The Washington herald., 1914-03-02
Statesmen, Real and Near.
Nv Fred q KEILY

voice in Congress Is that operated b.
Mr.. Alfalfa Bill Murray. Of Oklahoma
4 To start with. it is voice OF consid
cradle power. depth and resonance-giv
ing the impression Of having q weIl-sea
soned sounding board back Of II.
But the main feature of Mr.. Alfalfi
Bills voice Is that he made II himself.
In the beginning II was q high pitched
more or less soueaky voice that would no
Ill an auditorium larger than 12xls
But Murray set to work and fixed
over.
Even as q small boy. Murray. poor, ans
shoeless as he was. had an ambition I,
grow up and leap into public life. AM
he hgured-rightly or wrongly-thatl tn
main feature OF public HE Is getting VI
and making speeches. Thereforef II wor
ried him that his voice sounded 80 much
like a squeaking slate pencil.
About that time he read about the ex.
perience OF Demosthenes. the Attics
orator. and he tried Demosthenes' schen,t
of talking with pebbles I'm his mouth
But the plan didn't work any too wen
Murray found that he couldn't talk much
better with pebbles In his mouth thar
he could without the pebbles.
He was. becoming disheartened when
his teacher chanced to make a remark
one day about the value of breathins
exercises She said that she had had
two brothers die of tuberculosis, but that
II they had learned to breathe properly
the disease would never have attacked
them. She showed the pupils In the lit
ue room how 10 breathe to get air into
the remote parts Of the lungs. and went
on 10 show them how to use the lungs
for bellows In speaking, instead OF
speaking just from the throat.
From then on ''Bill'' Murray practIced
breathing exercises every morning. He
kept that up daily for fifteen years and
does II on and on even yet Furthermore.
he experimented with his voice 10 And
how to hold his mouth to get the tones
that suited him best. He had a mental
conception OF Just how his voice ought
to sound when 1t was DONE" and he
kept shifting and adjusting his vocal
machinery to get the desired effect.
The consequence was that he finally
made for himself voice In which he
can take considerable pride. Though he
looks like a tramp. his conversatjonaI
voice Is that of a man Of a good deal OF
culture.
Incidentally. "BilI'' Murray rose from
poverty 10 draft the constitution for his
state, and he himself thinks he could NOT
have done II except for his voice. -
When 1t comes to voices. one Of the
strongest In the House belongs to Tin,
Ahsoerry' OF Ohio. Tim is entirely un-
able to whisper. One day in the cours.
OF a speech, Tim was endeayorinr m
tell a story to ano- her member in an
undertone, but he nearly drowned ort
the noise OF the man who was delivering
the speech.
Speaker Clark, who used to teach
school, sent for him and said:
Ilm II you don't stop whispcrinr
when I'm hearing recitations. youIl sim
ply have to stay in at recess"
Representative Chimmie Fadden Town
send. Of New Jersey, set out the other
day on journey to Trenton, y. J.. 10
deliver a speech
II was to be an Informal affair and
Townsend had no set speech ready; but
when he was settled in his seat on the
choo-choos. he began TO jot down a few
thoughts on some crumpled sheets of
PAPER he had in his pocket.
Abraham Lincoln wrote his G.ttys-
burg speech on the train" murmured
Townsend TO himself. as his pencil began i.
TO move. And the first thing he knew
he had written out a good deal Of stuff
well, when he got to Trenton, a news
paper reporter asked him for an advance
copy OF his s9eecn.
Il have no advance copy." renl;.5
Townsend. I'm fact i have no speech
ready at all-except n few things I wrote
1cWn on the train. can read that OF
10 you. though.
Just let me take IL along" suggested |
the reporter.
"Ah no." said Townsend, you see fl,
me only copy l have. and may wish |
&c refer to it,
'I'H have 1t put into type and bring
you a nice clean proof" offered the re-
porter.
Agreed to.
That night when Townsend arose be-
ore the assembled multitude. he opened |
lis mouth and spake as follows:
81 really have not prepared a speech. |
However, 1 have few notes here that !
hall refer to
Business OF. pulling the printed proof
rom his pocket
The next speaker twitted Townsend
lnmercifully about not having prepared
speech and yet reading IL from a CODY,
rinted by a regular printer.
And Townsend wisely did not attempt
word OF explanation. What would have
een the use, with the circumstantial evil
ence all against him?
Nelson o'Shaughnessy, the American
barge d'affaires in Mexico, and Repre-
entative Maurice Connolly, of Iowa, were
at Oxford University, a
ew years ago. Both refrained from ac-
uiring British accent while there. and
eturned speaking the United States Ian
uage as well as they ever did.
Copyright. 1915. By Fred G. Kelly. All rights
resered.l
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