The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1906-07-17
TRICKS OF ORAToRY
DEVICES USED BY NOTED SPEAKERS
TO GAIN A POINT.

The Eject DemOsthenes Attained by
MisprOnOuncing His Words - The
Trap Into which the Eloquent Cur
ran Drew a Witness.
che wonders of Demosthenes wheth-
sr he ever in after years resumed of
set purpose that habit of stammering
which he had taken such heroic means
to eradicate. A stammer Is most eff
| fective trick sometimes, and we know
that Alcibiades found his lisp by no
means the least useful of his many
winning ways. The trick in oratory
combines both the conventional mean
ings of the word. 1t is sometimes a
habit, sometimes a will, sometimes
both.
Addison tells a capital story of a
trick In forensic oratory. At Westmin-
ster hall there was counselor who
never pleaded without a giece of pack
thread in his hand. which he used to
twist about a thumb or finger all the
while be was speaking The wags of
those days called 1t the thread of his
! DISCOURSE for he was not able to utter
a word without it." as a foolish client
proved once to his own cost, for he
stole the thread. and his advocate
came to utter grief.
Another clever sort of trick, the "tak-
ing dodge" to borrow phrase from
! the vernacular, is the more generally
interesting. The classic instance which
naturally occurs to every one Is
Burke's famous dagger scene" In the
house of commons when he empha-
sized his peroration regarding the
reign of terror in France by dramatic
ally throwing q dagger on the floor of
the house as an example of the meth
DDS of the apostles of liberty, equality
and fraternity.
/ One of the tricks credited to Sheri-
dan was very much On the lines of a
famous "score" of classic times A
member whose admiration for the bril-
liant statesman was not tempered with
discretion greatly annoyed Sheridan
by continually calculating, Hear,
hearF' without rhyme or reason. Sher-
idan determined to give him "a lesson.
At the close of one of his speeches, de-
mandatory of some individual, he used
the words, where shall we find a
more foolish knave or a more knavish
fool than heY
Hear, hearw came as usual from
| the troublesome enthusiast. Sheridan
bowed, thanked him for so obligingly
supplying the required information
and resumed his seat.
And long centuries before Demos
| themes, inveighing against an opponent
who was suspected of receiving subsi-
dies from the court of Persia, passion
he not Misthotos-a hireling?" But as
| though inadvertently be mispronounced
the words so obviously that the audi
ence shouted out corrections from all
| points" Misthotos! Misthotosv' the ef-
feet of which was to make the citizens
themselves apply the opprobrious cpl
thet.
Not very dissimilar in character is
one Of the many tricks attributed to
Curran. He was engaged on a case
wherein the principal witness on the
other side was gentleman Of position
whose evidence, II accepted, would be
conclusive. In his opening speech Cur
ran inveighed with all the bitterness
and eloquence In his power against
the chief witness for the other side,
but without actually mentioning his
name. When the time came for the
wttneSs-a Mr. Leger-to be sworn Cur
ran interposed In the blandest way
that this was surely needless formal
ity. Mr.. Leger's character was such
that he felt sure the jury would accept
his simple assertion. The unfortunate
Mr. Curran, you have a better opinion
Of me now than when you first spoke. "
"You admit then, sir, that, though
named no names, you recognized my
description as applying to yourselfT'
Another Of Curran's oratorical tricks
Is not unlike one Sheridan perpetrated
on the house. In this case the last
speaker, 1t will be remembered, had
wound up his speech with a classical
quotation. which, to Judge from the
plaudits 1t received, made a most eff
fective point Sheridan In his reply re-
GREETED the honorable member had not
completed the quotation. He would do
so himself, and the house would then
see how fatal to the contention of the
honorable member was the authority
he had cited. whereupon Sheridan with
magnificent dramatic effect recited a
sonorous piece of gibberishl And the
house applauled vigorously.
Curran's trick was at the expense Of
preternatlrally stupid jury. The
| judge happened TO be & eonsummate
| classical scholar and, knowing Curran
to be the same, was naturally astound-
ed on hearing him quote piece of Lat
in as coming from the Phantasma goria
of the historian Hesiod! 'You mean
Latin poet. Mr.. Curran. Hesiod was a
Greek, a poet and not historian, and
| doubt whether he ever wrote a work
called the Phantasmagoria The lines
are Juvenals." "Hesiod, my lord, l as
sure you, and Greek, not Latin" "You
must be out of your senses, Mr.. Cur
ran, or think l am out of mine The
| lines are Latin" "Well, my lord, l can
only suggest that we leave 1t as an is
sue for the jury, and I'll be bound 4hey
will find it-Greek" The trick wak
perfectly effectual.-London Globe.