The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-15

| When Robert G.. IngersoI passed out
of this life, he was the greatest English
| speaking orator in the land The
Christian world is of opinion that he
misused his great powers, but few viii
| deny him their possession. He was
full OF virile, aggressive, original
| thoughts, which he clothed in graphic
forceful and beautiful language. He
was an artist in choosing, grouping
and shading words. He was an adj
| mirable elocutionist. and a great actor
He knew how to rub the smell of the
lamp from written speech, and how
to memorize it SO perfectly as to dfvest
it of all appearance of being the off
spring of preparation. He knew how
to mfngle pathos with humor, philoso-
ply with passion, and analytical logic
with singing invective.
The art of which he was great mas
ter is passing away. There are few,
if any public speakers in this country
today, who hold the same rank in
public estimation and influence as
orators that was held by Clay and
Webster, and Prentiss, and Phillips,
and Sumner, and Yancey, and Beecher
and Chaplin, and Baker, and Starr King
in the times in which they lived.
This is due in part to, the fact that
the great, burning, living issues of for
ty years ago have passed away, and
forests grow above the graves of tho3
who persisted amid the shock Of arms
in order to secure freedom to the slave
and life TO the nation. An eloquent
speech is as much the child of the oc-
casion as of the orator, and the econom-
ic questions of this day call rather
for logical reasoning than for passion
ate appeal. The memorable laws of de-
mand and supply affect oratory as we'll
as more material commodities. OF old
the ambitious youth studied to become
an orator. in the hope that by his elo-
auence he might achieve a seat in the
legislative hall. Now he plots to be-
come a millionaire, for he knows full |
well that the surest way to obtain the |
toga. is not to earn it by cultivating |
mental powers to be devoted to public |
service: but to buy it from the bosses
who lead the ward heelers-those mod |
arn Pretorian guards who sell Senator
ships as their prototypes sold the inn
nerial purpIe-for so much gold count
cd down upon the drumheads.
The press has also been potent in
in procuring the passing
If tbe orator, for people do not care
n he iostled in a crowd when they can
,aad the speeches next morning while
comfortably seated at the breakfast
able.
Whatever the reason may be, the
,act is patent that the voices which
= old coIild stir the blood of listeners
e with the blare of trumpets, and TIM
RE their eyeIids to tears, have gone
MO the great silence, and their sue
.assors come not, for CommercIallsIn
las discouraged the orator and driven
i'm, from the path along which high
,,,b;tion once pointed the way to fame,
AAA
TngersolI held the stage longer thah
INV of his compeers, because he left
he beaten path, and discussed the
,roblem of the ages fearlessly and elo-
ran+lv from his own point of view he
vas not-as has sometimes been sala,
an infidel for revenue only. He was
N honest apostle of the gospel OF ami
,ila+ion. He believed in eternal death
{ sincerely as Calvin believed IN eter-
,o1 domination. and he roasted ortho-
oxv in speech as relentlessly as Cal
-, roasted Servetus at the stake. ing
rsof believed that the dying infant
,assed on forever-never to live again
ave in the grasses and the MOWERS
,a1x-in believed that God snatched the
milling child from its mothers arms
My to hurl its predestined BABY soui
nto an abyss of unending torture