Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-04
AMERICAN ORATORS.
Methods of Men Famous in the Pulpit
and on the Platform.
IAN GRIBAYEDOFF.

MethOuS OF wen aHOus In the PuiDft
and ON the Platform.
From the Philadelphia Press.
In the days when Richard S. Storrs was
in his maturity he was the model studied
by many clergymen in the hope of acouir-
ing themselves the secret of his art as pull
pit orator. Today model of a very differ
ent type is attracting to his church when
ever opportunity offers younger clergymen
and students of the theological schools
DR.. Storrs for nearly thirty-five years was
regarded as the greatest of the pulpit ora
tors whose distinguishing characteristics
were the classical form, the ornate rhetori-
cal expression, the somewhat stiff dlction
| and yet rhythmical arrangement of it, and,
above all, that impressive, conscious severe
dignity which, when assumed, seems to
separate a man from the masses with
| whom he is associated and to place him
upon pedestal distinct and apart
The pulpit did not contain the only repre-
sentatives of this type 1t was conspic-
uously illustrated at the bar by William
Pinkney, who did not alter his rhetorical
methods when he stepped from the Senate
chamber to the Supreme Court or when,
| after delivering q speech perfect in clas-
| steal form, in studied and artificial rhetoric
| TO the coldly dignifed judges of the Su-
| preme Court bench, he returned to address
| the Senate upon question involving states
| manship.
1t was the method of Edward Everett,
and, in his earlier public life, of Daniel
| Webster, and to some extent that of Rufus
| Choate, who was the most ford of all ora
tors excepting possibly Sergeant S. Prem
| tiss, that strange exotic born and reared
| in Maine, but triumphant an orator only
| after he became a citizen of Mississippi
All of these orators unquestinnaby
| schooled themselves upon the art of Cicero,
| although DR.. Storrs is understood to have
| been fascinated by the method that dis
| tinguishes the funeral orations of Bossuet.
1t was not until Wendell Phillips taught
| n new and as many once asserted a per
| verted art of public speaking that there
| came change in the methods that charac-
| terlzed the greater orators of the first half
| of this century. DR.. Storrs in the pulpit
| simply emphasized and carried perhaps to
! its perfection the ideals and standards of
| the preachers Of the Puritan Church. He
differed only in degree from Bacon of New
| Haven, Halves Of Hartford, Thompson of
| New York. And he always had stanch ad-
| mirers and stout defenders when his own
method was compared with that of Beecher
Both Beecher and DIR. Storrs We're claim
| ed by their respective adherents to be uas-
| ters of the art CT eXtemporaneous speak
| Ing. and 50 in one sense they were if there
| be good understanding of the meaning of
| the word eXtenpOraneOus If il is to he
| taken literally, then Beecher was a far
| greater master of that art than Storrs. for
| it is probable that DR.. Storrs never spoke
| extempOraneousy in the sense that his ut
| tcrances were unprecedented or without
| preparation.
But in delivering an address directly at a
| congregation or audience, instead of read
| ing ii from notes, Dr. Storrs was mastery
| His method. so far as preparation was con-
cerned. similar to that of Wendell
| Phillips, to whom he was nearly related
through the kinship of MIS-. Storra
Philips WAS always studying the art OF
oratory. and when he had an address or n
lecture to prepare, it was his custom to de-
liver himself completely. perhaps for weeks
or ever months, to preparati0 That or
hJn aud
patient research as Sainte- Beauve bestowed
upon his immortal causeres, or as Thack-
cray devoted to his mental qualifications
for his historical novels
Having thus absorbed all the nbtaiuahle
information, Phillips sometimes would lie
stretched out upon his sofa for two or three
days at time, only leaving his lounging
place Tor his meals or his bed, writing
mentally the address which he proposed to
base upon the Information he had gathered
sometimes Tor change he would walk the
streets OF Boston, that he might obtain
fomeiy. yet apt, comparison, METAPHOR or
illustration Therefore at last he had his
address mentally, thoroughly well prepared
although, with the exception of his famous
I'm Beta Kappa Grafton at Harvard he is
not known ever to have written out any OF.
MS lectures or speeches
Yet when his address was delivered It
was IN one sense improvised, for. while the
general form, the subdivisions, the line of
treatment We're thoroughly established in
MS mind. yet he relied upon each occasion
90 'IlS appropriate word mat explains
why 1t is that no two of the reports of his
most famous lecture 1.-THE Lost Arts" or
OF one or MS most brilliant addresses, that
upon "O'Connell," agree in phraseology
although he delivered THE Lost Arts over
500 times. it is probable that every repeti-
ton considerably differed from any of all
of the predecessors.
Phillips believed that there was a higher
arr OF the spoken word than that which the
formal, classic, precise and elegant model
of which Dr.. Storrs was so fine an example
Is an illustration To him the art Of oratorv
was the art of persuasion. ana the highest
form of persuasion was that which sue-
SeSted TO each individual bearer that the
speech was intended for him and for no
other. Phillips realized that to accomplish
Inns without descending to something like
Vulearity of speech and manner, or at least
the commonplace and cheap was TO acquire
the most difficult form Of the art of public
speaking.
he has been called the conversational list
ms methods realize that after all that was
an lllhslpn, he thereby obeying the subtleSt
ana truest of the laws of art. which is The
creation of unrecogniZed illusions. Beecher
sometimes unconsciou=iy attained this art,
SO mat each member of the Plymouth
thurch congregation felt after a sermon
hau been delivered in which Beecher ap-
peared TO be utterly unconventional shat
the pastor had had him by the buttonhole
ana mad been almost confidentialy talking
to him.