Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1908-07-03

| reporters to take it down. When the
/ stenographers take 1t down, the I'M
promptu orators will sometimes give
favored paper an exact copy of the
speech, so as to have 1t printed cor
rectly.
1t 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! l have been there" Hora-
ito, and have on occasion aroused the
plaudits of the banQueteers myself.
| The most pronounced success / ever
had in that way was little impromp-
tu gem that delivered before "stone
| sober" crowd one time. l had been
given my subject six months before,
and had written and rewritten my
talk all out, at least dozen times.
had polished it, and adorned 1t with
slavish care, and had blended with 1t
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.
type-wrote this talk, and let it
| lie couple of months, and then went
over it again, shortening some of the
| long sentences, and rearranging and
shifting until l got 1t down as fine as
it was possible for me to do. Then
/ learned it absolutely by heart.
could say it backwards or forwards,
! begin in the middle and recite 1t eth
er way. l knew it better than the null
tiplication table or the alphabet. I
"orated it, until had, as thought
all the proper infections, even to a
little stumble, little eloquent pause"
where l was supposed to be overcome
by the strength of my emotions. 1t
was really 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 some
one favor.
Finally had the thing down letter
perfect, and the day and occasion ar
rived for my setting 1t 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 f.tal mistake, and even the
most obtuse will not be deceived If
you begin at top speed with your FIRE
works" But 1 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 q
few halting sentences about that. |
Something of this sort, for instance: |
"As stand on this spot to-day, 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 II 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 speak
err" or "As I 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 |
All" verbal pyrotechnics, 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 it took him six months
to frame that up"
ERNEST M'GAFFEY.
Copyright, 1908. by Joseph b. Bowles)