Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-02-08
TILLMAN AS AN ORATOR.
The South Carolina Senator Not Great
In oratory, But He Draws


The South Carolina Senator Not Great
In oratory, But He Draws
The senate galleries. says Wash
ington letter to the New York Sun. are
always filled when Senator Tillman is
announced to speak No other SEN
ator since the days Of the acrid and
dazzling ingalls, has been able to draw
such crowds as he.
Yet Senator Tillman isn't a great
orator. In the first place, his voice Ii
bit shrill and unpleasant, until he
gets warmed up to the shouting point,
and then 1t takes on deeper and
more sonorous timbre.
Again, he speaks somewhat discon-
nectedly, sometimes losing the thread
Eof his argument. altogether. But like
creek or river diverted from its path,
he always gets back to the main bed
| OF his progress in time.
| He sometimes makes the sentences
so long that he has to pull up short
and begin again. When he reads from
prepared manuscript-this is not Of
ten-the monotony of his delivery Is
tiresome. t'l ~
| When he is making a speech from
data scattered about his desk he has
prodigious difficulty In finding his
references at critical junctures. He
gropes all over the Uttered desk and
the desks Of his senatorial netghhors on
either hand for the missing piece Of
paper. founders around underneath the
desks and on the floor, becomes red In
the face and fustered and mad all
through. sf4
The neighboring senators make
great show Of helping him to find what
he is looking for, but they really don't
try very hard. for they are smiling all
the time and apparently enjoying the
spectacle Of wrath which the South
carolinian presents In these circun-r
stances. A snicker runs around the
galleries at such times. and this does
not cause the senator from South Car
olint to feel himself any more at ease
over the lost reference.
But always he succeeds In finding
the lost bit Of paper in time. He sim
ply will not proceed until he does find
It, and he has searched for as long as
ten minutes, while senate and audience
waited. Then he goes ahead with his
argument
His gestures are those Of q man
wholly unframed In the art OF oratory
but, somehow the Hacking gestures
seem to belong to and to suit the flow
of words when the senator becomes
thoroughly wrought up. For all that
he Is a very well read man, the SEN
ator is still rough diamond.
He likes to display his reading. He
asked Senator Patterson during the
debate IL he had ever read that pas
sage Of Buckles 'TIistory OF civiliza-
tion" which depicts the expulsion OF
the Moors from Spain, and the learn
ed old gentlemen Of the senate smiled
In their boards over the artlessness Of
the question. Senator Tillman is the
last man ON earth who might be sup
posed to admire wordsworth and 9TH
ers OF the Lake school Of poets, but
he often quotes from Wordsworth and
his contemporaries Of that school.
He gets in a Latin quotation once
In white, too. He knows Latin. hav-
ing instructed himself in that language
rs a boy and perfected himself In II In
later life with the aid OF instructors.
Once learned senator. q university
man. sought to trip Senator Tillman
as to his knowledge Of Latin and the
South Carolinian quickly beat him In
to the ground, proving to the convic-
ton Of all hands that he really knew
more Latin than his somewhat pomp-
GUS interrogation. ''s
But for all his reading and self
education Senator Tillman frequently
makes little breaks In his speeches, due
no doubt to his close contact during
the greater part of the year with the
element Of his constituency which talks
| the vernacular. Once during his last
Brownsville speech he started to say
Everybody knowed that this battal-
ion," but he promptly corrected 1t to
Everybody knew" glancing about at
the same time to see II he could de-
tect any smile on the faces Of his col
leagues over the break, for he is q
very sensitive man. he also said q
bit later on, "Now, ! won't ask no mo-
time" changing this, too, to 'any more
time"
But for all Of these things Senator
Tillman makes an interesting speech.
He gives utterance to ideas without
fiubdub or padding. His fearlessness,
which approaches recklessness, gives
constant fllip to the anticipation
that the next thing he says will be
even more audacious than anything
that has gone before.
He is as contemptuous Of the sem
ate's traditional dignity as small boy
of his sisters doll. When he gets on
the subject Of the race question the
pictures he draws are especially vivid.
He is quick as lightning in debate. II
he hasn't any logical reply to make to
some senator who has cornered him he
impales the interrogating senator on
the fence picket Of his rough wit to
dodge the issue, and most senators look
very foolish after they have got up
in their places with the idea Of cor
railing Benjamin Tillman.
HERculANEUM'S RESURRECTION