PUBLIC SPEAKING= DALE DOROTHY CHAP. 28 to 31

CHAPTER XXVIII

 MEMORY TRAINING 

Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; Awake but one, and lo! what myriads rise! 

Each stamps its image as the other flies! * * * * * Hail, memory, hail! in thy exhaustless mine From age to age unnumber'd treasures shine!

 Thought and her shadowy brood thy call obey, And Place and Time are subject to thy sway! --SAMUEL ROGERS,

 Pleasures of Memory. Many an orator, like Thackeray, has made the best part of his speech to himself--on the way home from the lecture hall. 

Presence of mind--it remained for Mark Twain to observe--is greatly promoted by absence of body. 

A hole in the memory is no less a common complaint than a distressing one. Henry Ward Beecher was able to deliver one of the world's greatest addresses at Liverpool because of his excellent memory. 

In speaking of the occasion Mr. Beecher said that all the events, arguments and appeals that he had ever heard or read or written seemed to pass before his mind as oratorical weapons, and standing there he had but to reach forth his hand and "seize the weapons as they went smoking by."

 Ben Jonson could repeat all he had written. 

Scaliger memorized the Iliad in three weeks.

 Locke says: "Without memory, man is a perpetual infant."

 Quintilian and Aristotle regarded it as a measure of genius. 

Now all this is very good. 

We all agree that a reliable memory is an invaluable possession for the speaker. We never dissent for a moment when we are solemnly told that his memory should be a storehouse from which at pleasure he can draw facts, fancies, and illustrations. 

But can the memory be trained to act as the warder for all the truths that we have gained from thinking, reading, and experience?

 And if so, how? Let us see. 

Twenty years ago a poor immigrant boy, employed as a dish washer in New York, wandered into the Cooper Union and began to read a copy of Henry George's "Progress and Poverty." 

His passion for knowledge was awakened, and he became a habitual reader.

 But he found that he was not able to remember what he read, so he began to train his naturally poor memory until he became the world's greatest memory expert. 

This man was the late Mr. Felix Berol.

 Mr. Berol could tell the population of any town in the world, of more than five thousand inhabitants. 

He could recall the names of forty strangers who had just been introduced to him and was able to tell which had been presented third, eighth, seventeenth, or in any order. 

He knew the date of every important event in history, and could not only recall an endless array of facts but could correlate them perfectly. 

To what extent Mr. Berol's remarkable memory was natural and required only attention, for its development seems impossible to determine with exactness, but the evidence clearly indicates that, however useless were many of his memory feats, a highly retentive memory was developed where before only "a good forgettery" existed. 

The freak memory is not worth striving for, but a good working memory decidedly is.

 Your power as a speaker will depend to a large extent upon your ability to retain impressions and call them forth when occasion demands, and that sort of memory is like muscle--it responds to training. 

What Not to do? 

It is sheer misdirected effort to begin to memorize by learning words by rote, for that is beginning to build a pyramid at the apex. 

For years our schools were cursed by this vicious system--vicious not only because it is inefficient but for the more important reason that it hurts the mind. True, some minds inefficient but for the more important reason that it hurts the mind. 

True, some minds are natively endowed with a wonderful facility in remembering strings of words, facts, and figures, but such are rarely good reasoning minds;

 the normal person must belabor and force the memory to acquire in this artificial way. 

Again, it is hurtful to force the memory in hours of physical weakness or mental weariness. 

Health is the basis of the best mental action and the operation of memory is no exception.

 Finally, do not become a slave to a system.

 Knowledge of a few simple facts of mind and memory will set you to work at the right end of the operation.

 Use these principles, whether included in a system or not, but do not bind yourself to a method that tends to lay more stress on the way to remember than on the development of memory itself.

 It is nothing short of ridiculous to memorize ten words in order to remember one fact.

The Natural Laws of Memory Concentrated attention at the time when you wish to store the mind is the first step in memorizing--and the most important one by far. 

You forgot the fourth of the list of articles your wife asked you to bring home chiefly because you allowed your attention to waver for an instant when she was telling you.

Attention may not be concentrated attention. 

When a siphon is charged with gas it is sufficiently filled with the carbonic acid vapor to make its influence felt; 

a mind charged with an idea is charged to a degree sufficient to hold it. 

Too much charging will make the siphon burst; 

too much attention to trifles leads to insanity.

 Adequate attention, then, is the fundamental secret of remembering.

  Generally we do not give a fact adequate attention when it does not seem important.

 Almost everyone has seen how the seeds in an apple point, and has memorized the date of Washington's death.

Most of us have--perhaps wisely--forgotten both. 

The little nick in the bark of a tree is healed over and obliterated in a season, but the gashes in the trees around Gettysburg are still apparent after fifty years. Impressions that are gathered lightly are soon obliterated.

 Only deep impressions can be recalled at will. 

Henry Ward Beecher said: "One intense hour will do more than dreamy years." To memorize ideas and words, concentrate on them until they are fixed firmly and deeply in your mind and accord to them their true importance. 

LISTEN with the mind and you will remember. 

How shall you concentrate?

 How would you increase the fighting-effectiveness of a man-of-war?

 One vital way would be to increase the size and number of its guns.

 To strengthen your memory, increase both the number and the force of your mental impressions by attending to them intensely. 

Loose, skimming reading, and drifting habits of reading destroy memory power. However, as most books and newspapers do not warrant any other kind of attention, it will not do altogether to condemn this method of reading; 

but avoid it when you are trying to memorize. 

Environment has a strong influence upon concentration, until you have learned to be alone in a crowd and undisturbed by clamor. 

When you set out to memorize a fact or a speech, you may find the task easier away from all sounds and moving objects.

 All impressions foreign to the one you desire to fix in your mind must be eliminated. The next great step in memorizing is to pick out the essentials of the subject, arrange them in order, and dwell upon them intently. Think clearly of each essential, one after the other. Thinking a thing--not allowing the mind to wander to non-essentials--is really memorizing. Association of ideas is universally recognized as an essential in memory work; indeed, whole systems of memory training have been founded on this principle. CHAPTER XXVIII 176 Many speakers memorize only the outlines of their addresses, filling in the words at the moment of speaking. Some have found it helpful to remember an outline by associating the different points with objects in the room. Speaking on "Peace," you may wish to dwell on the cost the cruelty, and the failure of war, and so lead to the justice of arbitration. Before going on the platform if you will associate four divisions of your outline with four objects in the room, this association may help you to recall them. You may be prone to forget your third point, but you remember that once when you were speaking the electric lights failed, so arbitrarily the electric light globe will help you to remember "failure." Such light globe will help you to remember "failure." Such associations, being unique, tend to stick in the mind. While recently speaking on the six kinds of imagination the present writer formed them into an acrostic--visual, auditory, motor, gustatory, olfactory, and tactile, furnished the nonsense word vamgot, but the six points were easily remembered. In the same way that children are taught to remember the spelling of teasing words--separate comes from separ--and as an automobile driver remembers that two C's and then two H's lead him into Castor Road, Cottman Street, Haynes Street and Henry Street, so important points in your address may be fixed in mind by arbitrary symbols invented by yourself. The very work of devising the scheme is a memory action. The psychological process is simple: it is one of noting intently the steps by which a fact, or a truth, or even a word, has come to you. Take advantage of this tendency of the mind to remember by association. Repetition is a powerful aid to memory. Thurlow Weed, the journalist and political leader, was troubled because he so easily forgot the names of persons he met from day to day. He corrected the weakness, Repetition is a powerful aid to memory. Thurlow Weed, the journalist and political leader, was troubled because he so easily forgot the names of persons he met from day to day. He corrected the weakness, relates Professor William James, by forming the habit of attending carefully to names he had heard during the day and then repeating them to his wife every evening. Doubtless Mrs. Weed was heroically longsuffering, but the device worked admirably. After reading a passage you would remember, close the book, reflect, and repeat the contents--aloud, if possible. Reading thoughtfully aloud has been found by many to be a helpful memory practise. Write what you wish to remember. This is simply one more way of increasing the number and the strength of your mental impressions by utilizing all your avenues of impression. It will help to fix a speech in your mind if you speak it aloud, listen to it, write it out, and look at it intently. You have then impressed it on your mind by means of vocal, auditory, muscular and visual impressions. Some folk have peculiarly distinct auditory memories; they are able to recall things heard much better than things seen. Others have the visual memory; they are best able to recall sight-impressions. As you recall a walk you have taken, are you able to remember better the sights or the sounds? Find out what kinds of impressions your memory retains best, and use impressions your memory retains best, and use them the most. To fix an idea in mind, use every possible kind of impression. Daily habit is a great memory cultivator. Learn a lesson from the Marathon runner. Regular exercise, though never so little daily, will strengthen your memory in a surprising measure. Try to describe in detail the dress, looks and manner of the people you pass on the street. Observe the room you are in, close your eyes, and describe its contents. View closely the landscape, and write out a detailed description of it. How much did you miss? Notice the contents of the show windows on the street; how many features are you able to recall? Continual practise in this feat may develop in you as remarkable proficiency as it did in Robert Houdin and his son. The daily memorizing of a beautiful passage in literature will not only lend strength to the memory, but will store the mind with gems for quotation. But whether by little or much add daily to your memory power by practise. CHAPTER XXVIII 177 Memorize out of doors. The buoyancy of the wood, the shore, or the stormy night on deserted streets may freshen your mind as it does the minds of countless others. Lastly, cast out fear. Tell yourself that you can and will and do remember. By pure exercise of selfism assert your mastery. Be obsessed with the fear of forgetting and you cannot remember. Practise the reverse. Throw aside your manuscript crutches--you may tumble once or twice, but what matters that, for you are going to learn to walk and leap and run. Memorizing a Speech Now let us try to put into Now let us try to put into practise the foregoing suggestions. First, reread this chapter, noting the nine ways by which memorizing may be helped. Then read over the following selection from Beecher, applying so many of the suggestions as are practicable. Get the spirit of the selection firmly in your mind. Make mental note of--write down, if you must--the succession of ideas. Now memorize the thought. Then memorize the outline, the order in which the different ideas are expressed. Finally, memorize the exact wording. No, when you have done all this, with the most faithful attention to directions, you will not find memorizing easy, unless you have previously trained your memory, or it is naturally retentive. Only by constant practise will memory become strong and only by continually observing these same principles will it remain strong. You will, however, have made a beginning, and that is no mean matter. THE REIGN OF THE COMMON PEOPLE I do not suppose that if you were to go and look upon the experiment of self-government in America you would have a very high opinion of it. I have not either, if I just look upon the surface of things. Why, men will say: "It stands to reason that 60,000,000 ignorant of law, ignorant of constitutional history, ignorant of jurisprudence, of finance, and taxes and tariffs and forms of currency--60,000,000 people that never studied these things--are not fit to rule." Your diplomacy is as complicated as ours, and it is the most complicated on earth, for all things grow in complexity as they develop toward a higher condition. What fitness is there in these people? Well, it is not democracy merely; it is a representative democracy. Our people do not vote in mass for anything; they pick out captains of thought, they pick out the men that do know, and they send to the Legislature to think for them, and then the people afterward ratify or disallow them. But when you come to the Legislature I am bound to confess that the thing does not look very much more cheering on the outside. Do they really select the best men? Yes; in times of danger they do very generally, but in ordinary time, "kissing goes by favor." You know what the duty of a regular Republican-Democratic legislator is. It is to get back again next winter. His second duty is what? His second duty is to put himself under that extraordinary providence that takes care of legislators' salaries. The old miracle of the prophet and the meal and the oil is outdone immeasurably in our days, for they go there poor one year, and go home rich; in four years they become moneylenders, all by a trust in that gracious providence that takes care of legislators' salaries. Their next duty after that is to serve the party that sent them up, and then, if there is anything left of them, it belongs to the commonwealth. Someone has said very wisely, that if a man traveling wishes to relish his dinner he had better not go into the kitchen to see where it is cooked; if a man wishes to respect and obey the law, he had better not go to the Legislature to see where that is cooked. --HENRY WARD BEECHER. From a lecture delivered in Exeter Hall, London, 1886, when making his last tour of Great BritainIn Case of Trouble CHAPTER XXVIII 178 But what are you to do if, notwithstanding all your efforts, you should forget your points, and your mind, for the minute, becomes blank? This is a deplorable condition that sometimes arises and must be dealt with. Obviously, you can sit down and admit defeat. Such a consummation is devoutly to be shunned. Walking slowly across the platform may give you time to grip yourself, compose your thoughts, and stave off disaster. Perhaps the surest and most practical method is to begin a new sentence with your last important word. This is not advocated as a method of composing a speech--it is merely an extreme measure which may save you in tight circumstances. It is like the fire department--the less you must use it the better. If this method is followed very long you are likely to find yourself talking about plum pudding or Chinese Gordon in the most unexpected manner, so of course you will get back to your lines the earliest moment that your feet have hit the platform. Let us see how this plan works--obviously, your Let us see how this plan works--obviously, your extemporized words will lack somewhat of polish, but in such a pass crudity is better than failure. Now you have come to a dead wall after saying: "Joan of Arc fought for liberty." By this method you might get something like this: "Liberty is a sacred privilege for which mankind always had to fight. These struggles [Platitude--but push on] fill the pages of history. History records the gradual triumph of the serf over the lord, the slave over the master. The master has continually tried to usurp unlimited powers. Power during the medieval ages accrued to the owner of the land with a spear and a strong castle; but the strong castle and spear were of little avail after the discovery of gunpowder. Gunpowder was the greatest boon that liberty had ever known." Thus far you have linked one idea with another rather obviously, but you are getting your second wind now and may venture to relax your grip on the too-evident chain; and so you say: "With gunpowder the humblest serf in all the land could put an end to the life of the tyrannical baron behind the castle walls. The struggle for liberty, with gunpowder as its aid, wrecked empires, and built up a new era for all mankind." In a moment more you have gotten back to your outline and the day is savedPractising exercises like the above will not only fortify you against the death of your speech when your memory misses fire, but it will also provide an excellent training for fluency in speaking. Stock up with ideas. QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 1. Pick out and state briefly the nine helps to memorizing suggested in this chapter. 2. Report on whatever success you may have had with any of the plans for memory culture suggested in this chapter. Have any been less successful than others? 3. Freely criticise any of the suggested methods. 4. Give an original example of memory by association of ideas. 5. List in order the chief ideas of any speech in this volume. 6. Repeat them from 7. Expand them into a speech, using your own words. CHAPTER XXVIII 179 8. Illustrate practically what would you do, if in the midst of a speech on Progress, your memory failed you and you stopped suddenly on the following sentence: "The last century saw marvelous progress in varied lines of activity." 9. How many quotations that fit well in the speaker's tool chest can you recall from memory? 10. Memorize the poem on page 42. How much time does it require?

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CHAPTER XXIX 

RIGHT THINKING AND PERSONALITY 

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called. --JOHN STUART MILL, On Liberty. Right thinking fits for complete living by developing the power to appreciate the beautiful in nature and art, power to think the true and to will the good, power to live the life of thought, and faith, and hope, and love. --N.C. SCHAEFFER, Thinking and Learning to Think. The speaker's most valuable possession is personality--that indefinable, imponderable something which sums up what we are, and makes us different from others; that distinctive force of self which operates appreciably on those whose lives we touch. It is personality alone that makes us long for higher things. Rob us of our sense of individual life, with its gains and losses, its duties and joys, and we grovel. "Few human creatures," says John Stuart Mill, "would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals for a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast's pleasures; no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though he should be persuaded that the fool, or the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they with theirs.... It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied, better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool or the pig is of a different opinion, it is only because they know only own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides." Now it is precisely because the Socrates type of person lives on the plan of right thinking and restrained feeling and willing that he prefers his state to that of the animal. All that a man is, all his happiness, his sorrow, his achievements, his failures, his magnetism, his weakness, all are in an amazingly large measure the direct results of his thinking. Thought and heart combine to produce right thinking: "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." As he does not think in his heart so he can never become. Since this is true, personality can be developed and its latent powers brought out by careful cultivation. We have long since ceased to believe that we are living in a realm of chance. So clear and exact are nature's laws that we forecast, scores of years in advance, the appearance of a certain comet and foretell to the minute an eclipse of the Sun. And we understand this law of cause and effect in all our material realms. We do not plant potatoes and expect to pluck hyacinths. The law is universal: it applies to our mental powers, to morality, to personality, quite as much as to the heavenly bodies and the grain of the fields. "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap," and nothing else. Character has always been regarded as one of the chief factors of the speaker's power. Cato defined the orator as vir bonus dicendi peritus--a good man skilled in speaking. Phillips Brooks says: "Nobody can truly stand as a utterer before the world, unless he be profoundly living and earnestly thinking." "Character," says Emerson, "is a natural power, like light and heat, and all nature cooperates with it. The reason why we feel one man's presence, and do not feel another's is as simple as one man's presence, and do not feel another's is as simple as gravity. Truth is the summit of being: justice is the application of it to affairs. All individual natures stand in a scale, according to the purity of this element in them. The will of the pure runs down into other natures, as water runs down from a higher into a lower vessel. This natural force is no more to be withstood than any other natural force.... Character is nature in the highest form." It is absolutely impossible for impure, bestial and selfish thoughts to blossom into loving and altruistic habits. Thistle seeds bring forth only the thistle. Contrariwise, it is entirely impossible for continual altruistic, sympathetic, and serviceful thoughts to bring forth a low and vicious character. Either thoughts or feelings CHAPTER XXIX 181 precede and determine all our actions. Actions develop into habits, habits constitute character, and character determines destiny. Therefore to guard our thoughts and control our feelings is to shape our destinies. The syllogism is complete, and old as it is it is still true. Since "character is nature in the highest form," the Since "character is nature in the highest form," the development of character must proceed on natural lines. The garden left to itself will bring forth weeds and scrawny plants, but the flower-beds nurtured carefully will blossom into fragrance and beauty. As the student entering college largely determines his vocation by choosing from the different courses of the curriculum, so do we choose our characters by choosing our thoughts. We are steadily going up toward that which we most wish for, or steadily sinking to the level of our low desires. What we secretly cherish in our hearts is a symbol of what we shall receive. Our trains of thoughts are hurrying us on to our destiny. When you see the flag fluttering to the South, you know the wind is coming from the North. When you see the straws and papers being carried to the Northward you realize the wind is blowing out of the South. It is just as easy to ascertain a man's thoughts by observing the tendency of his character. Let it not be suspected for one moment that all this is merely a preachment on the question of morals. It is that, but much more, for it touches the whole man--his imaginative nature, his ability to control his feelings, the mastery of his thinking faculties, and--perhaps most largely--his power to will and to carry his volitions into effective action. Right thinking constantly assumes that the will sits enthroned to execute the dictates of mind, conscience and heart. Never tolerate for an instant the suggestion that your will is not absolutely efficient.The way to will is to will--and the very first time you are tempted to break a worthy resolution--and you will be, you may be certain of that--make your fight then and there. You cannot afford to lose that fight. You must win it--don't swerve for an instant, but keep that resolution if it kills you. It will not, but you must fight just as though life an instant, but keep that resolution if it kills you. It will not, but you must fight just as though life depended on the victory; and indeed your personality may actually lie in the balances! Your success or failure as a speaker will be determined very largely by your thoughts and your mental attitude. The present writer had a student of limited education enter one of his classes in public speaking. He proved to be a very poor speaker; and the instructor could conscientiously do little but point out faults. However, the young man was warned not to be discouraged. With sorrow in his voice and the essence of earnestness beaming from his eyes, he replied: "I will not be discouraged! I want so badly to know how to speak!" It was warm, human, and from the very heart. And he did keep on trying--and developed into a creditable speaker. There is no power under the stars that can defeat a man with that attitude. He who down in the deeps of his heart earnestly longs to get facility in speaking, and is willing to make the sacrifices necessary, will reach his goal. "Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you," is indeed applicable to those who would acquire speech-power. You will not realize the prize that you wish for languidly, but the goal that you start out to attain with the spirit of the old guard that dies but never surrenders, you will surely reach. Your belief in your ability and your willingness to make sacrifices for that belief, are the double index to your future achievements. Lincoln had a dream of his possibilities as a speaker. He transmuted that dream into solely because he walked many miles to borrow books which he read by the log-fire glow at night. He sacrificed much to realize his vision. Livingstone had a great faith in his ability to serve the benighted races of Africa. To actualize that faith he gave up all. Leaving England for the interior of the Dark Continent he struck the death blow to Europe's profits from the slave trade. Joan of Arc had great self-confidence, glorified by an infinite capacity for sacrifice. She drove the English beyond the Loire, and stood beside Charles while he was crowned. CHAPTER XXIX 182 These all realized their strongest desires. The law is universal. Desire greatly, and you shall achieve; sacrifice much, and you shall obtain. Stanton Davis Kirkham has beautifully expressed this thought: "You may be keeping accounts, Stanton Davis Kirkham has beautifully expressed this thought: "You may be keeping accounts, and presently you shall walk out of the door that has for so long seemed to you the barrier of your ideals, and shall find yourself before an audience--the pen still behind your ear, the ink stains on your fingers--and then and there shall pour out the torrent of your inspiration. You may be driving sheep, and you shall wander to the city--bucolic and open-mouthed; shall wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit into the studio of the master, and after a time he shall say, 'I have nothing more to teach you.' And now you have become the master, who did so recently dream of great things while driving sheep. You shall lay down the saw and the plane to take upon yourself the regeneration of the world." QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 1. What, in your own words, is personality? 2. How does personality in a speaker affect you as a listener? 3. In what ways does personality show itself in a speaker3. In what ways does personality show itself in a speaker? 4. Deliver a short speech on "The Power of Will in the Public Speaker." 5. Deliver a short address based on any sentence you choose from this chapter.

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CHAPTER XXX 

 AFTER-DINNER AND OTHER OCCASIONAL SPEAKING 

The perception of the ludicrous is a pledge of sanity. --RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Essays And let him be sure to leave other men their turns to speak. --FRANCIS BACON, Essay on Civil and Moral Discourse. 

Perhaps the most brilliant, and certainly the most entertaining, of all speeches are those delivered on after-dinner and other special occasions.

The air of well-fed content in the former, and of expectancy well primed in the latter, furnishes an audience which, though not readily won, is prepared for the best, while the speaker himself is pretty sure to have been chosen for his gifts of oratory.

 The first essential of good occasional speaking is to study the occasion.

 Precisely what is the object of meeting? 

How important is the occasion to the audience?

 How large will the audience be? 

What sort of people are they

? How large is the auditorium?

 Who selects the speakers' themes?

 Who else is to speak?

 What are they to speak about? 

Precisely how long am I to speak? 

Who speaks before I do and who follows?

 If you want to hit the nail on the head ask such questions as these.

 No occasional address can succeed unless it fits the occasion to a T. 

Many prominent men have lost prestige because they were too careless or too busy or too self-confident to respect the occasion and the audience by learning the exact conditions under which they were to speak. 

Leaving too much to the moment is taking a long chance and generally means a less effective speech, if not a failure.

 Suitability is the big thing in an occasional speech.

 When Mark Twain addressed the Army of the Tennessee in reunion at Chicago, in 1877, he responded to the toast, "The Babies." 

Two things in that after-dinner speech are remarkable: the bright introduction, by which he subtly claimed the interest of all, and the humorous use of military terms throughout: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: "The Babies."

 Now, that's something like. We haven't all had the good fortune to be ladies; we have not all been generals, or poets, or statesmen; but when the toast works down to the babies, we stand on common ground--for we've all been babies.

 It is a shame that for a thousand years the world's banquets have utterly ignored the baby, as if he didn't amount to anything! 

If you, gentlemen, will stop and think a minute--if you will go back fifty or a hundred years, to your early married life, and your first baby--you will remember that he amounted to a good deal--and even something over. 

"As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be cracked or not," said Demosthenes, "so men are proved by their speeches whether they be wise or foolish."

 Surely the occasional address furnishes a severe test of a speaker's wisdom.

 To be trivial on a serious occasion, to be funereal at a banquet, to be long-winded ever--these are the marks of non-sense. 

Some imprudent souls seem to select the most friendly of after-dinner occasions for the explosion of a bomb-shell of dispute.

 Around the dinner table it is the custom of even political enemies to bury their hatchets anywhere rather than in some convenient skull. 

It is the height of bad taste to raise questions that in hours consecrated to good-will can only irritate.

 Occasional speeches offer good chances for humor, particularly the funny story, for humor with a genuine point is not trivial.

 But do not spin a whole skein of humorous yarns with no more connection than the inane and threadbare "And that reminds me."

 An anecdote without bearing may be funny but one less funny that fits theme and occasion is far preferable. 

There is no way, short of sheer power of speech, that so surely leads the heart of an audience as rich, appropriate humor. 

The scattered diners in a great banqueting hall, the after-dinner lethargy, the anxiety over approaching last-train time, the over-full list of over-full speakers--all throw out a challenge to the speaker to do his best to win an interested hearing. And when success does come it is usually due to a happy mixture of seriousness and humor, for humor alone rarely scores so heavily as the two combined, while the utterly grave speech never does on such occasions. If there is one place more than another where second-hand opinions and platitudes are unwelcome it is in the after-dinner speech. Whether you are toast-master or the last speaker to try to hold the waning crowd at midnight, be as original as you can. How is it possible to summarize the qualities that go to make up the good after-dinner speech, when we remember the inimitable serious-drollery of Mark Twain, the sweet southern eloquence of Henry W. Grady, the funereal gravity of the humorous Charles Battell Loomis, the charm of Henry Van Dyke, the geniality of F. Hopkinson Smith, and the all-round delightfulness of Chauncey M. Depew? America is literally rich in such Commemorative occasions, unveilings, commencements, dedications, eulogies, and all the train of special public gatherings, offer rare opportunities for the display of tact and good sense in handling occasion, theme, and audience. When to be dignified and when colloquial, when to soar and when to ramble arm in arm with your hearers, when to flame and when to soothe, when to instruct and when to amuse--in a word, the whole matter of APPROPRIATENESS must constantly be in mind lest you write your speech on water. Finally, remember the beatitude: Blessed is the man that maketh short speeches, for he shall be invited to speak again. SELECTIONS FOR STUDY LAST DAYS OF THE CONFEDERACY (Extract) The Rapidan suggests another scene to which allusion has often been made since the war, but which, as illustrative also of the spirit of both armies, I may be permitted to recall in this connection. In the mellow twilight of an April day the two armies were holding their dress parades on the opposite hills bordering the river. At the close of the parade a magnificent brass band of the Union army played with great spirit the patriotic airs, "Hail Columbia," and "Yankee Doodle." Whereupon th speakers, who

 punctuate real sense with nonsense, and so make both effective.

river. At the close of the parade a magnificent brass band of the Union army played with great spirit the patriotic airs, "Hail Columbia," and "Yankee Doodle." Whereupon the Federal troops responded with a patriotic shout. The same band then played the soul-stirring strains of "Dixie," to which a mighty response came from ten thousand Southern troops. A few moments later, when the stars had come out as witnesses and when all nature was in harmony, there came from the same band the old melody, "Home, Sweet Home." As its familiar and pathetic notes rolled over the water and thrilled through the spirits of the soldiers, the hills reverberated with a thundering response from the united voices of both armies. What was there in this old, old music, to so touch the chords of sympathy, so thrill the spirits and cause the frames of brave men to tremble with emotion? It was the thought of home. To thousands, doubtless, it was the thought of that Eternal Home to which the next battle might be the gateway. To thousands of others it was the thought of their dear earthly homes, where loved ones at that twilight hour were bowing round the family altar, and asking God's care over the absent soldier boy. --GENERAL J.B. GORDON, C.S.A. WELCOME TO Let me ask you to imagine that the contest, in which the United States asserted their independence of Great Britain, had been unsuccessful; that our armies, through treason or a league of tyrants against us, had been broken and scattered; that the great men who led them, and who swayed our councils--our Washington, our Franklin, and the venerable president of the American Congress--had been driven forth as exiles. If there had existed at that day, in any part of the civilized world, a powerful Republic, with institutions resting on the same foundations of liberty which our own countrymen sought to establish, would there have been in that Republic any hospitality too cordial, any sympathy too deep, any zeal for their glorious but unfortunate cause, too fervent or too active to be shown toward these illustrious fugitives? Gentlemen, the case I have supposed is before you. The Washingtons, the Franklins, the Hancocks of Hungary, driven out by a far worse tyranny than was ever endured here, are wanderers in foreign lands. Some of them have sought a refuge in our country--one sits with this company our guest to-night--and we must measure the duty we owe them by the same standard which we would have had history apply, if our ancestors had met with a fate like theirs. --WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. THE INFLUENCE OF THE INFLUENCE OF UNIVERSITIES (Extract) When the excitement of party warfare presses dangerously near our national safeguards, I would have the intelligent conservatism of our universities and colleges warn the contestants in impressive tones against the perils of a breach impossible to repair. When popular discontent and passion are stimulated by the arts of designing partisans to a pitch perilously near to class hatred or sectional anger, I would have our universities and colleges sound the alarm in the name of American brotherhood and fraternal dependence. When the attempt is made to delude the people into the belief that their suffrages can change the operation of national laws, I would have our universities and colleges proclaim that those laws are inexorable and far removed from political control. When selfish interest seeks undue private benefits through governmental aid, and public places are claimed as rewards of party service, I would have our universities and colleges persuade the people to a relinquishment of the demand for party spoils and exhort them to a disinterested and patriotic love of their government, whose unperverted operation secures to every citizen his just share of the safety and prosperity it holds store for all. I would have the influence of these institutions on the side of religion and morality. I would have those they send out among the people not ashamed to acknowledge God, and to proclaim His interposition in the affairs of men, enjoining such obedience to His laws as makes manifest the path of national perpetuity and prosperity --GROVER CLEVELAND, delivered at the Princeton Sesqui-Centennial, 1896. EULOGY OF GARFIELD (Extract) Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the visible presence of death--and he did not quail. Not alone for the one short moment in which, stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that was not less agony because silently borne, clear sight and calm courage, he looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell--what brilliant, broken plans, what baffled, high ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm, manhood's friendships, what bitter rending of sweet household ties! Behind him a proud, expectant nation, a great host of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy mother, wearing the full rich honors of her early toil and tears; the wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his; the little boys not yet emerged from childhood's day of frolic; the fair young daughter; the sturdy sons just springing into closest companionship, claiming every day and every day rewarding a father's love and care; and in his heart the eager, rejoicing power to meet all demand. Before him, desolation and great darkness! And his soul was not shaken. His countrymen were thrilled with instant, profound and universal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the centre of a nation's love, enshrined in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy could not share with him his suffering. He trod the wine press alone. With unfaltering front he faced death. With unfailing tenderness he took leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard the voice of God. With simple resignation he bowed to the Divine decree. --JAMES G. BLAINE, delivered at the memorial service held by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. EULOGY OF LEE (Extract) At the bottom of all true heroism is unselfishness. Its crowning expression is sacrifice. The world is suspicious of vaunted heroes. But when the true hero has come, and we know that here he is in verity, ah! f vaunted heroes. But when the true hero has come, and we know that here he is in verity, ah! how the hearts of men leap forth to greet him! how worshipfully we welcome God's noblest work--the strong, honest, fearless, upright man. In Robert Lee was such a hero vouchsafed to us and to mankind, and whether we behold him declining command of the federal army to fight the battles and share the miseries of his own people; proclaiming on the heights in front of Gettysburg that the fault of the disaster was his own; leading charges in the crisis of combat; walking under the yoke of conquest without a murmur of complaint; or refusing fortune to come here and train the youth of his country in the paths of duty,--he is ever the same meek, grand, self-sacrificing spirit. Here he exhibited qualities not less worthy and heroic than those displayed on the broad and open theater of conflict, when the eyes of nations watched his every action. Here in the calm repose of civil and domestic duties, and in the trying routine of incessant tasks, he lived a life as high as when, day by day, he marshalled and led his thin and wasting lines, and slept by night upon the field that was to be drenched again in blood upon the morrow. And now he has vanished from us forever. And is this all that is left of him--this handful of dust beneath the marble stone? No! the ages answer as they rise from the gulfs of time, where lie the wrecks of kingdoms and estates, holding up in their hands as their only trophies, the names of those who have wrought for man in the love and fear of God, and in love--unfearing for their fellow-men. No! the present answers, bending by his tomb. No! the future answers as the breath of the morning fans its radiant brow, and its soul drinks in sweet inspirations from the lovely life of Lee. No! methinks the very heavens echo, as melt into their depths the words of reverent love that voice the hearts of men to the tingling stars. Come we then to-day in loyal love to sanctify our memories, to purify our hopes, to make strong all good intent by communion with the spirit of him who, being dead yet speaketh. Come, child, in thy spotless innocence; come, woman, in thy purity; come, innocence; come, woman, in thy purity; come, youth, in thy prime; come, manhood, in thy strength; come, age, in thy ripe wisdom; come, citizen; come, soldier; let us strew the roses and lilies of June around his tomb, for he, like them, exhaled in his life Nature's beneficence, and the grave has consecrated that life and given it to us all; let us crown his tomb with the oak, the emblem of his strength, and with the laurel the emblem of his glory, and let these guns, whose voices he knew of old, awake the echoes of the mountains, that nature herself may join in his solemn requiem. Come, for here he rests, and On this green bank, by this fair stream, We set to-day a votive stone, That memory may his deeds redeem? CHAPTER XXX 187 When, like our sires, our sons are gone. --JOHN WARWICK DANIEL, on the unveiling of Lee's statue at Washington and Lee University, Virginia, 1883. QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 1. Why should humor find a place in after-dinner speaking? 2. Briefly give your impressions of any notable after-dinner address that you have heard. 3. Briefly outline an imaginary occasion of any sort and give three subjects appropriate for addresses. 4. Deliver one such address, not to exceed ten minutes in length. 5. What proportion of emotional ideas do you find in the extracts given in this chapter? 6. Humor was used in some of the foregoing addresses--in which others would it have been inappropriate? 7. Prepare and deliver an after-dinner speech suited to one of the following occasions, and be sure to use humor: A lodge banquet. A political party dinner. A church men's club dinner. A civic association banquet. A banquet in honor of a celebrity. A woman's club annual dinner. A business men's association dinner. A manufacturers' club dinner. An alumni banquet. An old home week Virginia, 1883. QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 1. Why should humor find a place in after-dinner speaking? 2. Briefly give your impressions of any notable after-dinner address that you have heard. 3. Briefly outline an imaginary occasion of any sort and give three subjects appropriate for addresses. 4. Deliver one such address, not to exceed ten minutes in length. 5. What proportion of emotional ideas do you find in the extracts given in this chapter? 6. Humor was used in some of the foregoing addresses--in which others would it have been inappropriate? 7. Prepare and deliver an after-dinner speech suited to one of the following occasions, and be sure to use humor: A lodge banquet. A political party dinner. A church men's club dinner. A civic association banquet. A banquet in honor of a celebrity. A woman's club annual dinner. A business men's association dinner. A manufacturers' club dinner. An alumni banquet. An old home week Virginia, 1883. QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 1. Why should humor find a place in after-dinner speaking? 2. Briefly give your impressions of any notable after-dinner address that you have heard. 3. Briefly outline an imaginary occasion of any sort and give three subjects appropriate for addresses. 4. Deliver one such address, not to exceed ten minutes in length. 5. What proportion of emotional ideas do you find in the extracts given in this chapter? 6. Humor was used in some of the foregoing addresses--in which others would it have been inappropriate? 7. Prepare and deliver an after-dinner speech suited to one of the following occasions, and be sure to use humor: A lodge banquet. A political party dinner. A church men's club dinner. A civic association banquet. A banquet in honor of a celebrity. A woman's club annual dinner. A business men's association dinner. A manufacturers' club dinner. An alumni banquet. An old home week FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 35: See also page 205.]

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CHAPTER XXXI 

MAKING CONVERSATION EFFECTIVE 

In conversation avoid the extremes of forwardness and reserve. --CATO. Conversation is the laboratory and workshop of the student. --EMERSON, Essays: Circles. The father of W.E. Gladstone considered conversation to be both an art and an accomplishment.

 Around the dinner table in his home some topic of local or national interest, or some debated question, was constantly being discussed.

 In this way a friendly rivalry for supremacy in conversation arose among the family, and an incident observed in the street, an idea gleaned from a book, a deduction from personal experience, was carefully stored as material for the family exchange.

 Thus his early years of practise in elegant conversation prepared the younger Gladstone for his career as a leader and speaker. 

There is a sense in which the ability to converse effectively is efficient public speaking, for our conversation is often heard by many, and occasionally decisions of great moment hinge upon the tone and quality of what we say in private.

 Indeed, conversation in the aggregate probably wields more power than press and platform combined.

 Socrates taught his great truths, not from public rostrums, but in personal converse. 

Men made pilgrimages to Goethe's library and Coleridge's home to be charmed and instructed by their speech, and the culture of many nations was immeasurably influenced by the thoughts that streamed out from those rich well-springs. 

Most of the world-moving speeches are made in the course of conversation. Conferences of diplomats, business-getting arguments, decisions by boards of directors, considerations of corporate policy, all of which influence the political, mercantile and economic maps of the world, are usually the results of careful though informal conversation, and the man whose opinions weigh in such crises is he who has first carefully pondered the words of both antagonist and protagonist.

However important it may be to attain self-control in light social converse, or about the family table, it is undeniably vital to have oneself perfectly in hand while taking part in a momentous conference.

 Then the hints that we have given on poise, alertness, precision of word, clearness of statement, and force of utterance, with respect to public speech, are equally applicable to conversation. 

The form of nervous egotism--for it is both--that suddenly The form of nervous egotism--for it is both--that suddenly ends in flusters just when the vital words need to be uttered, is the sign of coming defeat, for a conversation is often a contest. 

If you feel this tendency embarrassing you, be sure to listen to Holmes's advice: And when you stick on conversational burs, Don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs. 

Here bring your will into action, for your trouble is a wandering attention. 

You must force your mind to persist along the chosen line of conversation and resolutely refuse to be diverted by any subject or happening that may unexpectedly pop up to distract you. 

To fail here is to lose effectiveness utterly.

 Concentration is the keynote of conversational charm and efficiency. 

The haphazard habit of expression that uses bird-shot when a bullet is needed insures missing the game, for diplomacy of all sorts rests upon the precise application of precise words, particularly--if one may paraphrase Tallyrand--in those crises language is no longer used to conceal thought.

 We may frequently gain new light on old subjects by looking at word-derivations. Conversation signifies in the original a turn-about exchange of ideas, yet most people seem to regard it as a monologue.

 Bronson Alcott used to say that many could argue, but few converse. 

The first thing to remember in conversation, then, is that listening--respectful, sympathetic, alert listening--is not only due to our fellow converser but due to ourselves. 

Many a reply loses its point because the speaker is so much interested in what he is about to say that it is really no reply at all but merely an irritating and humiliating irrelevancy.

 Self-expression is exhilarating.

 This explains the eternal impulse to decorate totem poles and paint pictures, write poetry and expound philosophy.

 One of the chief delights of conversation is the opportunity it affords for self-expression.

 A good conversationalist who monopolizes all the conversation, will be voted a bore because he denies others the enjoyment of self-expression, while a mediocre talker who listens interestedly may be considered a good conversationalist because he permits his companions to please themselves through self-expression.

 They are praised who please: they please who listen well. The first step in remedying habits of confusion in manner, awkward bearing, vagueness in thought, and lack of precision in utterance, is to recognize your faults.

 If you are serenely unconscious of them, no one--least of all yourself--can help you. But once diagnose your own weaknesses, and you can overcome them by doing four things:  1. WILL to overcome them, and keep on willing.

 2. Hold yourself in hand by assuring yourself that you know precisely what you ought to say. If you cannot do that, be quiet until you are clear on this vital point.

 3. Having thus assured yourself, cast out the fear of those who listen to you--they are only human and will respect your words if you really have something to say and say it briefly, simply, and clearly.

 4. Have the courage to study the English language until you are master of at least its simpler forms. 

Conversational Hints 

 Choose some subject that will prove of general interest to the whole group.

 Do not explain the mechanism of a gas engine at an afternoon tea or the culture of hollyhocks at a stag party. 

It is not considered good taste for a man to bare his arm in public and show scars or deformities.

 It is equally bad form for him to flaunt his own woes, or the deformity of some one else's character. 

The public demands plays and stories that end happily. 

All the world is seeking happiness.

 They cannot long be interested in your ills and troubles.

 George Cohan made himself a millionaire before he was thirty by writing cheerful plays. 

One of his rules is generally applicable to conversation: "Always leave them laughing when you say good bye." 

Dynamite the "I" out of your conversation.

 Not one man in nine hundred and seven can talk about himself without being a 1. WILL to overcome them, and keep on willing. 

2. Hold yourself in hand by assuring yourself that you know precisely what you ought to say. If you cannot do that, be quiet until you are clear on this vital point.

 3. Having thus assured yourself, cast out the fear of those who listen to you--they are only human and will respect your words if you really have something to say and say it briefly, simply, and clearly.

 4. Have the courage to study the English language until you are master of at least its simpler forms.

All the world is seeking happiness. They cannot long be interested in your ills and troubles. George Cohan made himself a millionaire before he was thirty by writing cheerful plays. One of his rules is generally applicable to conversation: "Always leave them laughing when you say good bye." 

Dynamite the "I" out of your conversation. 

 Not one man in nine hundred and seven can talk about himself without being a bore.

 The man who can perform that feat can achieve marvels without talking about himself, so the eternal "I" is not permissible even in his talk. 

If you habitually build your conversation around your own interests it may prove very tiresome to your listener.

 He may be thinking of bird dogs or dry fly fishing while you are discussing the fourth dimension, or the merits of a cucumber lotion. 

The charming conversationalist is prepared to talk in terms of his listener's interest.

 If his listener spends his spare time investigating Guernsey cattle or agitating social reforms, the discriminating conversationalist shapes his remarks accordingly. 

Richard Washburn Child says he knows a  man of mediocre ability who can charm men much abler than himself when he discusses electric lighting.

 This same man probably would bore, and be bored, if he were forced to converse about music or Avoid platitudes and hackneyed phrases.

 If you meet a friend from Keokuk on State Street or on Pike's Peak, it is not necessary to observe: "How small this world is after all!" 

This observation was doubtless made prior to the formation of Pike's Peak. "This old world is getting better every day." 

"Fanner's wives do not have to work as hard as formerly."

 "It is not so much the high cost of living as the cost of high living."

 Such observations as these excite about the same degree of admiration as is drawn out by the appearance of a 1903-model touring car. 

If you have nothing fresh or interesting you can always remain silent. 

How would you like to read a newspaper that flashed out in bold headlines "Nice Weather We Are Having," or daily gave columns to the same old material you had been reading week after week?

 QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 1. Give a short speech describing the conversational bore. 

2. In a few words give your idea of a charming converser. 

3. What qualities of the orator should not be used in conversation.

 4. Give a short humorous delineation of the conversational "oracle." 

5. Give an account of your first day at observing conversation around you

6. Give an account of one day's effort to improve your own conversation.

 7. Give a list of subjects you heard discussed during any recent period you may select. 

8. What is meant by "elastic touch" in conversation? 9. Make a list of "Bromides," as Gellett Burgess calls those threadbare expressions which "bore us to extinction"--itself a Bromide. 

10. What causes a phrase to become hackneyed? 

11. Define the words, (a) trite; (b) solecism; (c) colloquialism; (d)  slang; (e) vulgarism; (f) neologism. 12. What constitutes pretentious talk? 

APPENDICES APPENDIX A FIFTY QUESTIONS FOR DEBATE

1. Has Labor Unionism justified its existence?

 2. Should all church printing be brought out under the Union Label?

 3. Is the Open Shop a benefit to the community? 

4. Should arbitration of industrial disputes be made compulsory? CHAPTER XXXI 191 

5. Is Profit-Sharing a solution of the wage problem? 

6. Is a minimum wage law desirable? 

7. Should the eight-hour day be made universal in America

8. Should the state compensate those who sustain irreparable business loss because of the enactment of laws prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks?

 9. Should public utilities be owned by the municipality? 

10. Should marginal trading in stocks be prohibited? 

11. Should the national government establish a compulsory system of old-age insurance by taxing the incomes of those to be benefited?

 12. Would the triumph of socialistic principles result in deadening personal ambition? 

13. Is the Presidential System a better form of government for the United States than the Parliamental System? 

14. Should our legislation be shaped toward the gradual abandonment of the protective tariff? 

15. Should the government of the larger cities be vested solely in a commission of not more than nine men elected by the voters at large? 

16. Should national banks be permitted to issue, subject to tax and government supervision, notes based their general assets?

17. Should woman be given the ballot on the present basis of suffrage for men? 18. Should the present basis of suffrage be restricted? 

19. Is the hope of permanent world-peace a delusion?

 20. Should the United States send a diplomatic representative to the Vatican? 21. Should the Powers of the world substitute an international police for national standing armies?

 22. Should the United States maintain the Monroe Doctrine? 

23. Should the Recall of Judges be adopted?

 24. Should the Initiative and Referendum be adopted as a national principle? 25. Is it desirable that the national government should own all railroads operating in interstate territory?

 26. Is it desirable that the national government should own interstate

 25. Is it desirable that the national government should own all railroads operating in interstate territory? 26. Is it desirable that the national government should own interstate telegraph and telephone systems?

 27. Is the national prohibition of the liquor traffic an economic necessity? 

28. Should the United States army and navy be greatly strengthened? 

 29. Should the same standards of altruism obtain in the relations of nations as in those of individuals? 

30. Should our government be more highly centralized

31. Should the United States continue its policy of opposing the combination of railroads? 

32. In case of personal injury to a workman arising out of his employment, should his employer be liable for adequate compensation and be forbidden to set up as a defence a plea of contributory negligence on the part of the workman, or the negligence of a fellow workman? 

33. Should all corporations doing an interstate business be required to take out a Federal license? 

34. Should the amount of property that can be transferred by inheritance be limited by law?

 35. Should equal compensation for equal labor, between women and men, universally prevail?

 36. Does equal suffrage tend to lessen the interest of woman in her home?

 37. Should the United States take advantage of the commercial and industrial weakness of foreign nations, brought about by the war, by trying to wrest from them their markets in Central and South America? 

38. Should teachers of small children in the public schools be selected from among mothers? 

39. Should football be restricted to colleges, for the sake of physical safety

40. Should college students who receive compensation for playing summer baseball be debarred from amateur standing? 

41. Should daily school-hours and school vacations both be shortened?

 42. Should home-study for pupils in grade schools be abolished and longer school-hours substituted? 

43. Should the honor system in examinations be adopted in public high-schools? 44. Should all colleges adopt the self-government system for its students? 

45. Should colleges be classified by national law and supervision, and uniform entrance and graduation requirements maintained by each college in a particular class? 

46. Should ministers be required to spend a term of years in some trade, business, or profession, before becoming pastors? 

47. Is the Y.M.C.A. losing its spiritual power? 

48. Is the church losing its hold on thinking people? 

49. Are the people of the United States more devoted to religion than ever? 50. Does the reading of magazines contribute to 

50. Does the reading of magazines contribute to intellectual shallowness?

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