The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-07-19
HOW no TAP YOUR H5ooUSm,
Let Would-Be Orators Take . Hms
From Mr.. LttIetOn.

Most OF the noted public speakers
get the popular credit of being able
to deliver oratorical goods without
having committed TO memory more
than n skeleton of their speeches.
This idea is d~iscouraging to laymen.
n find. If called on for an impromp-
III speech. even in a familiar and
friendly gathering. that they are
struck dumb-unable to untangie their
thoughts.
Such should attend to an account
OF the strange and ingenious methods
of the Hon. Martin w. Littleton, Dor
ough president of Brooklyn, who made
the nominating speech for Judge Pal-
ker at st. Louis.
Mr.. Littleton is numbered among
the telling speakers Of the Democracy.
yet he cannot speak offhand. He COM
mits to memory every word Of his
| speeches, and does it so thorough,
that there is never a slip in his de-
livery.
When Mr.. Littleton learns that he
is to make a speech he sallies forth
to his stationeT's. where he buys a
collection of pads of colored paper
such as would serve in A. examina-
ton for color blindness. He gets white
pads. red pads, blue pads, green pads,
yellow pads, heliotrope pads and pink
pads. Then he goes to h pencil case
and picks out pencils of every o!o
Of lead that the HOUSE affords. Then
he goes home, ready for work.
The rest is s Mr.. LittletoI,
writes the first page of his speech or,
white paper with a black pencil, the
second with a blue pencil, the third
with a red pencil, and so on until all
the pencils " been used on tho
and writes upon it with all the pencils
except, perhaps, h red pencil
dropping a pencil at the end of each
sheet and taking up another.
And then? Why, it's very simple, at
least for the Brooklyn orator. He
reads the speech to himself, over and
over, and each sheet of paper impress
es itself upon his memory. He
knows that when he stands before
his audience he can gaze into space
n every sheet will parade before
him in the written order. 1t will be
just as easy as though he had written
his speech on s~tereopticon slides and
had it flashed at the back of the con-
vention hall.
When he gets agoing with a para
graph about the honor conferred on
the great Empire State by the most
sanguine Democratic national
ton of a decade he will have the
white page and h black pencil before
his minds eye. The real paper and
pencil may be in the ash can by a
time. AS he comes to the part about
| the honored judiciary Of our great
State,' he may be looking at yellow
writing on a green pad.
His peroration, fraught with enthu-
| siasm, may swim before him in purple
on pink, but his hearers will think it
Is nothing but pure inspiration.
senator Joe Bailey, of Texas, who Il,
! n of the steadiest takers in o
greSs, has all his speeches pat before
he takes the floor. He memorize.
them by main strength. Senator Joe
: once said 1T was a shame the a the
| House of Representatives restrained
| the speech of it's members.
Why" he declared Indignantly, mo
real orator can get into his stride in
| less than an hour" That was about
| the time he spoke for two hours on the
difference between "a quorum" and
the quorum
Bourke Cochran, who is a natural
orator, does not memorize his
speeches. He keeps the order of his
argument in mind, but his fluency and
vocabulary are great. The ideas he
may repeat the next day in far differ
ent verbal form, but with exactly the
same meaning.-New York Sun.