Evening journal., 1913-02-01
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Some Great Orators Who
MemOrized Their Speeches
By Holland.


| once asked Chouncey NJ Depew,
in the closing year of his first term
as United States Senator, if he care
fully prepared aud committed to mem
ory the public addresses. political and
others, which he delivered.
My habit in the preparation of my
addresses" Senator Depew replied,
is one which my early experience
taught me to be the only one upon
which | could rely ! do carefully
prepare all of my addresses except
ing those whoch are ust spoken off
hand. | dictate them to my stenog
rapher. After they are in type I care-'
fully revise them, but unless | am
to make formal address before
some learned body ] do not read by
manuscript notes. It usually kills
speech to read It.
but while I have an excellent mem
ory for names, faces. events and for
many of the law cases that are in the
books, | am singularly devoid Of the
power of verbal memorizing. IL is
very difficult for me to memorize a
poem, and it would be almost impos-
sible for me to commit to memory
an entire speech
For this reason, / get the gist OF
my manuscript fairly we'll fixed in
mind and with that as a basis my pub
lie speeches are extemporaneous
That is the reason why so many pee
pie have said to me, Senator. wa
heard you speak and We read the re-
port OF your address and find there
is great difference between them
To these friends | have always re :,
piled. There may be a difference in
verbal arrangement or expression,
but not in thought"
Il have heard that Senator Conk-
ling always carefully prepared his
speeches and then committed them to
memory. l said.
THAT is correct" Senator Depew
replied. "and committing one of his
own speeches to memory always caus-
ed Conkling intense concentration
and prolonged labor. You remember
the great speech which he made in
the Academy of Music at New York
which required three hours for its
delivery. It was a wonderful exposi-
ton Of art. for Conkling's manner,
his gestures and his entire attitude
gave everyone the impression that he
was speaking eXtemporaneously. But
I know that he submitted himself to
the prodigious work of committing
that unusually long speech to mem
ory. but it required many hours OF
intense mental concentration for him
to do it,
"Conkling's gift was entirely diff
ferent from that OF william II. Sew
ard. Seward possessed that unusual
| intellectual power which was so con-
spicuous gift of Macaulay, the Eng.
4 lish essayist and historian. Both
could imprint indelibly upon their
memory page after page of manu-.
script or the printed word without
any apparent mental effort.
"The great speech which gave
Seward his highest fame and which
is called the Higher Law speech was
a work involving many days of in
/ tense labor After the speech was
written-and Seward wrote it all out
in his own hand-he read It over
once, chiefly for the purpose OF re
vision. That single reading photo
graphed indclibly upon his mimi
every word exactly as it was written,
THAT. however, is a natural-born
gift. II cannot be acquired ! think
that William n. Seward was almost
exceptional in his respect, although
! have understood that Grover Cleve-
land also possessed this unusual gift.
have been told that a single reading
of his manuscript of a prepared ad-
dress in his own handwriting-for
Cleveland never learned the art OF
dictating-was sufficient to imprint
the entire speech with absolute accur-
acy upon his mind"
! downright. 1918. bv z. J. Edwards.