Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-06-22
GREAT SPEAKERS OF TODAY
Is Oratory Neglected Art in Our Educational 1nstu
tons ?-Opinions Of Gifted Speakers.

my dismay, when, on rising, l dlScOV-
cred after uttering the usual salutation
to audience and chairman. that not
vestige of the speech, IS planned, was
at command.
'To say that the situation was APP
palling only partly expressed it. A
mist 80 thick that I could not see the
audience swan before my eyes. and my
voice. I was presently aware-for was
saying something. what, l know not
was faint, indistinct and without
carrying power. I suppose l could
have hesitated only n moment or two,
but it seemed to me that I was prac-
tically voiceless for long time. Then
a flow of thought came to me-not the
speech as planned, but one based on q
new and different schcme-and. for
two hours, told thu people before me
what 1 thought upon the issues Of the
moment.
ION finishing had no definite notion
Of what 1 had said, and I wasn't sure
I had escaped fiat failure, until my
friends crowded about me and began to
offer congratulations"
Other orators besides Reed have been
|
memories, but this instance is probably
the most remarkable one on record Oh
extrication by means of extempore
effort coupled with intense and almost
unconscious cerebratiOn.
The late William Mckinley was
hardly rated high as an orator'in his
younger days, though his ability as a
speaker began to be fully realized be-
fore his death, and mis- last speech, AT
Buffalo, will long be held up as a
model of it's sort, both in delivery ana
composition. Its composition only can
be taken as a model. however, for. alas!
the delivery of the orator is like the arr
Of the actor; it lasts for the moment
only and is gone forever.
Mr.. McKinley's preparation OF MS
addresses was most elaborate. ana,
while he was painstaking to degree
with the composition, he never slighted
the delivery. He wasn't college man
and his training was all had in small
country courts, the subjects of his ear
" addresses, of course, being the petty
disputes Of his clients with their neigh-
bors and those with whom they DID
business. Perhaps it was because OIL
this very circumstance that he learned
when still young to work up ms ad-
dresses most carefully.
He never wrote out speech with his
own hand, If it was possible to get
stenographer to take his dictatloh.
Having got TIE stenOgrapher-he pre-
ferrcd a man, always-McKinley would
seat him in the middle of the room. SO
as to have a clear path all round him.
Then. beginning, Mckinley would die
tate his sentences, slowly. deliberately
and with the most extreme care, mean
while circling slowly about the short
hand man, Often and again he would
stop and correct himself, revising and
polishing, as he went along, with the
utmost pains. This he would continue
for an hour, sometimes; sometimes for
two.
When he had talked to the stenogra-
pher as long as he felt disposed. he
would leave him and the matter would
be carefully written out upon the type
writer.
Some time the next day. generally.
but often not for several days, the
typewriter copy would be taken in
pand.
Il was lUen tOdl plChlIuey .iuiuSSI
work of speech preparation was done.
He would cat and wise, amrlify, rear
range and interline. till the task would
seem truly to be a distracting one.
When finished he would give the result
to the typewriter. a mass of mixeC
hand and typewriter sheets to be cop
led out clearly again. When that was
done Mckinley would call in two or
three friends and to them he would
read the manuscript in his very best
style, not so much to get their opinions
as to the soundness Of its doctrines as
to find out whether 1t was quite clear
and direct in composition and delivery.
There have been few more success
full orators than the late George Frisbie
Hoar, and to many it has seemed that
his success as public speaker was due
mainly to his complete mastery of
whatever topic he took up.
Well, he always was thoroughly in
formed when he rose to speak, but no
one, either in the Senate or out of 1t.
ever laid more stress upon the impor-
lance of good delivery than he. and
few public speakers ever strove harder
to make their delivery perfect.
Mr.. Hoar worked days and days over
his important addresses. and on one oc-
casion. at least. he spent hours before
the glass in his hotel room practicing
his gestures, while rolling the periods
of TIE forthcoming big talk off his
tongue. Some one whose early morn
ing sleep was disturbed by the noise of
Mr., HOar's rehearsal told the CORE
spondent about it and they made and
printed great story out of it. Mr..
Hoar was more than embarrassed by
the publication. but he took it good
naturedly-he rarely got angry about a
joke on himself.
No other man, in the writer's knowl-
edge, was ever able to learn his adj
dresses so letter perfect as the late
Rev. DR.. Dewitt Talmage He used to
sell his sermons, IN advance, to the
newspapers all ever the country, for
publication on Monday mornings fol-
lowing delivery, and he had to furnish
COPY three weeks in advance. Yet he
used to deliver them exactly as printed,
even to the occasional apparent hesita-
tation over the choice Of a word and
the substitution of one word for anotr-
er.
vrto ,-rifer I'm awe, ty,;. - tr,,. fo-