The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1908-07-03

reporters to take 1t down. When the
ste%nographers take II down. the i'm.
promptu orators will sometimes give
n favored paper an exact copy OF the
speech, so as to have II printed cor.
rectly,
II may be limited that all this sa.
vors of the cynicism of the man who
envies the accomplishment of oratory
TO the "silver-tongued" tribe. Far
from It! have been there" Hora-
ito. and have on occasion aroused the
plaudits of the banqueteers myself.
The most pronounced success | eve
had In that way was n little impromp-
tn gem that I delivered before a "stone
sober crowd one time. ! had been
given my subject six months before.
and had written and rewritten my
talk all out, at least a dozen times. |
had polished it, and adorned it with
slavish care, and had blended with it
various thoughts and quotations from
the poets and the philosophers. You
don't have to use quotation marks In
oratory, and anyway, l did not know
where these gentlemen had stolen
their stuff from.
t. / type-wrote this talk, and let 1t
lie a couple of months, and then went
over 1t again, shortening some of the
long sentences, and rearranging and
shifting until l got it down as fine as
it was possible for me to do. Then
I learned it absolutely by heart. I
could say it backwards or forwards.
begin in the middle and recite 1t eth.
err way. I knew it better than the null
t%iplication table or the alphabet. I
"orated 1t" until I had, as l thought,
all the proper infections, even to a
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
up of this little 'impromptu," and one
which l should hardly care to tackle
again just for the sake Of doing ONE
n a favor.
Finally l 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 ever the
most obtuse will not be deceived II
you begin at top speed with your fire
works" But l had heard toe 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 that.
Something of this sort, for instance:
"As I stand on this spot to-day, I feel
incapable Of adequately voicing the
feelings that the time and the occa.
sion would call up in the breast of a
real orator." or 81 am glad to be with
you here, my friends, to-day; and this
called upon to celebrate, only makes
me feel my shortcomings as a speak,
err" or "As l entered the hall to-day I
caught sight Of" ETC.. etc.
And then, when you have edged in
with one or two airy common-places
you can come in with your "siss. boom,
ALI verbal py%rotechnics. and give the
audience a sure-enough "impromptu"
exhibition. -
The uninitiated will say: "Ain't he
a corker?"
The man that "is next" will reply:
"G'wan; I'll bet 1t took him six months
to frame that up"
ERNEST M'GAFFEY.
Copyright, 1908. by Joseph b. Bowles.)