The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1909-11-12
WHERE flO0uENoE FLOWER.

reporto of the speeches made
at the banquet rendered to Pres
ident Taft in the capital city of
Mississippi.
The age of oratory is not dead,
and the art is cultivated in Missis-
sippi as it is in no other state of the
union.
The Mississippians still retain ira
ditions of the best methods of Web
ster and Clay, along with a certain
culture in expression that was pc
culiar to the time of Burke and
Sheridan, Grattan and those other
princes of the art of speaking that
hourished in the dying hours of
Irish liberty, and in the beginning
of the uprising of democracy in Eng
land during the first quarter of the
last century.
The opening speech Of Judge
Longstreet was a model of pure
English. 1t was perfect in taste,
and in tone there was a stately cour-
tesy in it which was altogether
charming.
Judge Whit1eld's speech was a
remarkable production. 1t was or.
nate, yet it was a presentation of the
philosophy of the law, and the duty
of the judiciary, SO strong indeed as
to command the admiration of the
president himself, who in his reply
Immediately took up the threads of
Judge Whitfeld's suggestions, and
further developed them.
1t may be said that Mississippi is
the one state where an orator can
quote four of five verses of poetry,
as did Judge Whitfield, and "get
away with it."
If an after dinner speaker in New
York City should attempt to illus
trate a point by the recitation of an
ode by Shelley, or a song by Moore,
the auditors would think be was
talking in a foreign language.
The speech delivered by MI. Quin
was also in keeping with the dig
nifty of the occasion, and the ad-
dress prepared by Judge Noel show.
ed that the Mississippians had a
governor who, in speaking in be-
half of their State as it's chief Of
ficer, acquits himself with the dig
nifty and force that should come from
the head of that people.
Why is it the Mississippian is an
orator?
Is it in the blood or in the eli
mate?
Probably both contribute to the
towering of Mississippi eloquence.
Sargent S. Prentiss, the greatest
orator, probably, that ever thrilled
the ears of the nation, was born in
New England. Had Prentiss not
gone out from New England into
Mississippi, probably he would
have been now a man of no mem
DRY.
As it is, he was chief among the
orators of the golden era of Amer
lean eloquence.
Mountain people are held to be
eloquent, but there are no noun
tains in Mississippi.
Why the Mississippians are gol-
den mouthed we do not know.
We hope that Judge Whitfield,
or Judge Longstreet, OF some other
eloquent Mississippian will turn
philosopher in oratory and give to
the readers of The Commercial APP
peal the reasons why things are as
they are in the eloquence in the
| State to the South of us.-Memphis
Commercial Appeal.
The graceful, scholarly and gen
erous tribute of the Commercial
Appeal to Mississippi and to her
oratory and orators is just and true.
Mississippi produces and equips
her orators because of her splendid
traditions and the riches of her his
tory. Ours is the land of story and
song, of men and deeds. In the
gallant legends of France and Spain,
in the mystic weird chants of the
Choctaw wigwams, in the heroism
of white forefathers, in the chivalry
of the fathers, in the precious her