
ruptiOn that would have dismayed the
average spellbinder. He faced a large
audience in the biggest hall in the town
"a al he
hrst great outburst of applause had
subsidized.
My fellow citizens" in the piping
voice of Reed. sounded faint and far
away, and a Hoosier who was hard of
hearing promptly asked of a cOmpan-
ion in a voice audible all over the hall,
rs that Tom?''
Did you think it was the voice of
Baalam - responded Reed. and in
stantly the ripple of half suppressed
laughter broke into a storm of ap-
plause-
Colonel Lafayette Gleason, who has
managed the speakers bureau of the
Republican state committee of New
York for ten years. had no end of trou-
bic with meetings for negro voters held
in the negro colony near HelPs Kitchen.
He tried a score of orators, white and
black, and every meeting was frost,
every speaker a failure The negro
leaders said they must have meetings
and speakers or they could not get
out the voters of their race. Finally
Gleason in despaiI employed a man
whose reputation among his own people
was that of a bad Niger wifi a
razor Gleason advertised another
meeting for coIOred voters and ex-
planned the situation to the new ora
tor. Go over there and talk to them
with the bark on" was his advice.
speaker arrived When he was
presented to. the audience he removed
the pitcher of ice water and the glasses
from the table and in place Of them
laid down two raZOrs and a big pistol.
Now, you lazy, loafing, crap-shOot-
ing coons, what are you waiting for7
What are you in this campaign for,
you good for nothing low down Mig
gers? Waiting for some white man to
offer you 81 for your vote, hey?"
These opening ceremonies and re-
marks took the crowd by storm The
meeting was a complete success. a club
was organized and Colonel Gleason in
two days had twenty calls for the new
negro sDellbinder.
Where Spellbinding Doesn't Count
In the south and in some of the
western states nearly all political
speaking is by joint debate. the can
didateS of the opposing parties making
q tour of the state. district or county
together and dividing time equally.
! This arrangement insures an audience
/ y.
where votes may be gained by good
argument During the progress of such
debates any voter in the audience is
! at liberty to ask questions of the can
didates and the latter are expected to
answer without taking or giving of
Tense. The opposing candidates. no
matter what their personal feelings or
relations may be, are compelled to treat
each other with respect and the most
formal courtesy in the presence of a
mixed audience. No matter how great
the political excitement NAV be. these
joint discussions rarely result in con-
flict between the opposing parties g
factions, because the leaders of each
side hesitate to be first to start row
or strike a blow. The hired SPELL
binder is never employed for such de-
bates. Campaign managers say that
few votes are changed by the work of
the spellbinders. but the voters of the
country demand entertainment and dis
'cusSiOn, so the hired orator has become
a fixture in American politics.
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