Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1912-01-25
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The Wendell Phillips centennial
reminds US that the peerless orator
who delighted our parents, and grand
parents was an orator and not a
writer-that his literary remains
as biographers say, were practically
nil. To those who recall his match
less outflow OF terse yet beautiful
English this will always be cause for
sincere regret. No orator OF the old
school or the new has equaled him
IN certain phases Of the greatest
OF all arts, and few will doubt that
II he had chosen to write books they
would have remained classics Of
thought and diction for all time.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson. In
his photographed Cheerful Yes
terdays," tells us why Wendell Phil
lips did not write books. He says
that Phillips had a theory that no
man could be both writer and speak
or, and deliberately chose to be first
in the forum rather than achieve q
divided fame. Higginson says. more
over, that Phillips was so firmly con-
WINGED that the two we're incompati-
BILE, that he sought to persuade his
literary. friends to confine themsel-
YES to literature and keep off the
platform. Higginson, himself, was
so far influenced in the matter that
for a long time he avoided public
speaking, convinced that he could
not do both we'll. Later he saw the
error In Phillips theory, and because,
as all the world is aware, one OF the
most popular orators and lecturers.
Phillips persisted in the practice OF
his theory to the end of his life.
Hence the present generation does
not know him as 1t knows many OF
his contemporaries who were immea-
sureably. his interiors upon the plat
form but whose books have preserved
their messages.
Phillips had a peculiar method OF
preparing his addresses. They were
seldom committed to paper. In COM
posing them he would lie upon b
couch for hours, sometimes for days
saturating his mind so thoroughly
with his subject that he could de-
pend upon 1t absolutely when he rose
to speak. His Harvard Phi reta
Kappa Grafton was thus prepared
and when he rose from his couch
1t was "letter perfect" from begin
ming to end.
He was essentially an agitator. HI
needed such an occasion as the anti
slavery movement to bring out hii
best. In the denunciatory style Of
oratory he has never had an equal
His words scared and blistered lik'
hot iron, yet every syllable seem
ed to be set to music. He was al
his best only when, as the tribune
of the people, he had grievance
His school, like his English style
has passed away. We are almost q
nation of orators today. for hun.
dreds of men In every community
can make fair speech. But great
oratory, of the style of Phillips and
Sargent s. Prentiss, has largely pass
ed away. The possession Of col
lege sheepskin Is so common that
the man of "liberal education" as
our grandfathers phrased 1t. is no
longer marked man in the COM
munity. Public speakers do not mold
thought and opinion as they did in
a generation or two ago. Mr.. Bryan
without an organ would be COM
paratively a negligible quantity. In
the most remarkable Of recent cam
paigns for the governorship Of Mas
sachusetts the successful candidate.
b plain businessman, did not make
a speech. He hired advertising space
in the daily papers of all parties
and filled it with expositions of his
theories Of government. The press
has superseded the platform. The
taste for lectures has declined. The
future lies with the man who by
the written rather than the spoken
thought can make millions think. /"
The recrudescence of the Phillipses,
Premises and Curtises would re-
Quire not only a great cause which
should appeal powerfully to the
hearts and .consciences of the peo-
pie, but return to old habits of
thought and life on the part Of the
people themselves. That condition
seems to have passed away forever.