PUBLIC SPEAKING= DALE DOROTHY CHAP 6

CHAPTER 6

The Secret of Good Delivery

 Shortly after the close of the First World War,I met two brothers in London, Sir Ross and Sir KeithSmith. They had just made the hrst aeroplane flight fromLondon to Australia, had won the fifty thousand dollarprize offered by the Australian government, had createdasensation throughout the British Empire, and had beenknighted by the King. Captain Hurley, a well-known scenic photographer, hadflown with them over a part of their trip, taking motionpictures; so 1 helped them prepare an illustrated travel talkof their flight and trained them in the delivery of it. Theygave it twice daily for four months in Philharmonic Hall,London, one speaking in the afternoon and the otheratnight. They had had identically the same experience, hadsatside by side as they flew halfway around the world; andthey delivered the same talk, almost word for word. Yet,somehow it didn’t sound like the same talk at ail. There is something besides the mere words in a talkwhich counts. It is the flavor with which they are delivered,“it is not so much what you say as how you say it.” I once sat beside a young wo

London, Sir Ross and Sir KeithSmith. They had just made the hrst aeroplane flight fromLondon to Australia, had won the fifty thousand dollarprize offered by the Australian government, had createdasensation throughout the British Empire, and had beenknighted by the King. Captain Hurley, a well-known scenic photographer, hadflown with them over a part of their trip, taking motionpictures; so 1 helped them prepare an illustrated travel talkof their flight and trained them of their flight and trained them in the delivery of it. Theygave it twice daily for four months in Philharmonic Hall,London, one speaking in the afternoon and the otheratnight. They had had identically the same experience, hadsatside by side as they flew halfway around the world; andthey delivered the same talk, almost word for word. Yet,somehow it didn’t sound like the same talk at ail. There is something besides the mere words in a talkwhich counts. It is the flavor with which they are delivered,“it is not so much what you say as how you say it.” I once sat beside a young woman at a public who was reading, as Paderewski played them, the notesof a Mazurka by Chopin. She was mystified. She couldn’tunderstand. His fingers were touching precisely the samenotes that hers had touched when she had played it; yether rendition had been commonplace, and his was inspired,a thing of surpassing beauty, a performance that heldtheaudience enthralled. It was not the mere notes that hetouched; it was the way he touched them, a feeling, anartistry, a personality that he put into the touching thatmade all the difference between mediocrity and genius. Brullof, the great Russian painter, once correctedapupil’s study. The pupil looked in amazement at thealtered drawing, exclaiming: “Why, you have toucheditonly a tiny bit, but it is quite another thing.” Brullofreplied; “Art begins where the tiny bit begins.” That is astrue of speaking as it is of painting and of Paderewski’splayingThe same tiling holds true when one is touching words.There is an old saying in the English Parliament thateverything depends upon the manner in which one speaksand not upon the matter. Quintilian said that long agowhen England was one of the oudying colonies of Rome.Like most old sayings, it needs to be taken cum granosails; but good delivery will make very thin matter goavery long way. I have often noticed in college contests thatit is not always the speaker with the best material whowins. Rather, it is the speaker who can talk so well thathis material sounds best. “Three things matter in a speech,” Lord Morley onceobserved with gay cynicism, “who says it, how he saysit,and what he says—and, of the three, the last matters theleast.” An exaggeration? Yes, but scratch the surface ofitand you will find the truth shining through. Edmund Burke wrote speeches so excellent in logic andreasoning and composition that they are today studiedasclassic models of oration in half the colleges of the land;yet Burke, as a speaker, was a notorious failure. Hedidn’thave the ability to deliver his gems, to make them interesting and forceful; so he was called “the dinner bell” ofthe the House of Commons. When he arose to talk, the other The Secret of Good Delivery 93members coughed and shuffled and went out in droves.You can throw a steel-jacketed bullet at a man withallyour might, and you cannot make even a dent in hisclothing. But put powder behind a tallow candle andyoucan shoot it through a pine board. Many a tallow-candlespeech with powder makes, I regret to say, more ofanimpression than a steel-jacketed talk with no force behind it. Look well, therefore, to your delivery.

What Is Delivery? What does a department store do when it “delivers” the article you have bought? Does the driver justtoss the package into the backyard and let it go at that?Is merely getting a thing out of one's own hands the sameas getting it delivered? The messenger boy with a telegramdelivers the “wire” into the direct possession of the personfor whom it is intended. But do all speakers? Let me give you an illustration that is typical of thefashion in which thousands of people talk. I happenedon one occasion to be stopping in Miirren, a summer resortin the Swiss Alps. I was living at a hotel operated byaLondon company; and they usually sent out from Englanda couple of lecturers each week to talk to the guests. Oneof them was a well-known English novelist. Her topic was“The Future of the Novel.” She admitted that she hadnotselected the subject herself; and, the long and short ofitwas that she had nothing to say about it that she reallycared enough about saying to make it worth while expressing. She had hurriedly made some rambling notes;and she stood before the audience, ignoring d she stood before the audience, ignoring her hearers,not even looking at them, staring sometimes over theirheads, sometimes at her notes, sometimes at the floor. Shecalled off her words into the primeval void with a far-awaylook in her eyes and a far-away ring in her voice. That kind of performance isn’t delivering a talk at all.It is a soliloquy. It has no sense of communication. Andthat is the first essential of good talking: a sense of com- 94 HOW TO DEVELOP SELF-CONFIDENCEmunication. The audience must feel that there is a messagebeing delivered straight from the mind and heart ofthespeaker to their minds and their hearts. The kind of talk1 have just described might just as well have been spokenout in the sandy, waterless wastes of the Gobi DesertInfact, it sounded as if it were being delivered in somesuchspot rather than to a group of living human beings. This matter of delivering a talk is, at the same time,a very simple and a very intricate process. It is This matter of delivering a talk is, at the same time,a very simple and a very intricate process. It is also a verymuch misunderstood and abused one. The Secret of Good Delivery An enormous amount of nonsense and twaddlehas been written about delivery. It has been shroudedinrules and rites and made mysterious. Old-fashioned “elocution,” that abomination in the sight of God and man,hasoften made it ridiculous. The business man, going to thelibrary or bookshop has found volumes on “oratory” thatwere utterly useless. In spite of progress in other directions,some schoolboys are still some schoolboys are still being forced to recite the ornate“oratory” of Webster and Ingersoll—a thing that is asmuch out of style and as far removed from the spirit ofthis age as the hats worn by Mrs. Ingersoll and Mrs.Webster would be if they were resurrected today. An entirely new school of speaking has sprung up sincethe Civil War. In keeping with the spirit of the times,it is as direct as a telegram. The verbal fireworks that wereonce the vogue would no longer be tolerated by an audi-ence in this year of grace. A modem audience, regardless of whether it is fifteenpeople at a business conference or a thousand people undera tent, wants the speaker to talk just as directly as he wouldin a chat, and in the same general manner that he wouldemploy in speaking to one of them in conversation. In the same manner, but not with the same amountofforce. If he tries that, he will hardly be heard. In ordertoappear natural he has to use much more energy in talkingto forty people to forty people than he does in talking to one; just asa The Secret of Good Delivery 95statue on top of a building has to be of heroic size in orderto make it appear of lifelike proportions to an observeron the ground. At the close of Mark Twain’s lecture in a Nevada miningcamp, an old prospector approached him and inquired:“Be them your natural tones of eloquence?” That is what the audience wants: “your natural tonesof eloquence,” enlarged a bit. Speak to the Community Chest just as you wouldtoJohn Henry Smith. What is a meeting of the Chest Committee after all, but a mere collection of John HenrySmiths? Won’t the same methods that are successful withthose men and women individually be successful with themcollectively? I have just described the delivery of a certain llectively? I have just described the delivery of a certain novelist.In the same ballroom in which she had spoken, I hadthepleasure, a few nights later, of hearing Sir Oliver Lodge.His subject was “Atoms and Worlds.” He devoted to itmore than half a century of thought and study and experiment and investigation. He had something that was essentially a part of his heart and mind and life, something thathe wanted very much to say. He forgot—and I, for one,thanked God that he did forget—that he was trying tomake a speech. That was the least of his worries. Hewasconcerned only with telling the audience llectively? I have just described the delivery of a certain novelist.In the same ballroom in which she had spoken, I hadthepleasure, a few nights later, of hearing Sir Oliver Lodge.His subject was “Atoms and Worlds.” He devoted to itmore than half a century of thought and study and experiment and investigation. He had something that was essentially a part of his heart and mind and life, something thathe wanted very much to say. He forgot—and I, for one,thanked God that he did forget—that he was trying tomake a speech. That was the least of his worries. Hewasconcerned only with telling the audience make a speech. That was the least of his worries. Hewasconcerned only with telling the audience about atoms,telling us accurately and lucidly and feelingly. Hewasearnestly trying to get us to see what he saw and to feelwhat he felt And what was the result? He delivered a remarkabletalk. It had both charm and power. It made a deep impression. He was a speaker of unusual ability. Yet I amsure he didn’t regard himself in that light. I am sure thatfew people who heard him ever think of him as a publicspeaker at all. If you who read this book speak in public so that peoplehearing you will suspect that you have had training inpublic speaking, you will not be a credit to the author. Hewould desire you to speak with such intensified and exaltednaturalness that your auditors would never dream that youhad been trained. A good window does not call attenti

to itself. It merely lets in the light. A good speaker is likethat. He is so natural that his hearers never notice hismanner of speaking; they are conscious only of his matter.Henry Ford’s Advice “All Fords arc exactly alike,” their maker usedto say, “but no two men are just alike. Every new life isa new thing under the sun; there has never been anythingjust like it before, and never will be again. A young manought to get that idea about himself; he should lookforthe single spark of individuality that makes him differentfrom other folks, and develop that for all he is worth.Society and schools may try to iron it out of him; theirtendency is to put us all in the same mold, but I say don’tlet that spark be lost; it’s your only real claim to impor

let that spark be lost; it’s your only real claim to importance.” All that is doubly true of public speaking. There is noother human being in the world like you. Hundredsofmillions of people have two eyes and a nose and a mouth;but none of them look precisely like you; and none of themhave exactly your traits and methods and cast of mind.Few of them will talk and express themselves just as youdo when you are speaking naturally. In other words, youhave an individuality. As a speaker, it is your most preciouspossession. Cling to it. Cherish it. Develop it. It is thespark that will put force and sincerity into your speaking.“It is your only real claim to importance.” Sir Oliver Lodge spoke differently from other men,because he himself was different. The man’s mannerofspeaking was as essentially a part of his own individualityas were his beard and bald head. If he had tried to imitateLloyd George, he would have been false, he would havefailed. The most famous debates ever held in America tookplace in 1 858 in the prairie towns of Illinois between Senator Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Lincolnwas tall and awkward. D

let that spark be lost; it’s your only real claim to importance.” All that is doubly true of public speaking. There is noother human being in the world like you. Hundredsofmillions of people have two eyes and a nose and a mouth;but none of them look precisely like you; and none of themhave exactly your traits and methods and cast of mind.Few of them will talk and express themselves just as youdo when you are speaking naturally. In other words, youhave an individuality. As a speaker, it is your most preciouspossession. Cling to it. Cherish it. Develop it. It is thespark that will put force and sincerity into your speaking.“It is your only real claim to importance.” Sir Oliver Lodge spoke differently from other men,because he himself was different. The man’s mannerofspeaking was as essentially a part of his own individualityas were his beard and bald head. If he had tried to imitateLloyd George, he would have been false, he would havefailed. The most famous debates ever held in America tookplace in 1 858 in the prairie towns of Illinois between Senator Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Lincolnwas tall and awkward. D

ailed. The most famous debates ever held in America tookplace in 1 858 in the prairie towns of Illinois between Senator Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Lincolnwas tall and awkward. Douglas was short and graceful.These men were as unlike in their characters and mentality The Secret of Good Delivery 97and personalities and dispositions as they were in theirphysiques. Douglas was the cultured man of the world. Lincolnwas the rail splitter who went to the front door in hissock feet to receive company. Douglas’ gestures weregraceful. Lincoln’s were ungainly. Douglas was utterlydestitute of humor, Lincoln was one of the greatest storytellers who ever lived. Douglas seldom used a smile.Lincoln constantly argued by analogy and illustration.Douglas was haughty and Douglas was the cultured man of the world. Lincolnwas the rail splitter who went to the front door in hissock feet to receive company. Douglas’ gestures weregraceful. Lincoln’s were ungainly. Douglas was utterlydestitute of humor, Lincoln was one of the greatest storytellers who ever lived. Douglas seldom used a smile.Lincoln constantly argued by analogy and illustration.Douglas was haughty and overbearing. Lincoln was humbleand forgiving. Douglas thought in quick flashes. Lincoln’smental processes were much slower. Douglas spoke withthe impetuous rush of a whirlwind. Lincoln was quieterand deeper and more deliberate. Both of these men, unlike as they were, were ablespeakers because they had the courage and good sense to bethemselves. If either had tried to imitate the other, hewould have failed miserably. But each one, by usingtothe utmost his own peculiar talents, made himself individual and powerfulvidual and powerful. Go thou and do likewise. That is an easy direction to give. But is it an easy oneto follow? Most emphatically it is not. As Marshal Fochsaid of the art of war: “It is simple in its conception, butunfortunately complicated in its execution.” It takes practice to be natural before an audience.Actors know that. When you were a little boy or girl,four years old, you probably could, had you but tried,have mounted a platform and “recited” naturally to anaudience. But when you are twenty-and-four, or forty-andfour, what will happen if you mount a platform and startto speak? Will you retain that unconscious naturalness thatyou possessed at four? You may, but it is dollars todoughnuts that you will become stiff and stilted andmechanical, and draw back into your shell like a snappingturtle. The problem of teaching or of training people in deliveryis not one of superimposing additional characteristics; it islargely one of removing impediments, of freeing them,ofgetting them to speak with the same naturalness that theywould disp vidual and powerful. Go thou and do likewise. That is an easy direction to give. But is it an easy oneto follow? Most emphatically it is not. As Marshal Fochsaid of the art of war: “It is simple in its conception, butunfortunately complicated in its execution.” It takes practice to be natural before an audience.Actors know that. When you were a little boy or girl,four years old, you probably could, had you but tried,have mounted a platform and “recited” naturally to anaudience. But when you are twenty-and-four, or forty-andfour, what will happen if you mount a platform and startto speak? Will you retain that unconscious naturalness thatyou possessed at four? You may, but it is dollars todoughnuts that you will become stiff and stilted andmechanical, and draw back into your shell like a snappingturtle. The problem of teaching or of training people in deliveryis not one of superimposing additional characteristics; it islargely one of removing impediments, of freeing them,ofgetting them to speak with the same naturalness that theywould disp would display if someone were to knock them down. 98 HOW TO DEVELOP SELF-CONFIDENCEHundreds of times I have stopped speakers in the midstof their talks and implored them to “talk like a humanbeing.” Hundreds of nights I have come home mentallyfatigued and nervously exhausted from trying to drill andforce people to talk naturally. No, believe me, it is notsoeasy as it sounds. And the only way under high heaven by which youcanget the knack of this enlarged naturalness is by practice.And, as you practice, if you find yourself talking in astilted manner, pause and say sharply to yourself mentally:“Here! What is wrong? Wake up. Be human.” Then pickout someone in the audience, some person in the back,the dullest looking character you can find, and talk to himor her. Forget there is anyone else present at all. Conversewith him. Imagine that he has asked you a question andthat you are answering it. If he were to stand up and talkto you, and you were to talk back to him, that processe has asked you a question andthat you are answering it. If he were to stand up and talkto you, and you were to talk back to him, that processwould immediately and inevitably make your talking moreconversational, more natural, more direct. So, imagine thatthat is precisely what is taking place. You may go so far as actually to ask questions andanswer them. For example, in the midst of your talk, youmay say, “and you ask what proof have I for this asser-tion? I have adequate proof and here it is . . Then proceed to answer the imaginary question. That sort of thingcan be done very naturally. It will break up the monotonyof one’s delivery; it will make it direct and pleasant andconversational. Sincerity and enthusiasm and high earnestness will helpyou, too. When a person is under the influence of his feel-ings, his real self comes to the surface. The bars are down.The heat of his emotions has burned all barriers away.Heacts spontaneously. He talks spontaneously. He is natural.So, in the end, even this matter of delivery comes backto the thing which has already been emphasized repeatedlyin these pages: namely, put your heart in your talks. “I shall never forget,” said Dean Brown in his lectureson Preaching before the Yale on Preaching before the Yale Divinity School, “the description given by a friend of mine of a service which he onceattended in the city of London. The preacher was George The Secret of Good Delivery 99MacDonald. He read for the Scripture lesson that morningthe eleventh chapter of Hebrews. When the time cameforthe sermon, he said: ‘You have ail heard about these menof faith. I shall not try to tell you what faith is. Therearetheological professors who could do that much better thanI could do it. I am here to help you believe.’ Then followedsuch a simple, heartfelt and majestic manifestation oftheman’s own faith in those unseen realities which are eternal,as to beget faith in the minds and hearts of all his hearers.His heart was in his work, and his delivery was effectivebecause it rested back upon the genuine beauty of his owninner life ” “His heart was in his work.” That is the secret. YetIknow that advice like this is no“His heart was in his work.” That is the secret. YetIknow that advice like this is not popular. It seems vague.It sounds indefinite. The average student wants foolproofrules. Something definite. Something he can put his handson. Rules as precise as the directions for operating acar.That is what he wants. That is what I would like to givehim. It would be easy for him. It would be easy for me.There are such rules, and there is only one little thingwrong with them: they don’t work. They take all thenaturalness and spontaneity and life and juice out of speaking. I know. In my younger days I wasted a great dealofenergy trying them. They won’t appear in these pages for,as Josh Billings observed in one of his lighter moments:“There ain’t no use in knowin’ so many things that ain’tso.” Do You Do These Things When You Talk in Public?We are going to discuss here some of the featuresof natural speaking in order to make them more clear,more vivid. I have hesitated about doing it, for someoneisalmost sure to say: “Ah, I see, just force myself to do thesethings and I’ll be all right.” No, you won’t. Force yourselfto do them and you will be all wooden and all mechanical.You used most of these principles yesterday in your conversation, used them as unconsciously as you digested your 100 HOW TO DEVELOP SELF-CONFIDENCEdinner last night. That is the way to use them. It is the onlyway. And it will come, as far as public speaking is concerned, as we have already said, only by practice. First: Stress Important Words, Subordinate Unimportant Ones In conversation, we hit one syllable in a word,and hit it hard, and hurry over the others like a pay carpassing a string of hoboes; e.g., MassaCHUsetts, afFLICtion, atTRACtiveness, enVIRonment. We do almost thesamething with a sentence. We make one or twosamething with a sentence. We make one or two importantwords tower up like the Empire State Building on FifthAvenue, New York. This is not a strange or unusual process I am describing.Listen. You can hear it going on about you all the time.You yourself did it a hundred, maybe a thousand, timesyesterday. You will doubtlessly do it a hundred timestomorrow. Here is an example. Read the following quotation,striking the words in big type hard. Run over the othersquickly. What is the effect? I have SUCCEEDED in whatever I have undertaken,because I have WILLED it. I have NEVERHESITATED which has given me an ADVANTAGEoverthe rest of mankind.—Napoleon. This is not the only way to read these lines. Anotherspeaker would do it differently perhaps. There are no ironclad rules for emphasis. It all depends.This is not the only way to read these lines. Anotherspeaker would do it differently perhaps. There are no ironclad rules for emphasis. It all depends. Read these selections aloud in an earnest manner, tryingto make the ideas clear and convincing. Don’t you findyourself stressing the big, important words and hurryingover the others? If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don’t. If you’d like to win, but think you can’t, It’s almost a cinch you won’t. The Secret of Good Delivery ioiLife’s battles don’t always go To the stronger or faster man; But soon or late the man who wins Is the one who thinks he can.—Anon. Perhaps therePerhaps there is no more important componentofcharacter than steadfast resolution. The boy whois going to make a great man, or is going to count in anyway in afterlife, must make up in his mind not merelyto overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spiteof a thousand repulses and defeats. —Theodore Roosevelt.

Second: Change Your Pitch The pitch of our voices in conversation flowsupand down the scale from high to low and back again, neverresting, but always shifting like the face of the sea. Why?No one knows, and no one cares. The effect is pleasing,and it is the way of nature. We never had to learn to dothis: it came to us as children, unsought and unaware,butlet us stand up and face an audience, and the chances areour voices will become as dull, flat and monotonous as thealkali deserts of Nevada. When you find yourself talking in a monotonous pitchand usually it will be a high one—just pause for a secondand say to yourself: “I am speaking like a wooden Indian,Talk to these people. Be human. Be natural.” Will that kind of lecture to yourself help you any?Alittle, perhaps. The pause itself will help you. You havetowork out your own salvation by practice. You can make any phrase or word that you choose standout like a green bay tree in the front yard by either suddenly lowering or raising your pitch on it. Dr. S. ParkesCadman, the famous Congregational minister of Brooklyn,often did it. So did Sir Oliver Lodge. So did Bryan. SodidRoosevelt. So does almost every speaker of note. In the following quotations, try saying the In the following quotations, try saying the italicized 102 HOW TO DEVELOP SELF-CONFIDENCEwords in a much lower pitch than you use for the rest ofthe sentence. What is the effect? i have but one merit, that of never despairing. Marshal Foch. The great aim of education is not knowledge, butaction. —Herbert Spencer. I have lived eighty-six years. 1 have watched menclimb up to success, hundreds of them, and of all theelements that are important for success, the most im- portant is faith.—Cardinal Gibbons. Third: Vary Your Rate of Speaking When a little child talks, or when we talk inordinary conversation, we constantWhen a little child talks, or when we talk inordinary conversation, we constantly change our rate ofspeaking. It is pleasing. It is natural. It is unconscious. It isemphatic. It is, in fact, one of the very best of all possibleways to make an idea stand out prominently. Walter B. Stevens, in his Reporter's Lincoln, issued bythe Missouri Historical Society, tells us that this was oneof Lincoln’s favorite methods of driving a point home: He would speak several words with great rapidity,come to the word or phrase he wished to emphasize, andlet his voice linger and bear hard on that, and thenhewould rush to the end of his sentence like lightning. . . . He would devote as much time to the word or twohewished to emphasize as he did to half a dozen less important words following it. Such a method invariably arrests attention. To illustrate:I have often quoted in a public talk the following state-ment by Cardinal Gibbons. 1 wanted to emphasize the ideaof courage; so I lingered on these italicized words, drewthem out and spoke as if I, myself, wereof courage; so I lingered on these italicized words, drewthem out and spoke as if I, myself, were impressed with The Secret of Good Delivery 103them—and I was. Will you please read the selection aloud,trying the same method and note the results. A short time before his death, Cardinal Gibbons said:“I have lived eighty-six years. I have watched men climbup to success, hundreds of them, and of all the elementsthat are important for success, the most importantisfaith. No great thing comes to any man unless he hascourage Try this: say “thirty million dollars” quickly and with anair of triviality so that it sounds like a very small sum.Now, say “thirty thousand dollars”; say it slowly; sayitfeelingly; say it as if you were tremendously impressedwith the hugeness of the amount. Haven’t you now mawith the hugeness of the amount. Haven’t you now madethe thirty thousand sound larger than the thirty million? Fourth: Pause Before and After Important IdeasLincoln often paused in his speaking. Whenliehad come to a big idea that he wished to impress deeplyon the minds of his hearers, he bent forward, looked directly into their eyes for a moment and said nothing at all.This sudden silence had the same effect as a sudden noise:it attracted notice. It made everyone attentive, alert, awaketo what was coming next. For example, when his famousdebates with Douglas were drawing to a close, whenallthe indications pointed to his defeat, he became depressed,his old habitual melancholy stealing over him at times, andimparting to his words a touching pathos. In one of hisconcluding speeches, he suddenly “stopped and stood silentfor a moment, looking around upon the throng of halfindifferent, half-friendly faces before him, with those deepsunken weary eyes that always seemed full of unshed tears.Folding his hands, as if they too were tired of the helplessfight, he said, in his peculiar monotone: "My friends, itmakes little difference, very little difference.makes little difference, very little difference, whether JudgeDouglas or myself is elected to the United States Senate;but the great issue which we have submitted to you to-day 104 HOW TO DEVELOP SELF-CONFIDENCEis far above and beyond any personal interests or thepolitical fortunes of any man. And my friends,’ herehepaused again, and the audience were intent on every word,‘that issue will live and breathe and bum when the poor,feeble, stammering tongues of Judge Douglas and myselfare silent in the grave.’ ” “These simple words,” relates one of his biographers,“and the manner in which they were spoken, touched everyheart to the core.” Lincoln also paused after the phrases he wanted to emphasize. He added to their force by keeping silent whilethe meaning sank in and effected its mission. Sir Oliver Lodge paused frequently in his speaking,both before and after important ideas; paused as oftenasthree or four times in one sentence, but he did it naturallyand unconsciously. No man, unless he were analyzingSirOliver’s methods, would notice it. “By your silence,” said “By your silence,” said Kipling, “ye shall speak.” Nowhere is silence more golden than when it is judiciouslyused in talking. It is a powerful tool, too important to beignored, yet it is usually neglected by the beginningspeaker. In the following excerpt from Holman’s Ginger Talks,I have marked the places where a speaker might profitablypause. I do not say that these are the only places whereone ought to pause, or even the best places. I say only thatit is one way of doing it. Where to pause is not a matterof hard and fast rales. It is a matter of meaning andtemperament and feeling. You might pause one place inaspeech to-day, and in another place in the same speechto-morrow. Read this selection aloud without pausing; then readitagain, making the pauses I have indicated. What is theeffect of the pauses? “Selling goods is a b“Selling goods is a battle” (pause and let the ideaofbattle soak in) “and only fighters can win in it.” (Pauseand let that point soak in.) “We may not like these conditions, but we didn’t have the making of them andwecan’t alter them.” (Pause.) “Take your courage with The Secret of Good Delivery 105you when you enter the selling game.” (Pause.) “If youdon’t,” (pause and lengthen out suspense for a second)“you’ll strike out every time you come to bat, and scorenothing higher than a string of goose eggs.” (Pause.)“No man ever made a three-base hit who was afraidofthe pitcher” (pause and let your point soak in) “remember that.” (Pause and let it soak in some more.)“The fellow who knocks the cover off the ball or lifts itover the fence for a home run is always the chap whosteps up to the plate” (pause and increase the suspenseas to what you are going to say about this extraordinaryplayer) “with grim player) “with grim determination in his heart.” Read the following quotations aloud and with force andmeaning. Observe where you naturally pause. The great American desert is not located in Idaho,New Mexico or Arizona. It is located under the hatofthe average man. The great American desert is a mentaldesert rather than a physical desert.—J. S. Knox. There is no panacea for human ills; the nearest approach to it is publicity.—Professor Foxwell. There are two people I must please—GodandGarfield. I must live with Garfield here, with Godhereafter.—James A. Garfield. A speaker may follow the directions I have set downinthis chapter and still have a hundred faults. He may talk inpublic just as he does in conversation and consequently,hemay speak with an unpleasant voice and make may speak with an unpleasant voice and make grammaticalerrors and be awkward and offensive and do a score ofunpleasant things. A person’s natural method of everydaytalking may need a vast number of improvements. Perfectyour natural method of talking in conversation, and thencarry that method to the platform.

1. There is something besides the mere wordsina talk which counts. It is the flavor with which they aredelivered. “It is not so much what you say as howyousay it.” 2. Many speakers ignore their hearers, stare over theirheads or at the floor. They seem to be deliveringasoliloquy. There is no sense of communication, no give andtake between the audience and the speaker. That kindofattitude would kill a conversation; it also kills a speech. 3. Good delivery is conversational tone and directnessenlarged. Talk to the Community Chest just as you wouldto John Smith. What is the Chest Committee, after all, buta collection of John Smiths? 4. Everyone has the ability to deliver a talk. If youquestion this statement, try it out for yourself; knock downthe most ignorant man you know; when he gets on his feet,he will probably say some things, and his manner of saying them will be almost flawless. We want you to take thatsame naturalness with you when you speak in public. Todevelop it, you must practice. Don’t imitate others. If youspeak spontaneously you will speak differently from anyone else in the world. Put your own individuality, yourown characteristic manner into your one else in the world. Put your own individuality, yourown characteristic manner into your delivery. 5. Talk to your hearers just as if you expected themtostand up in a moment and talk back to you. If they weretorise and ask you questions, your delivery would almostbesure to improve emphatically and at once. So imagine thatsomeone has asked you a question, and that you are re-peating it. Say aloud, “You ask how do I know this? I’lltell you.” . . . That sort of thing will seem perfectly natural;it will break up the formality of your phraseology; it willwarm and humanize your manner of talking.6. Put your heart into your talking. Real emotionalsincerity will help more than all the rules in Christendom.7. Here are four things that all of us do unconsciouslyin earnest conversation. But do you do them when youaretalking in public? Most people do not. a. Do you stress the important words in a sentenceand subordinate the unimportant ones? Do you givealmost every word including the, and, hut , approximatelythe same amount of attention, or do you speak a sentencein much the same way that you say MassaCHUsetts?b. Does the pitch of your voice how up and downthescale from high to low and back again—as the pitch ofa little child does when speaking? c. Do you vary your rate of speaking, running rapidlyover the unimportant words, spending more time ontheones you wish to make stand out? d. Do you pause before and ac. Do you vary your rate of speaking, running rapidlyover the unimportant words, spending more time ontheones you wish to make stand out? d. Do you pause before and after your importantideas?

was haughty and overbearing. Lincoln was humbleand forgiving. Douglas thought in quick flashes. Lincoln’smental processes were much slower. Douglas spoke withthe impetuous rush of a whirlwind. Lincoln was quieterand deeper and more deliberate. Both of these men, unlike as they were, were ablespeakers because they had the courage and good sense to bethemselves. If either had tried to imitate the other, hewould have failed miserably. But each one, by usingtothe utmost his own peculiar talents, made himself individual and powerful. Go thou and do likewise. That is an easy direction to give. But is it an easy oneto follow? Most emphatically it is not. As Marshal Fochsaid of the art of war: “It is simple in its conception, butunfortunately complicated in its execution.” It takes practice to be natural before an audience.Actors know that. When you were a little boy or girl,four years old, you probably could, had you but tried,have mounted a platform and “recited” naturally to anaudience. But when you are twenty-and-four, or forty-and

7. Here are four things that all of us do unconsciouslyin earnest conversation. But do you do them when youaretalking in public? Most people do not. a. Do you stress the important words in a sentenceand subordinate the unimportant ones? Do you givealmost every word including the, and, hut , approximatelythe same amount of attention, or do you speak a sentencein much the same way that you say MassaCHUsetts?b. Does the pitch of your voice how up and downthescale from high to low and back again—as the pitch ofa little child does when speaking? c. Do you vary your rate of speaking, running rapidlyover the unimportant words, spending more time c. Do you vary your rate of speaking, running rapidlyover the unimportant words, spending more time ontheones you wish to make stand out? d. Do you pause before and after your importantideas?