The Washington herald., 1916-01-01
Speaking in Public.
BY JOHN ID. BARRY.

1 ny SOffN ID nANhI.
! public speaker OF my acquaintance says that
he would rather make speech than eat He ex-
presses feeling that exists among many speakers.
This feeling would seem to indicate that they are
born speakers But such, have discovered, is not
by any means the case.
| In speaking, in every other activity of life,
there are many who love the activity without pos
sessing real aptitude. We all know people who
have passion for writing and yet cannot WRITE
and we are all excruciatngly familiar with those
who are bent acting in public, yet cannot act,
and obviously can never learn to act
| Occasionally | ask myself why it is that these
misguided people persist. 1t is simply, believe,
because they have passionate love for sef-expres-
sion. They are suffering from msdirected egotism.
On the other hand, know speakers and writers
who have made themselves successful through per-
sistence. They actually seem to develop what may
pass for natural talent Perhaps it is natural talent
Perhaps, at the start it hid itself far out of sight
and could be brought forward only after long and
arduous endeavor.
| Is it not possible, too, that the aspirants to
achievement of all kinds, deep in their natures
have something like natural taent' Bndly, fall
teringy, with failure for their inevitable goal they
may be answering the promptings OF this quality
Here is one Of the tragedies of ambition, per
haps its greatest tragedy.
| The more l speak in public myself the more
marvel at the Willingness of people to listen to
speech making.
In moments of deep confidence other speak
! ers have revealed to me that they have marveled
in exactly the same way.
In those talks we have not been frank enough
to say what believe to have been in the mind OF
every one of us, that we have also marveled while
listening to othfr speakers. For | have noticed
that even those who love to speak in public them
selves seldom enjoy hearing others speak in pub
| lie.
| The friend who says he prefers making speech
| to eating, speaks more literally than he means to
do. Before making speech at banquet for ex-
| impossible to eat. Many speakers are like him in
| this regard. Their minds concentrated on the
coming speech. And their minds influence their
bodies. The nerves anticipate the coming ordeal
and grow riotous. 1t is almost impossible to force
food into the mouth. The agony continues while
Other speakers are speaking And yet, on such
with some intentness The reason is not altrustic
They are hoping to find in what they hear material
that will help to keep them going.
1t is the fear of not being able to keep going
that in most speakers, creates nervousness. This
fear is commonly accompanied by. the dread Of
making start. Goethe's saying that every be-
ginning is hard" forcby applies to speech h-making
There comparatively few speakers in the world
who can get up on their feet and make bold
attack. Even when to the casual observer thev
may seem bold, they themselves know that they arc
inwardly quaking
On the other hand, there are nervous speakers
to the contrary, would not give up their nervous
ness. To them il is not unlike the creating of a
fierce appetite. 1t drives them to their task 1t
keeps them stimulated. 1t makes thinking easy
! and quick. And at the end it leaves a delicious
relief, heavenly satisfaction, not unlike the salts
faction in good meal achieved after long
stretch of work or of exercise in the open air.
l suppose it would be impossible to explain
what the secret is of interesting audience
After ALL being interesting on a platform is like
| esting and some are not. Some people never try
to be interesting and yet nearly always interest
ing. Often those who try hardest are the least in
teresting.
Perhaps the only sure way OF aiming at inter
est is to have something to say and to say it to
the people who likely to be interested The
most brilliant speaker in the world, the most orgi-
nal, with ideas OF the highest Importance may
make complete failure before an audience not
prepared to receive his message. Often have
seen speakers fail simply because the audience
could not do its part In such cases, the speaker
may receive discredit that belongs to the audience
alone
On the other hand, there is such thing as
speakers adapting himself to his audience. Here
is matter that many speakers concern them
selves with not at all. Indeed most speakers have
one method only. 1t may work with one audience
and fail with another. Perhaps in this lack OF
adaptability lies explanation of difference of
effect produced by some speakers. Often such
SPEAKERS Wonuc1 why Talk lnat mas succeeded
with one audience will bore another audience
There speakers who apparently never think
about the audience at all. They are almost certain
to be failures. | have heard speakers talk from
the platform if there one present. as
if they merely thinking aloud They don't
strive to establish close relation with the audi
ence, the relation that is like an electric current
Is they speakers of wide rcpute the audience
by working hard, may grasp what they have to say
And yet, even if the audience is willing to do its
work and succeeds n getting what they hay.
say, they failures speakers For, in speak
ing, there is something far beyond the mere pass
ing out Of information, something very much more
inspiring. 1t is the stimulus that results from a
happy adjustment between the audience and the
speaker creating sympathy and sending the audi
ence away feeling much better than it felt when
| it first assembled.
Bushwhackers Of Industry.