The Art of Public Speaking Part 5

Note: In the following selections, those pa.s.sages that may best be delivered in a moderate pitch are printed in ordinary (roman) type.

Those which may be rendered in a high pitch--do not make the mistake of raising the voice too high--are printed _in italics_. Those which might well be spoken in a low pitch are printed in _CAPITALS_.

These arrangements, however, are merely suggestive--we cannot make it strong enough that you must use your own judgment in interpreting a selection. Before doing so, however, it is well to practise these pa.s.sages as they are marked.

_Yes, all men labor. RUFUS CHOATE AND DANIEL WEBSTER_ labor, say the critics. But every man who reads of the labor question knows that it means the movement of the men that earn their living with their hands; _THAT ARE EMPLOYED, AND PAID WAGES: are gathered under roofs of factories, sent out on farms, sent out on s.h.i.+ps, gathered on the walls._ In popular acceptation, the working cla.s.s means the men that work with their hands, for wages, so many hours a day, employed by great capitalists; that work for everybody else. Why do we move for this cla.s.s? "_Why_,"

asks a critic, "_don't you move FOR ALL WORKINGMEN?" BECAUSE, WHILE DANIEL WEBSTER GETS FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR ARGUING THE MEXICAN CLAIMS, there is no need of anybody's moving for him.

BECAUSE, WHILE RUFUS CHOATE GETS FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR MAKING ONE ARGUMENT TO A JURY, there is no need of moving for him, or for the men that work with their brains_,--that do highly disciplined and skilled labor, invent, and write books.

The reason why the Labor movement confines itself to a single cla.s.s is because that cla.s.s of work _DOES NOT GET PAID, does not get protection. MENTAL LABOR is adequately paid_, and _MORE THAN ADEQUATELY protected. IT CAN s.h.i.+FT ITS CHANNELS; it can vary according to the supply and demand_.

_IF A MAN FAILS AS A MINISTER, why, he becomes a railway conductor. IF THAT DOESN'T SUIT HIM, he goes West, and becomes governor of a territory. AND IF HE FINDS HIMSELF INCAPABLE OF EITHER OF THESE POSITIONS, he comes home, and gets to be a city editor_. He varies his occupation as he pleases, and doesn't need protection. _BUT THE GREAT Ma.s.s, CHAINED TO A TRADE, DOOMED TO BE GROUND UP IN THE MILL OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND, THAT WORK SO MANY HOURS A DAY, AND MUST RUN IN THE GREAT RUTS OF BUSINESS,--they are the men whose inadequate protection, whose unfair share of the general product, claims a movement in their behalf_.

--WENDELL PHILLIPS.

_KNOWING THE PRICE WE MUST PAY, THE SACRIFICE WE MUST MAKE, THE BURDENS WE MUST CARRY, THE a.s.sAULTS WE MUST ENDURE--KNOWING FULL WELL THE COST--yet we enlist, and we enlist for the war. FOR WE KNOW THE JUSTICE OF OUR CAUSE, and we know, too, its certain triumph.

NOT RELUCTANTLY THEN, but eagerly_, not with _faint hearts BUT STRONG, do we now advance upon the enemies of the people. FOR THE CALL THAT COMES TO US is the call that came to our fathers_.

As they responded so shall we.

"_HE HATH SOUNDED FORTH A TRUMPET that shall never call retreat.

HE IS SIFTING OUT THE HEARTS OF MEN before His judgment seat.

OH, BE SWIFT OUR SOULS TO ANSWER HIM, BE JUBILANT OUR FEET, Our G.o.d is marching on_."

--ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE.

Remember that two sentences, or two parts of the same sentence, which contain changes of thought, cannot possibly be given effectively in the same key. Let us repeat, every big change of thought requires a big change of pitch. What the beginning student will think are big changes of pitch will be monotonously alike. Learn to speak some thoughts in a very high tone--others in a _very_, _very_ low tone. _DEVELOP RANGE._ It is almost impossible to use too much of it.

_HAPPY AM I THAT THIS MISSION HAS BROUGHT MY FEET AT LAST TO PRESS NEW ENGLAND'S HISTORIC SOIL and my eyes to the knowledge of her beauty and her thrift._ Here within touch of Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill--_WHERE WEBSTER THUNDERED and Longfellow sang, Emerson thought AND CHANNING PREACHED--HERE IN THE CRADLE OF AMERICAN LETTERS and almost of American liberty,_ I hasten to make the obeisance that every American owes New England when first he stands uncovered in her mighty presence. _Strange apparition!_ This stern and unique figure--carved from the ocean and the wilderness--its majesty kindling and growing amid the storms of winter and of wars--until at last the gloom was broken, _ITS BEAUTY DISCLOSED IN THE SUNs.h.i.+NE, and the heroic workers rested at its base_--while startled kings and emperors gazed and marveled that from the rude touch of this handful cast on a bleak and unknown sh.o.r.e should have come the _embodied genius of human government AND THE PERFECTED MODEL OF HUMAN LIBERTY!_ G.o.d bless the memory of those immortal workers, and prosper the fortunes of their living sons--and perpetuate the inspiration of their handiwork....

Far to the South, Mr. President, separated from this section by a line--_once defined in irrepressible difference, once traced in fratricidal blood, AND NOW, THANK G.o.d, BUT A VANIs.h.i.+NG SHADOW--lies the fairest and richest domain of this earth. It is the home of a brave and hospitable people. THERE IS CENTERED ALL THAT CAN PLEASE OR PROSPER HUMANKIND. A PERFECT CLIMATE ABOVE a fertile soil_ yields to the husbandman every product of the temperate zone.

There, by night _the cotton whitens beneath the stars,_ and by day _THE WHEAT LOCKS THE SUNs.h.i.+NE IN ITS BEARDED SHEAF._ In the same field the clover steals the fragrance of the wind, and tobacco catches the quick aroma of the rains. _THERE ARE MOUNTAINS STORED WITH EXHAUSTLESS TREASURES: forests--vast and primeval;_ and rivers that, _tumbling or loitering, run wanton to the sea._ Of the three essential items of all industries--cotton, iron and wood--that region has easy control. _IN COTTON, a fixed monopoly--IN IRON, proven supremacy--IN TIMBER, the reserve supply of the Republic._ From this a.s.sured and permanent advantage, against which artificial conditions cannot much longer prevail, has grown an amazing system of industries.

Not maintained by human contrivance of tariff or capital, afar off from the fullest and cheapest source of supply, but resting in divine a.s.surance, within touch of field and mine and forest--not set amid costly farms from which compet.i.tion has driven the farmer in despair, but amid cheap and sunny lands, rich with agriculture, to which neither season nor soil has set a limit--this system of industries is mounting to a splendor that shall dazzle and illumine the world. _THAT, SIR, is the picture and the promise of my home--A LAND BETTER AND FAIRER THAN I HAVE TOLD YOU, and yet but fit setting in its material excellence for the loyal and gentle quality of its citizens.h.i.+p._

This hour little needs the _LOYALTY THAT IS LOYAL TO ONE SECTION and yet holds the other in enduring suspicion and estrangement._ Give us the _broad_ and _perfect loyalty that loves and trusts GEORGIA_ alike with _Ma.s.sachusetts_--that knows no _SOUTH_, no _North_, no _EAST_, no _West_, but _endears with equal and patriotic love_ every foot of our soil, every State of our Union.

_A MIGHTY DUTY, SIR, AND A MIGHTY INSPIRATION impels every one of us to-night to lose in patriotic consecration WHATEVER ESTRANGES, WHATEVER DIVIDES._

_WE, SIR, are Americans--AND WE STAND FOR HUMAN LIBERTY!_ The uplifting force of the American idea is under every throne on earth. _France, Brazil--THESE ARE OUR VICTORIES. To redeem the earth from kingcraft and oppression--THIS IS OUR MISSION! AND WE SHALL NOT FAIL._ G.o.d has sown in our soil the seed of His millennial harvest, and He will not lay the sickle to the ripening crop until His full and perfect day has come. _OUR HISTORY, SIR, has been a constant and expanding miracle, FROM PLYMOUTH ROCK AND JAMESTOWN,_ all the way--aye, even from the hour when from the voiceless and traceless ocean a new world rose to the sight of the inspired sailor. As we approach the fourth centennial of that stupendous day--when the old world will come to _marvel_ and to _learn_ amid our gathered treasures--let us resolve to crown the miracles of our past with the spectacle of a Republic, _compact, united INDISSOLUBLE IN THE BONDS OF LOVE_--loving from the Lakes to the Gulf--the wounds of war healed in every heart as on every hill, _serene and resplendent AT THE SUMMIT OF HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT AND EARTHLY GLORY, blazing out the path and making clear the way up which all the nations of the earth, must come in G.o.d's appointed time!_

--HENRY W. GRADY, _The Race Problem_.

_ ... I WOULD CALL HIM NAPOLEON_, but Napoleon made his way to empire _over broken oaths and through a sea of blood._ This man never broke his word. "No Retaliation" was his great motto and the rule of his life; _AND THE LAST WORDS UTTERED TO HIS SON IN FRANCE WERE THESE: "My boy, you will one day go back to Santo Domingo; forget that France murdered your father." I WOULD CALL HIM CROMWELL,_ but Cromwell _was only a soldier, and the state he founded went down with him into his grave. I WOULD CALL HIM WAs.h.i.+NGTON,_ but the great Virginian _held slaves. THIS MAN RISKED HIS EMPIRE rather than permit the slave-trade in the humblest village of his dominions._

_YOU THINK ME A FANATIC TO-NIGHT,_ for you read history, _not with your eyes, BUT WITH YOUR PREJUDICES._ But fifty years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the Muse of History will put _PHOCION for the Greek,_ and _BRUTUS for the Roman, HAMPDEN for England, LAFAYETTE for France,_ choose _WAs.h.i.+NGTON as the bright, consummate flower of our EARLIER civilization, AND JOHN BROWN the ripe fruit of our NOONDAY,_ then, dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of _THE SOLDIER, THE STATESMAN, THE MARTYR, TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE._

--Wendell Phillips, _Toussaint l'Ouverture_.

Drill on the following selections for change of pitch: Beecher's "Abraham Lincoln," p. 76; Seward's "Irrepressible Conflict," p. 67; Everett's "History of Liberty," p. 78; Grady's "The Race Problem," p.

36; and Beveridge's "Pa.s.s Prosperity Around," p. 470.

CHAPTER V

EFFICIENCY THROUGH CHANGE OF PACE

Hear how he clears the points o' Faith Wi' rattlin' an' thumpin'!

Now meekly calm, now wild in wrath, He's stampin' an' he's jumpin'.

--ROBERT BURNS, _Holy Fair_.

The Latins have bequeathed to us a word that has no precise equivalent in our tongue, therefore we have accepted it, body unchanged--it is the word _tempo_, and means _rate of movement_, as measured by the time consumed in executing that movement.

Thus far its use has been largely limited to the vocal and musical arts, but it would not be surprising to hear tempo applied to more concrete matters, for it perfectly ill.u.s.trates the real meaning of the word to say that an ox-cart moves in slow tempo, an express train in a fast tempo. Our guns that fire six hundred times a minute, shoot at a fast tempo; the old muzzle loader that required three minutes to load, shot at a slow tempo. Every musician understands this principle: it requires longer to sing a half note than it does an eighth note.

Now tempo is a tremendously important element in good platform work, for when a speaker delivers a whole address at very nearly the same rate of speed he is depriving himself of one of his chief means of emphasis and power. The baseball pitcher, the bowler in cricket, the tennis server, all know the value of change of pace--change of tempo--in delivering their ball, and so must the public speaker observe its power.

_Change of Tempo Lends Naturalness to the Delivery_

Naturalness, or at least seeming naturalness, as was explained in the chapter on "Monotony," is greatly to be desired, and a continual change of tempo will go a long way towards establis.h.i.+ng it. Mr. Howard Lindsay, Stage Manager for Miss Margaret Anglin, recently said to the present writer that change of pace was one of the most effective tools of the actor. While it must be admitted that the stilted mouthings of many actors indicate cloudy mirrors, still the public speaker would do well to study the actor's use of tempo.

There is, however, a more fundamental and effective source at which to study naturalness--a trait which, once lost, is shy of recapture: that source is the common conversation of any well-bred circle. _This_ is the standard we strive to reach on both stage and platform--with certain differences, of course, which will appear as we go on. If speaker and actor were to reproduce with absolute fidelity every variation of utterance--every whisper, grunt, pause, silence, and explosion--of conversation as we find it typically in everyday life, much of the interest would leave the public utterance. Naturalness in public address is something more than faithful reproduction of nature--it is the reproduction of those _typical_ parts of nature's work which are truly representative of the whole.

The realistic story-writer understands this in writing dialogue, and we must take it into account in seeking for naturalness through change of tempo.

Suppose you speak the first of the following sentences in a slow tempo, the second quickly, observing how natural is the effect. Then speak both with the same rapidity and note the difference.

I can't recall what I did with my knife. Oh, now I remember I gave it to Mary.

We see here that a change of tempo often occurs in the same sentence--for tempo applies not only to single words, groups of words, and groups of sentences, but to the major parts of a public speech as well.

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1. In the following, speak the words "long, long while" very slowly; the rest of the sentence is spoken in moderately rapid tempo.

When you and I behind the Veil are past, Oh but the long, long while the world shall last, Which of our coming and departure heeds, As the seven seas should heed a pebble cast.

Note: In the following selections the pa.s.sages that should be given a fast tempo are in italics; those that should be given in a slow tempo are in small capitals. Practise these selections, and then try others, changing from fast to slow tempo on different parts, carefully noting the effect.

2. No MIRABEAU, NAPOLEON, BURNS, CROMWELL, NO _man_ ADEQUATE _to_ DO ANYTHING _but is first of all in_ RIGHT EARNEST _about it--what I call_ A SINCERE _man. I should say_ SINCERITY, _a_ GREAT, DEEP, GENUINE SINCERITY, _is the first_ CHARACTERISTIC _of a man in any way_ HEROIC. _Not the sincerity that_ CALLS _itself sincere. Ah no. That is a very poor matter indeed_--A SHALLOW, BRAGGART, CONSCIOUS _sincerity, oftenest_ SELF-CONCEIT _mainly. The_ GREAT MAN'S SINCERITY _is of a kind he_ CANNOT SPEAK OF. _Is_ NOT CONSCIOUS _of_.--THOMAS CARLYLE.

3. TRUE WORTH _is in_ BEING--NOT SEEMING--_in doing each day that goes by_ SOME LITTLE GOOD, _not in_ DREAMING _of_ GREAT THINGS _to do by and by. For whatever men say in their_ BLINDNESS, _and in spite of the_ FOLLIES _of_ YOUTH, _there is nothing so_ KINGLY _as_ KINDNESS, _and nothing so_ ROYAL _as_ TRUTH.--_Anonymous_.

4. To get a natural effect, where would you use slow and where fast tempo in the following?