Cheyenne Wells record., 1922-06-22
went ALL UNSUNC.
Tragedies in the Wake of Unde.
Iivered Speeches.
men Have Bowed to Fate, but Will
Women, Pedestal Of "Rights,"
Survive Disappointment?

OF all the tragedies of masculine ex.
perience ever since the Stone age none
has been more poignant than that of
the undelivered speech. And now one
| wonders whether the women, the dear
souls, Will prove more or less sensl-
| tive to the blighting sorrow of prepar-
ing Il graceful speech for some impor-
tant occasion and then being cheated
by fate Of the opportunity Of dellv-
ering it.
And when it's n clever speech, n truly
| brilliant speech, with carefully pre-
pared climax seasoned with flashes of
| wit and drOll anecdotes that would
make 'em rOar-what q tragedy is
there, HoratiO!
How different the history of the
| village, of the county, of the world
might be If nll the speeches that were
ever prepared had been actually de-
| livered according to SCHEDULED But
some pesky accident happens. The
hour grows late. Earlier speakers hog
more than their share of the time
Careless people in the audience get
sleepy and go home. The chairman
has to catch train. Somebody has
| to move IL vote of thanks and yOu-
| Alas! poor you. after hours of an
gushing suspense. you with that mag
niiicent speech In your pocket, you
| who have so fulsomely clapped for the
| other tiresome speakers-yOu. the
most promising orator in the place,
are left biting your nails with all
your music in you" It's maddening.
That blighted sorrow fell upon a
nice woman in Washington the other
day, remarks the New York Sun. She
was the head of Il distinguished fe-
male delegation that called Mt former
| President Woodrow Wilson's house to
present their respects to him in for
nal way. She had prepared Il speech,
perhaps most able and moving one.
But the delegation was accorded no
more than tleeting and dramatic
glimpse of the invallded statesman.
It's an old story for the hardened
male sex. but u new one for the wOm-
en-a silver-tongued orator left with
the mouth Open," us the Spanish say.
And it sets the Imagination wander
ing into the highways and byways of
history in search of the speeches that
might have been delivered II things
had gone little differently.
For instance. it Is probable that
among the papers of the former kaiser
Is Il manuscript of the speech that he
was going to deliver ut that Christ
mas dinner in Paris.
| And then there's the speech that
General SemenOfr was just about to
deliver when he arrived in New York
and mistook Sheriff Nugle and a bunch
of deputies for the mayor and alder
men. He thought they had come to
the station to present him with the
freedom OF the city, and he was just
opening his mouth to make Il properly
rhetorical response when somebody
explained to him in Russian that the
paper the sheriff was showing him was
warrant lur his arrest.
Frederick MncMOnnies may have
prepared Il speech to deliver to any
delegation of women who should dare
to beard him on the subject of the
manners of the stalwnrt young man
who symbollzes Civic Virtue in the
sculptOr's statue of that name. But
as feminine agitation over the statue
is simnering down the sculpt0r's
speech to his amateur critics may be
fated to pass into the limbo OF
speeches that never got themselves
spoken.