The St. Johns herald., 1901-09-14
HOLD THEM BY THE EYE.
Public Speakers Have Way of Talkize 2
 at One Person in the Crowd.


 at One Person in the Crowd.
 "T have noticed a rather singular thing about public speakers" said 8 gentleman who had attended one of the big meetings in New Orleans, "and 1 have had occasion to observe the pecu- liar1ty several times in my life In some instances the observation has been attended with some embarrass- ment. Several days ago I attended a meeting in this city. was seated well up to the front, and In fact within a few yards of where the speakers stood. One of the speakers apparently deliv- cred his whole address to me. If he paid a particle of attention to any other person in the hall could not notice 1t. He spoke with great animation, and he kept his eye on me. He literally bom- barded me with his laundering philip pics, and whenever he shrieked his way up the scale to point he would hurl It down with yehemence, pointed his finger at me in derision, yelled at me, made faces at me, and stared at me in the most iendish way imaginable. It was a trifie embarrassing, but I man. aged to stand 1t because I had observed .he same peculiarity in public speakers before. l have never heard a public speaker say as much, but believe they always pick out some object, probably some person, and during the greater portion of the time they are speaking their attention will be turned to this object, and it probably aids them in the matter of mental concentration. Ii probably shuts out the side views which tend to break the eyenness and continuity of the speech. This prob ably Is why some of the early orators Dack 1n the days of Cicero and Demos themes are credited with having ad- dressed their remarks to stumps and other inanimate objects. By focusing and riYeting the eye on an unchange- able object the mind concentrates more quickly and the speaker Is able to pur- sue his subject with greater coherence.
 But my own experience in these mat ters brings back an incident at one of Sam Jones' big meetings eight or ten years ago, when he had reached the high tide of his evangelical reputation. A young friend of mine took a young lady around to hear Sam Jones, and the church was damned to the door. as was usual then at meetings held by the evangelist. They sat pretty close LID to the pulpit. Sam Jones had on his war paint and he picked out my friend ap- parently. You Appeared hound,' he said, shaking his finger at my friend. you redrnosed whelp! you blear-eyed sot-you drag yourself around in the gutters or infamy and wallow around in rum-shops, and then he continued. leaning over the pulpit toward my my friend, you have the nerve to call on one of the sweetest and purest little women in town and come sneaking in- to this church with her. My friends face was the color of red flannel. and the young lady was as mad as a bor. net She had never heard Sam Jones Defore, and she not only believed the evangelist was talking to my friend but she believed all that he said. My friend told me afterward that the young lady frequently referred to 1t during their friendly spats, and yet 1t was nothing more than another jllus- tration or the peculiarity displayed by public speakers; but it shows, too, that the matter of playing in the role of the stump for Demosthenes is not the most pleasing thing in the world."-New Or leans mes-Democrat.