The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1908-07-04

reporters to AXE it down. When
s~tenographers take it down, the i'm
promptu orators will sometimes give
a favored paper an exact copy OF the
speech. so as to have it printed cor
rectly.
It may be limited that all this sa-
yors of the cynicism of the man who
envies the accomplishment OF oratory
to the "silver-tongued" tribe. Far
from it! l have "been there" Hora-
to-. and have on occasion the
plaudits of the ~banQueteers myself
The most pronounced success l ever
had in that way was a little impromp-
tn gem that / delivered before a stone
! sober" crowd one time. | had been
given my subject six months Delore'
and had written and rewritten my
talk all out. at least a dozen times L
had polished it, and adorned II Win
| slayish care, and had blended with IL
various thoughts and quotations from
the poets and the philosophers. o
don't have to use quotation marks IN
oratory. and anyway, 1 did not know
| WnGre THESE SSAllSDIOh
their stuff from.
7 tvpe-wrote this talk, and let 1t
lie a couple of months, and then went
over it again, shortening some or Inc
long sentences, and ~rearranging and
| shifting until l got it down as fine as
it was possible for me to do. Ihen
learned it absolutely by heart. L
could say it backwards or forwards,
| begin in the middle and rec1te 1t eth
er wav. knew it better than the null
t%iplication table or the alphabet. l
"orated it, until l had, as l thought,
all the proper infections, even 10 d
little stumble, a little eloquent pause
where l was supposed to be overcome
by the strength of my emotions. 1t
| was really a very hard job, the getting
I'D OF this little 'impromptu,' and n
which l should hardly care to tackle
again just for the sake of doing some
n q favor.
Finally had the thing down letter
perfect. and the day and occasion ar
rived for my setting it off,. Now
some 'impromptu" speakers make the
mistake of Spelling" their piece
right off the hooks" without giving
themselves any time for inspiration.
This is a fatal mistake, and even the
most obtuse will not be deceived II
you begin at top speed with your fire
works." But / had heard too many
impromptu speakers to be lured into
such a false position. The proper
way is to select something about the
particular occasion which may strike
your fancy and then start In with a
few hating sentences about hal.
Something OF this sort, for instance:
CAS- I stand on this spot to-day, feel
incapable of adequately voicing the
feelings that the time ard the occa-
sion would call up in the breast OF a
real orator." or Il am glad to be with
you here, my friends, to-day; and this
| audience, and the event which We are
| called upon to celebrate. only makes
me feel my shortcomings as a speak
err" or "As / entered the hall to-day
caught sight Of" etc., etc.
And then, when you have edged In
with one or two airy commonplace
you can come in with your 'siss. boom.
All" verbal pyrotechnics, and give the
audience a s~ure-enough "impromptu"
exhibition.
The uninitiated will say: Amt he
a corker?
The man that "is next" will reply:
"G'wan: I'll bet it took him six months
to frame that up"
ERNEST M'GAFFEY.
copyright, 1908. by Joseph B. Bowles)