The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-22
SAID IN SHORT WORDS.
A Strong Talk in Monosyllaoles
Made By an Ohio Man.

In these days of turgid eloquence,
when public speakers seem to vie with
one another to see how many triple-joint-
ed words they can lug into a speech, and
seem to scorn the strength and beauty of
short words, an address delivered many
years ago by a. +. Edgerton of Ohio has
peculiar weight, and is an eloquent argu-
ment in favor of short, direct methods
of speech. Mr.. Edgcrton is former
Memeber of Congress, and was civil ser
vice commissioner under President Cleve-
land. The address was delivered in 1882
at the commencement of the Fort Wayne
High School, in Indiana, and while it was
impromptu and not at all studied effort
at monosyllabic diction, each of the
words IL contains is a monosyllable. Not
only that, but as an oratorical effort it
ranks high The address is as follows:
This day we close for the year the
Fort Wayne free schools, and we now
part with you, the girls and boys we are
no more to teach.
II say girls and boys, for when three
score and ten years have come to you
YOU will be glad to have your friends
say that health and peace of mind have
kept your hearts warm; that you wear
no brow of gloom, are not borne down
with age, but STILL in heart, are girls
and boys When these years come, and
hope they will come to all, the tide OF
time will roll back and tell you of your
sChoOl-time days, when the fair, the kind,
and the true found love, but the false
heart found no friend, no tongues to
praise. These days bring rich gifts to
age. and when you shall cease to think
II them your fire has burned low and
your light has gone out. You have been
here taught in the hope that the free
schools of Fort Wayne would help to
make you of use to your friends and to
the world, would give you faith in all
that Is good and true, and lead you to
seek work, for that you must seek and
do II you would have a good name,
wealth, home, charge to keep or
trust TO serve. Go forth with a bold
IN work
Keep in mind that the hours to work
run through each day and that God
great law of life is. In the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread
Now, for you, young man, this truth
is told.
60 where you will through the world
and you will find on the front door OF
shops and mills of stores and banks, and
on ships. on farms, on roads, in deep
mines where men toll for wealth; where
laws are made that make some men too
rich and men of worth and work through
all our land too poor; where men by law
are taught to plot with sin, to spurn the
ght, that charge and cost and spoil may
make old 'Quirk's' law firms rich; where
law is so plead that the judge must guess
to find what's law; where quacks most
fight DER sick mems pains and dead men
bones; where types are set and none to
mind the proofs; where priests do preach
and pray and where schools are taught
this sign: Brains Will Find Work Here.
Don't fear. step up ana ask Tor Wofk'
brains will get it. Don't let L dare not
wait on / would like the cat that loves
fish. but dares not wet her foot
'if II be said, What can you do? viii
you learn trade? say, I have none, but
/ can learn one and put brains in it,.
when you go to place where brains
should hunt for work and be sure to find
II, II may be said to you, DO you see that
pillow? Can you hold and drive ii deep?
THAT pillow, in its wise use, gives all men
food.
''Do you see that wheel and that crank
and those shafts and that press, and do
YOU hear the rush and the hiss of the
steam which moves them? Can you make
and hold and run them? Can you build
and drive the works and wheels which
make the wealth of the earth and cause
IL 20 roll and to float to and fro from
place to place, where 1t Is the best for
man TO use it?
"Can you spin the thread and weave
Il which makes robes for kings and silks
for the rich and vain, and dress for the
poor. and all that skill and art have
wrought by loom and hand for man $
use2
'These things are all shot through with
threads of light-the light of mind and
arr and skill which shines each day more
bright and dims all the old by some new
found light as the years go on."-Chicago
Chronicle.