The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-14
John Temple Graves a
Musician with Words.
FOR FREE SUFFRAGE
Lectur'ng on goth cen.ary Woman,
Distinguished Orator Declares That
Woman Deserves and Will
Yet Gain the
Ballot.

swept branches of the pines, like the
murmur of the distant sea, like the
rising and falling harmonies of some
great and inspired orchestra, like the
untold whispers that spring from the
mystery of perfumed night-like any
or all, and yet like none of these
things fell the rhythmic music of Tenn
pie Graves words on the grateful ears
of his auditors.
.fhe man is like a wonderful instru-
ment devoted to the enunciation of
musical sound. His words flow forth
with the steady throb of a vocabulary
that works with the precision of ma
chinery and vibrateS with the dreamy
passion of a poet soul. The voice Is
softly sensuous: it soothes and per-
meates the brain like fragrant wine;
it stills and charms the senses like
the dream land of a song. When IL
breaks into the terSe phrases of oc-
casfonal sharp-thrown wit, it wakes
the intellect with what is almost
shock, onlv to drop it again to bed
and to sooth it into the border land
of sleep, whittier it floats and thrills
and whispers of love and beauty and
old tales of ancient days when a lady's
fancy sent the world to play or war at
will.
And all this from little man, with
a worn face and prim coat and q
prim white vest who stands erect
and scarcely does more than open
and shut his mouth to work the Won
der! OF gestures there are few with
John Temple Graves, of the physical
excitement of "oratory" there is none.
The words tumble forth like nimble
acrobats, each turning and twisting
and somersaulting one over the
oYacfnRSS
and marvellous time. And then,
when the brain is almost mesmerized
with the beautiful monotony, presto:
they have come back, tumbling still
and disintegrating as they return,
and you have-an epigram! Ihat,
the shock of which I spoke above. 1t
was the work of a wizard of old with
the chicane of the goth century. 1t
was enhancing but diSconcertins.
The one note of the lecture of last
night was the harmony of sound
wrought into dulcet words. There
were some who said afterwards that
it was magnificent, but not eloquence.
That depends upon a definition and
that is ever a dangerous plaything. Ii
eloquence be the moving of the IN
ner self, if it means the enhancing OF
the mind and the pleasing of the ear
and the intoXication Of that listening
sense that lies within the human
DrCaSI-lI, III a WOIu, IL VIC uOl WI
fined to the excitement that follows
an appeal to the more primal passions
then this was eloquence distilled
from the dew-clouds of the gods. For
all of the audience forgot-and that
is the test-forgot the speaker the
time that passed with winged rapldlty,
forgot themselves in the words, words,
words that flashed and rolled and
played at hide and seek in a riot OF
rhythmic joy at their very liberation.
The subject was the "20th Century
Woman" 1t had been stated that 1t
would be changed to an older lecture
and with the surprise of the opening
words, the audience smiled its pleas
ure. After a revel in the realms of
romance, of high-fiown seances with
the beautifully ideal, the lecture set
tied at the end into a plea for the
right of woman suffrage. 1t needed
lust that earnest note of justice de-
layed to round it out, to bring Il home
to light it again on earth. And with
their prejudices intact the audience
still smiled-and, still happy, forgaVe.
Governor Aycock, who arose to in
troduce the speaker was greeted
with salvo after salvo of applause.
1--WE have assembled he said, ''to
listen to a lecture from man than
whom there is living today no great
er lecturer in the world-a man who
known as the Henry w. Grady of the
Twentieth Century-Hon John Tenn
pie Graves, OF Georgia"
in responding Mr. Graves said
gracefully that applause such as had
been given the Governor would be
given him in any State in which he
might be heard, that it was the gem
eral recognition of the excellence of
his administration, the nobility of his
ri n ctn or and the P19ritU of his in
tellect.
In the year 1, he went on, on the
9Th day of the week there was born
a man who knew nothing of women
and therefore spoke nothing of evil
OF his fellow man. In language indie
scribable the speaker depicted the
story of the paradise as told in the
book of genesis, the beauty of the
scenes, the purling streams, a sinless
being in a fawless universe
when the majesty of creation lurked
in the majesty of stainless soul. In
periods that burst out of prose into
almost a poetic chant he enlarged on
the glory that grew about the man
a glory that called for double soul
1t was the first protest against soli-
tude. God" declared the speaker,
Thought then that it was not good
for man to be alone-and he has been
thinking SO ever since" Every old
DdIcnolOr SnculQ DC Hldue " pIONc
conclusively the necessity of his state.
The batchelor is a freak. a monstrosi-
ty. God and man joined in the crea-
ton of woman. She is the joint pro-
duct of pure desire and beneficient
power.
He told how the first man awaited
the first woman. of the silent glory of
paradise when the first woman rose
from her bed of roses to greet with
the natural loneliness of her face and
form the enraptured vision of the
first and lonely man. There was no
enclosing corset, no brittle stays about
her; it was God, not Redfern who had
drawn the line of her exquisite figure.
There she stood. shy. in all the de-
tail of her pristine beauty one golden
strand of hair drifts across the white
marble of her shoulder and encircles
her nerfect waist And the first man