PREFACE

This book is designed to set forth the main principles of effective platform delivery, and to provide a large body of material for student practice. The work laid out may be used to form a separate course of study, or a course of training running parallel with a course in debating or other original speaking. It has been prepared with a view also to that large number who want to speak, or have to speak, but cannot have the advantage of a teacher. Much is therefore said in the way of caution, and untechnical language is used throughout.

The discussion of principles in Part One is intended as a help towards the student's understanding of his task, and also as a common basis of criticism in the relation between teacher and pupil. The preliminary fundamental work of Part Two, Technical Training, deals first with the right formation of tone, the development of voice as such, the securing of a fixed right vocal habit. Following comes the adapting of this improved voice to the varieties of use, or expressional effect, demanded of the public speaker. After this critical detailed drill, the student is to take the platform, and apply his acquired technique to continued discourse, receiving criticism after each entire piece of work.

The question as to what should be the plan and the content of Part Three, Platform Practice, has been determined simply by asking what are the distinctly varied conditions under which men most frequently speak. It is regarded as profitable for the student to practice, at least to some extent, in all the several kinds of speech here chosen. In thus cultivating versatility, he will greatly enlarge his power of expression, and will, at length, discover wherein lies his own special capability.

The principal aim in choosing the selections has been to have them sufficiently alive to be attractive to younger speakers, and not so heavy as to be unsuited to their powers. Some of them have proved effective by use; many others are new. In all cases they are of good quality.

It is hoped that the new features of the book will be found useful. One of these is a group of lighter after-dinner speeches and anecdotes. It has been said that, in present-day speech-making, humor has supplanted former-day eloquence. It plays anyway a considerable part in various kinds of speaking. The young speaker is generally ineffective in the expression of pleasantry, even his own. Practice in the speaking of wholesome humor is good for cultivating quality of voice and ease of manner, and for developing the faculty of giving humorous turn to one's own thought. It is also entertaining to fellow students. Other new features in the book are a practice section for the kind of informal speaking suited to the club or the classroom, and a section given to the occasional poem, the kind of poem that is associated with speech- making.

A considerable space is given to argumentative selections because of the general interest in debating, and because a need has been felt for something suited for special forensic practice among students of law. Some poetic selections are introduced into Part Two in order to give attractive variety to the student's work, and to provide for the advantage of using verse form in some of the vocal training. The few character sketches introduced may serve for cultivating facility in giving entertaining touches to serious discourse. All the selections for platform practice are designed, as seems most fitting, to occupy about five minutes in delivery. Original speeches, wherein the student presents his own thought, may be intermingled with this more technical work in delivery, or may be taken up in a more special way in a subsequent course.

It should, perhaps, be suggested that the plan of procedure here prescribed can be modified to suit the individual teacher or student. The method of advance explained in the Discussion of Principles is believed to be the best, but some who use the book may prefer, for example, to begin with the second group of selections, the familiar, colloquial passages, and proceed from these to those more elevated and sustained. This or any other variation from the plan here proposed can, of course, be adopted. For any plan the variety of material is deemed sufficient, and the method of grouping will be found convenient and practical.

The making of this kind of book would not be possible except for the generous privileges granted by many authors and many publishers of copyrighted works. For the special courtesies of all whose writings have a place here the editor would make the fullest acknowledgment of indebtedness. The books from which extracts are taken have been mentioned, in every case, in a prominent place with the title of the selection, in order that so far as possible students may be led carefully to read the entire original, and become fully imbued with its meaning and spirit, before undertaking the vocal work on the selected portion. For the purpose of such reading, it would be well to have these books collected on a section of shelves in school libraries for easy and ready reference.

The publishers from whose books selections have been most liberally drawn are, Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Company, Messrs. Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, Messrs. Little, Brown, and Company, of Boston, and Messrs. Harper and Brothers, Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, Messrs. G. W. Dillingham Company, Messrs. Doubleday, Page and Company, and Mr. C. P. Farrell, New York. Several of the after-dinner speeches are taken from the excellent fifteen volume collection, "Modern Eloquence," by an arrangement with Geo. L. Shuman and Company, Chicago, publishers. In the first three volumes of this collection will be found many other attractive after-dinner speeches.

I. L. W. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

PART ONE

A DISCUSSION OF PRINCIPLES

TECHNICAL TRAINING Establishing the Tone Vocal Flexibility The Formation of Words Making the Point Indicating Values and Relations Expressing the Feeling Showing the Picture Expression by Action

PLATFORM PRACTICE The Formal Address The Public Lecture The Informal Discussion Argumentative Speech The After-Dinner Speech The Occasional Poem The Making of the Speech

PART TWO

TECHNICAL TRAINING

ESTABLISHING THE TONE O Scotia!…………………….. Robert Burns O Rome! My Country!……………. Lord Byron Ring Out, Wild Bells!………….. Alfred Lord Tennyson Roll On, Thou Deep!……………. Lord Byron Thou Too, Sail On!…………….. Henry W. Longfellow O Tiber, Father Tiber!…………. Lord Macaulay Marullus to the Roman Citizens….. William Shakespeare The Recessional……………….. Rudyard Kipling The Cradle of Liberty………….. Daniel Webster The Impeachment of Warren Hastings. Edmund Burke Bunker Hill…………………… Daniel Webster The Gettysburg Address…………. Abraham Lincoln

VOCAL FLEXIBILITY Cęsar, the Fighter…………….. Henry W. Longfellow Official Duty…………………. Theodore Roosevelt Look Well to your Speech……….. George Herbert Palmer Hamlet to the Players………….. William Shakespeare Bellario's Letter……………… William Shakespeare Casca, Speaking of Cęsar……….. William Shakespeare Squandering of the Voice……….. Henry Ward Beecher The Training of the Gentleman…… William J. Tucker

MAKING THE POINT Brutus to the Roman Citizens……. William Shakespeare The Precepts of Polonius……….. William Shakespeare The High Standard……………… Lord Rosebery On Taxing the Colonies…………. Edmund Burke Justifying the President……….. John C. Spooner Britain and America……………. John Bright

VALUES AND TRANSITIONS King Robert of Sicily………….. Henry W. Longfellow Laying the Atlantic Cable………. James T. Fields O'Connell, the Orator………….. Wendell Phillips Justification for Impeachment…… Edmund Burke Wendell Phillips, the Orator……. George William Curtis On the Disposal of Public Lands…. Robert Y. Hayne The Declaration of Independence…. Abraham Lincoln

EXPRESSING THE FEELING Northern Greeting to Southern Veterans. …………………………….. Henry Cabot Lodge Matches and Overmatches………… Daniel Webster The Coalition…………………. Daniel Webster In His Own Defense…………….. Robert Emmet On Resistance to Great Britain….. Patrick Henry Invective against Louis Bonaparte.. Victor Hugo

SHOWING THE PICTURE Mount, the Doge of Venice!……… Mary Russell Mitford The Revenge…………………… Alfred Lord Tennyson A Vision of War……………….. Robert G. Ingersoll Sunset Near Jerusalem………….. Corwin Knapp Linson A Return in Triumph……………. T. De Witt Talmage A Return in Defeat…………….. Henry W. Grady

EXPRESSION BY ACTION In Our Forefathers' Day………… T. De Witt Talmage Cassius against Cęsar………….. William Shakespeare The Spirit of the South………… Henry W. Grady Something Rankling Here………… Daniel Webster Faith in the People……………. John Bright The French against Hayti……….. Wendell Phillips The Necessity of Force…………. John M. Thurston Against War with Mexico………… Thomas Corwin The Murder of Lovejoy………….. Wendell Phillips

DEPICTING CHARACTER A Tale of the Plains…………… Theodore Roosevelt Gunga Din…………………….. Rudyard Kipling Address of Sergeant Buzfuz……… Charles Dickens A Natural Philosopher………….. Maccabe Response to a Toast……………. Litchfield Moseley Partridge at the Play………….. Henry Fielding A Man's a Man for a That……….. Robert Burns Artemus Ward's Lecture…………. Charles Farrar Brown Jim Bludso, of the Prairie Belle… John Hay The Trial of Abner Barrow………. Richard Harding Davis

PART THREE

PLATFORM PRACTICE

THE SPEECH OF FORMAL OCCASION The Benefits of a College Education Abbott Lawrence Lowell What the College Gives…………. Le Baron Russell Briggs Memorial Day Address…………… John D. Long William McKinley………………. John Hay Robert E. Lee…………………. John W. Daniel Farewell Address to the United States Senate. ………………………………Henry Clay The Death of Garfield………….. James G. Blaine The Second Inaugural Address……. Abraham Lincoln The Death of Prince Albert……… Benjamin Disraeli An Appreciation of Mr. Gladstone… Arthur J. Balfour William E. Gladstone…………… Lord Rosebery The Soldier's Creed……………. Horace Porter Competition in College…………. Abbott Lawrence Lowell

THE PUBLIC LECTURE A Master of the Situation………. James T. Fields Wit and Humor…………………. Minot J. Savage A Message to Garcia……………. Elbert Hubbard Shakespeare's "Mark Antony"…….. Anonymous André and Hale………………… Chauncey M. Depew The Battle of Lexington………… Theodore Parker The Homes of the People………… Henry W. Grady General Ulysses S. Grant……….. Canon G. W. Farrar American Courage………………. Sherman Hoar The Minutemen of the Revolution…. George William Curtis Paul Revere's Ride…………….. George William Curtis The Arts of the Ancients……….. Wendell Phillips A Man without a Country………… Edward Everett Hale The Execution of Rodriguez……… Richard Harding Davis

THE INFORMAL DISCUSSION The Flood of Books…………….. Henry van Dyke Effectiveness in Speaking………. William Jennings Bryan Books, Literature and the People… Henry van Dyke Education for Business…………. Charles William Eliot The Beginnings of American Oratory. Thomas Wentworth Higginson Daniel Webster, the Man………… Thomas Wentworth Higginson The Enduring Value of Speech……. Thomas Wentworth Higginson To College Girls………………. Le Baron Russell Briggs The Art of Acting……………… Henry Irving Address to the Freshman Class at Harvard University ………………………………Charles William Eliot With Tennyson at Farringford……. By His Son Notes on Speech-Making…………. Brander Matthews Hunting the Grizzly……………. Theodore Roosevelt

ARGUMENT AND PERSUASION

DEBATES AND CAMPAIGN SPEECHES On Retaining the Philippine Islands George F. Hoar On Retaining the Philippine Islands William McKinley Debate on the Tariff…………… Thomas B. Reed Debate on the Tariff…………… Charles F. Crisp South Carolina and Massachusetts… Robert Y. Hayne South Carolina and Massachusetts… Daniel Webster The Republican Party…………… John Hay Nominating Ulysses S. Grant…….. Roscoe Conkling The Choice of a Party………….. Roscoe Conkling Nominating John Sherman………… James A. Garfield The Democratic Party…………… William E. Russell The Call to Democrats………….. Alton B. Parker Nominating Woodrow Wilson………. John W. Wescott Democratic Faith………………. William E. Russell England and America……………. John Bright On Home Rule in Ireland………… William E. Gladstone

THE LEGAL PLEA The Dartmouth College Case……… Daniel Webster In Defense of the Kennistons……. Daniel Webster In Defense of the Kennistons, II… Daniel Webster In Defense of John E. Cook……… D. W. Voorhees In Defense of the Soldiers……… Josiah Quincy, Jr. In Defense of the Soldiers, II….. Josiah Quincy, Jr. In Defense of the Soldiers, III…. Josiah Quincy, Jr. In Defense of Lord George Gordon… Lord Thomas Erskine Pronouncing Sentence for High Treason …………………………….. Sir Alfred Wills The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson.. George S. Boutwell The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson.. William M. Evarts The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, II …………………………….. William M. Evarts

THE AFTER-DINNER SPEECH At a University Club Dinner…….. Henry E. Howland The Evacuation of New York……… Joseph H. Choate Ties of Kinship……………….. Sir Edwin Arnold Canada, England and the United States …………………………….. Sir Wilfred Laurier Monsieur and Madame……………. Paul Blouet (Max O'Rell) The Typical American…………… Henry W. Grady The Pilgrim Mothers……………. Joseph H. Choate Bright Land to Westward………… E. O. Wolcott Woman………………………… Theodore Tilton Abraham Lincoln……………….. Horace Porter To Athletic Victors……………. Henry E. Howland

THE OCCASIONAL POEM Charles Dickens……………….. William Watson The Mariners of England………… Thomas Campbell Class Poem……………………. Langdon Warner A Troop of the Guard…………… Hermann Hagedorn, Jr. The Boys……………………… Oliver Wendell Holmes

THE ANECDOTE The Mob Conquered……………… George William Curtis An Example of Faith……………. Henry W. Grady The Rail-Splitter……………… H. L. Williams O'Connell's Wit……………….. Wendell Phillips A Reliable Team……………….. Theodore Roosevelt Meg's Marriage………………… Robert Collyer Outdoing Mrs. Partington……….. Sidney Smith Circumstance not a Cause……….. Sidney Smith More Terrible than the Lions……. A. A. McCormick Irving, the Actor……………… John De Morgan Wendell Phillips's Tact………… James Burton Pond Baked Beans and Culture………… Eugene Field Secretary Chase's Chin-Fly……… F. B. Carpenter

INDEX OF TITLES INDEX OF AUTHORS

INTRODUCTION

Happily, it is no longer necessary to argue that public speaking is a worthy subject for regular study in school and college. The teaching of this subject, in one form or another, is now fairly well established. In each of the larger universities, including professional schools and summer schools, the students electing the courses in speaking number well into the hundreds. These courses are now being more generally placed among those counted towards the academic degrees. The demand for trained teachers in the various branches of the work in schools and colleges is far above the present supply. Educators in general look with more favor upon this kind of instruction, recognizing its practical usefulness and its cultural value. The question of the present time, then, is not whether or not the subject shall have a place. Some sort of place it always has had and always will have. Present discussion should rather bear upon the policy and the method of that instruction, the qualifications to be required of teachers, and the consideration for themselves and their work that teachers have a

right to expect.

Naturally, public speaking in the form of debating has received favor among educators. It seems to serve the ends of practice in speaking and it gives also good mental discipline. The high regard for debating is not misplaced. We can hardly overestimate the good that debating has done to the subject of speaking in the schools and colleges. The rigid intellectual discipline involved in debating has helped to establish public speaking in the regular curriculum, thus gaining for it, and for teachers in it, greater respect. To bring training in speech into close relation with training in thought, and with the study of expression in English, is most desirable. This, however, does not mean that training in speech, as a distinct object in itself, should be allowed to fall into comparative neglect. It is quite possible that, along with the healthy disapproval of false elocution and meaningless declamation, may come an underestimation of the important place of a right kind and a due degree of technical training in voice and general form.

In a recent book on public speaking, the statement is made that it is all well enough, if it so happens, for a speaker to have a pleasing voice, but it is not essential. This, though true in a sense, is misleading, and much teaching of this sort would be unfortunate for young speakers. It would seem quite unnecessary to say that beauty of voice is not in itself a primary object in vocal training for public speaking. The object is to make voices effective. In the effective use of any other instrument, we apply the utmost skill for the perfect adjustment or coordination of all the means of control. We do this for the attainment of power, for the conserving of energy, for the insuring of endurance and ease of operation. This is the end in the training of the voice. It is to avoid friction. It is to prevent nervous strain, muscular distortion, and failing power, and to secure easy response to the will of the speaker. The point not wholly understood or heeded is that, as a rule, the unpleasing voice is an indication of ill

adjustment and friction. It denotes a mechanism wearing on itself—it means a voice that will weaken or fail before its time—a voice that needs repair.

Since speech is to express a speaker's thought, training in speech should not be altogether dissociated from training in thinking. It ought to go hand in hand, indeed, with the study of English, from first to last. But training in voice and in the method of speech is a technical matter. It ought not to be left to the haphazard treatment, the intense spurring on, of vocally unskilled coaches for speaking contests. Discussions about the teaching of speaking are often very curious. We are frequently told by what means a few great orators have succeeded, but we are hardly ever informed of the causes from which many other speakers have been embarrassed or have failed. A book or essay is written to prove, from the individual experience of the author, the infallibility of a method. He was able to succeed, the argument runs, only by this or that means; therefore all should do as he did. It seems very plausible and attractive to read, for instance, that to succeed in speaking, it is only necessary to plunge in and be in earnest. But another writer points out that this is quite absurd;