The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-10-18
Students of Given Good Coun-
sci in Regard to the Cultivation
of FOrcefuIness and E~IOquence.
SLOW DE PAW CONTRACTORS
DELAYED CONSTRUCTION INTER-
FEREs WITH THE CLASS WORK.
Franklin F~faternities A~ugustana's
New President-PrOpOsed Change
i'm O~ratorical Contests.


Special to the indianapolis Journal.
CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind, Oct. 1.-THE
faculty and students of Wabash College
were delighted this morning by an unex-
pected visit from Judge .. p. Baldwin, of
Logansport, who. as a member Of the
board of trustees, was visiting the college.
His address to the students on his favorite
topic. "Oratory," was most enthusiastically
received, and his historical statements
concerning the Baldwin prize, established
by himself thirty years ago, were of I'M
usual interest. A great impulse was thus
given to the already revived interest i'm the
subject of public speaking, and Judge Bald
win always will be, as he always has been,
a welcome visitor TO the college platform.
In part, he said:
o all the wares which a college manu-
features, oratory commands the most uni
versal and the highest price. We have 4
surfeit of good lawyers, preachers and poll
ticians, but a high-grade speaker distances
them all. All doors are open to him or
her. There is no sex in OratOry, although
a vast deal of oratory in sex. The petit
coat Will ALWAYS command-if it is prop
erly built and worn and 1t Grapes a real
speaker-the largest audience, and where a
college or student neglects this divine art
ii kills the goose which lays the colder
eggs. Suppose you take your Greek, or
mathematics, or metaphysics to Indian
apolis and try to sell MT how much
Roadway would you make? If there hap
pens to be a vacancy in some school and
you have the proper pull you may get the
place and would be lucky If your wages
covered your board and clothes. But let
a young man with the Oratorical gift go to
Indianapolis, as Beverage did a few years
ago, and nothing is too good for him. Look
over the alumni of Wabash College; VINO
takes the lead? Congressman G. b. Lands,
for one, whose beard is hardly grown and
who bids fair to be our next Governor.
Why? Because he has something to say
and knows how to say it. OF the Wabash
PREACHERS Macintosh at indianapolis,
Campbell Coyle at Toledo and Robert Coyle
at Denver have the best churches IN their
respective cities. And why? Because they
can put the old, old story in SO fresh ana
| attractive form that people run to hear 1t.
L know. of a man who once at dndIan-
made a observation-disclosures speech, anu
made it in three minutes time. He was
handsomely defeated for a nomination 10
which he had devoted weeks OF hard Work,
but won another in the then customary
humble pie speech pledging himself TO sup
port his successful rival. If the erect
was accidental, the accident necessarily I'M
plies preparation and ability.
Now. with these Illustrations few out
of a ~thousand-how can a student who
knows what is good for himself neglect the
greatest of all arts-the power of public
| speech? What is oratory? How is 1t TO be
attained? Oratory is clear thought, clearly
IOIGlDLl dAl4
tice the adVerbs-clearly, f0rclDly, PASSION
| ately-for they are all climacteric. Always
nave something TO say worth listening TO.
People do not gather ngS from thlstIes nor
cranes from thornS. The successful pubic
speaker must know more about his subject
than his audience. This end or the ART re-
uuires either q man OF great natural gifts,
like Morton or Harrison, or a hard student
and a disciplined thinker. He must DO
more than that-he must have the power
of expression. This may be acquired by
practice. Never neglect an opportunity 10
speak, and never, upon any proVocatloh
Whatey ng m9 MSs ia a &R9e 9r o SRIee "a T FSme
had been a KukluX outbreak in Mlssls-
sippi. with the usual quota of dead negroes.
Congress sent down an inVestlSatins com
mittee, one of the members OF when was
limited States Senator Frye. Inc pubic
were all in sympathy with the bulldozers
and unanimous against the nVestlSauon
FRYE was invited to speak upon a purely
was vitality interested-the Mississippi river
and the Mexican trade. The merchants
provided him with the largest hall In the
city. Such was the prejudice against him
that there was. by actual count
made by me, less than thirty pres
senator's face as he saw what d
mistake he had made in accepting the IN
v~itation. But it was only for a moment. l
think it was one of the finest speeches. l
ever heard. He acted upon the hrst and
controlling rule in oratofy, Your pest or
none" A successful orator must be in dead
earnest u lit VIII Aoh"
volume Of voice, or gesture or
luridness of adjective. No man can make
others feel what he himself does not IeeL
If you in your secret heart believe you are
on the wrong side. your audience Will sure
ly find it out. Speak logically. Don't be
satisfied with good thoughts arranged he'll
ter SHELTER. Speak with climax. Bring out
your heaviest guns last, instead or nIst.
Study that most difficult thing in public
speech-the art of slowing down gracefully
and closing with your best effort. Speak
with decoration. Use nouns. verbs and
adyerbs, and avoid too many adjectives. To
acquire this art, saturate yourself with the
masIerpieces of great Oh ators. Study Web
ster for power, Everett, Choate and In
gersoll for For moral elevation
and prophetic inspiration Lincoln's Gettys-
burg speech has never been excelled, and
for beauty of dictOn ana imagery niger
soils The Past Rises Before me Like a
Dream is unapproachable. To me Choate
is the prince of American orators. Some
years ago | was travelling in Greece, and
the scenery seemed strangely familiar. 1t
seemed to me that 1 had been there before.
The wine presses, the olive orchards, the
white oxen, the purple atmosphere, the
flashing blue of the sea. the pathos of the
sky-where had l seen them before? 1t
was, as l afterwards in
Choate's %eloquence of Revolutionary
Periods and in his description of Demos
themes.
IF l were a young man / would get all
that my college could possibly teach me
and then go to some of the numerous coll
leges of oratoTy. This could be done while
in the professional school. If | were a
young attorney. preacher or politician at
Indianapolis would get all that Professor
McAvoy could give me. Voice culture is
an Indispensable OF Oratory. The English
public speakers, although hesitatinG and
awkward in manner. have wonderfully
sweet voices. Canon Farrar has the most
delightful voice L ever listened to. Dress
and manners have much 10 do with ora
tcrical effect. They are the unconsidered
trides of public speech. A city audience
will often reject a good speaker because of
his rustic dress and unkempt hair and
beard. The young candidate for public Of
fee favor must think of all these minor
contributions to his success.
lis oratory becoming a lost art? We
must confess that there is not to-day a
single great English-speaking orator:
neither. for that matter. is there a great
poet or author. Rome has lost the breed
of noble bloOds.' Why this? Ii is because
OF the worship of wealth and luxury. II is
because Of the cOmmercialism of the age
which has robbed the church of its spirit
uallty. literature of its inspiration and ora
tory of it's charm and greatness. Men and
brethren, these things ought not so to be.
and the place to begin the reform is at our
colleges and among our youth