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diff --git a/6333-8.txt b/6333-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d51a606 --- /dev/null +++ b/6333-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13229 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Public Speaking, by Irvah Lester Winter + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Public Speaking + +Author: Irvah Lester Winter + +Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6333] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on November 27, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PUBLIC SPEAKING *** + + + + +Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + +PUBLIC SPEAKING +PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE + +BY IRVAH LESTER WINTER + + + + +IN OFFERING A BOOK TO STUDENTS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING +THE AUTHOR WOULD PAY WHAT TRIBUTE IS HERE POSSIBLE +TO +CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT +WHO FOR MANY YEARS HAS TAUGHT BY EXAMPLE +THE POWER AND BEAUTY OF PERFECTED SPEECH + + + + +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. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + +PREFACE +INTRODUCTION + + +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; +that many poor speakers have not lacked in intense earnestness and +sincerity; that it isn't feeling or intense spirit alone that insures +success, but it is the attainment as well of a vocal method. Yet he +goes on to argue that this vocal method, this forming of a public +speaking voice and style, cannot be rightly gained from the teachers; +it must be acquired through the exercise of each man's own will; if a +man finds he is going wrong he must will to go right--as if many men +had not persistently but unsuccessfully exercised their will to this +very end. It is so easy, and so attractive, to resolve all problems +into one idea. President Woodrow Wilson, of Princeton University, once +said that he always avoided the man or the book that proclaimed one +idea for the correcting of society's ills. These ideas on which books +or essays are written are too obviously fallacious to need extended +comment; the wonder is that they are often quoted and commended as +being beneficial in their teaching. If we want to row or sprint or play +golf, we do not simply go in and do our utmost; we apply the best +technical skill to the art; we seek to learn how, from the experience +of the past, and through the best instructors obtainable. Both common +sense and experience show that the use of the human voice in the art of +speaking is not the one thing, among all things, that cannot be +successfully taught. The results of vocal teaching show, on the +contrary, from multitudes of examples, from volumes of testimony, that +there are few branches of instruction wherein the specially trained +teacher is so much needed, and can be so effective as in the art of +speaking. + +In an experience extending over many years, an experience dealing with +about all the various forms of public speaking and vocal teaching, the +present writer has tried many methods, conducted classes on several +different plans, learned the needs, observed the efforts, considered +the successes and failures, of many men and women of various ages and +of many callings. The constant and insistent fact in all this period of +experience has been that skillful, technical instruction, as such, is +the one kind of instruction that should always be provided where public +speaking is taught, and the one that the student should not fail to +secure when it is at hand. Other elements in good speech-making may, if +necessary, be obtained from other sources. The teacher of speaking +should teach speech. He should teach something else also, but he +should, as a technician, teach that. The multitude of men and women +who, in earlier and later life, come, in vocal trouble, to seek help +from the experienced teacher, and the abundance of testimony as to the +satisfactory results; the repeated evidences of failure to produce +rightly trained voices wholly by so-called inspirational methods; the +frequent evidences of pernicious vocal results from the forcing of +young voices in the overintense and hasty efforts made in preparing for +prize speaking, acting, and debating,--all these may not come to the +understanding of the ordinary observer; they may not often, perhaps, +come within the experience of the exceptionally gifted individuals who +are usually cited as examples of distinguished success; they cannot +impress themselves on educators who have little or no relation with +this special subject; they naturally come into the knowledge and +experience of the specially trained teacher of public speaking, who is +brought into intimate relations with the subject and deals with all +sorts and conditions of men. Out of this experience comes the strong +conviction that the teacher of public speaking should be a vocal +technician and a vocal physician, able to teach constructively and to +treat correctively, knowing all he can of all that has been taught +before, but teaching only as much of what he knows as is necessary to +any individual. + +For the dignity and worth of the teaching, the teacher of speaking +should be trained, and should be a trainer, as has been indirectly +said, in some other subject--in English literature or composition, in +debating, history, or what not. He should be one of the academic +faculty--concerned with thought, which speech expresses. He should not, +for his other subject, be mainly concerned with gymnastics or +athletics; he should not, for his own good and the consequent good of +his work, be wholly taken up merely with the teaching of technical form +in speaking. He should not be merely--if at all--a coach in inter- +collegiate contests; nor should his service to an institution be +adjudged mainly by the results of such contests. He should be an +independent, intellectually grown and growing man, one who--in his +exceptionally intimate relations with students--will have a large and +right influence on student life. The offer recently held out by a +university of a salary and an academic rank equal to its best, to a +sufficiently qualified instructor in public speaking, was one of the +several signs of a sure movement of to-day in the right direction--the +demand for a man of high character and broad culture, specially skilled +in the technical subject he was to teach, and the providing of a worthy +position. + +One fact that needs to be impressed upon governing bodies of school and +college is that the cultivation of good speaking cannot but be +unsatisfactory when it is continued over only a very brief time. It may +only do mischief. A considerable period is necessary, as is the case +with other subjects, for reaching the student intelligence, for molding +the faculties, for maturing the powers, for adapting method to the +individual, and for bringing the personality out through the method, so +that method disappears. Senator George F. Hoar once gave very sensible +advice in an address to an audience of Harvard students. He did not +content himself with dwelling on the inevitable platitude, first have +something to say, and then say it; he said he had been, in all his +career, at a special disadvantage in public speaking, from the want of +early training in the use of his voice; and he urged that students +would do well not only to take advantage of such training in college, +but to have their teacher, if it were possible, follow them, for a +time, into their professional work. This idea was well exemplified in +the case of Phillips Brooks--a speaker of spontaneity, simplicity, and +splendid power. It is said that, in the period of his pulpit work, in +the midst of his absorbing church labors, he made it a duty to go from +time to time for a period of work with his teacher of voice, that he +might be kept from falling back into wrong ways. It is often said that, +if a man has it in him, he will speak well anyway. It is emphatically +the man who has it in him, the man of intense temperament, like that of +Phillips Brooks, who most needs the balance wheel, the sure reliance, +of technique. That this technique should not be too technical; that +form should not be too formal; that teaching should not be too good, or +do too much, is one of the principles of good teaching. The point +insisted on is that a considerable time is needed, as it is in other +kinds of teaching, for thoroughly working out a few essential +principles; for overcoming a few obstinate faults; for securing matured +results by the right process of gradual development. + +There is much cause for gratification in the evidences of a growing +appreciation, in all quarters, of the place due to spoken English, as a +study to be taught continuously side by side with written English. Much +progress has also been made toward making youthful platform speaking, +as well as youthful writing, more rational in form, more true in +spirit, more useful for its purpose. In good time written and spoken +English, conjoined with disciplinary training in thought and +imagination, will both become firmly established in their proper place +as subjects to be thoroughly and systematically taught. Good teaching +will become traditional, and good teachers not rare. And among the +specialized courses in public speaking an important place should always +be given to an exact training in voice and in the whole art of +effective delivery. + + + + +PART ONE + + +A DISCUSSION OF PRINCIPLES + +TECHNICAL TRAINING + +ESTABLISHING THE TONE + + +The common trouble in using the voice for the more vigorous or intense +forms of speaking is a contraction or straining of the throat. This +impedes the free flow of voice, causing impaired tone, poor +enunciation, and unhealthy physical conditions. Students should, +therefore, be constantly warned against the least beginnings of this +fault. The earlier indications of it may not be observed, or the nature +of the trouble may not be known, by the untrained speaker. But it ought +to have, from the first, the attention of a skilled teacher, for the +more deep-seated it becomes, the harder is its cure. So very common is +the "throaty" tone and so connected is throat pressure with every other +vocal imperfection, that the avoiding or the correcting of this one +fault demands constant watchfulness in all vigorous vocal work. The way +to avoid the faulty control of voice is, of course, to learn at the +proper time the general principles of what singers call voice +production. These principles are few and, in a sense, are very simple, +but they are not easily made perfectly clear in writing, and a perfect +application of them, even in the simpler forms of speaking, often +requires persistent practice. It will be the aim here to state only +what the student is most likely to understand and profit by, and to +leave the rest to the personal guidance of a teacher. + +The control of the voice, so far as it can be a conscious physical +operation, is determined chiefly by the action of the breathing muscles +about the waist and the lower part of the chest. The voice may be said +to have its foundation in this part of the physical man. This +foundation, or center of control, will be rightly established, not by +any very positive physical action; not by a decided raising of the +chest; not by any such marked expansion or contraction as to bring +physical discomfort or rigid muscular conditions. When the breath is +taken in, by an easy, natural expansion, much as air is taken into a +bellows, there is, to a certain degree, a firming of the breathing +muscles; but this muscular tension is felt by the speaker or singer, if +felt at all, simply as a comfortable fullness around, and slightly +above, the waistline, probably more in front than elsewhere. An eminent +teacher of singing tells his pupils to draw the breath into the +stomach. That probably suggests the sensation. When the breath has been +taken in, it is to be gently withheld,--not given up too freely,--and +the tone is formed on the top, so to speak, of this body of breath, +chiefly, of course, in the mouth and head. For the stronger and larger +voice the breath is not driven out and dissipated, but the tone is +intensified and given completer resonance within--within the nasal or +head cavities, somewhat within the pharynx and chest. This body of +breath, easily held in good control, by the lower breathing muscles, +forms what is called the vocal "support." It is a fixed base of +control. It is a fundamental condition, and is to be steadily +maintained in all the varied operations of the voice. + +Since this fundamental control of voice is so important, breathing +exercises are often prescribed for regular practice. Such exercises, +when directed by a thoroughly proficient instructor, may be vocally +effective, and beneficial to health. Unwisely practiced, they may be +unfitted to vocal control and of positive physical harm. Moderately +taking the breath at frequent intervals, as a preparation or +reėnforcement for speaking, should become an unconscious habit. +Excessive filling of the lungs or pressing downward upon the abdomen +should be avoided. In general, the hearing of the voice, and an +expressional purpose in making the voice, are the better means of +acquiring good breathing. For the purposes of public speaking, at +least, it is seldom necessary to do much more, in regard to the +breathing, than to instruct a student against going wrong. The speaker +should have a settled feeling of sufficiency; he should hold himself +well together, physically and morally, avoiding nervous agitation and +physical collapse; he should allow the breath freedom rather than put +it under unnatural constraint. Perfect breathing can only be known by +certain qualities in the voice. When it is best, the process is least +observed. The student learns the method of breathing mainly by noting +the result, by rightly hearing his voice. He must, after all, practice +through the hearing. + +The discussion of vocal support has brought us to the second main +principle, the government of the throat. The right control of the +voice, by placing a certain degree of tension upon the breathing +muscles, tends to take away all pressure and constraint from the +throat, leaving that passage seemingly open and free, so that the +breath body or column; as some conceive it, seems almost unbroken in +continued speech, much as it is, or should be, in prolonging tone in +singing. The throat is opened in a relaxed rather than a constrained +way, so as to give free play for the involuntary action of the delicate +vocal muscles connected with the larynx, which determine all the finer +variations of voice. Whatever kind of vocal effort is made, the student +should constantly guard himself against the least throat stiffening or +contraction, against what vocalists call a "throat grip." He is very +likely to make some effort with the throat, or vocal muscles, when +putting the voice to any unusual test--when prolonging tone, raising or +lowering the pitch, giving sharp inflections, or striking hard upon +words for emphasis. In these and other vocal efforts the throat muscles +should be left free to do their own work in their own way. The throat +is to be regarded as a way through; the motive power is below the +throat; the place for giving sound or resonance, to voice, for stamping +upon words their form and character, is in the mouth, front and back, +and especially in the head. + +The last of the three main considerations, the concentration of tone +where it naturally seems to be formed, is often termed voice "placing," +or "placement." The possible objection to this term is that it may +suggest a purely artificial or arbitrary treatment or method. Rightly +understood, it is the following of nature. Its value is that it +emphasizes the constancy of this one of the constant factors in voice. +Its result is a certain kind and degree of monotony; without that +particular kind of monotony the voice is faulty. When the tone is +forced out of its proper place, it is dissipated and more or less lost. +A student once told the writer, when complimented on the good placement +of his voice, that he learned this in his summer employment as a public +crier at the door of a show tent. He said he could not possibly have +endured the daily wear upon the voice in any other way. Voices are +heard among teamsters, foremen on the street, and auctioneers, that +conform to this and other principles perfectly. We may say that in such +cases the process of learning is unconscious. In the case of the +untaught student it was conscious, and was exactly what he would have +been instructed to do by a teacher. The point is that many cannot learn +by themselves, and our more unconscious doings are likely to become our +bad habits. + +Just what this voice placement is can perhaps be observed simply by +sounding the letter "m," or giving an ordinary hum, as the mother sings +to the child. It is merely finding the natural, instinctive basal form +of the voice, and making all the vowels simply as variations of this +form. The hum is often practiced, with a soft pure quality, by singers. +It is varied by the sound of "ng," as in "rung" or "hung," and the +elemental sound of "l." The practice should always be varied, however, +by a fuller sounding of the rounder vowels, lest the voice become too +much confined or thinned. The speaker, like the singer, must find out +how, by a certain adjustment all along the line from the breathing +center to the point of issue of the breath at the front of the mouth, +he can easily maintain a constant hitting place, to serve as the hammer +head; one singing place for carrying the voice steadily through a +sustained passage; one place where, as it were, the tone is held in +check so it will not break through itself and go to pieces,--a "placing +of the voice," which is to be preserved in every sort of change or play +of tone, whether in one's own character or an assumed character; a +constant focus or a fixed center of resonance, a forming of tone along +the roof of the mouth and well forward in the head, the safeguard and, +practically, the one most effective idea in the government of voice. + +And now it should be hastily stated that this excellent idea, like +other good things, may be easily abused. If the tone is pushed forward +or crowded into the head or held tight in its place, in the least +degree, there is a drawing or a cramping in the throat; there is a +"pressing" of the voice. It should be remembered that the constancy of +high placement of tone depends upon the certainty of the tone +foundation; that, after all, the voice must rest upon itself, and must +not sound as if it were up on tip-toe or on stilts; that tone placement +is merely a convenient term for naming a natural condition. + +As a final word on this part of the discussion, the student should of +course be impressed with the idea that though these three features of +vocal mechanism have been considered separately, all ideas about voice +are ultimately to become one idea. The voice is to be thought of as +belonging to the whole man, and is to become the spontaneous expression +of his feelings and will; it should not draw attention to any +particular part of the physical man; whatever number of conditions may +be considered, the voice is finally to be one condition, a condition of +normal freedom. + +A lack of freedom is indicated in the voice, as in other kinds of +mechanism by some sign of friction--by a harsh tone from a constrained +throat; by a nasal or a muffled tone, from some obstruction in the +nasal passages of the head, either because of abnormal physical +conditions, or because of an unnatural direction of the breath, mainly +due probably to speaking with a closed mouth; by a bound-up, heavy, +"chesty" tone, resulting from a labored method of breathing. + +Voice in its freer state should be pure, clear, round, fairly musical, +and fairly deep and rich. Its multitude of expressive qualities had +better be cultivated by the true purpose to express, in the simplest +way, sentiments appropriated to one's self through an understanding and +a comprehensive appreciation of various passages of good literature. As +soon as possible all technique is to be forgotten, unless the +consciousness is pricked by something going wrong. + +Voices in general need, in the larger development, to be rounded. The +vowel forms "oo" as in moon, "o" as in roll, and "a" as in saw, greatly +help in giving a rounded form to the general speech; for all vowels can +be molded somewhat into the form of these rounder ones. The vowels "e" +as in meet, "a" as in late, short "e" as in met, short "a" as in sat, +are likely to be made very sharp, thin, and harsh. When a passage for +practice begins with round vowels, as for example, "Roll on, thou deep +and dark blue ocean, roll!" the somewhat rounded form of the lips, and +the opened condition of the throat produced in forming the rounder +vowels, can be to some extent maintained through the whole of the +passage, in forming all the vowels; and this will give, by repeated +practice, a gradually rounded and deepened general character to the +voice. On the other hand the thinner, sharper vowels may serve to give +keenness and point to tones too thick and dull. In applying these +suggestions, as well as all other vocal suggestions, moderation and +good sense must be exercised, for the sake of the good outward +appearance and the good effect of the speaking. The chief vowel forms +running from the deepest to the most shallow are: "oo" as in moon, "o" +as in roll, "a" as in saw, "a" as in far, "a" as in say, "e" as in see. + +Since the making of tones means practically the shaping of vowels, +something should here be said about vowel forms. The mouth opening +should of course be freely shaped for the best sounding of the vowels. +For the vowel "a" as in far, the mouth is rather fully opened; for "a" +as in saw, it is opened deep, that is, the mouth passage is somewhat +narrowed, so as to allow increased depth. The vowel "o," as in no, has +two forms, the clear open "o," and the "o" somewhat covered by a closer +form of the lips, Commonly, when the vowel is prolonged, the initial +form, that is the open "o," is held, with the closed form, like "oo" in +moon, touched briefly as the tone is finished. So with long "i" (y), as +in thy, and "ou," as in thou--the first form is like a broad "a" as in +far, with short "i" (sit) ending the "i" (y), and "oo" (moon) ending +the "ou." This final sound, though sometimes accentuated for humorous +effect, is usually not to be made prominent. The sound of "oi," as in +voice, has the main form of "aw" as in saw, and the final form in short +"i," as in pin. The vowel "u" is sounded like "oo" (moon) in a few +words, as in rule, truth. Generally, it sounds about like "ew" in new +or mew. In some of the forms the front of the mouth will be open, in +some half open, and in some, as in the case of long "e" (meet), nearly +closed. Whatever the degree of opening, the jaw should never be allowed +to become stiffly set, nor the tongue nor lips to be held tight, in any +degree or way. These faults cause a tightening in the throat, and +affect the character of the tone. It will generally be advantage to the +tone if the lips are trained to be very slightly protruding, in bell +shape, and if the corners of the mouth be not allowed to droop, but be +made very slightly to curve upward. The tongue takes of course various +positions for different vowels. For our purposes, it may be sufficient +to say that it will play its part best if it be not stiffened but is +left quite free and elastic, perhaps quite relaxed, and if the tip of +it be made to play easily down behind the lower teeth. + +Since voice has here been discussed in an objective sort of way, it is +fitting to emphasize the importance of what is called naturalness, or +more correctly, simplicity. Everybody desires this sort of result. It +can readily be seen, however, that about everything we do is a second +nature; is done, that is to say, in the acquired, acceptable, +conventional way. Voice and speech are largely determined by +surrounding influences, and what we come to regard as natural may be +only an acquired bad habit, which is, in fact, quite unnatural. Voice +should certainly be what we call human. Better it should have some +human faults than be smoothed out into negative perfection, without the +true ring, the spunk of individuality. There is, nevertheless, a best +naturalness, or second nature, and a worst. The object of training is +to find the best. + +In this discussion of voice some of the ideas often applied to the +first steps in the cultivation of singing have been presented, as those +most effective also for training in speech. Although, on the surface, +singing and speaking are quite different, fundamentally they are the +same. Almost all persons have, if they will use it, an ear for musical +pitch and tone, and the neglect to cultivate, in early life, the +musical hearing and the singing tone is a mistake. To prospective +public speakers it is something like a misfortune. The best speakers +have had voices that sang in their speaking. This applies distinctly to +the speaking, for example, of Wendell Phillips, who is commonly called +the most colloquial of our public speakers. It has often been commented +on in the case of Gladstone, and applies peculiarly to some of our +present-day speakers, who would be called, not orators, but impressive +talkers. The meaning is, not of course that speaking should sound like +singing, or necessarily like oratory, but that to the trained ear the +best speaking has fundamentally the singing conditions, and the voice +has singing qualities; and the elementary exercises designed for +singing are excellent, in their simpler forms and methods, for the +speaking voice. In carrying out this idea in voice training, the +selections here given for the earliest exercises, are such as naturally +call for some slight approach to the singing tone. Some are in the +spirit and style of song or hymn; others are in the form of address to +distant auditors, wherein the reciter would call to a distance, or +"sing out," as we say. This kind of speaking is a way of quickly +"bringing out" the voice. Young students especially are very apt in +this, getting the idea at once, though needing, as a rule, special +cautions and guidance for keeping the proper vocal conditions, so as to +prevent "forcing." The passages are simple in spirit and form. They +carry on one dominant feeling, needing little variation of voice. The +idea is to render them in a way near to the monotone, that the student +may learn to control one tone, so to speak, or to speak nearly in one +key, before doing the more varied tones of familiar speech or of +complex feeling. We might say the passages are to be read in some +degree like the chant; but the chant is likely to bring an excess of +head resonance and is too mechanical. The true spirit of the selections +is to be given, from the first, but reduced to its very simplest form. +Difficulties arise, in this first step, in the case of two classes of +student: those who lack sentiment or imagination, or at least the +faculty of vocally expressing it, and those with an excess of feeling. +The former class have to be mentally awakened; for some motive element, +aesthetic appreciation or imaginative purpose, should play a part, as +has been said, even in technical vocal training. The latter class must +be restrained. Excessive emotion either chokes off expression, or runs +away with itself. Calmness, evenness, poise, the easy control that +comes from a degree of relaxation, without loss of buoyancy,--these are +the conditions for good accomplishment of any kind. This self-mastery +the high-strung, ardent spirit must learn, in order to become really +strong. This is accomplished, in the case of a nervous temperament, not +by tightening up and trying hard, but by relaxing, by letting down. In +the use of these passages the voice will be set at first slightly high +in pitch, in order to help in keeping a continuous sounding of tone +against the roof of the mouth and to a proper degree in the head. This +average pitch, or key, or at least the character of the tone, will be +maintained without much change, and with special care that the tone be +kept up in its place at the ends of lines or sentences, and be kept +well fixed on its breath foundation. The simpler inflections indicating +the plain meaning, will of course be observed, the tone will be kept +easily supported by the frequently recovered breath that is under it. +The back of the mouth will seem to be constantly somewhat open. There +will be no attempt at special power, but only a free, mellow, flowing +tone of moderate strength. In the exercise each voice will be treated, +in detail, according to its particular needs, and in each teacher's own +way. + +At the time of student life, when physical conditions are not matured, +the counsel should repeatedly be given, not only that the voice, though +used often and regularly, should be used moderately, but also that the +voice should be kept youthful--youthful, if it can be, even in age--but +especially in youth, whatever the kind of literature used for practice. +Also youth should be counseled not to try to make a voice like the +voice of some one else, some speaker, or actor, or teacher. It will be +much the best if it is just the student's own. + + +VOCAL FLEXIBILITY + + +In the earliest exercises here given the tone will be, for the best and +most immediate effect, kept running on somewhat in a straight line, so +to speak; will have a certain sameness of sound; will be perhaps +somewhat monotonous, because kept pretty much in one key, or in one +average degree of pitch. It will perhaps be necessary to make the +utterance for the time somewhat artificial. The voice is in the +artificial stage, as is the work of an oarsman, for example, in +learning the parts of the stroke, or that of a golfer in learning the +"swing," although in the case of some students, when the vocal +conditions are good and the tone is well balanced, very little of the +artificial process is necessary. In that case the voice simply needs, +in its present general form, to be developed. + +The next step in the training is to try a more varied use of the voice, +without a loss of what has been acquired as to formation of tone. The +student is to make himself able to slide the voice up and down in +pitch, by what is called inflection, to raise or lower the pitch by +varied intervals, momentarily to enlarge or diminish the tone, in +expressive ways; in short, to adapt the improved tone, the more +effective method of voice control, to more varied speech. In the early +practice for getting tone variation, the student must guard most +carefully against "forcing." Additional difficulties arise when we have +vocal changes, and moderate effort, in the degree of the change, is +best. In running the tone up, one should let the voice take its own +way. The tone should not be pushed or held by any slightest effort at +the throat. The control should, as has been said, be far below the +throat. In running an inflection from low to high, the tone may be +allowed, especially in the earlier practice, to thin out at the top. +And always when the pitch is high the tone should be smaller, as it is +on a musical instrument, though it should have a consistent depth and +dignity from its proper degree of connection with the chest. This +consistent character in the upper voice is attained by giving the tone +a bit of pomp or nobleness of quality. In taking a low pitch there is, +among novices, always a tendency to bear down on the tone in order to +gain strength or to give weight to utterance. The voice is thus crowded +into, or on, the throat. The voice should never be pushed down or +pressed back in the low pitch. This practice leads to raggedness of +tone, and finally to virtual loss of the lower voice. The voice should +fall of itself with only that degree of force which is legitimately +given by the breath tension, produced easily, though firmly, by the +breathing muscles. Breadth will be given to the tone by some degree of +expansion at the back of the mouth, or in the pharynx. As soon as can +be, the speech should be brought down to the utmost of simplicity and +naturalness, so that the thought of literature can be expressed with +reality and truth; can be made to sound exactly as if it came as an +unstudied, spontaneous expression of the student's own mind, and yet so +it can be heard, so it will be adequate, so it will be pleasing in +sound. The improved tone is to become the student's inevitable, +everyday voice. + + +THE FORMATION OF WORDS + + +The term enunciation means the formation of words, including right +vocal shape to the vowels and right form to the consonants. +Pronunciation is scholastic, relating to the word accent and the vowel +sound. Authority for this is in the dictionary. Enunciation, belonging +to elocution, is the act of forming those authorized sounds into +finished speech. + +There is a common error regarding enunciation. It is usual, if a +speaker is not easily understood, to say that he should "articulate" +more clearly; that is, make the consonants more pronounced, and young +students are thus often urged into wrongly directed effort with the +tongue and lips. Sometimes in books, articulation "stunts," in the form +of nonsense alliterations, are prescribed, by which all the vowels are +likely to be chewed into consonants. The result is usually an +overexertion, and a consequent tightening, of the articulating muscles. +At first, and for a time, it may appear that this forcing of the +articulation brings the desired result of clearer speech, but it will, +in the end, be destructive to voice and bring incoherent utterance. +Articulation exercises too difficult for the master, should not be +given to the novice. All teachers of singing train voices, at first, on +the vowel, and it should be known that, without right vowel, or tone, +formation, efforts at good articulation are futile. Every technical +vocal fault must be referred back to the fundamental condition of right +formation of tone, that is, the vowel. Sputtering, hissing, biting, +snapping, of consonants is not enunciation. The student should learn +how without constraint, to prolong vowels; learn, if you please, the +fundamentals of singing, and articulation, the formation of consonants, +the jointing of syllables, will become easy. The reason for this is +that when the vowel tone is rightly produced, all the vocal muscles are +freed; the tongue, lips, and jaw act without constraint. + +The principle of rhythm simplifies greatly the problem of enunciation. +It is easier, not only to make good tone, but also to speak words, in +the reading of verse than of prose. It is much easier to read a +rhythmical piece of prose than one lacking in rhythm. All prose, then, +should be rendered with as much rhythmical flow as is allowed +consistently with its spirit and meaning. Care must be taken of course +that no singsong effect occurs; that the exact meaning receives first +attention. In case of long, hard words, ease is attained by making a +slight pause before the word or before its preposition or article or +other closely attached word, and by giving a strong beat to its +accented syllable or syllables, with little effort on the subordinate +syllables. + +The particular weakness among Americans, in the speaking of words, is +failure adequately to form the nasal, or head, sounds. The letters "l," +"m," "n," are called vowel consonants. They can be given continuous +sound, a head resonance. This sounding may be carried to a fault, or +affectation; but commonly it is insufficiently done, and it should be +among the first objects of cultivation in vocal practice. The humming +of these head sounds, with very moderate force, is excellent for +developing and clearing this resonance. The "ng" sound, as in rung, may +be added. + +Improper division of words into syllables is a common fault. The word +"constitution," for example, is made "cons-titution," instead of "con- +stitution;" "prin-ciple" is pronounced "prints-iple." A clean, correct +formation should be made by slightly holding, and completing the +accented syllable. The little word "also" is often called "als-o" or +"als-so" or "alt-so"; chrysanthemum is pronounced "chrysant-themum"; +coun-try is called "country," band so forth. In the case of doubled +consonants, as in the word "mellow," "commemorate," "bubble," and the +like, a momentary holding of the first consonant, so that a bit of +separate impulse is given to the second, makes more perfect speaking. +There is a slight difference between "mel-low" and "mel-ow," "bub-ble" +and "bub-le," "com-memorate" and "com-emorate." These finer +distinctions, if one cares to make speech accurate and refined, can be +observed in words ending in "ence" and "ance" as in "guidance" and +"credence"; in words with the ending "al," "el," or "le," as in +"general," "principal," "final," "vessel," "rebel," "principle," and +"little." If that troublesome word "separate" were from the beginning +rightly pronounced, it would probably be less often wrongly spelled. +One should hasten to say, however, that over-nicety in enunciation, +pedantic exactness, obtrusive "elocutionary" excellence, or any sort of +labored or affected effort should be carefully guarded against. The +line of distinction between what is perfect and what is slightly +strained is a fine one. Very often, for example, one hears such endings +as "or" in "creator," "ed" in "dedicated," "ess" in "readiness," "men" +in "gentlemen," pronounced with incorrect prominence. These syllables, +being very subordinate, should not be made to stand out with undue +distinctness, and though the vowels should not be distorted into a +wrong form, they should be obscured. In "gentlemen," for example, the +"e" is, according to the dictionary, an "obscure" vowel, and the word +is pronounced almost as "gentlem'n,"--not "gentle_mun_," of course, +but not "gentlem_e_n." The fault in such forms is more easily +avoided by throwing a sharp accent on the accented syllable, +letting the other syllables fall easily out. The expression of +greeting, "Ladies and gentlemen," should have a strong accent on each +first syllable of the two important words, with little prominence given +to other syllables or the connecting word; as, "La'dies 'nd +gen'tlem'n." + +In the same class of errors is that of making an extra syllable in such +words as "even," "seven," "heaven," "eleven," and "given," where +properly the "e" is elided, leaving "ev'n," "heav'n," and so forth. The +mouth should remain closed when the first syllable is pronounced; the +"n" is then simply sounded in the head. The same treatment should be +given to such words as "chasm" and "enthusiasm." If the mouth is opened +after the first part of the word is sounded, we have "chas-_u_m," +"enthusias-_u_m." The little words "and," "as," "at" and the like +should, of course, when not emphatic, be very lightly touched, with the +vowel hardly formed, and the mouth only slightly opened. The word "and" +is best sounded, where not emphatic, with light touch, slight opening +of the mouth, and hardly any forming of the vowel; almost like "'nd." +These words should be connected closely with the word which follows, as +if they were a subordinate syllable of that word. + +Often we hear such words as "country," "city," and their plurals, +pronounced "countree," "citee," and "citees"; "ladies" is called +"ladees." The sound should properly be that of short "i" not of long +"e." The vowel sound, short "a," as in "cast," "fast," "can't," must be +treated as a localism, and yet it is hardly necessary to adhere to any +decided extreme because of local associations. Vocally, the very narrow +sound of short "a," called "Western," is impossible. It can't be sung; +in speech it is usually dry and harsh. As a matter of taste the very +broad sound of the short "a," when it is made like "a" in "far," is +objectionable because it is extraordinary. There is a form between +these extremes, the correct short "a"; this ought to be acceptable +anywhere. It is suggestive to observe that localisms are less +pronounced among artists than among untrained persons. Trained singers +and actors belonging to different countries or sections of country, +show few differences among themselves in English pronunciation. Among +localisms the letter "r" causes frequent comment. In singing and +dramatic speaking, this letter is best formed at the tip of the tongue. +In common speech it may be made only by a very slight movement at the +back of the tongue. A decided throaty "burr" should always be avoided. +In the case of vigorous dramatic utterance, the "r" may be quite +decidedly rolled, on the principle that, in such cases, all consonants +become a means of effectiveness in expression. In the expression of +fine, delicate, or tender sentiment, all consonants should be lightly +touched or should be obscured. Enumeration of the many kinds of +carelessness of speech would be to little purpose. Scholarly speech +requires a knowledge of correct forms, gained from the dictionary, and +vocal care and skill in making these forms clear, smooth, and finished +in sound. + +This discussion has perhaps suggested the extreme of accuracy in +speech. But as has already been said, any degree of overnicety, of +pedantic elegance, of stilted correctness, is especially irritating to +a sensitive ear. Excessive biting off of syllables, flipping of the +tongue, showing of the teeth, twisting of the lips, is carrying +excellence to a fault. The inactive jaw, tongue, and lips must be made +mobile, and in the working away of clumsiness and slovenliness of +speech, some degree of stiltedness must perhaps, for a time, be in +evidence, but matured practice ought finally to result, not only in +accuracy and finish, but in simplicity and ease in speaking. + + +MAKING THE POINT + + +When the student has made a fair degree of progress in the more +strictly mechanical features of speech, the formation of tone, and the +delivery of words, he is ready to give himself up more fully to the +effective expression of thought. Of first importance to the speaker, as +it is to the writer, is the way to make himself clear as to his +meaning. The question has to be put again and again to the young +speaker, What is your point? What is the point in the sentence? What is +the point in some larger division of the speech? What is the point, or +purpose, of the speech as a whole? This point, or the meaning of what +is said, should be so put, should be so clear, that no effort is +required of a listener for readily apprehending and appreciating it. +Discussing now only the question of delivery, we say that the making of +a point depends mainly upon what we commonly call emphasis. Extending +the meaning of emphasis beyond the limit of mere stress, or weight, of +voice, we may define it as special distinctness or impressiveness of +effect. In the case of a sentence there is often one place where the +meaning is chiefly concentrated; often the emphasis is laid sharply +upon two or more points or words in the sentence; sometimes it is put +increasingly on immediately succeeding words, called a climax, and +sometimes the stress of utterance seems to be almost equally +distributed through all the principal words of the sentence. + +The particular point of a sentence is determined, not so much by what +the sentence says as it stands by itself, as by its relation to what +goes before or what follows after. The first thing, then, for the +student to do is to become sure of the precise meaning of the sentence, +with reference to the general context. Then he must know whether or not +he says, for the understanding of others, exactly what is meant. The +means of giving special point to a statement is in some way to set +apart, or to make prominent, the word or words of special significance. +There are several ways in which this is done. Commonly a stress or +added weight of voice is put upon the word; generally, too, there is an +inflection, a turning of the tone downward or upward; there is +frequently a lengthening out of the vowel sound, and a sudden stop +after, in some cases before, the word. Any or all these special +noticeable vocal effects serve to draw attention to the word and give +it expressive significance. These effects are everywhere common in good +everyday speech. In the formal art of speaking, they have to be more or +less thought out and consciously practiced. + +Emphasis is determined by the comparative importance of ideas. An idea +is important when, being the first to arise in the mind, it becomes the +motive for utterance. We see an object, the idea of high or broad or +beautiful arises in the mind; we so form a sentence as to make that +idea stand forth; this idea, or the word expressing it, becomes vocally +emphatic. In this sentence, "He has done it in a way to impress upon +the Filipinos, so far as action and language can do it, his desire, and +the desire of our people, _to do them good_," the idea "to do them +good" is the one that arose first in the mind of the speaker and called +up the other ideas that served to set this one prominently forth. It is +the emphatic idea. It should be carried in the mind of the student +speaker from the beginning of the sentence. Again, an idea is important +when it arises as closely related to the first, and becomes the chief +means of giving utterance concerning the first. This second idea may be +something said about the first; it may be compared or contrasted with +the first. Being matched against the first, it may become of equal +significance with it. "Who is here so _base_ that would be a +_bondman_?" Here the idea "base" is used to emphasize the quality +of "bondman," and becomes equally emphatic with that idea. Other ideas, +or other words expressing them, being formed around these principal +ones, will be subordinated or more loosely run over, since they simply +serve as the setting for the principal ones, or the connecting links, +holding them together. Sometimes an idea arising in the mind grows in +intensity, asserting itself by stronger and stronger successive words. +For example, "He _mocks_ and _taunts_ her, he _disowns, insults_ and +_flouts_ her"; and, "I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, +which he has cruelly _outraged, injured_, and _oppressed_, in both +sexes in every _age, rank, situation_, and _condition of life_." The +impressiveness in delivering these successive words is increased not +because they are in the form of a climax, but they are in the form of a +climax because the thought is so insistent as to require new words for +its expression. The student will be true and sure in his emphasis only +when he takes ideas into his mind in the natural way; that is, he +should seize upon the central idea before he gives utterance to any +part of a statement. If that idea is constantly carried foremost in the +mind, he will then, in due time, give it its true emphasis. So, in the +case of a climax, he must realize the spirit and force behind the +utterance, and not depend upon any mechanical process of merely +increasing the strength of his tones. + +Sometimes emphasis must be made to stand so strong as not merely to +arrest the movement of thought, and fix the mind of the hearer upon a +point, but to turn the attention of the hearer for the moment aside; to +draw his mind to the thought of something very remote in time or place +or relation, as in the case of making momentary reference to some +historic fact or some well-known expression of literature. Allusions +and illustrations, then, should be given, not only with color but also +with special emphasis. Byron, contemplating the ruins of Rome, calls +her "the _Niobe_ of nations." The hearer's mind should be arrested, his +imagination stirred, at that word. Words used in contrast with one +another are given opposing effect by contrasting emphasis: "Not that I +loved _Cęsar_ less, but that I loved _Rome more_." "My _words fly up_; +my _thoughts remain below_." When words are used with a double meaning, +as in the case of a pun, or with a peculiar implication, or are +repeated for some peculiar effect of mere repetition,--when we have, in +any form, what is called a play upon words,--a peculiar pointedness is +given, wherein the circumflex inflection plays a large part. "Now is it +_Rome_ indeed and _room_ enough, when there is in it but one only man." +"I had rather _bear with_ you than _bear_ you; yet if I did bear you, I +should bear no _cross_, for I think you have no _money_ in your purse." +"But, sir, the _Coalition_! The _Coalition_! Aye, the _murdered +Coalition_!" + +Although, as has been said, the usual method of making a point is to +give striking force to an idea, very often the same effect, or a better +effect, is produced by a striking sudden suppression of utterance, by +way of decided contrast. When the discourse has been running vigorously +and inflections have been repeatedly sharp and strong, the sudden stop, +and the stilled utterance of a word, are most effective. Only, the +suppressed word must be set apart. There must be the pause before or +after, or both before and after. Robert Ingersoll, when speaking with +great animation, would often suddenly stop and ask a question in the +quietest and most intimate way. This gave point to the question and was +impressive. + +We have been considering thus far only primary or principal emphasis. +Of equal importance is the question of secondary emphasis. The +difference in vocal treatment comes in regarding the principal emphasis +as absolute or final, as making the word absolved from, cut off from, +the rest of the sentence following, and having a final stop or +conclusive effect, while the secondary may be regarded as only +relatively emphatic, as being related in a subordinate way to the +principal, and as maintaining a connection with the rest of the +sentence, or as hanging upon the words which follow, or as being a step +leading up to the main idea. The vocal indication of this connective +principle is the circumflex inflection. The tone will be raised, as in +the principal emphasis, but instead of being allowed to fall straight +to a finality, it is turned upward at the finish, to hook on, as it +were, to the following. The weight of voice will be less marked, the +inflection less long, and the pause usually less decided, than in the +case of the primary emphasis. "Recall _romance_, recite the names +of heroes of legend and _song_, but there is none that is his +peer." At the words romance and song there is a secondary emphasis; the +voice is not dropped, it is kept suspended with the pause. + +A common failing among students is an inability to avoid a frequent +absolute emphatic inflection when it is not in place. Many are unable +steadily to sustain a sentence till the real point is reached. They +fail to keep the voice suspended when they make a pause. It is very +important that a student should have a sure method of determining what +the principal emphasis is. He should, as has already been said, follow, +in rendering the thought of another, the method of the spontaneous +expression of his own ideas. He should take into his mind the principal +idea or ideas, before he speaks the words leading thereto. He should +then, at every pause, keep the thought suspended, incomplete, till he +reaches that principal idea; he should then make the absolute stop, +with the effect of finality, afterwards running off in a properly +related way, such words as serve to complete the form of expression. +Take the following sentence: "I never take up a paper full of Congress +squabbles, reported as if sunrise depended upon them, without thinking +of that idle English nobleman at Florence, who when his brother, just +arrived from London, happened to mention the House of Commons, +languidly asked, Ah! is that thing still going?" It is rather curious +that very rarely will a student keep the thought of such a sentence +suspended and connected until he arrives at the real point at the end. +He will first say that he never takes up a paper, though of course he +really does take up a paper. Then he says he never takes up this kind +of paper; and this he does not mean. So he goes on misleading his +audience, instead of helping them properly to anticipate the form of +statement and so be prepared for the point at the right moment. He +should not, as a general rule, let his voice take an absolute drop at +the places of secondary emphasis. + +In reference to the emphatic point in a larger division of the speech, +and to the main or climactic points of the whole speech, the principles +for emphasis in the sentence are applied in a larger way. And the way +to make the point is, first of all, to think hard on what that point +is, what is the end or purpose to be attained. If this does not bring +the result--and very often it does not--then the mechanical means of +producing emphasis should be studied and consciously applied--the +increase, or perhaps the diminution, of force, the lengthening or +shortening of tones on the words; a change in the general level of +pitch; the use of the emphatic pause; and a lengthening of the emphatic +inflection. A more impressive general effect must, in some way, be +given to the parts of greater importance. + + +INDICATING VALUES AND RELATIONS + + +Perhaps the most commonly criticized fault among beginners in speaking +is that of monotony. Monotony that arises from lack of inflection of +voice or from lack of pointed-ness or emphasis in a sentence, will +presumably be corrected in the earlier exercises. The monotony that is +caused by giving to all sentences an equal value, saying all sentences, +or a whole speech, in about the same force, rate, and general pitch, is +one that may be considered from another point of view. One fault in the +delivery of sentences--perhaps the most frequent one--is that of +running them all off in about the same modulation. By modulation we +mean the wavelike rise and fall of the voice that always occurs in some +degree in speech,--sometimes called melody--and the change of key, or +general pitch, in passing from one sentence, or part of a speech, to +another. Frequently, novices in speaking and in reading, will swing the +voice upward in the first part of every sentence, give it perhaps +another rise or two as the sentence proceeds, and swing it down, always +in precisely the same way, at the end. The effect of this regular +rising at the beginning, and this giving of a similar concluding +cadence at the end, is to make it appear that each sentence stands +quite independent of the others, that each is a detached statement; and +when, besides, each sentence is given with about the same force and +rate of speed, they all seem to be of about equal importance, all +principal or none principal, but as much alike as Rosalind's halfpence. +Sentences that have a close sequence as to thought should be so +rendered that one seems to flow out from the other, without the regular +marked rise at the beginning or the concluding cadence at the end. +Sentences, and parts of sentences, which are of less importance than +others with which they are associated, should be made less prominent in +delivery. Often students are helped by the suggestion that a sentence, +or a part of a sentence, or a group of sentences, it may be, be dropped +into an undertone, or said as an aside, or rapidly passed over, or in +some way put in the background--said, so to speak, parenthetically. +Other portions of the speech, or the sentence, the important ones, +should, on the same principle, be made to stand out with marked effect. + +Notice, in the following quotation, how the first and the last parts +arc held together by the pitch or key and the modulation of the voice, +and the middle part, the group of examples, is held together in a +different key by being set in the background, as being illustrative or +probative. "Why, all these Irish bulls are Greek,--every one of them. +Take the Irishman carrying around a brick as a specimen of the house he +had to sell; take the Irishman who shut his eyes, and looked into the +glass to see how he would look when he was dead; take the Irishman that +bought a crow, alleging that crows were reported to live two hundred +years, and he meant to set out and try it. Well, those are all Greek. A +score or more of them, of the parallel character, come from Athens." + +The speaker should cultivate a quick sensitiveness as to close unity +and slight diversity, as to what is principal and what is subordinate, +as to what is in the direct, main line of thought, and what is by the +way, casual, or merely a connecting link. This sense of proportion, of +close or remote relation, of directness and indirectness, the feeling +for perspective, so-called, can be acquired only by continued practice, +for sharpening the faculty of apprehension and appreciation. It is +usually the last attainment in the student's work, but the neglect of +it may result in a confirmed habit of monotony. The term transition is +commonly used to denote a passing from one to another of the main +divisions of the discourse. The making of this transition, though often +neglected, is not difficult. The finishing of one part and the making +of a new beginning on the next, usually with some change of standing +position, as well as of voice, has an obvious method. The slighter +transition, or variation, within a main division, and the avoidance of +the slight transition where none should be made, require the keener, +quicker insight. + +Sentences will have many other kinds of variation in delivery according +to the nature and value of the thought. Some will flow on with high +successive waves; some will be run almost straight on as in a monotone. +Some will be on a higher average tone, or in a higher key; others will +be lower. Some will have lengthened vowel sound, and will be more +continuous or sustained, so that groups of successive words seem to run +on one unbroken tone; others will be abrupt and irregular. Some will be +rapid, some slow; some light, others weighty; some affected by long +pauses, others by no pause, and some will be done in a dry, matter-of- +fact, or precise, or commonplace, or familiar manner, others will be +touched with feeling, colored by imagination, glowing with persuasive +warmth, elevated, dignified, or profound. A repetition of the +selections to be learned, with full expression by voice and action, +repetition again, and again, and again, until the sentiment of them +becomes a living reality to the speaker, is the only way to acquire the +ability to indicate to others the true proportions, the relative +values, and the distinctive character, of what is to be said. + + +EXPRESSING THE FEELING + + +We are in the habit of distinguishing between what proceeds from mere +thinking, what is, as we say, purely intellectual, and what arises more +especially from feeling, what we call emotional. We mean, of course, +that one or the other element predominates; and the distinction is a +convenient one. The subject, the occasion, to a great extent the man, +determine whether a speech is in the main dispassionate or impassioned, +whether it is plain or ornate in statement, whether it is urgent or +aggressive, or calm and rather impassive. It would be beyond our +purpose to consider many of the variations and complexities of feeling +that enter into vocal expression. We call attention to only a few of +the simpler and more common vocal manifestations of feeling, +counselling the student who is to deliver a selected speech, to adapt +his speaking to the style of that speech. In so doing he will get a +varied training, and at length will find his own most effective style. + +The speech which is matter-of-fact and commonplace only, has +characteristically much short, sharp inflection of voice, with the +rapidly varying intervals of pitch that we notice in one's everyday +talking. As the utterance takes on force, it is likely to go in a more +direct line of average pitch, with stronger inflection on specially +emphatic words. As it rises to sentiment, the inflections are less +marked, and in the case of a strain of high, nobler feeling, the voice +moves on with some approach to the monotone. According as feeling is +stronger and firmer, as in the expression of courage, determination, +firm resolve, resistance, intense devotion, the voice is kept +sustained, with pauses rather abrupt and decisive; if the feeling, +though of high sentiment, is tranquil, without aggressiveness, the +voice has more of the wavelike rise and fall, and at the pausing places +the tone is gradually diminished, rather than abruptly broken off. In +the case of quickly impulsive, passionate feeling, the speech is likely +to be much varied in pitch, broken by frequent abrupt stops, and +decisive inflections. In the case of the expression of tenderness or +pathos, there is a lingering tone, with the quality and inflection of +plaintiveness, qualified, in public speech, by such dignity and +strength as is fitting. In all cases the quality of voice is of course +the main thing, and this, not being technical or mechanical, must +depend on the speaker's entering into the spirit of the piece and +giving color, warmth, and depth to his tones. The spirit of gladness or +triumph has usually the higher, brighter, ringing tone; that of +gravity, solemnity, awe, the lower, darker, and less varied tone. + +In the case of the expression of irony, sarcasm, scorn, contempt, and +kindred feelings, the circumflex inflection is the principal feature. +This is the curious quirk or double turn in the voice, that is heard +when one says, for example, "You're a _fine_ fellow," meaning, +"You are anything but a fine fellow." In the earlier part of Webster's +reply to Hayne are some of the finest examples of irony, grim or +caustic humor, sarcasm, and lofty contempt. They need significant turns +and plays of voice, but are often spoiled by being treated as high +declamation. + +In the expression of the various kinds and degrees of feeling there may +be a fully expressed force or a suppressed or restrained force. Often +the latter is the more natural and effective. This is intense, but not +loud, though at times it may break through its restraint. It is most +fitting when the hearers are near at hand, as in the case of a jury or +judge in court, when the din of loudness would offend. + +The climax is a gradually increasing expression of feeling. It may be +by a gradual raising of the voice in pitch; it may be by any sort of +increasing effectiveness or moving power. It is rather difficult to +manage, and may lead to some strained effort. The speaker should keep a +steady, controlled movement, without too much haste, but rather a +retarded and broadened utterance as the emphatic point is approached; +and always the speaker should keep well within his powers, maintaining +always some vocal reserve. + +The practice of emotional expression gives warmth, mellowness, sympathy +and expansiveness to the voice, and must have considerable cultural +value. + + +SHOWING THE PICTURE + + +A difficult attainment in speaking is that of vividness. The student +may see the picture in his own mind's eye, but his mode of expression +does not reveal the fact to others. Imagination in writing he may have, +with no suggestion of it in the voice. Too often it is erroneously +taken for granted that the human voice, because it is human, will at +any call, respond to all promptings of the mind. It will no more do so, +of course, than the hand or the eye. It must be trained. Often it is a +case not merely of vocal response, but of mental awakening as well, and +in that case the student must, if he can, learn to see visions and +dream dreams. + +A way to begin the suiting of speech to imaginative ideas is to +imitate; to make the voice sound like the thing to be suggested. Some +things are fast, some slow, some heavy, some light, some dark and +dismal, some bright and joyous; some things are noisy, some still; some +rattle, others roar; the sea is hoarse; the waves wash; the winds blow; +the ocean is level, or it dashes high and breaks; happy things sing, +and sad things mourn. All life and nature speak just as we speak. How +easy it ought to be for us to speak just as nature speaks. And when our +abstract notions are put in concrete expression, or presented as a +picture, how easy it would seem, by these simple variations of voice, +to speak the language of that picture, telling the length, breadth, +action, color, values, spirit of it. That it is a task makes it worth +while. It affords infinite variety, and endless delight. + +One necessary element in so-called word-painting is that of time. When +a speaker expresses himself in pictures for the imagination he must +give his hearers time to see these pictures, and to sufficiently see +and appreciate the parts, or lines of them, and the significance of +them. It is a common fault to hasten over the language of imagination +as over the commonplace words. The speaker or reader had better be sure +to see the image himself before, and indeed after, he speaks it. Others +will then be with him. Although among most young speakers the tone of +imagination is lacking, yet often young persons who become proficient +vocally are fain greatly to overdo it, till the sound that is suited to +the sense becomes sound for its own sake, and thereby obscures the +sense. Regard for proportion and fitness, in relation to the central +idea or purpose, should control the feeling for color in the detail. + + +EXPRESSION BY ACTION + + +It should always be borne in mind that gesture means the bearing or the +action of the whole man. It does not mean simply movement of the arm +and hand. The practice of gesture should be governed by this +understanding of the term. A thought, an emotion, something that moves +the man from within, will cause a change, it may be slight, or it may +be very marked, in eye, face, body. This is gesture. This change or +movement may, from the strength of the feeling that prompts it, extend +to the arm and hand. But this latter movement, in arm and hand, is only +the fuller manifestation of one's thought or feeling--the completion of +the gesture, not the gesture itself. Arm movement, when not preceded or +supplemented by body movement, or body pose, is obtrusive action; it +brings a member of the body into noticeable prominence, attracting the +auditor's eye and taking his mind from the speaker's thought. Better +have no gesture than gesture of this kind. The student, then, should +first learn to appreciate the force of ideas, to see and feel the full +significance of what he would say, and indicate by some general +movement of body and expression of face, the changing moods of mind. +Then the arm and hand may come--in not too conspicuous a way--to the +aid of the body. When Wendell Phillips pointed to the portraits in +Faneuil Hall and exclaimed: "I thought those pictured lips would have +broken into voice to rebuke the recreant American,--the slanderer of +the dead," it was not, we may be sure, the uplifted arm alone, but the +pose of the man, the something about his whole being, which bespoke the +spirit within him, and which was really the gesture. In less positive +or striking degrees of action, the body movement will, of course, be +very slight, at times almost imperceptible, but the principle always +holds, and should be from the first taught. In gesture, the bodily man +acts as a unit. + +The amount of gesture is, of course, determined by the temperament of +the speaker, the nature of the speech, the character of the audience, +and the occasion of the address. One speaker will, under certain +conditions, gesticulate nearly all the time; another will, under the +same conditions, seem seldom to move in any way. The two may be equally +effective. A speech that is charged with lively emotion will usually be +accompanied by action; a speech expressive of the profound feeling that +subdues to gravity, or resignation, would be comparatively without +action. The funeral oration by Mark Antony is full of action because it +is really intended to excite the will of his audience; in a funeral +address simply expressive of sorrow and appreciation, gesture would, as +a rule, be out of place. A sharply contested debate may need action +that punctuates and enforces; the pleasantry of after-dinner talk may +need only the voice. So, one audience, not quick in grasping ideas, may +need, both in language and action, much clear, sharp indication of the +point by illustration, much stirring up by physical attack, so to +speak, while another audience would be displeased by this unnecessary +effort to be clear and expressive. Yet again, given a certain speaker +and a certain subject and a certain audience, it is obvious that the +occasion will determine largely how the speaker will bear himself. The +atmosphere of a college commencement will be different from that of a +barbecue, and the speaker would, within the limits set by his own +personality and his own dignity, adapt himself to the one or the other. +The general law of appropriateness and good taste must determine the +amount of gesture. + +For the purposes of this work there is probably very little, if any, +value in a strict classification of gestures. It may, at times, be +convenient to speak of one gesture as merely for emphasis, of another +as indicating location, of another as giving illustration, of one as +more subjective, expressing a thought that reflects back upon the +speaker, or is said more in the way of self-communion, of another as +objective, concerned only with outer objects or with ideas more apart +from the person or the inward feeling of the speaker. But it can easily +be shown that one idea, or one dominant feeling, may be expressed by +many kinds of action, in fact, so far at least as prescribed movements +are concerned, in directly opposite kinds, and gesture is so largely a +matter of the individual, and is governed so much by mixed motive and +varying circumstance, that the general public speaker will profit +little by searching for its philosophic basis, and trying to practice +according to any elaborated system. The observing of life, with the +exercise of instinct, taste, sense, above all of honest purpose--these, +with of course the help of competent criticism, will serve as +sufficient practical guides in the cultivation of expressive action. + +Some observations, or perhaps general principles, may be offered as +helpful. When a speaker is concerned with driving ideas straight home +to his audience, as in putting bare fact in a debate, his action will +be more direct; it will move in straighter lines and be turned, like +his thought, more directly upon his audience. As his statement is more +exactly to a point, so his gesture becomes more pointed and definite. +When the speaker is not talking to or at his audience, to move them to +his will, but is rather voicing the ideas and feelings already +possessed by them, and is in a non-aggressive mood, he is likely to use +less of the direct and emphasis-giving gesture, and to employ +principally the gesture that is merely illustrative of his ideas, more +reposeful, less direct, less tense. + +To consider more in detail the principle that the man, and not the arm, +is the gesture, a man should look what he is to speak. The eye should +always have a relation to gesture. The look may be in the direction of +the arm movement or in another direction. No practical rule can be +given. It can only be said that the eye must play its part. Observing +actions in real life, we see that when one person points out an object +to another, he looks now at the object, now at the person, as if to +guide that person's look. When he hears a sound he may glance in the +direction of it, but then look away to listen. Often a suspended +action, with a fixed look of the face, will serve to arrest the +attention of auditors and fix it upon an idea. One should cultivate +first the look, then the supporting or completing action. + +As to the movement of the arm and the form of the hand, one should be +careful not to become stiff and precise by following exact rules. In +general, it may be said that the beginning of the arm movement, being +from the body, is in the upper arm; the finish of it is at the tips of +the fingers, with the forefinger leading, or bringing the gesture to a +point. There is generally a slightly flexible, rythmical movement of +the arm and hand. This should not, as a rule, be very marked, and in +specially energetic action is hardly observable. In this arm action +there is an early preparatory movement, which indicates or suggests, +what is coming. Often a moment of suspense in the preparation enhances +the effect of the finish, or stroke, of the gesture, which corresponds +usually to the vocal emphasis. At the final pointing of the action, the +hand is, for a moment or for moments, fixed, as the mind and the man +are fixed, for the purpose of holding the attention of the auditor; +then follows the recovery, so-called, from the gesture, or it may be, +the passing to another gesture. And all the while, let it again be +said, slight changes of bodily pose with proper adjustments of the +feet, will make the harmonious, unified action. It should be remembered +that, as in viewing a house or a picture we should be impressed by the +main body and the general effect, rather than by any one feature, so on +the same principle, no striking feature of a man's action should +attract attention to itself. On the same principle, no part of the hand +should be made conspicuous--the thumb or forefinger should not be too +much stuck out, nor the other fingers, except in pointing, be very much +curved in. Generally, except in precise pointing, there is a graduated +curving, not too nice, from the bent little finger to the straighter +forefinger. As the gesture is concerned with thought more delicate, the +action of the hand is lighter and tends more to the tips of the +fingers; as it is more rugged and strong, the hand is held heavier. It +is bad to carry the arm very far back, causing a strained look; to +stretch the arms too straight out, or to confine the elbow to the side. +The elbow is kept somewhat away even in the smallest gesture. While +action should have nerve, it should not become nervous, that is, over- +tense and rigid. It should be free and controlled, with good poise in +the whole man. + +Before leaving this subject, in its physical aspect, let us consider +somewhat the matter of standing and moving on the platform. Among +imperfections as regards position, that kind of imperfection which +takes the form of perfectly fixed feet, strictly upright figure, hands +at the side, head erect, and eyes straight-of all bad kinds, this kind +is the worst. This is often referred to as school declamation, or the +speaking of a piece. We have discarded many old ideas of restriction in +education. Let us discard the strait-jacket in platform speaking. +Nobody else ever speaks as students are often compelled to speak. Let +them speak like boys--not like men even--much less like machines. There +is of course a good and a bad way of standing and moving, but much is +due to youth, to individuality, and to earnest intention, and a student +should have free play in a large degree. + +In walking, the step should neither be too fast nor too slow, too long +nor too short, too much on the heel or too much on the toe. A simple, +straightforward way of getting there is all that is wanted. The arms +are left to swing easily, but not too much; nor should one arm swing +more than the other. The head, it will be noted, may occasionally rise +and fall as one goes up or down steps or walks the platform. Before +beginning to speak, one should not obviously take a position and +prepare. He should easily stop at his place, and, looking at his +auditors, begin simply to say something to them. As to the feet, they +will, of course, be variously placed or adjusted according to the pose +of the body in the varying moods of the speech. In general, the body +will rest more on one foot than on the other. In a position of ease, as +usually at the beginning of a speech, one foot will bear most of the +weight. In this case, this foot will normally be pointed nearly to the +front; the other foot will be only very slightly in advance of this and +will be turned more outward. The feet will not be close together; nor +noticeably far apart. They need not--they had better not--as it is +sometimes pictured in books, be so set that a line passing lengthwise +through the freer foot will pass through the heel of the other foot. As +a man becomes earnest in speaking, his posture will vary, and often he +will stand almost equally on his two feet. In changing one's position, +it is best to acquire the habit of moving the freer foot, the one +lighter on the floor, first, thus avoiding a swaying, or toppling look +of the body. + +In connection with the subject of standing, naturally comes the +question of the arms in the condition of inaction. It is possibly well +to train one's self, when learning to speak, to let the arms hang +relaxed at the side, but speakers do not often so hold the arms. +Usually there is a desk near, and the speaker when at rest drops one +hand upon this, or he lets one arm rest at the waist, or he brings the +two hands together. Any of these things may be done, if done simply, +easily, without nervous tightening, or too frequent shifting. One +thing, for practical reasons, should not be allowed, the too common +habit of clasping the hands behind the back. It will become a fixed +mannerism, and a bad one, for the hands are thus concealed, the +shoulders and head may droop forward, and the hands may be so tightened +together behind the back as to cause nervous tension in the body and in +the voice. The hands should be in place ready for expressive action. +The back is not such a place. + +Nearly every movement that a man makes in speaking should have some +fitting relation to what he is at the moment saying. These movements +will then be varied. When certain repeated actions, without this proper +relation, are acquired, they are called mannerisms. They have no +meaning, and are obtrusive and annoying. Repeated jerking or bobbing of +the head, for a supposed emphasis; regularly turning the head from side +to side, for addressing all the audience; nervous shaking of the head, +as of one greatly in earnest; repeated, meaningless punching or +pounding of the air, always in the same way; shifting of one foot +regularly backward and forward; rising on the toes with each emphatic +word,--although single movements similar to these often have +appropriate place, none of these or others should be allowed to become +fixed mannerisms, habitually recurring movements, without a purpose. We +are sometimes told that certain manneristic ways are often a speaker's +strength. Probably this is at least half true. But eccentricities +should not be cultivated or indulged. They will come. We should have as +few as possible, or they won't count. One thing, however, should here +be said. Positive strength, with positive faults, is much better than +spiritless inoffensiveness. One should not give all his attention to +the avoiding of faults. + +In the application of gesture to the expression of ideas, one is +helped, as has been said, by constantly heeding the general principle +of suiting the form of the gesture to the nature of the thought, or of +suiting the action to the word. Inasmuch as gesture so generally takes +the form of objects or actions, it is undoubtedly easier to begin with +the more concrete in language, or with the discussion of tangible +objects, and work from these to the more abstract and remotely +imaginary--from the more, to the less, familiar. Let the student +indicate the location, or the height, or the width, or the form of an +object. His action will probably be appropriate. Let him apply similar, +probably less definite, action to certain abstract ideas. Let him pass +to ideas more remote and vague, by action largely suggestive, not +definite or literal. + +The most important, because the most fundamental, principle to be borne +in mind is that gesture should be made to enforce, not the superficial, +or incidental, ideas appearing in a statement, but the ideas which lie +behind the form of expression and are the real basis, or inhere in the +fundamental purpose, of the speaker's discourse. + +At the close of Senator Thurston's speech on intervention in behalf of +Cuba, there is picturesque language for impressing the contention that +force is justified in a worthy cause. The speaker cites graphically +examples of force at Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, Shiloh, Chattanooga, +and Lookout Heights. The student is here very likely to be led astray +by the fine opportunity to make gesture. He may vividly see and picture +the snows of Valley Forge, marked with bloodstained feet, and the other +scenes suggested, but forget about the central idea, the purpose behind +all the vivid forms of expression. Graphic, detailed gestures may have +the effect of making the pictures in themselves the main object. The +action here should be informal, unstudied, and merely remotely +suggestive. The speaker should keep to his one central idea, and keep +with his audience. Otherwise the speech will be insincere and +purposeless, perhaps absurd. The fundamental, not the superficial, +should determine the action. Young speakers almost invariably pick out +words or phrases, suggesting the possibility of a gesture, and give +exact illustration to them, as if the excellence of gesture were in +itself an object, when really the thing primarily to be enforced is not +these incidental features in the form of expression, but the underlying +idea of the whole passage. It is as if the steeple were made out of +proportion to the church, or a hat out of proportion to the man. This +misconception of what gesture really means is doubtless, in large +measure, the cause of making platform recitation often false and +offensive. The remedy does not lie in omitting gesture altogether, as +some seem to think, but in making gesture simple and true. + +Finally, let the student remember that he goes to the platform, not to +make a splendid speech and receive praise for a brilliant exhibition of +his art, but that he goes there because the platform is a convenient +place from which to tell the people something he has to say. Let him +think it nothing remarkable that he should be there; let him so bear +himself, entering with simplicity, honesty, earnestness, and modesty, +into his work, that no one will think much about how his work is done. +Spirited oratory, with the commanding presence, the sweeping action, +and an overmastering force of utterance, may at times be called forth, +but these are given to a man out of his subject and by the occasion; +they are not to be assumed by him merely because he is before an +audience, or as necessary features of speech-making. Let the student +speak, first and always, as a self-respecting, thinking man, earnest +and strong, but self-controlled and sensible. + + + + +PLATFORM PRACTICE + +THE FORMAL ADDRESS + + +The selections in the several sections for platform practice are to be +used for applying, in appropriate combination, the principles +heretofore worked out, one by one. The first group provides practice in +the more formal style. The occasion of the formal address requires, in +large degree, restraint and dignity. The thought is elevated; the mood +serious, in some cases subdued, the form of expression exact and firm. +The delivery should correspond. The tone should be, in some degree, +ennobled; the movement deliberate, and comparatively even and measured; +the modulation not marked by striking variations in pitch; the pauses +rather regular, and the gesture always sparing, perhaps wholly omitted. +The voice should be generally pure and fine; the enunciation should be +finished and true. Whatever action there may be should be restrained, +well poised, deliberate, with some degree of grace. In general it +should be felt that carelessness or looseness or aggressiveness or +undue demonstrativeness would be out of harmony with the spirit of the +occasion. Good taste must be exercised at every step, and the audience +should be addressed, from the outset, as in sympathy with the speaker +and ready at once to approve. The spirit and manner of contention is +out of place. + +In this style of discourse the liability to failure lies in the +direction of dullness, monotony, lack of vitality and warmth. This is +because the feeling is deep and still; is an undercurrent, strong but +unseen. This restrained, repressed feeling is the most difficult +fittingly to express. In this kind of speech some marring of just the +right effect is difficult to avoid. Simplicity, absolute genuineness, +are the essential qualities. The ideas must be conveyed with power and +significance, in due degree; but nothing too much is particularly the +watchword regarding the outward features of the work. + + +THE PUBLIC LECTURE + + +In the public lecture the element of entertainment enters prominently. +The audience, at first in a passive state, must be awakened, and taken +on with the speaker. Probably it must be instructed, perhaps amused. +The speaker must make his own occasion. He has no help from the +circumstance of predisposition among his auditors. He must compel, or +he must win; he must charm or thrill; or he must do each in turn. +Animation, force, beauty, dramatic contrast, vividness, variety, are +the qualities that will more or less serve, according to the style of +the composition. Aptness in the story or anecdote, facility in graphic +illustration, readiness in expressing emotion, happiness in the +imitative faculty, for touching off the eccentric in character or +incident, are talents that come into play, and in the exercise of +these, gesture of course has an important place. + +The lecture platform is perhaps the only field, with possibly the +exception of what is properly the after-dinner speech, wherein public +speaking may be viewed as strictly an art, something to be taken for +its own sake, wherein excellence in the doing is principally the end in +view. This means, generally, that individual talent, and training in +all artistic requirements, count for more than the subject or any +"accidents of office," in holding the auditor's interest. An animated +and versatile style can be cultivated by striving to make effective the +public lecture. + + +THE INFORMAL DISCUSSION + + +Informal discussion is the name chosen for the lecture or talk in the +club or the classroom. It implies a rather small audience and familiar +relations between audience and speaker. While the subject may be +weighty, and the language may be necessarily of the literary or +scientific sort, the style of speaking should be colloquial. It ought +to bring the hearer pretty near to the speaker. If the subject and +language are light, the speaking will be sprightly and comparatively +swift. + +Since the occasion for this kind of speaking is frequent, and the +opportunity for it is likely to fall to almost any educated man, +proficiency in it might well be made an object in the course of one's +educational training. The end aimed at is the ability to talk well. +This accomplishment is not so easy as it may seem. It marks, indeed, +the stage of maturity in speech-making. Since authoritative opinion +from the speaker and interest in the subject on the part of the +audience are prime elements in this form of discussion, little +cultivation of form is usually given to this kind of speaking. The +result is much complaining from auditors about inaudibleness, dullness, +monotony, annoying mannerisms, or a too formal, academic tone that +keeps the audience remote, a lack of what is called the human quality. +A good talker from the desk not only has the reward of appreciation and +gratitude, but is able to accomplish results in full proportion to all +that he puts into the improvement of his vocal work. An agreeable tone, +easy formation of words, clear, well-balanced emphasis, good phrasing, +or grouping of words in the sentence, some vigor without continual +pounding, easy, unstudied bodily movement without manneristic +repetition of certain motions, in short, good form without any +obtrusive appearance of form,--these are the qualities desired. + + +ARGUMENTATIVE SPEECH + + +In the case of the forensic, we come nearer to the practical in public +speaking. The speaker aims, as a rule, to effect a definite purpose, +and he concentrates his powers upon this immediate object. Since the +speech is for the most part an appeal to the reason, and therefore +deals largely with fact and the logical relations of ideas, precision +and clearness of statement are the chief qualities to be cultivated. +But since the aim is to overcome opposition, and produce conviction, +and so to impress and stir as to affect the will to a desired action, +the element of force, and the moving quality of persuasion enters in as +a reėnforcement of the speaker's logic. Generally the speech is very +direct, and often it is intense. It has in greater degree than any +other form the feature of aggressiveness. Some form of attack is +adopted, for the purpose of overthrowing the opposing force. That +attack is followed up in a direct line of argument, and is carried out +to a finish. In delivery the continuous line of pursuit thus followed +often naturally leads to a kind of effective monotone style, wherein +the speaker keeps an even force, or strikes blow after blow, or sends +shot after shot. The characteristic feature of the forensic style is +the climax--climax in brief successions of words, climax in the +sentence, climax in giving sections of the speech, climax in the speech +as a whole. + +Special notice should be taken of the fact that, in earnest argument, +sentences have, characteristically, a different run from that in +ordinary expository speaking. Whereas in the expository style the +sentence flows, as a rule, easily forth, with the voice rising and +falling, in an undulatory sort of way, and dropping restfully to a +finish, in the heated forensic style, the sentence is given the effect +of being sent straight forth, as if to a mark, with the last word made +the telling one, and so kept well up in force and pitch. The +accumulating force has the effect of sending the last word home, or of +making it the one to clinch the statement. + +The dangers to be guarded against in debate are wearying monotony, +over-hammering--too frequent, too hard, too uniform an emphasis--too +much, or too continued heat, too much speed, especially in speaking +against time, a loss of poise in the bearing, a halting or jumbling in +speech, nervous tenseness in action, an overcontentious or bumptious +spirit. Bodily control, restraint, good temper, balance, are the saving +qualities. A debater must remember that he need not be always in a +heat. Urbanity and graciousness have their place, and the relief +afforded by humor is often welcome and effective. + +In no form of speaking, except that of dramatic recitation, is the +liability to impairment of voice so great as it is in debating. One of +the several excellent features of debating is that of the self- +forgetfulness that comes with an earnest struggle to win. But perhaps a +man cannot safely forget himself until he has learned to know himself. +The intensity of debating often leads, in the case of a speaker vocally +untrained, to a tightening of the throat in striving for force, to a +stiffening of the tongue and lips for making incisive articulation, to +a rigidness of the jaw from shutting down on words to give decisive +emphasis. Soon the voice has the juice squeezed out of it. The tone +becomes harsh and choked; then ragged and weak. The only remedy is to +go straight back and begin all over, just as a golfer usually does when +he has gone on without instruction. The necessity of going back is +often not realized till later in life; then the process is much harder, +and perhaps can never be entirely effective. The teacher in the course +of his experience meets many, many such cases. The time to learn the +right way is at the beginning. + +Among the selections here offered for forensic practice, examples in +debate serve for the cultivation of the aggressiveness that comes from +immediate opposition; examples in the political speech for acquiring +the abandon and enthusiasm of the so-called popular style; in the legal +plea for practice in suppressed force. In the case of the last of +these, it is well that the audience be near to the speaker, as is the +case in an address to a judge or jury. The idea is to be forcible +without being loud and high; to cultivate a subdued tone that shall, at +the same time, be vital and impressive. The importance of a manner of +speaking that is not only clear and effective, but also agreeable, easy +to listen to, is quite obvious when we consider the task of a judge or +a jury, who have to sit for hours and try to carry in their minds the +substance of all that has been said, weighing point against point, +balancing one body of facts against another. A student can arrange +nearly the same conditions as to space, and can, by exercise of +imagination, enter into the spirit of a legal conflict. + + +THE AFTER-DINNER SPEECH + + +After-dinner speaking is another form that many men may have an +opportunity to engage in. It can also be practiced under conditions +resembling those of the actual occasion, that is, members of the class +can be so seated that the speaking may become intimate in tone, and +speeches can be selected that will serve for cultivating that +distinctive, sociable quality of voice that, in itself, goes far in +contributing to the comfort and delight of the after-dinner audience. +The real after-dinner speech deals much in pleasantry. The tone of +voice is characteristically unctuous. Old Fezziwig is described by +Dickens as calling out "in a comfortable, rich, fat, jovial, oily +voice." Something like this is perhaps the ideal after-dinner voice, +although there is a dry humor as well as an unctuous, and each speaker +will, after all, have his own way of making his hearers comfortable, +happy, and attentive. Ease and deliberation are first requisites. +Nervous intensity may not so much mar the effect of earnest debate. The +social chat is spoiled by it. Humor, as a rule, requires absolute +restfulness. Especially should a beginner guard himself against haste +in making the point at the finish of a story. It does no harm to keep +the hearer waiting a bit, in expectation. The effect may be thus +enhanced, while the effect will be entirely lost if the point, and the +true touch, are spoiled by uncontrolled haste. The way to gain this +ease and control is not by stiffening up to master one's self, but by +relaxing, letting go of one's self. Practice in the speech of +pleasantry may have great value in giving a man repose, in giving him +that saving grace, an appreciation of the humorous, in affording him a +means of relief or enlivenment to the serious speech. + + +THE OCCASIONAL POEM + + +The occasional poem is so frequently brought forth in connection with +speech-making that some points regarding metrical reading may be quite +in place in a speaker's training. Practice in verse reading is of use +also because of the frequency of quoted lines from the poets in +connection with the prose speech. + +To read a poem well one must become in spirit a poet. He must not only +think, he must feel. He must exercise imagination. He must, we will say +it again, see visions and dream dreams. What was said about vividness +in the discussion of expressional effects applies generally to the +reading of poetry. One will read much better if he has tried to write-- +in verse as well as in prose. He will then know how to put himself in +the place of the poet, and will not be so likely to mar the poet's +verses by "reading them ill-favoredly." He will know the value of words +that have been so far sought, and may not slur over them; he may feel +the sound of a line formed to suggest a sound in nature. He will know +that a meter has been carefully worked out, and that, in the reading, +that meter is of the spirit of the poem; it is not to be disregarded. +Likewise he will appreciate the place of rhyme, and may not try so to +cover it up as entirely to lose its effect. In humorous verse, +especially, rhyme plays an effective part; and in all verse, +alliteration, variations in melody, the lighter and the heavier touch, +acceleration and retard in movement, the caesura, or pause in the line, +and the happy effect of the occasional cadence, are features which one +can come to appreciate and respect only with reading one's favorite +poems many times, with spirit warm, with faculties alert. + + + + +THE MAKING OF THE SPEECH + + +Although the use of selected speeches is best for effective drill in +delivery, yet a student's training for public speaking is of course not +complete until he has had experience in applying his acquired skill to +the presenting of his own thought. Thinking and speaking should be made +one operation. The principles of composition for the public speech +belong to a separate work. A few hints only can be given here, and +these will be concerned with the informal, offhand speech rather than +with the formal address. + +The usual directions regarding the choosing of the subject, the +collecting of material, and the arranging of it in the most effective +order, with exceptions and variations, hold in all forms of the speech. +The subject chosen should be one of special interest to the speaker, +one on which it is known he can speak with some degree of authority, +because of his personal study of it, or because of his having had +exceptional personal relations with it. It must also be, because of the +nature of it, or because of some special treatment, of particular +interest to the audience to be addressed. Either new, out-of-the-way +subjects, or new, fresh phases of old subjects are usually interesting. +The subject must be limited in its comprehensiveness to suit the time +allowed for speaking, and the title of the speech should be so phrased +as to indicate exactly what the subject, or the part of a subject, is +to be. To this carefully limited and defined subject, the speaker +should rigidly adhere. + +How to find a subject is generally a topic on which students are +advised. Though it is often a necessity to hunt for a suitable special +topic on which to speak, the student should know that when he gets +outside the classroom, he will find that he will not be invited to +speak because he is ready at finding subjects and clever in speech. It +is not strange, in view of the many advertisements that reach young +men, offering methods of home training, or promising sure success from +this or that special method of schooling, that they may come to believe +that any one has only to learn to stand up boldly on a platform, and +with voice and gesture exercise some mysterious sort of magical control +over an audience, and his success as an orator is secure. They will +find that their time and money have been wasted, so far as public +speaking is concerned, unless, having at the start some native ability, +they have secured, in addition, a kind of training that is fundamental. +A man is wanted as a speaker primarily because he stands for something; +because he has done some noteworthy work. His subjects for discussion +arise out of his personal interests, and, to a large extent, his method +of treatment will be determined by his relation to these subjects. A +young man may well be advised, then, not simply how to choose and how +to present a subject, but first to secure a good mental training, and +then to find for himself an all-absorbing work to do. The wisdom that +comes from a concentrated intellectual activity, and an interest in +men's affairs, both directed to some unselfish end, is the essential +qualification of the speaker. + +In considering the arrangement of a speech, the student will do well to +ask himself first, not what is to be the beginning of it, but what is +to be the end of it; what is the purpose of it; and what shall be the +central idea; what impression, or what principal thought or thoughts, +shall be left with the audience. When this is determined, then a way of +working out this central idea or of working up to it--in a short +speech, by a few points only--must be carefully and thoroughly planned. +Extemporaneous speaking is putting spontaneously into words what has +previously been well thought out and well arranged. Without this state +of preparation, the way of wisdom is silence. + +The language of a speech is largely determined by the man's habit of +mind, the nature of his subject, and the character of his audience. +Students often err in one of two directions, either by being too +bookish in language or by allowing the other extreme of looseness, weak +colloquialism in words, and formless monotony of sentence, with the +endless repetition of the connective "and." Language should be fresh, +vital, varied. It should have some dignity. Much reading, writing, and +speaking are necessary to secure an adequate vocabulary, and a +readiness in putting in firm form a variety of sentences. Concreteness +of expression and occasional illustration are more needed in speech +than in writing, and the brief anecdote or story is welcome and useful +if there is room for it, and if it comes unbidden, by virtue of its +fitness and spontaneity, and is not drawn in by the ears for half- +hearted service. The inevitable story at the opening of an after-dinner +speech might often be spared. Although a good story is in itself +enjoyable, yet when a speaker feels that he must make one fit into the +speech, whether or no, by applying it to himself or his subject or the +occasion, the effect is often very unhappy. A man is best guided in +these things simply by being true, by being sincere rather than artful. +On this same principle, a student may need some advice with regard to +his spirit and manner in giving expression to his own ideas before an +audience. He need not, as students often seem to think they must, +appear to have full knowledge or final judgment on the largest of +subjects. It is more fitting that he should speak as a student, an +inquirer, not as an authority. If his statements are guarded and +qualified; if he speaks as one only inclined to an opinion when +finality of judgment is obviously beyond his reach; if he directly +refers, and defers, to opinions that must be better than his can be, +his speech will have much more weight, and he will grow in strength of +character by always being true to himself. It is a question whether +students are not too often inspired to be bold and absolute, for the +sake of apparent strength in speaking, rather than modest and judicious +and sensible, for the sake of being strong as men. + +In the form of delivering one's thought to an audience, it is of the +first importance that one should speak and not declaim. There is, of +course, a way of talking on the platform that is merely negatively +good, a way that is fitting enough in general style, but weak. There +should be breadth, and strength, and reach. But this does not mean any +necessity of sending forth pointless successive sentences over the +heads of an audience. A college president recently said, "Our boys +declaim a good deal, though they're not so bad as they used to be. It +seems to me," he added, "that the idea is to say something to your +audience." That is what a teacher must be continually insisting on, +that the student say something to somebody, not chant or declaim into +space. And the student should be continually testing himself on this +point, whether he is looking into the faces of his hearers and +speaking, though on a larger scale, yet in the usual way of +communicating ideas. + +It is not desirable that men should become overready speakers. Methods +of training in extemporaneous discussion that require speaking without +thought, on anything or nothing that can be at the moment invented, are +likely to be mischievous. Thought suggests expression, and exact +thought will find fit form. Sound thinking is the main thing. Practice +for mere fluency tends to the habit of superficial thinking, and +produces the wearisome, endless talker. In this connection emphasis may +be laid upon the point of ending a speech when its purpose is +accomplished, and that as soon as can be. Many speeches are spoiled by +the last third or quarter of them, when a point well made has lost its +effect by being overenforced or obscured by a wordy conclusion. Let the +student study for rare thought and economy of speech. + +Books on speaking have repeatedly insisted that after all has been +said, the public speaker's word will be taken for what he is known to +be worth as a man; that his utterances will have effect according as +they are given out with soul-felt earnestness. This has already been +touched upon here, and it is well that it should be often repeated. It +may be well, however, also to consider quite carefully what part is +played in men's efforts by the element of skill. Of two equally worthy +and equally earnest men, the man of the superior skill, acquired by +persistent training in method, will be the stronger man, the man who +will be of more service to his fellows. More than this, inasmuch as +public men can seldom be perfectly known or judged as to character, and +may often, for a time at least, deceive, it is quite possible that the +unscrupulous man with great skill will, at some moment of crisis, make +the worse appear to be the better cause. Equally skilled men are +therefore wanted to contend for the side of right. The man whose +service to men depends largely upon his power of speech--in the pulpit, +at the bar, or in non-professional capacity--must have, either from +gift or from training, the speaker's full equipment, for matching +himself against opposing strength. + + + + +REVIEW EXERCISES + + +For convenience of practice, a few pages of brief exercises, +exemplifying the foregoing principles, are given at the end of the +book. By using each day one example in each group, and changing from +time to time, the student will have sufficient variety to serve +indefinitely. This vocal practice may be made a healthful and +pleasurable daily exercise. + + + + +PART TWO + + +TECHNICAL TRAINING + +ESTABLISHING THE TONE + + +O SCOTIA! + +From "The Cotter's Saturday Night" + +BY ROBERT BURNS + + O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! + For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent, + Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil + Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content! + And oh! may Heaven their simple lives prevent + From luxury's contagion, weak and vile! + Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, + A virtuous populace may rise the while, +And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved isle. + + O Thou! who poured the patriotic tide, + That streamed through Wallace's undaunted heart, + Who dared to nobly stem tyrannic pride, + Or nobly die, the second glorious part, + (The patriot's God, peculiarly Thou art, + His friend, inspirer, guardian and reward!) + Oh never, never, Scotia's realm desert; + But still the patriot, and the patriot bard, +In bright succession raise, her ornament and guard! + + +O ROME! MY COUNTRY! + +From "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" + +BY LORD BYRON + + O Rome! my country! city of the soul! + The orphans of the heart must turn to thee, + Lone mother of dead empires! and control + In their shut breasts, their petty misery. + What are our woes and sufferance?--Come and see + The cypress, hear the owl, and plod your way + O'er steps of broken thrones and temples, Ye! + Whose agonies are evils of a day:-- +A world is at our feet as fragile as our clay. + + The Niobe of nations! there she stands, + Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe; + An empty urn within her withered hands, + Whose holy dust was scattered long ago;-- + The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now; + The very sepulchers lie tenantless + Of their heroic dwellers:--dost thou flow, + Old Tiber! through a marble wilderness? +Rise, with thy yellow waves, and mantle her distress! + + +RING OUT, WILD BELLS! + +From "In Memoriam" + +BY ALFRED LORD TENNYSON + +Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, +The flying cloud, the frosty light; +The year is dying in the night; +Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. + +Ring out the old, ring in the new, +Ring, happy bells, across the snow; +The year is going, let him go; +Ring out the false, ring in the true. + +Ring out the grief that saps the mind, +For those that here we see no more; +Ring out the feud of rich and poor, +Ring in redress to all mankind. + +Ring out a slowly dying cause, +And ancient forms of party strife; +Ring in the nobler modes of life, +With sweeter manners, purer laws. + +Ring out the want, the care, the sin, +The faithless coldness of the times; +Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes, +But ring the fuller minstrel in. + +Ring out false pride in place and blood, +The civic slander and the spite; +Ring in the love of truth and right, +Ring in the common love of good. + + +ROLL ON, THOU DEEP! + +From "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" + +BY LORD BYRON + +Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll! + Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; +Man marks the earth with ruin--his control + Stops with the shore: upon the watery plain, +The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain + A shadow of man's ravage, save his own, +When for a moment, like a drop of rain, + He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, + Without a grave, unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown. + +The armaments, which thunderstrike the walls + Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake, +And monarchs tremble in their capitals; + The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make +Their clay creator the vain title take + Of lord of thee, and arbiter of war; +These are thy toys, and, as the snowy flake, + They melt into thy yeast of waves, which mar + Alike th' Armada's pride or spoils of Trafalgar. + +Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee: + Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage,--what are they? +Thy waters wasted them while they were free, + And many a tyrant since; their shores obey +The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay + Has dried up realms to deserts: not so thou; +Unchangeable, save to thy wild waves play, + Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow; + Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now. + +And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy + Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be +Borne, like thy bubbles, onward: from a boy + I wanton'd with thy breakers--they to me +Were a delight; and if the freshening sea + Made them a terror--'twas a pleasing fear. + + +THOU, TOO, SAIL ON! + +From "The Building of the Ship," by permission of, and by special +Arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers +of this author's works. + +BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW + +Sail forth into the sea, O ship! +Through wind and wave, right onward steer! +The moistened eye, the trembling lip, +Are not the signs of doubt or fear. + +Sail forth into the sea of life, +O gentle, loving, trusting wife, +And safe from all adversity +Upon the bosom of that sea +Thy comings and thy goings be! +For gentleness and love and trust +Prevail o'er angry wave and gust; +And in the wreck of noble lives +Something immortal still survives! + +Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! +Sail on, O Union, strong and great! +Humanity with all its fears, +With all the hopes of future years, +Is hanging breathless on thy fate! +We know what Master laid thy keel, +What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, +Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, +What anvils rang, what hammers beat, +In what a forge and what a heat +Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! +Fear not each sudden sound and shock, +'Tis of the wave and not the rock; + +'Tis but the flapping of the sail, +And not a rent made by the gale! +In spite of rock and tempest's roar, +In spite of false lights on the shore, +Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! +Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, +Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, +Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, +Are all with thee,--are all with thee! + + +O TIBER, FATHER TIBER! + +From "Horatius" + +BY LORD MACAULAY + +"O Tiber, Father Tiber! + To whom the Romans pray, +A Roman's life, a Roman's arms, + Take thou in charge this day!" +So he spake, and, speaking, sheathed + The good sword by his side, +And, with his harness on his back, + Plunged headlong in the tide. + +No sound of joy or sorrow + Was heard from either bank, +But friends and foes in dumb surprise, +With parted lips and straining eyes, + Stood gazing where he sank; +And when above the surges + They saw his crest appear, +All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry, +And even the ranks of Tuscany + Could scarce forbear to cheer. + +But fiercely ran the current, + Swollen high by months of rain, +And fast his blood was flowing, + And he was sore in pain, +And heavy with his armor, + And spent with changing blows; +And oft they thought him sinking, + But still again he rose. + +And now he feels the bottom;-- + Now on dry earth he stands; +Now round him throng the Fathers + To press his gory hands. +And now, with shouts and clapping, + And noise of weeping loud, +He enters through the River Gate, + Borne by the joyous crowd. + + +MARULLUS TO THE ROMAN CITIZENS + +From "Julius Cęsar" + +BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE + +_Flavius_. Why dost thou lead these men about the streets? + +_Second Citizen_. Indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see +Cęsar, and to rejoice in his triumph. + +_Marullus_. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? +What tributaries follow him to Rome, +To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels? +You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! +O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, +Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft +Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements, +To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, +Your infants in your arms, and there have sat +The live-long day, with patient expectation +To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome; +And when you saw his chariot but appear, +Have you not made an universal shout, +That Tiber trembled underneath her banks, +To hear the replication of your sounds, +Made in her concave shores? +And do you now put on your best attire? +And do you now cull out a holiday? +And do you now strew flowers in his way +That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? +Be gone! +Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, +Pray to the gods to intermit the plague +That needs must light on this ingratitude. + + +THE RECESSIONAL + +From "Collected Verse," with the permission of A. P. Watt and Son, +London, and Doubleday, Page and Company, New York, publishers + +BY RUDYARD KIPLING + +God of our fathers, known of old-- + Lord of our far-flung battle-line-- +Beneath whose awful hand we hold + Dominion over palm and pine-- +Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, +Lest we forget--lest we forget. + +The tumult and the shouting dies-- + The captains and the kings depart-- +Still stands Thine ancient Sacrifice, + An humble and a contrite heart. +Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, +Lest we forget--lest we forget. + +Far-called our navies melt away-- + On dune and headland sinks the fire, +Lo, all our pomp of yesterday + Is one with Nineveh and Tyre. +Judge of the Nations, spare us yet, +Lest we forget--lest we forget. + +If, drunk with sight of power, we loose + Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe-- +Such boasting as the Gentiles use + Or lesser breeds without the Law-- +Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, +Lest we forget--lest we forget. + +For heathen heart that puts her trust + In reeking tube and iron shard-- +All valiant dust that builds on dust, + And guarding calls not Thee to guard-- +For frantic boast and foolish word, +Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord. + + +THE CRADLE OF LIBERTY + +From Webster's Reply to Hayne, in the United States Senate. Little, +Brown and Company, Boston, publishers of "The Great Speeches and +Orations of Daniel Webster" + +BY DANIEL WEBSTER + +Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she +needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There +is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is +secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill; +and there they will remain forever. The bones of her sons, fallen in +the great struggle for independence, now lie mingled with the soil of +every State from New England to Georgia; and there they will lie +forever. And, sir, where American liberty raised its first voice, and +where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives in the +strength of its manhood and full of its original spirit. If discord and +disunion shall wound it; if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk +at and tear it; if folly and madness, if uneasiness under salutary and +necessary restraint, shall succeed in separating it from that Union by +which alone its existence is made sure,--it will stand, in the end, by +the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked; it will +stretch forth its arm with whatever of vigor it may still retain over +the friends who gather round it; and it will fall at last, if fall it +must, amidst the proudest monuments of its own glory, and on the very +spot of its origin. + + +THE IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS + +Delivered in the House of Lords, February 13, 1788 + +BY EDMUND BURKE + +My Lords, I do not mean to go further than just to remind your +Lordships of this,--that Mr. Hastings's government was one whole system +of oppression, of robbery of individuals, of spoliation of the public, +and of suppression of the whole system of the English government, in +order to vest in the worst of the natives all the power that could +possibly exist in any government; in order to defeat the ends which all +governments ought, in common, to have in view. In the name of the +Commons of England, I charge all this villainy upon Warren Hastings, in +this last moment of my application to you. + +Therefore, it is with confidence that, ordered by the Commons of Great +Britain, I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanors. + +I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament +assembled, whose parliamentary trust he has abused. + +I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain, whose +national character he has dishonored. + +I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose laws, rights, +and liberties he has subverted. + +I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose property he has +destroyed, whose country he has laid waste and desolate. + +I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, which he has cruelly +outraged, injured, and oppressed, in both sexes. And I impeach him in +the name and by the virtue of those eternal laws of justice, which +ought equally to pervade every age, condition, rank, and situation, in +the world. + + +BUNKER HILL + +From the oration at the laying of the corner stone of the monument, +June 17, 1825. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, publishers of "The +Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster" + +By DANIEL WEBSTER + +This uncounted multitude before me and around me proves the feeling +which the occasion has excited. These thousands of human faces, glowing +with sympathy and joy, and from the impulses of a common gratitude +turned reverently to heaven in this spacious temple of the firmament, +proclaim that the day, the place, and the purpose of our assembling +have made a deep impression on our hearts. + +If, indeed, there be anything in local association fit to affect the +mind of man, we need not strive to repress the emotions which agitate +us here. We are among the sepulchers of our fathers. We are on ground +distinguished by their valor, their constancy, and the shedding of +their blood. We are here, not to fix an uncertain date in our annals, +nor to draw into notice an obscure and unknown spot. If our humble +purpose had never been conceived, if we ourselves had never been born, +the 17th of June, 1775, would have been a day on which all subsequent +history would have poured its light, and the eminence where we stand a +point of attraction to the eyes of successive generations. But we are +Americans. We live in what may be called the early age of this great +continent; and we know that our posterity, through all time, are here +to enjoy and suffer the allotments of humanity. We see before us a +probable train of great events; we know that our own fortunes have been +happily cast, and it is natural, therefore, that we should be moved by +the contemplation of occurrences which have guided our destiny before +many of us were born, and settled the condition in which we should pass +that portion of our existence which God allows to man on earth. + + +THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS + +In dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa., Nov. 19, +1863 + +BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. + +Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, +or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are +met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a +portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave +their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and +proper that we should do this. + +But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we +cannot hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who +struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or +detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, +but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, +rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who +fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be +here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these +honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they +gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve +that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under +God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the +people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. + + + + +VOCAL FLEXIBILITY + + +CĘSAR, THE FIGHTER + +From "The Courtship of Miles Standish," by permission of, and by +Special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized +publishers of this author's works + +BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW + + "A wonderful man was this Cęsar! + +You are a writer, and I am a fighter, but here is a fellow +Who could both write and fight, and in both was equally skillful!" +Straightway answered and spake John Alden, the comely, the youthful: +"Yes, he was equally skilled, as you say, with his pen and his weapons. +Somewhere have I read, but where I forget, he could dictate +Seven letters at once, at the same time writing his memoirs." +"Truly," continued the Captain, not heeding or hearing the other, +"Truly a wonderful man was Caius Julius Cęsar! +Better be first, he said, in a little Iberian village, +Than be second in Rome, and I think he was right when he said it. +Twice was he married before he was twenty, and many times after; +Battles five hundred he fought, and a thousand cities he conquered; +He, too, fought in Flanders, as he himself has recorded; +Finally he was stabbed by his friend, the orator Brutus! +Now, do you know what he did on a certain occasion in Flanders, +When the rear-guard of his army retreated, the front giving way too, +And the immortal Twelfth Legion was crowded so closely together +There was no room for their swords? Why, he seized a shield from a +soldier, +Put himself straight at the head of his troops, and commanded the +captains, +Calling on each by his name, to order forward the ensigns; +Then to widen the ranks, and give more room for their weapons; +So he won the day, the battle of something-or-other. +That's what I always say; if you wish a thing to be well done, +You must do it yourself, you must not leave it to others!" + + +OFFICIAL DUTY + +BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +I want to talk to you of the attitude that should properly be observed +by legislators, by executive officers, toward wealth, and the attitude +that should be observed in return by men of means, and especially by +corporations, toward the body politic and toward their fellow citizens. + +I utterly distrust the man of whom it is continually said: "Oh, he's a +good fellow, but, of course, in politics, he plays politics" It is +about as bad for a man to profess, and for those that listen to him by +their plaudits to insist upon his professing something which they know +he cannot live up to, as it is for him to go below what he ought to do, +because if he gets into the habit of lying to himself and to his +audience as to what he intends to do, it is certain to eat away his +moral fiber. + +He won't be able then to stand up to what he knows ought to be done. +The temptation of the average politician is to promise everything to +the reformers and then to do everything for the organization. I think I +can say that, whatever I have promised on the stump or off the stump, +either expressly or impliedly, to either organization or reformers, I +have kept my promise; and I should keep it just as much if the +reformers disapproved. + +A public man is bound to represent his constituents, but he is no less +bound to cease to represent them when, on a great moral question, he +feels that they are taking the wrong side. Let him go out of politics +rather than stay in at the cost of doing what his own conscience +forbids him to do. + + +LOOK WELL TO YOUR SPEECH + +From "Self-Cultivation in English," with the permission of the author, +and of Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, publishers + +BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER + +First, then, "Look well to your speech." It is commonly supposed that +when a man seeks literary power he goes to his room and plans an +article for the press. But this is to begin literary culture at the +wrong end. We speak a hundred times for every once we write. The +busiest writer produces little more than a volume a year, not so much +as his talk would amount to in a week. Consequently through speech it +is usually decided whether a man is to have command of his language or +not. If he is slovenly in his ninety-nine cases of talking, he can +seldom pull himself up to strength and exactitude in the hundredth case +of writing. A person is made in one piece, and the same being runs +through a multitude of performances. Whether words are uttered on paper +or to the air, the effect on the utterer is the same. Vigor or +feebleness results according as energy or slackness has been in +command. I know that certain adaptations to a new field are often +necessary. A good speaker may find awkwardnesses in himself when he +comes to write, a good writer when he speaks. And certainly cases occur +where a man exhibits distinct strength in one of the two, speaking or +writing, and not in the other. But such cases are rare. As a rule, +language once within our control can be employed for oral or for +written purposes. And since the opportunities for oral practice +enormously outbalance those for written, it is the oral which are +chiefly significant in the development of literary power. We rightly +say of the accomplished writer that he shows a mastery of his own +tongue. + +Fortunate it is, then, that self-cultivation in the use of English must +chiefly come through speech; because we are always speaking, whatever +else we do. In opportunities for acquiring a mastery of language, the +poorest and busiest are at no large disadvantage as compared with the +leisured rich. It is true the strong impulse which comes from the +suggestion and approval of society may in some cases be absent; but +this can be compensated by the sturdy purpose of the learner. A +recognition of the beauty of well-ordered words, a strong desire, +patience under discouragements, and promptness in counting every +occasion as of consequence,--these are the simple agencies which sweep +one on to power. Watch your speech, then. + + +HAMLET TO THE PLAYERS + +From "Hamlet" + +BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE + +_Hamlet_. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, +trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it as many of your players +do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air +too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very +torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must +acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it +offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a +passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, +who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb- +shows and noise. I could have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing +Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it. + +_I Player_. I warrant your honor. + +_Hamlet_. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be +your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with +this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature; +for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, +both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror +up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and +the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this +overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskillful laugh, +cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must +in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theater of others. O, there be +players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that +highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of +Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted +and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made +men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. + + +BELLARIO'S LETTER + +From "The Merchant of Venice" + +BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE + +_Duke_. This letter from Bellario doth commend A young and learned +doctor to our court. Where is he? + +_Nerissa_. He attendeth here hard by, To know your answer, whether +you'll admit him. + +_Duke_. With all my heart. Some three or four of you Go give him +courteous conduct to this place. Meantime the court shall hear +Bellario's letter. + +_Clerk_ (reads). "Your grace shall understand that at the receipt +of your letter I am very sick; but in the instant that your messenger +came, in loving visitation was with me a young doctor of Rome; his name +is Balthasar. I acquainted him with the cause in controversy between +the Jew and Antonio the merchant: we turned o'er many books together: +he is furnished with my opinion; which, bettered with his own learning, +the greatness whereof I cannot enough commend, comes with him, at my +importunity, to fill up your grace's request in my stead. I beseech +you, let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend +estimation; for I never knew so young a body with so old a head. I +leave him to your gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better publish +his commendation." + + +CASCA, SPEAKING OF CĘSAR + +From "Julius Cęsar" + +BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE + +_Casca_. You pull'd me by the cloak; would you speak with me? + +_Brutus_. Ay, Casca; tell us what hath chanc'd to-day, That Cęsar +looks so sad. + +_Casca_. Why, you were with him, were you not? + +_Brutus_. I should not, then, ask Casca what had chanc'd. + +_Casca_. Why, there was a crown offered him; and being offered him, he +put it by with the back of his hand, thus; and then the people fell +a-shouting. + +_Brutus_. What was the second noise for? + +_Casca_. Why, for that too. + +_Cassius_. They shouted thrice: what was the last cry for? + +_Casca_. Why, for that too. + +_Brutus_. Was the crown offered him thrice? + +_Casca_. Ay, marry, was't, and he put it by thrice, every time +gentler than other; and at every putting-by mine honest neighbors +shouted. + +_Cassius_. Who offered him the crown? + +_Casca_. Why, Antony. + +_Brutus_. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca. + +_Casca_. I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it: it was +mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a +crown;--yet 'twas not a crown neither, 'twas one of these coronets;-- +and, as I told you, he put it by once: but, for all that, to my +thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; +then he put it by again: but, to my thinking, he was very loth to lay +his fingers off it. And then he offered it the third time; he put it +the third time by: and still as he refused it, the rabblement shouted, +and clapped their chopped hands, and threw up their sweaty nightcaps, +and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Cęsar refused the +crown, that it had almost choked Cęsar; for he swooned, and fell down +at it: and for mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my +lips, and receiving the bad air. + + +SQUANDERING OF THE VOICE + +From "Lectures on Oratory" BY HENRY WARD BEECHER + +How much squandering there is of the voice! How little there is of the +advantage that may come from conversational tones! How seldom does a +man dare to acquit himself with pathos and fervor! And the men are +themselves mechanical and methodical in the bad way who are most afraid +of the artificial training that is given in the schools, and who so +often show by the fruit of their labor that the want of oratory is the +want of education. + +How remarkable is the sweetness of voice in the mother, in the father, +in the household! The music of no chorded instruments brought together +is, for sweetness, like the music of familiar affection when spoken by +brother and sister, or by father and mother. + +Conversation itself belongs to oratory. How many men there are who are +weighty in argument, who have abundant resources, and who are almost +boundless in their power at other times and in other places, but who, +when in company among their kind, are exceedingly unapt in their +methods. Having none of the secret instruments by which the elements of +nature may be touched, having no skill and no power in this direction, +they stand as machines before living, sensitive men. A man may be a +master before an instrument; only the instrument is dead; and he has +the living hand; and out of that dead instrument what wondrous harmony +springs forth at his touch! And if you can electrify an audience by the +power of a living man on dead things, how much more should that +audience be electrified when the chords are living and the man is +alive, and he knows how to touch them with divine inspiration! + + +THE TRAINING OF THE GENTLEMAN + +From "Personal Power," by permission of, and by special arrangement +with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of this author's +works. + +BY WILLIAM J. TUCKER + +In this talk about the part which the college may take in the training +of a gentleman, I have not dwelt, as you have noticed, upon forms or +conventionalities. Every gentleman respects form. Respect for form can +be taught, or at least inculcated, but not form itself. One comes to be +at ease in society by going into society. Manners come by observation. +We imitate, we follow the better fashion of society, the better +behavior of men. Good breeding consists first in the attention of +others in our behalf to certain necessary details, then in our +attention to them. We come in time to draw close and nice distinctions. +This little thing is right, that is not quite right. So we grow into +the formal habits of a gentleman. "Good manners are made up of constant +and petty sacrifices," says Emerson. It is well to keep this saying in +mind as a qualification of another of his more familiar sayings: "Give +me a thought, and my hands and legs and voice and face will all go +right. It is only when mind and character slumber that the dress can be +seen." + +I like to see the well-bred man, to whom the details of social life +have become a second nature. I like also to see the play of that first +healthy instinct in a true man which scorns a mean act, which will not +allow him to take part in the making of a mean custom, which for +example, if he be a college fellow, will not suffer him to treat +another fellow as a fag. I am entirely sure that that man is a +gentleman. + +So then it is, in this world of books, of companionship, of sport, of +struggle with some of us, of temptation also, and yet more of high +incentives, we are all set to the task of coming out, and of helping +one another to come out, as gentlemen. Do not miss, I beseech you, the +greatness of the task. Do not miss its constancy. It is more than the +incidental work of a college to train the efficient, the honorable, the +unselfish man. A college-bred man must be able to show at all times and +on all occasions the quality of his distinction. + + + + +MAKING THE POINT + + +BRUTUS TO THE ROMAN CITIZENS + +From "Julius Cęsar" + +BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE + +Be patient till the last. + +Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause, and be silent, +that you may hear: believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine +honor, that you may believe: censure me in your wisdom, and awake your +senses, that you may the better judge. If there be any in this +assembly, any dear friend of Cęsar's, to him I say, that Brutus' love +to Cęsar was no less than his. If, then, that friend demand why Brutus +rose against Cęsar, this is my answer,--Not that I loved Cęsar less, +but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Cęsar were living, and die +all slaves, than that Cęsar were dead, to live all free men? As Cęsar +loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate I rejoice at it; as he +was valiant, I honor him: but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There +is tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honor for his valor; and +death for his ambition. Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If +any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude that would not +be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile +that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended. +I have done no more to Cęsar than you shall do to Brutus. The question +of his death is enrolled in the Capitol; his glory not extenuated, +wherein he was worthy; nor his offenses enforced, for which he suffered +death. Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony: who, though he had +no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a place +in the commonwealth; as which of you shall not? With this I depart,-- +that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same +dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death. + + +THE PRECEPTS OF POLONIUS + +From "Hamlet" + +BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE + +Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame! +The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, +And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing with thee! +And these few precepts in thy memory +See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, +Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. +Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. +Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, +Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; +But do not dull thy palm with entertainment +Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware +Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in, +Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee. +Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; +Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. +Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, +But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; +For the apparel oft proclaims the man, +And they in France of the best rank and station +Are most select and generous, chief in that. +Neither a borrower nor a lender be; +For loan oft loses both itself and friend, +And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. +This above all: to thine own self be true, +And it must follow, as the night the day, +Thou canst not then be false to any man. +Farewell; my blessing season this in thee! + + +THE HIGH STANDARD + +From the Lord Rector's address, University of Edinburgh, 1882 + +BY LORD ROSEBERY + +Let us win in the competition of international well-being and +prosperity. Let us have a finer, better educated, better lodged, and +better nourished race than exists elsewhere; better schools, better +universities, better tribunals, ay, and better churches. In one phrase, +let our standard be higher, not in the jargon of the Education +Department, but in the acknowledgment of mankind. The standard of +mankind is not so exalted but that a nobler can be imagined and +attained. The dream of him who loved Scotland best would lie not so +much in the direction of antiquarian revival, as in the hope that his +country might be pointed out as one that in spite of rocks, and rigor, +and poverty, could yet teach the world by precept and example, could +lead the van and point the moral, where greater nations and fairer +states had failed. Those who believe the Scots to be so eminently vain +a race, will say that already we are in our opinion the tenth legion of +civilization. Well, vanity is a centipede with corns on every foot: I +will not tread where the ground is most dangerous. But if we are not +foremost, we may at any rate become so. Our fathers have declared unto +us what was done in their days and in the old time before them: we know +that we come of a strenuous stock. Do you remember the words that young +Carlyle wrote to his brother nine years after he had left this +University as a student, forty-three years before he returned as its +Rector?-- + +"I say, Jack, thou and I must never falter. Work, my boy, work +unweariedly. I swear that all the thousand miseries of this hard fight, +and ill-health, the most terrific of them all, shall never chain us +down. By the river Styx it shall not! Two fellows from a nameless spot +in Annandale shall yet show the world the pluck that is in Carlyles." + +Let that be your spirit to-day. You are citizens of no mean city, +members of no common state, heirs of no supine empire. You will many of +you exercise influence over your fellow men: some will study and +interpret our laws, and so become a power; others will again be in a +position to solace and exalt, as destined to be doctors and clergymen, +and so the physical and spiritual comforters of mankind. Make the best +of these opportunities. Raise your country, raise your University, +raise yourselves. + + +ON TAXING THE COLONIES + +Delivered in the House of Commons, March, 1775 + +BY EDMUND BURKE + +Reflect, sirs, that when you have fixed a quota of taxation for every +colony, you have not provided for prompt and punctual payment. You must +make new Boston Port Bills, new restraining laws, new acts for dragging +men to England for trial. You must send out new fleets, new armies. All +is to begin again. From this day forward the empire is never to know an +hour's tranquillity. An intestine fire will be kept alive in the bowels +of the colonies, which one time or other must consume this whole +empire. + +Instead of a standing revenue, you will therefore have a perpetual +quarrel. Indeed, the noble lord who proposed this project seems himself +to be of that opinion. His project was rather designed for breaking the +union of the colonies than for establishing a revenue. But whatever his +views may be, as I propose the peace and union of the colonies as the +very foundation of my plan, it cannot accord with one whose foundation +is perpetual discord. + +Compare the two. This I offer to give you is plain and simple; the +other full of perplexed and intricate mazes. This is mild; that harsh. +This is found by experience effectual for its purposes; the other is a +new project. This is universal; the other calculated for certain +colonies only. This is immediate in its conciliatory operation; the +other remote, contingent, full of hazard. Mine is what becomes the +dignity of a ruling people--gratuitous, unconditional, and not held out +as a matter of bargain and sale. I have done my duty in proposing it to +you. I have indeed tried you by a long discourse; but this is the +misfortune of those to whose influence nothing will be conceded, and +who must win every inch of their ground by argument. You have heard me +with goodness. May you decide with wisdom! + + +JUSTIFYING THE PRESIDENT + +From a speech in the Senate, 1900 + +By JOHN C. SPOONER + +Some one asked the other day why the President did not bring about a +cessation of hostilities. Upon what basis could he have brought about a +cessation of hostilities? Should he have asked Aguinaldo for an +armistice? If so, upon what basis should he have requested it? What +should he say to him? "Please stop this fighting"? "What for," +Aguinaldo would say; "do you propose to retire?" "No." "Do you propose +to grant us independence?" "No, not now." "Well, why, then, an +armistice?" The President would doubtless be expected to reply: "Some +distinguished gentlemen in the United States, members of the United +States Senate, and others, have discovered a doubt about our right to +be here at all, some question whether we have acquired the Philippines, +some question as to whether we have correctly read the Declaration of +Independence; and I want an armistice until we can consult and +determine finally whether we have acquired the Philippines or not, +whether we are violating the Declaration of Independence or not, +whether we are trampling upon the Constitution or not." That is +practically the proposition. + +No, Mr. President, men may say in criticism of the President what they +choose. He has been grossly insulted in this chamber, and it appears +upon the record. He has gone his way patiently, exercising the utmost +forbearance, all his acts characterized by a desire to do precisely +what the Congress had placed upon him by its ratification of the treaty +and its increase of the army. He has done it in a way to impress upon +the Filipinos, so far as language and action could do it, his desire, +and the desire of our people, to do them good, to give them the largest +possible measure of liberty. + + +BRITAIN AND AMERICA + +From an address in the House of Commons, March, 1865 + +BY JOHN BRIGHT + +Why should we fear a great nation on the American Continent? Some +people fear that, should America become a great nation, she will be +arrogant and aggressive. But that does not follow. The character of a +nation does not depend altogether upon its size, but upon the +intelligence, instruction, and morals of its people. You fancy the +supremacy of the sea will pass away from you; and the noble lord, who +has had much experience, and is supposed to be wiser on the subject +than any other man in the House, will say that "Rule Britannia," that +noble old song, may become obsolete. Well, inasmuch as the supremacy of +the seas means arrogance and the assumption of dictatorial power on the +part of this country, the sooner that becomes obsolete the better. I do +not believe that it is for the advantage of this country, or of any +country in the world, that any one nation should pride itself upon what +is termed the supremacy of the sea; and I hope the time is coming--I +believe the hour is hastening--when we shall find that law and justice +will guide the councils and will direct the policy of the Christian +nations of the world. Nature will not be baffled because we are jealous +of the United States--the decrees of Providence will not be overthrown +by aught we can do. + +The population of the United States is now not less than 35,000,000. +When the next Parliament of England has lived to the age which this has +lived to, that population will be 40,000,000, and you may calculate the +increase at the rate of rather more than 1,000,000 of persons per year. +Who is to gainsay it? Will constant snarling at a great republic alter +this state of things, or swell us up in these islands to 40,000,000 or +50,000,000, or bring them down to our 30,000,000? Honorable members and +the country at large should consider these facts, and learn from them +that it is the interest of the nations to be at one--and for us to be +in perfect courtesy and amity with the great English nation on the +other side of the Atlantic. + + + + +VALUES AND TRANSITIONS + + +KING ROBERT OF SICILY + +From "King Robert of Sicily," by permission of, and by special +arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of +this author's works. + +BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW + +Days came and went; and now returned again +To Sicily the old Saturnian reign; +Under the Angel's governance benign +The happy island danced with corn and wine. + +Meanwhile King Robert yielded to his fate, +Sullen and silent and disconsolate. +Dressed in the motley garb that Jesters wear, +With look bewildered and a vacant stare, +Close shaven above the ears, as monks are shorn, +By courtiers mocked, by pages laughed to scorn, +His only friend the ape, his only food +What others left,--he still was unsubdued. +And when the Angel met him on his way, +And half in earnest, half in jest, would say, +Sternly, though tenderly, that he might feel +The velvet scabbard held a sword of steel, +"Art thou the King?" the passion of his woe +Burst from him in resistless overflow, +And, lifting high his forehead, he would fling +The haughty answer back, "I am, I am the King!" +Almost three years were ended; when there came +Ambassadors of great repute and name +From Valmond, Emperor of Allemaine, +Unto King Robert, saying that Pope Urbane +By letter summoned them forthwith to come +On Holy Thursday to his city of Rome. +And lo! among the menials, in mock state, +Upon a piebald steed, with shambling gait, +His cloak of fox-tails flapping in the wind, +The solemn ape demurely perched behind, +King Robert rode, making huge merriment +In all the country towns through which they went. +The Pope received them with great pomp and blare +Of bannered trumpets, on Saint Peter's square, +Giving his benediction and embrace +Fervent and full of apostolic grace. +While with congratulations and with prayers +He entertained the Angel unawares, +Robert, the Jester, bursting through the crowd, +Into their presence rushed, and cried aloud: +"I am the King! Look, and behold in me +Robert, your brother, King of Sicily! +This man who wears my semblance to your eyes, +Is an imposter in a king's disguise. +Do you not know me? does no voice within +Answer my cry, and say we are akin?" +The Pope in silence, but with troubled mien, +Gazed at the Angel's countenance serene; +The Emperor, laughing, said, "It is strange sport +To keep a madman for thy Fool at court!" +And the poor, baffled Jester in disgrace +Was hustled back among the populace. + + +LAYING THE ATLANTIC CABLE + +An extract from "Masters of the Situation," a lecture + +BY JAMES T. FIELDS + +When I talk across an ocean of 3000 miles, with my friends on the other +side of it, and feel that I may know any hour of the day if all goes +well with them, I think with gratitude of the immense energy and +perseverance of that one man, Cyrus W. Field, who spent so many years +of his life in perfecting a communication second only in importance to +the discovery of this country. Think what that enthusiast accomplished +by his untiring energy. He made fifty voyages across the Atlantic. +Eight years more he encountered the odium of failure, but still kept +plowing across the Atlantic, flying from city to city, soliciting +capital, holding meetings and forcing down this most colossal +discouragement. At last day dawned again, and another cable was paid +out--this time from the deck of the "Great Eastern." Twelve hundred +miles of it were laid down, and the ship was just lifting her head to a +stiff breeze then springing up, when, without a moment's warning, the +cable suddenly snapped short off, and plunged into the sea. Nine days +and nights they dragged the bottom of the sea for this lost treasure, +and though they grappled it three times, they could not bring it to the +surface. In five months another cable was shipped on board the "Great +Eastern," and this time, by the blessing of heaven, the wires were +stretched unharmed from continent to continent. Then came that never- +to-be-forgotten search, in four ships, for the lost cable. In the bow +of one of these vessels stood Cyrus Field, day and night, in storm and +fog, squall and calm, intensely watching the quiver of the grapnel that +was dragging two miles down on the bottom of the deep. + +At length on the last night of August, a little before midnight, the +spirit of this great man was rewarded. I shall here quote his own +words, as none others could possibly convey so well the thrilling +interest of that hour. He says: "All felt as if life and death hung on +the issue. It was only when the cable was brought over the bow and onto +the deck that men dared to breathe. Even then they hardly believed +their eyes. Some crept toward it to feel of it to be sure it was there. +Then we carried it along to the electricians' room, to see if our long- +sought treasure was dead or alive. A few minutes of suspense and a +flash told of the lightning current again set free. Then the feeling +long pent up burst forth. Some turned away their heads and wept. Others +broke into cheers, and the cry ran from man to man, and was heard down +in the engine rooms, deck below deck, and from the boats on the water, +and the other ships, while the rockets lighted up the darkness of the +sea. Then, with thankful hearts, we turned our faces again to the West. +But soon the wind rose, and for thirty-six hours we were exposed to all +the dangers of a storm on the Atlantic. Yet, in the very height and +fury of the gale, as I sat in the electricians' room, a flash of light +came up from the deep, which, having crossed to Ireland, came back to +me in mid-ocean, telling me that those so dear to me, whom I had left +on the banks of the Hudson, were well, and following us with their +wishes and their prayers. This was like a whisper of God from the sea, +bidding me keep heart and hope." + +And now, after all those thirteen years of almost superhuman struggle +and that one moment of almost superhuman victory, I think we may safely +include Cyrus Field among the masters of the situation. + + +O'CONNELL, THE ORATOR + +From "Speeches and Lectures," with the permission of Lothrop, Lee and +Shepard, Boston, publishers. + +BY WENDELL PHILLIPS + +Broadly considered, O'Connell's eloquence has never been equaled in +modern times, certainly not in English speech. Do you think I am +partial? I will vouch John Randolph of Roanoke, the Virginia +slaveholder, who hated an Irishman almost as much as he hated a Yankee, +himself an orator of no mean level. Hearing O'Connell, he exclaimed, +"This is the man, these are the lips, the most eloquent that speak the +English tongue in my day!" I think he was right. I remember the +solemnity of Webster, the grace of Everett, the rhetoric of Choate; I +know the eloquence that lay hid in the iron logic of Calhoun; I have +melted beneath the magnetism of Sergeant S. Prentiss of Mississippi, +who wielded a power few men ever had; it has been my fortune to sit at +the feet of the great speakers of the English tongue on the other side +of the ocean; but I think all of them together never surpassed, and no +one of them ever equaled O'Connell. + +Nature intended him for our Demosthenes. Never, since the great Greek, +has she sent forth one so lavishly gifted for his work as a tribune of +the people. In the first place, he had a magnificent presence, +impressive in bearing, massive, like that of Jupiter. Webster himself +hardly outdid him in the majesty of his proportions. To be sure, he had +not Webster's craggy face, and precipice of brow, not his eyes glowing +like anthracite coal. Nor had he the lion roar of Mirabeau. But his +presence filled the eye. A small O'Connell would hardly have been an +O'Connell at all. These physical advantages are half the battle. + +I remember Russell Lowell telling us that Mr. Webster came home from +Washington at the time the Whig party thought of dissolution, a year or +two before his death, and went down to Faneuil Hall to protest; drawing +himself up to his loftiest proportion, his brow clothed with thunder, +before the listening thousands, he said, "Well, gentlemen, I am a Whig, +a Massachusetts Whig, a Faneuil-Hall Whig, a revolutionary Whig, a +constitutional Whig. If you break the Whig party, sir, where am I to +go?" And says Lowell, "We held our breath, thinking where he +_could_ go. If he had been five feet three, we should have said, +'Who cares where you go?'" So it was with O'Connell. There was +something majestic in his presence before he spoke; and he added to it +what Webster had not, what Clay might have lent--infinite grace, that +magnetism that melts all hearts into one. I saw him at over sixty-six +years of age; every attitude was beauty, every gesture grace. You could +only think of a greyhound as you looked at him; it would have been +delightful to watch him, if he had not spoken a word. Then he had a +voice that covered the gamut. The majesty of his indignation, fitly +uttered in tones of superhuman power, made him able to "indict" a +nation. Carlyle says, "He is God's own anointed king whose single word +melts all wills into his." This describes O'Connell. Emerson says, +"There is no true eloquence unless there is a man behind the speech." +Daniel O'Connell was listened to because all England and all Ireland +knew that there was a man behind the speech. + +I heard him once say, "I send my voice across the Atlantic, careering +like the thunderstorm against the breeze, to remind the bondman that +the dawn of his redemption is already breaking." You seemed to hear the +tones come echoing back to London from the Rocky Mountains. Then, with +the slightest possible Irish brogue, he would tell a story, while all +Exeter Hall shook with laughter. The next moment, tears in his voice +like a Scotch song, five thousand men wept. And all the while no +effort. He seemed only breathing. + + "As effortless as woodland nooks + Send violets up, and paint them blue." + + +JUSTIFICATION FOR IMPEACHMENT + +Against Warren Hastings, House of Lords, February, 1788 + +BY EDMUND BURKE + +In the name of the Commons of England, I charge all this villainy upon +Warren Hastings, in this last moment of my application to you. + +My Lords, what is it that we want here to a great act of national +justice? Do we want a cause, my Lords? You have the cause of oppressed +princes, of undone women of the first rank, of desolated provinces, and +of wasted kingdoms. + +Do you want a criminal, my Lords? When was there so much iniquity ever +laid to the charge of any one? No, my Lords, you must not look to +punish any other such delinquent from India. Warren Hastings has not +left substance enough in India to nourish such another delinquent. + +My Lords, is it a prosecutor you want? You have before you the Commons +of Great Britain as prosecutors; and I believe, my Lords, that the sun, +in his beneficent progress round the world, does not behold a more +glorious sight than that of men, separated from a remote people by the +material bounds and barriers of nature, united by the bonds of a social +and moral community--all the Commons of England resenting, as their +own, the indignities and cruelties that are offered to all the people +of India. + +Do we want a tribunal? My Lords, no example of antiquity, nothing in +the modern world, nothing in the range of human imagination, can supply +us with a tribunal like this. My Lords, here we see virtually, in the +mind's eye, that sacred majesty of the Crown, under whose authority you +sit and whose power you exercise. + +We have here all the branches of the royal family, in a situation +between majesty and subjection, between the sovereign and the subject-- +offering a pledge, in that situation, for the support of the rights of +the Crown and the liberties of the people, both of which extremities +they touch. + + +WENDELL PHILLIPS, THE ORATOR + +From "The Orations and Addresses of George William Curtis," Vol. III. +Copyright, 1894, by Harper and Brothers. + +BY GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS + +It was not until Lovejoy fell, while defending his press at Alton, in +November, 1837, that an American citizen was killed by a raging mob for +declaring, in a free State, the right of innocent men and women to +their personal liberty. This tragedy, like the deadly blow at Charles +Sumner in the Senate Chamber, twenty years afterward, awed the whole +country with a sense of vast and momentous peril. Never since the +people of Boston thronged Faneuil Hall on the day after the massacre in +State Street, had that ancient hall seen a more solemn and significant +assembly. It was the more solemn, the more significant, because the +excited multitude was no longer, as in the Revolutionary day, inspired +by one unanimous and overwhelming purpose to assert and maintain +liberty of speech as the bulwark of all other liberty. It was an +unwonted and foreboding scene. An evil spirit was in the air. + +When the seemly protest against the monstrous crime had been spoken, +and the proper duty of the day was done, a voice was heard,--the voice +of the high officer solemnly sworn to prosecute, in the name of +Massachusetts, every violation of law, declaring, in Faneuil Hall, +sixty years after the battle of Bunker Hill, and amid a howling storm +of applause, that an American citizen who was put to death by a mad +crowd of his fellow citizens for defending his right of free speech, +died as the fool dieth. Boston has seen dark days, but never a moment +so dark as that. Seven years before, Webster had said, in the famous +words that Massachusetts binds as frontlets between her eyes, "There +are Boston and Concord, and Lexington and Bunker Hill, and there they +will remain forever." Had they already vanished? Was the spirit of the +Revolution quite extinct? In the very Cradle of Liberty did no son +survive to awake its slumbering echoes? By the grace of God such a son +there was. He had come with the multitude, and he had heard with +sympathy and approval the speeches that condemned the wrong; but when +the cruel voice justified the murderers of Lovejoy, the heart of the +young man burned within him. This speech, he said to himself, must be +answered. As the malign strain proceeded, the Boston boy, all on fire, +with Concord and Lexington tugging at his heart, unconsciously +murmured, "Such a speech in Faneuil Hall must be answered in Faneuil +Hall." "Why not answer it yourself?" whispered a neighbor, who +overheard him. "Help me to the platform and I will,"--and pushing and +struggling through the dense and threatening crowd, the young man +reached the platform, was lifted upon it, and, advancing to speak, was +greeted with a roar of hostile cries. But riding the whirlwind +undismayed, as for many a year afterward he directed the same wild +storm, he stood upon the platform in all the beauty and grace of +imperial youth,--the Greeks would have said a god descended,--and in +words that touched the mind and heart and conscience of that vast +multitude, as with fire from heaven, recalling Boston to herself, he +saved his native city and her Cradle of Liberty from the damning +disgrace of stoning the first martyr in the great struggle for personal +freedom. "Mr. Chairman," he said, "when I heard the gentleman lay down +principles which placed the rioters, incendiaries, and murderers of +Alton, side by side with Otis and Hancock, and Quincy and Adams, I +thought those pictured lips would have broken into voice to rebuke the +recreant American--the slanderer of the dead." And even as he spoke +the vision was fulfilled. Once more its native music rang through +Faneuil Hall. In the orator's own burning words, those pictured lips +did break into immortal rebuke. In Wendell Phillips, glowing with holy +indignation at the insult to America and to man, John Adams and James +Otis, Josiah Quincy and Samuel Adams, though dead, yet spake. + +In the annals of American speech there had been no such scene since +Patrick Henry's electrical warning to George the Third. It was that +greatest of oratorical triumphs when a supreme emotion, a sentiment +which is to mold a people anew, lifted the orator to adequate +expression. Three such scenes are illustrious in our history: that of +the speech of Patrick Henry at Williamsburg, of Wendell Phillips in +Faneuil Hall, of Abraham Lincoln in Gettysburg,--three, and there is no +fourth. + + +ON THE DISPOSAL OF PUBLIC LANDS + +From reports of the Webster-Hayne debate in the United States Senate, +January, 1830 + +BY ROBERT Y. HAYNE + +In 1825 the gentleman told the world that the public lands "ought not +to be treated as a treasure." He now tells us that "they must be +treated as so much treasure." What the deliberate opinion of the +gentleman on this subject may be, belongs not to me to determine; but I +do not think he can, with the shadow of justice or propriety, impugn my +sentiments, while his own recorded opinions are identical with my own. +When the gentleman refers to the conditions of the grants under which +the United States have acquired these lands, and insists that, as they +are declared to be "for the common benefit of all the States," they can +only be treated as so much treasure, I think he has applied a rule of +construction too narrow for the case. If, in the deeds of cession, it +has been declared that the grants were intended "for the common benefit +of all the States," it is clear, from other provisions, that they were +not intended merely as so much property; for it is expressly declared +that the object of the grants is the erection of new States; and the +United States, in accepting this trust, bind themselves to facilitate +the foundation of those States, to be admitted into the Union with all +the rights and privileges of the original States. + +This, sir, was the great end to which all parties looked, and it is by +the fulfillment of this high trust that "the common benefit of all the +States" is to be best promoted. Sir, let me tell the gentleman that, in +the part of the country in which I live, we do not measure political +benefits by the money standard. We consider as more valuable than gold, +liberty, principle, and justice. But, sir, if we are bound to act on +the narrow principles contended for by the gentleman, I am wholly at a +loss to conceive how he can reconcile his principles with his own +practice. The lands are, it seems, to be treated "as so much treasure," +and must be applied to the "common benefit of all the States." Now, if +this be so, whence does he derive the right to appropriate them for +partial and local objects? How can the gentleman consent to vote away +immense bodies of these lands for canals in Indiana and Illinois, to +the Louisville and Portland Canal, to Kenyon College in Ohio, to +schools for the deaf and dumb, and other objects of a similar +description? + + +THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE + +From "Speeches and Presidential Addresses," Current Literature +Publishing Company, New York. + +BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing in this place, +where were collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion +to principle, from which sprang the institutions under which we live. +You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task of +restoring peace to our distracted country. I can say in return, sir, +that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far +as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated +in, and were given to the world from, this hall. I have never had a +feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied +in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the +dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and framed +and adopted that Declaration. I have pondered over the toils that were +endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that +independence. I have often inquired of myself what great principle or +idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the +mere matter of separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that +sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not +alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world, for all +future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the +weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all +should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the +Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved +on that basis? If it can, I shall consider myself one of the happiest +men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon +that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be +saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would +rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it. Now, in my view +of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and +war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course; +and I may say in advance that there will be no bloodshed unless it is +forced upon the government. The government will not use force, unless +force is used against it. + +My friends, this is wholly an unprepared speech. I did not expect to be +called on to say a word when I came here. I supposed I was merely to do +something toward raising a flag. I may, therefore, have said something +indiscreet. But I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, +and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by. + + + + +EXPRESSING THE FEELING + + +NORTHERN GREETING TO SOUTHERN VETERANS + +From "Speeches and Addresses," with the permission of the author and of +Houghton Mifflin Company, publishers. + +BY HENRY CABOT LODGE + +I was a boy ten years old when the troops marched away to defend +Washington. I saw the troops, month after month, pour through the +streets of Boston. I saw Shaw go forth at the head of his black +regiment, and Bartlett, shattered in body, but dauntless in soul, ride +by to carry what was left of him once more to the battlefields of the +Republic. I saw Andrew, standing bareheaded on the steps of the State +House, bid the men godspeed. I cannot remember the words he said, but I +can never forget the fervid eloquence which brought tears to the eyes +and fire to the hearts of all who listened. To my boyish mind one thing +alone was clear, that the soldiers, as they marched past, were all, in +that supreme hour, heroes and patriots. Other feelings have, in the +progress of time, altered much, but amid many changes that simple +belief of boyhood has never altered. + +And you, brave men who wore the gray, would be the first to hold me or +any other son of the North in just contempt if I should say that now it +was all over I thought the North was wrong and the result of the war a +mistake. To the men who fought the battles of the Confederacy we hold +out our hands freely, frankly, and gladly. We have no bitter memories +to revive, no reproaches to utter. Differ in politics and in a thousand +other ways we must and shall in all good nature, but never let us +differ with each other on sectional or state lines, by race or creed. + +We welcome you, soldiers of Virginia, as others more eloquent than I +have said, to New England. We welcome you to old Massachusetts. We +welcome you to Boston and to Faneuil Hall. In your presence here, and +at the sound of your voices beneath this historic roof, the years roll +back, and we see the figure and hear again the ringing tones of your +great orator, Patrick Henry, declaring to the first Continental +Congress, "The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New +Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an +American." + +A distinguished Frenchman, as he stood among the graves of Arlington, +said: "Only a great people is capable of a great civil war." Let us add +with thankful hearts that only a great people is capable of a great +reconciliation. Side by side Virginia and Massachusetts led the +colonies into the War for Independence. Side by side they founded the +government of the United States. Morgan and Greene, Lee and Knox, +Moultrie and Prescott, men of the South and men of the North, fought +shoulder to shoulder, and wore the same uniform of buff and blue,--the +uniform of Washington. + +Mere sentiment all this, some may say. But it is sentiment, true +sentiment, that has moved the world. Sentiment fought the war, and +sentiment has reunited us. + +So I say that the sentiment manifested by your presence here, brethren +of Virginia, sitting side by side with those who wore the blue, tells +us that if war should break again upon the country the sons of Virginia +and Massachusetts would, as in the olden days, stand once more shoulder +to shoulder, with no distinction in the colors that they wear. It is +fraught with tidings of peace on earth, and you may read its meaning in +the words on yonder picture, "Liberty and union, now and forever, one +and inseparable!" + + +MATCHES AND OVERMATCHES + +From Webster's reply to Hayne in the United States Senate, January, +1830, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, publishers. + +BY DANIEL WEBSTER + +If, sir, the honorable member, _modestia gratia_, had chosen thus +to defer to his friend and to pay him a compliment without intentional +disparagement to others, it would have been quite according to the +friendly courtesies of debate, and not at all ungrateful to my own +feelings. I am not one of those, sir, who esteem any tribute of regard, +whether light and occasional or more serious and deliberate, which may +be bestowed on others, as so much unjustly withholden from themselves. +But the tone and manner of the gentleman's question forbid me thus to +interpret it, I am not at liberty to consider it as nothing more than a +civility to his friend. It had an air of taunt and disparagement, +something of the loftiness of asserted superiority, which does not +allow me to pass it over without notice. It was put as a question for +me to answer, and so put as if it were difficult for me to answer, +whether I deemed the member from Missouri an overmatch for myself in +debate here. It seems to me, sir, that this is extraordinary language +and an extraordinary tone for the discussions of this body. + +Matches and overmatches! Those terms are more applicable elsewhere than +here, and fitter for other assemblies than this. Sir, the gentleman +seems to forget where and what we are. This is a senate, a senate of +equals, of men of individual honor and personal character and of +absolute independence. We know no masters, we acknowledge no dictators. +This is a hall for mutual consultation and discussion; not an arena for +the exhibitions of champions. I offer myself, sir, as a match for no +man; I throw the challenge of debate at no man's feet. But then, sir, +since the honorable member has put the question in a manner that calls +for an answer, I will give him an answer; and tell him that, holding +myself to be the humblest of the members here, I yet know nothing in +the arm of his friend from Missouri, either alone or when aided by the +arm of _his_ friend from South Carolina, that need deter even me +from espousing whatever opinions I may choose to espouse, from debating +whenever I may choose to debate, or from speaking whatever I may see +fit to say on the floor of the Senate. + + +THE COALITION + +From the reply to Hayne + +"The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster," Little, Brown +and Company, Boston, publishers. + +BY DANIEL WEBSTER + +Sir, I shall not allow myself, on this occasion, I hope on no occasion, +to betray myself into any loss of temper; but if provoked, as I trust I +never shall be, into crimination and recrimination, the honorable +member may perhaps find that, in that contest, there will be blows to +take as well as to give; that others can state comparisons as +significant, at least, as his own, and that his impunity may possibly +demand of him whatever powers of taunt and sarcasm he may possess. I +commend him to a prudent husbandry of his resources. + +But, sir, the Coalition! The Coalition! Aye, "the murdered Coalition!" +The gentleman asks if I were led or frighted into this debate by the +specter of the Coalition. "Was it the ghost of the murdered Coalition," +he exclaims, "which haunted the member from Massachusetts; and which, +like the ghost of Banquo, would never down?" "The murdered Coalition!" +Sir, this charge of a coalition, in reference to the late +administration, is not original with the honorable member. It did not +spring up in the Senate. Whether as a fact, as an argument, or as an +embellishment, it is all borrowed. He adopts it, indeed, from a very +low origin, and a still lower present condition. It is one of the +thousand calumnies with which the press teemed during an excited +political canvass. It was a charge of which there was not only no proof +or probability, but which was in itself wholly impossible to be true. +No man of common information ever believed a syllable of it. Yet it was +of that class of falsehoods which, by continued repetition, through all +the organs of detraction and abuse, are capable of misleading those who +are already far misled, and of further fanning passion already kindling +into flame. Doubtless it served in its day, and in greater or less +degree, the end designed by it. Having done that, it has sunk into the +general mass of stale and loathed calumnies. It is the very cast-off +slough of a polluted and shameless press. Incapable of further +mischief, it lies in the sewer, lifeless and despised. It is not now, +sir, in the power of the honorable member to give it dignity or decency +by attempting to elevate it and to introduce it into the Senate. He +cannot change it from what it is, an object of general disgust and +scorn. On the contrary, the contact, if he choose to touch it, is more +likely to drag him down, down to the place where it lies itself. + + +IN HIS OWN DEFENSE + +BY ROBERT EMMET + +I am asked what I have to say why sentence of death should not be +pronounced on me, according to law. + +I am charged with being an emissary of France. An emissary of France! +and for what end? It is alleged that I wish to sell the independence of +my country; and for what end? Was this the object of my ambition? And +is this the mode by which a tribunal of justice reconciles +contradictions? No; I am no emissary; and my ambition was to hold a +place among the deliverers of my country, not in power nor in profit, +but in the glory of the achievement. Sell my country's independence to +France! and for what? Was it for a change of masters? No, but for +ambition. O my country! was it personal ambition that could influence +me? Had it been the soul of my actions, could I not by my education and +fortune, by the rank and consideration of my family, have placed myself +amongst the proudest of your oppressors? My country was my idol! To it +I sacrificed every selfish, every endearing sentiment; and for it I now +offer up my life. + +My lords, you are impatient for the sacrifice. Be yet patient! I have +but a few more words to say--I am going to my cold and silent grave--my +lamp of life is nearly extinguished--my race is run--the grave opens to +receive me, and I sink into its bosom. I have but one request to ask at +my departure from this world: it is--the charity of its silence. Let no +man write my epitaph; for, as no man who knows my motives dares now +vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them +and me rest in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, +until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my +country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not +till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done. + + +ON RESISTANCE TO GREAT BRITAIN + +From a speech in the Provincial Convention, Virginia, March, 1775 + +BY PATRICK HENRY + +I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be +not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible +motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the +world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, +she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. +They are sent over to bind and to rivet upon us those chains which the +British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose +them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last +ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We +have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it +has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble +supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already +exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. +Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm +which is now coming on. We have petitioned, we have remonstrated, we +have supplicated, we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and +have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the +ministry and parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our +remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our +supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned with +contempt from the foot of the throne. In vain, after all these things, +may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no +longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve +inviolate these inestimable privileges for which we have been so long +contending; if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in +which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves +never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be +obtained, we must fight; I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to +arms, and to the God of Hosts, is all that is left us! + + +INVECTIVE AGAINST LOUIS BONAPARTE + +From a reprint in "A Modern Reader and Speaker," by George Ridde, +Duffield and Company, New York, publishers. + +BY VICTOR HUGO + +I have entered the lists with the actual ruler of Europe, for it is +well for the world that I should exhibit the picture. Louis Bonaparte +is the intoxication of triumph. He is the incarnation of merry yet +savage despotism. He is the mad plenitude of power seeking for limits, +but finding them not, neither in men nor facts. Louis Bonaparte holds +France; and he who holds France holds the world. He is master of the +votes, master of consciences, master of the people; he names his +successor, does away with eternity, and places the future in a sealed +envelope. Thirty eager newspaper correspondents inform the world that +he has frowned, and every electric wire quivers if he raises his little +finger. Around him is heard the clanking of the saber and the roll of +the drum. He is seated in the shadow of the eagles, begirt by ramparts +and bayonets. Free people tremble and conceal their liberty lest he +should rob them of it. The great American Republic even hesitates +before him, and dares not withdraw her ambassador. + +Europe awaits his invasion. He is able to do as he wishes, and he +dreams of impossibilities. Well, this master, this triumphant +conqueror, this vanquisher, this dictator, this emperor, this all- +powerful man, one lonely man, robbed and ruined, dares to rise up and +attack. + +Yes, I attack Louis Napoleon; I attack him openly, before all the +world. I attack him before God and man. I attack him boldly and +recklessly for love of the people and for love of France. He is going +to be an emperor. Let him be one; but let him remember that, though you +may secure an empire, you cannot secure an easy conscience! + +This is the man by whom France is governed! Governed, do I say?-- +possessed in supreme and sovereign sway! And every day, and every +morning, by his decrees, by his messages, by all the incredible drivel +which he parades in the "Moniteur," this emigrant, who knows not +France, teaches France her lesson! and this ruffian tells France he has +saved her! And from whom? From herself! Before him, Providence +committed only follies; God was waiting for him to reduce everything to +order; at last he has come! + +II + +For thirty-six years there had been in France all sorts of pernicious +things,--the tribune, a vociferous thing; the press, an obstreperous +thing; thought, an insolent thing, and liberty, the most crying abuse +of all. But he came, and for the tribune he has substituted the Senate; +for the press, the censorship; for thought, imbecility; and for +liberty, the saber; and by the saber and the Senate, by imbecility and +censorship, France is saved. Saved, bravo! And from whom, I repeat? +From herself. For what was this France of ours, if you please? A horde +of marauders and thieves, of anarchists, assassins, and demagogues. She +had to be manacled, had this mad woman, France; and it is Monsieur +Louis Bonaparte who puts the handcuffs on her. Now she is in a dungeon, +on a diet of bread and water, punished, humiliated, garotted, safely +cared for. Be not disturbed; Monsieur Bonaparte, a policeman stationed +at the Élysée, is answerable for her to Europe. He makes it his +business to be so; this wretched France is in the straitjacket, and if +she stirs--Ah, what is this spectacle before our eyes? Is it a dream? +Is it a nightmare? On one side a nation, the first of nations, and on +the other, a man, the last of men; and this is what this man does to +this nation. What! he tramples her under his feet, he laughs in her +face, he mocks and taunts her, he disowns, insults, and flouts her! +What! he says, "I alone am worthy of consideration!" What! in this land +of France where none would dare to slap the face of his fellow, this +man can slap the face of the nation? Oh, the abominable shame of it +all! Every time that Monsieur Bonaparte spits, every face must be +wiped! And this can last! and you tell me it will last! No! No! by +every drop in every vein, no! It shall not last! Ah, if this did last, +it would be in very truth because there would no longer be a God in +heaven, nor a France on earth! + + + + +SHOWING THE PICTURE + + +MOUNT, THE DOGE OF VENICE! + +From the play, "Foscari" + +BY MARY RUSSELL MITFORD + +_Doge_. What! didst thou never hear +Of the old prediction that was verified +When I became the Doge? + +_Zeno_. An old prediction! + +_Doge_. Some seventy years ago--it seems to me +As fresh as yesterday--being then a lad +No higher than my hand, idle as an heir, +And all made up of gay and truant sports, +I flew a kite, unmatched in shape or size, +Over the river--we were at our house +Upon the Brenta then; it soared aloft, +Driven by light vigorous breezes from the sea +Soared buoyantly, till the diminished toy +Grew smaller than the falcon when she stoops +To dart upon her prey. I sent for cord, +Servant on servant hurrying, till the kite +Shrank to the size of a beetle: still I called +For cord, and sent to summon father, mother, +My little sisters, my old halting nurse,-- +I would have had the whole world to survey +Me and my wondrous kite. It still soared on, +And I stood bending back in ecstasy, +My eyes on that small point, clapping my hands, +And shouting, and half envying it the flight +That made it a companion of the stars, +When close beside me a deep voice exclaimed-- +Aye, mount! mount! mount!--I started back, and saw +A tall and aged woman, one of the wild +Peculiar people whom wild Hungary sends +Roving through every land. She drew her cloak +About her, turned her black eyes up to Heaven, +And thus pursued: Aye, like his fortunes, mount, +The future Doge of Venice! And before +For very wonder any one could speak +She disappeared. + +_Zeno_. Strange! Hast thou never seen +That woman since? + +_Doge_. I never saw her more. + + +THE REVENGE + +From "Tennyson's Poetical Works," published by Houghton Mifflin +Company, Boston. + +BY ALFRED LORD TENNYSON + +"Shall we fight or shall we fly? +Good Sir Richard, tell us now, +For to fight is but to die! +There'll be little of us left by the time this sun be set." +And Sir Richard said again: "We be all good Englishmen. +Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the devil, +For I never turned my back upon don or devil yet." +Sir Richard spoke and he laughed, and we roar'd a hurrah, and so +The little _Revenge_ ran on sheer into the heart of the foe, +With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick below; +For half of their fleet to the right and half to the left were seen. +And the little _Revenge_ ran on thro' the long sea lane between. + +And while now the great _San Philip_ hung above us like a cloud +Whence the thunderbolt will fall +Long and loud, +Four galleons drew away +From the Spanish fleet that day, +And two upon the larboard and two upon the starboard lay, +And the battle-thunder broke from them all. + +And the sun went down, and the stars came out, far over the summer sea, +But never a moment ceased the fight of the one and the fifty-three. +Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high-built galleons came, +Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her battle-thunder and + flame; +Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew back with her dead and her + shame, +For some were sunk, and many were shatter'd, and so could fight us no + more-- +God of battles, was ever a battle like this in the world before? + +For he said: "Fight on! fight on!" +Tho' his vessel was all but a wreck; +And it chanced that, when half of the summer night was gone, +With a grisly wound to be dressed, he had left the deck, +But a bullet struck him that was dressing it suddenly dead, +And himself he was wounded again, in the side and the head, +And he said: "Fight on! Fight on!" + +And the night went down, and the sun smiled out far over the summer + sea, +And the Spanish fleet with broken sides lay round us all in a ring; +But they dared not touch us again, for they feared that we still could + sting, +So they watched what the end would be. +And we had not fought them in vain, +But in perilous plight were we, +Seeing forty of our poor hundred were slain +and half of the rest of us maimed for life +In the crash of the cannonades and the desperate strife; +And the sick men down in the hold were most of them stark and cold, +And the pikes were all broken and bent, and the powder was all of it + spent; +And the masts and the rigging were lying over the side; +But Sir Richard cried in his English pride, +"We have fought such a fight for a day and a night +As may never be fought again! +We have won great glory, my men! +And a day less or more +At sea or ashore, +We die--does it matter when? +Sink me the ship, Master Gunner--sink her, split her in twain! +Fall into the hands of God, not into the hands of Spain!" + + +A VISION OF WAR + +From a Memorial Day address, with the permission of C. P. Farrell, New +York, publisher and owner of the Ingersoll copyrighted books. + +BY ROBERT G. INGERSOLL + +The past rises before me like a dream. Again we are in the great +struggle for national life. We hear the sounds of preparation; the +music of boisterous drums; the silver voices of heroic bugles. We see +thousands of assemblages, and hear the appeals of orators. We see the +pale cheeks of women, and the flushed faces of men; and in those +assemblages we see all the dead whose dust we have covered with +flowers. We lose sight of them no more. We are with them when they +enlist in the great army of freedom. We see them part with those they +love. Some are walking for the last time in quiet, woody places with +the maidens they adore. We hear the whisperings and the sweet vows of +eternal love as they lingeringly part forever. Others are bending over +cradles, kissing babes that are asleep. Some are receiving the +blessings of old men. Some are parting with mothers who hold them and +press them to their hearts again and again and say nothing. Kisses and +tears, tears and kisses--divine mingling of agony and joy! And some are +talking with wives, and endeavoring with brave words, spoken in the old +tones, to drive from their hearts the awful fear. We see them part. We +see the wife standing in the door with the babe in her arms--standing +in the sunlight, sobbing. At the turn in the road a hand waves--she +answers by holding high in her loving arms the child. He is gone, and +forever. + +We see them all as they march proudly away under the flaunting flags, +keeping time to the grand, wild music of war,--marching down the +streets of the great cities, through the towns and across the prairies, +down to the fields of glory, to do and to die for the eternal right. + +A vision of the future rises:-- + +I see our country filled with happy homes, with firesides of content-- +the foremost of all the earth. + +I see a world where thrones have crumbled and kings are dust. The +aristocracy of idleness has perished from the earth. + +I see a world without a slave. Man at last is free. Nature's forces +have by science been enslaved. Lightning and light, wind and wave, +frost and flame, and all the secret-subtle powers of earth and air are +the tireless toilers for the human race. + +I see a world at peace, adorned with every form of art, with music's +myriad voices thrilled, while lips are rich with words of love and +truth; a world in which no exile sighs, no prisoner mourns; a world on +which the gibbet's shadow does not fall; a world where labor reaps its +full reward, where work and worth go hand in hand, where the poor girl +trying to win bread with the needle--the needle that has been called +"the asp for the breast of the poor"--is not driven to the desperate +choice of crime or death, of suicide or shame. + +I see a world without the beggar's outstretched palm, the miser's +heartless, stony stare, the piteous wail of want, the livid lips of +lies, the cruel eyes of scorn. + +I see a race without disease of flesh or brain,--shapely and fair,--the +married harmony of form and function,--and, as I look, life lengthens, +joy deepens, love canopies the earth; and over all, in the great dome, +shines the eternal star of human hope. + + +SUNSET NEAR JERUSALEM + +From an article in the _Century Magazine_, June, 1906, with the +Permission of the Century Company and of the author. + +BY CORWIN KNAPP LINSON + +To our Northern eyes the intense brilliancy of the tropical and semi- +tropical sky comes as a revelation. Sometimes at noon it is painfully +dazzling; but the evening is a vision of prismatic light holding +carnival in the air, wherein Milton's "twilight gray" has no part. +Unless the sky is held in the relentless grip of a winter storm, the +Orient holds no gray in its evening tones; these are translucent and +glowing from the setting of the sun until the stars appear. In Greece +we are dreamers in that subtle atmosphere, and in Egypt visionaries +under the spell of an ethereal loveliness where the filigree patterning +of white dome and minaret and interlacing palm and feathery pepper tree +leaves little wonder in the mind that the ornamentation of their +architecture is so ravishing in its tracery. + +Outside the walls of Jerusalem on the north there is a point on a knoll +which commands the venerable city that David took for his own. From +here you can watch the variable glow of color spread over the whole +breadth of country, from the ground at one's feet to the distant purple +hilltops of Bethlehem. The fluid air seems to swim, as if laden with +incense. The rocks underfoot are of all tones of lavender in shadow, +and of tender, warm gleams in the light, casting vivid violet shadows +athwart the mottled orange of the ground. + +Down in the little valley just below us a tiny vineyard nestles in the +half-light; the gray road trails outside; and beyond rise the walls, +serene and stately, catching on their highest towers the last rays of +the sun. + +The pointed shaft of the German church lifts a gray-green finger tipped +with rose into the ambient air. The sable dome of the Holy Sepulcher +yields a little to the subtle influence, and shows a softer and more +becoming purple. + +All the unlovely traits and the squalor of the city are lost, so +delicately tender is the mass of buildings painted against the +background of distance. + +It had been one of those days in March when the clouds of "the latter +rains" had been blowing from the west. As the day drew near its close, +the heavy mists assembled in great masses of ominous gray and blue, +golden-edged against the turquoise sky. With such speed did they move +that they seemed suddenly to leap from the horizon, and the vast dome +of the heaven became filled with weird, flying monsters racing +overhead. The violence of the wind tore the blue into fragments, so +that what only a moment since was a colossal weight of cloud +threatening to ingulf the universe, was now like a great host marshaled +in splendid array, flying banners of crimson, whose ranks were ever +changing, until they scattered in disordered flight across the face of +the sky. + +As the lowering sun neared the horizon, the color grew more and more +vivid, until the whole heaven was aflame with a whirlwind of scarlet +and gold and crimson, of violet and blue and emerald, flecked with +copper and bronze and shreds of smoky clouds in shadow, a tempestuous +riot of color so wild and extraordinary as to hold one spellbound. + +Had not David beheld a similar sky when he wrote:-- + + O Lord my God, thou art very great; + Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. + Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: + Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: + Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: + Who maketh the clouds his chariot: + Who walketh upon the wings of the wind: + Who maketh winds his messengers; + His ministers a flaming fire. + + +A RETURN IN TRIUMPH + +From a speech before the New England Society of New York, December, +1886 + +BY T. DE WITT TALMAGE + +I never so realized what this country was and is as on the day when I +first saw some of these gentlemen of the Army and Navy. It was when at +the close of the War our armies came back and marched in review before +the President's stand at Washington. I do not care whether a man was a +Republican or a Democrat, a Northern man or a Southern man, if he had +any emotion of nature, he could not look upon it without weeping. God +knew that the day was stupendous, and He cleared the heaven of cloud +and mist and chill, and sprung the blue sky as the triumphal arch for +the returning warriors to pass under. From Arlington Heights the spring +foliage shook out its welcome, as the hosts came over the hills, and +the sparkling waters of the Potomac tossed their gold to the feet of +the battalions as they came to the Long Bridge and in almost +interminable line passed over. The Capitol never seemed so majestic as +on that morning: snowy white, looking down upon the tides of men that +came surging down, billow after billow. Passing in silence, yet I heard +in every step the thunder of conflicts through which they had waded, +and seemed to see dripping from their smoke-blackened flags the blood +of our country's martyrs. For the best part of two days we stood and +watched the filing on of what seemed endless battalions, brigade after +brigade, division after division, host after host, rank beyond rank; +ever moving, ever passing; marching, marching; tramp, tramp, tramp-- +thousands after thousands, battery front, arms shouldered, columns +solid, shoulder to shoulder, wheel to wheel, charger to charger, +nostril to nostril. + +Commanders on horses with their manes entwined with roses, and necks +enchained with garlands, fractious at the shouts that ran along the +line, increasing from the clapping of children clothed in white, +standing on the steps of the Capitol, to the tumultuous vociferation of +hundreds of thousands of enraptured multitudes, crying "Huzza! Huzza!" +Gleaming muskets, thundering parks of artillery, rumbling pontoon +wagons, ambulances from whose wheels seemed to sound out the groans of +the crushed and the dying that they had carried. These men came from +balmy Minnesota, those from Illinois prairies. These were often hummed +to sleep by the pines of Oregon, those were New England lumbermen. +Those came out of the coal-shafts of Pennsylvania. Side by side in one +great cause, consecrated through fire and storm and darkness, brothers +in peril, on their way home from Chancellorsville and Kenesaw Mountain +and Fredericksburg, in lines that seemed infinite they passed on. + +We gazed and wept and wondered, lifting up our heads to see if the end +had come, but no! Looking from one end of that long avenue to the +other, we saw them yet in solid column, battery front, host beyond +host, wheel to wheel, charger to charger, nostril to nostril, coming as +it were from under the Capitol. Forward! Forward! Their bayonets, +caught in the sun, glimmered and flashed and blazed, till they seemed +like one long river of silver, ever and anon changed into a river of +fire. No end of the procession, no rest for the eyes. We turned our +heads from the scene, unable longer to look. We felt disposed to stop +our ears, but still we heard it, marching, marching; tramp, tramp, +tramp. But hush,--uncover every head! Here they pass, the remnant of +ten men of a full regiment. Silence! Widowhood and orphanage look on +and wring their hands. But wheel into line, all ye people! North, +South, East, West--all decades, all centuries, all millenniums! +Forward, the whole line! Huzza! Huzza! + + +A RETURN IN DEFEAT + +From "The New South," with the permission of Henry W. Grady, Junior + +BY HENRY W. GRADY + +Dr. Talmage has drawn for you, with a master hand, the picture of your +returning armies. He has told you how, in the pomp and circumstance of +war, they came back to you, marching with proud and victorious tread, +reading their glory in a nation's eyes! Will you bear with me while I +tell you of another army that sought its home at the close of the late +war? An army that marched home in defeat and not in victory--in pathos +and not in splendor, but in glory that equaled yours, and to hearts as +loving as ever welcomed heroes home. Let me picture to you the footsore +Confederate soldier, as, buttoning up in his faded gray jacket the +parole which was to bear testimony to his children of his fidelity and +faith, he turned his face southward from Appomattox in April, 1865. +Think of him, as ragged, half-starved, heavy-hearted, enfeebled by want +and wounds, having fought to exhaustion, he surrenders his gun, wrings +the hands of his comrades in silence, and, lifting his tear-stained and +pallid face for the last time to the graves that dot the old Virginia +hills, pulls his gray cap over his brow and begins the slow and painful +journey. What does he find?--let me ask you who went to your homes +eager to find, in the welcome you had justly earned, full payment for +four years' sacrifice--what does he find when, having followed the +battle-stained cross against overwhelming odds, dreading death not half +so much as surrender, he reaches the home he left so prosperous and +beautiful? He finds his house in ruins, his farm devastated, his slaves +free, his stock killed, his barn empty, his trade destroyed, his money +worthless; his social system, feudal in its magnificence, swept away; +his people without law or legal status; his comrades slain, and the +burdens of others heavy on his shoulders. Crushed by defeat, his very +traditions gone; without money, credit, employment, material training; +and besides all this, confronted with the gravest problem that ever met +human intelligence--the establishing of a status for the vast body of +his liberated slaves. + +What does he do--this hero in gray, with a heart of gold? Does he sit +down in sullenness and despair? Not for a day. Surely God, who had +stripped him of his prosperity, inspired him in his adversity. As ruin +was never before so overwhelming, never was restoration swifter. The +soldier stepped from the trenches into the furrow; horses that had +charged Federal guns marched before the plow, and the fields that ran +red with human blood in April were green with the harvest in June; +women reared in luxury cut up their dresses and made breeches for their +husbands, and, with a patience and heroism that fit women always as a +garment, gave their hands to work. There was little bitterness in all +this. Cheerfulness and frankness prevailed. I want to say to General +Sherman--who is considered an able man in our parts, though some people +think he is kind of careless about fire--that from the ashes he left us +in 1864 we have raised a brave and beautiful city; that somehow or +other we have caught the sunshine in the bricks and mortar of our +homes, and have builded therein not one ignoble prejudice or memory. + +But in all this what have we accomplished? What is the sum of our work? +We have found that in the general summary the free negro counts more +than he did as a slave. We have planted the schoolhouse on the hilltop +and made it free to white and black. We have sowed towns and cities in +the place of theories, and put business above politics. + +Above all, we know that we have achieved in these "piping times of +peace" a fuller independence for the South than that which our fathers +sought to win in the forum by their eloquence, or compel on the field +by their swords. + + + + +EXPRESSION BY ACTION + + +IN OUR FOREFATHERS' DAY + +From a speech before the New England Society of New York, December, +1886 + +BY T. DE WITT TALMAGE + +I must not introduce a new habit into these New England dinners, and +confine myself to the one theme. For eighty-one years your speakers +have been accustomed to make the toast announced the point from which +they start, but to which they never return. So I shall not stick to my +text, but only be particular to have all I say my own, and not make the +mistake of a minister whose sermon was a patchwork from a variety of +authors, to whom he gave no credit. There was an intoxicated wag in the +audience who had read about everything, and he announced the authors as +the minister went on. The clergyman gave an extract without any credit +to the author, and the man in the audience cried out: "That's Jeremy +Taylor." The speaker went on and gave an extract from another author +without credit for it, and the man in the audience said: "That is John +Wesley." The minister gave an extract from another without credit for +it, and the man in the audience said: "That is George Whitefield." When +the minister lost his patience and cried out, "Shut up, you old fool!" +the man in the audience replied: "That is your own." + +Well, what about this Forefathers' Day? In Brooklyn they say the +Landing of the Pilgrims was December the 21st; in New York you say it +was December the 22d. You are both right. Not through the specious and +artful reasoning you have sometimes indulged in, but by a little +historical incident that seems to have escaped your attention. You see, +the Forefathers landed in the morning of December the 21st, but about +noon that day a pack of hungry wolves swept down the bleak American +beach looking for a New England dinner and a band of savages out for a +tomahawk picnic hove in sight, and the Pilgrim Fathers thought it best +for safety and warmth to go on board the Mayflower and pass the night. +And during the night there came up a strong wind blowing off shore that +swept the Mayflower from its moorings clear out to sea, and there was a +prospect that our Forefathers, having escaped oppression in foreign +lands, would yet go down under an oceanic tempest. But the next day +they fortunately got control of their ship and steered her in, and the +second time the Forefathers stepped ashore. + +Brooklyn celebrated the first landing; New York the second landing. So +I say Hail! Hail! to both celebrations, for one day, anyhow, could not +do justice to such a subject; and I only wish I could have kissed the +blarney stone of America, which is Plymouth Rock, so that I might have +done justice to this subject. Ah, gentlemen, that Mayflower was the ark +that floated the deluge of oppression, and Plymouth Rock was the Ararat +on which it landed. + +But let me say that these Forefathers were of no more importance than +the Foremothers. As I understand it, there were eight of them--that is, +four fathers and four mothers--from whom all these illustrious New +Englanders descended. + +Now I was not born in New England, but though not born in New England, +in my boyhood I had a New England schoolmaster, whom I shall never +forget. He taught us our A, B, C's. "What is that?" "I don't know, +sir." "That's A" (with a slap). "What is that?" "I don't know, sir." +(With a slap)--"That is B." I tell you, a boy that learned his letters +in that way never forgot them; and if the boy was particularly dull, +then this New England schoolmaster would take him over his knee, and +then the boy got his information from both directions. + +But all these things aside, no one sitting at these tables has higher +admiration for the Pilgrim Fathers than I have--the men who believed +in two great doctrines, which are the foundation of every religion that +is worth anything: namely, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of +Man--these men of backbone and endowed with that great and magnificent +attribute of stick-to-it-iveness. + + +CASSIUS AGAINST CĘSAR + +From "Julius Cęsar" + +BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE + +I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus, +As well as I do know your outward favor. +Well, honor is the subject of my story.-- +I cannot tell what you and other men +Think of this life; but, for my single self, +I had as lief not be as live to be +In awe of such a thing as I myself. +I was born free as Cęsar; so were you: +We both have fed as well; and we can both +Endure the winter's cold as well as he: +For once, upon a raw and gusty day, +The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, +Cęsar said to me, "Dar'st thou, Cassius, now +Leap in with me into this angry flood, +And swim to yonder point?" Upon the word, +Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, +And bade him follow: so, indeed, he did. +The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it +With lusty sinews, throwing it aside +And stemming it with hearts of controversy; +But ere we could arrive the point propos'd, +Cęsar cried, "Help me, Cassius, or I sink!" +I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor, +Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder +The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber +Did I the tired Cęsar. And this man +Is now become a god; and Cassius is +A wretched creature, and must bend his body, +If Cęsar carelessly but nod on him. +He had a fever when he was in Spain, +And, when the fit was on him, I did mark +How he did shake: 'tis true, this god did shake: +His coward lips did from their color fly; +And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world, +Did lose his luster: I did hear him groan: +Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans +Mark him, and write his speeches in their books, +Alas, it cried, "Give me some drink, Titinius," +As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me +A man of such a feeble temper should +So get the start of the majestic world, +And bear the palm alone. + +II + +Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world +Like a Colossus, and we petty men +Walk under his huge legs and peep about +To find ourselves dishonourable graves. +Men at some time are masters of their fates; +The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, +But in ourselves, that we are underlings. +Brutus and Cęsar: what should be in that "Cęsar"? +Why should that name be sounded more than yours? +Write them together, yours is as fair a name; +Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well; +Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em, +Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Cęsar. +Now, in the names of all the gods at once, +Upon what meat doth this our Cęsar feed, +That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed! +Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods! +When went there by an age, since the great flood, +But it was fam'd with more than with one man? +When could they say till now, that talked of Rome, +That her wide walls encompass'd but one man? +Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough, +When there is in it but one only man. +O, you and I have heard our fathers say, +There was a Brutus once that would have brook'd +The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome +As easily as a king. + + +THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH + +From "The New South," with the permission of Henry W. Grady Junior + +BY HENRY W. GRADY + +The New South is enamored of her new work. Her soul is stirred with the +breath of a new life. The light of a grander day is falling fair on her +face. She is thrilling with the consciousness of growing power and +prosperity. As she stands upright, full-statured and equal among the +people of the earth, breathing the keen air and looking out upon the +expanding horizon, she understands that her emancipation came because +in the inscrutable wisdom of God her honest purpose was crossed and her +brave armies were beaten. + +This is said in no spirit of time-serving or apology. The South has +nothing for which to apologize. She believes that the late struggle +between the States was war and not rebellion, revolution and not +conspiracy, and that her convictions were as honest as yours. I should +be unjust to the dauntless spirit of the South and to my own +convictions if I did not make this plain in this presence. The South +has nothing to take back. In my native town of Athens is a monument +that crowns its central hills--a plain, white shaft. Deep cut into its +shining side is a name dear to me above the names of men, that of a +brave and simple man who died in brave and simple faith. Not for all +the glories of New England--from Plymouth Rock all the way--would I +exchange the heritage he left me in his soldier's death. To the foot of +that shaft I shall send my children's children to reverence him who +ennobled their name with his heroic blood. But, sir, speaking from the +shadow of that memory, which I honor as I do nothing else on earth, I +say that the cause in which he suffered and for which he gave his life +was adjudged by higher and fuller wisdom than his or mine, and I am +glad that the omniscient God held the balance of battle in his Almighty +hand, and that human slavery was swept forever from American soil--the +American Union saved from the wreck of war. + +This message, Mr. President, comes to you from consecrated ground. +Every foot of the soil about the city in which I live is sacred as a +battle ground of the Republic. Every hill that invests it is hallowed +to you by the blood of your brothers, sacred soil to all of us, rich +with memories that make us purer and stronger and better, speaking an +eloquent witness in its white peace and prosperity to the indissoluble +union of American States and the imperishable brotherhood of the +American people. + +Now what answer has New England to this message? Will she permit the +prejudices of war to remain in the hearts of the conquerors, when it +has died in the hearts of the conquered? Will she transmit this +prejudice to the next generation, that in their hearts, which never +felt the generous ardor of conflict, it may perpetuate itself? Will she +withhold, save in strained courtesy, the hand which straight from his +soldier's heart Grant offered to Lee at Appomattox? Will she make the +vision of a restored and happy people, which gathered above the couch +of your dying captain, [Footnote: General Ulysses S. Grant.] filling +his heart with grace, touching his lips with praise and glorifying his +path to the grave; will she make this vision on which the last sigh of +his expiring soul breathed a benediction, a cheat and a delusion? If +she does, the South, never abject in asking for comradeship, must +accept with dignity a refusal; but if she does not, if she accepts in +frankness and sincerity this message of good will and friendship, then +will the prophecy of Webster, delivered in this very society forty +years ago amid tremendous applause, be verified in its fullest and +final sense, when he said: "Standing hand to hand and clasping hands, +we should remain united as we have been for sixty years, citizens of +the same country, members of the same government, united, all united +now and united forever. There have been difficulties, contentions, and +controversies, but I tell you that in my judgment,-- + + "'Those opposed eyes, + Which like the meteors of a troubled heaven, + All of one nature, of one substance bred, + Did lately meet in th' intestine shock, + Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks, + March all one way.'" + + +SOMETHING RANKLING HERE + +From the reply to Hayne, in the United States Senate, January, 1830. +Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Publishers of "The Great Speeches +and Orations of Daniel Webster" + +BY DANIEL WEBSTER + +The gentleman, sir, in declining to postpone the debate, told the +Senate, with the emphasis of his hand upon his heart, that there was +something rankling _here_ which he wished to relieve. It would +not, Mr. President, be safe for the honorable member to appeal to those +around him upon the question whether he did in fact make use of that +word. But he may have been unconscious of it. At any rate, it is enough +that he disclaims it. But still, with or without the use of that +particular word, he had yet something _here_, he said, of which he +wished to rid himself by an immediate reply. In this respect, sir, I +have a great advantage over the honorable gentleman. There is nothing +_here_, sir, which gives me the slightest uneasiness; neither +fear, nor anger, nor that which is sometimes more troublesome than +either, the consciousness of having been in the wrong. There is +nothing, either originating _here_, or now received _here_ by +the gentleman's shot. Nothing originating here, for I had not the +slightest feeling of unkindness towards the honorable member. Some +passages, it is true, had occurred since our acquaintance in this body, +which I could have wished might have been otherwise; but I had used +philosophy and forgotten them. I paid the honorable member the +attention of listening with respect to his first speech; and when he +sat down, though surprised, and I must even say astonished, at some of +his opinions, nothing was farther from my intention than to commence +any personal warfare. Through the whole of the few remarks I made in +answer, I avoided, studiously and carefully, everything which I thought +possible to be construed into disrespect. And, sir, while there is thus +nothing originating _here_ which I wished at any time or now wish +to discharge, I must repeat also, that nothing has been received +_here_ which _rankles_, or in any way gives me annoyance. I +will not accuse the honorable member of violating the rules of +civilized war; I will not say that he poisoned his arrows. But whether +his shafts were or were not dipped in that which would have caused +rankling if they had reached their destination, there was not, as it +happened, quite strength enough in the bow to bring them to their mark. +If he wishes now to gather up those shafts, he must look for them +elsewhere; they will not be found fixed and quivering in the object at +which they were aimed. + +But the gentleman inquires why _he_ was made the object of such a +reply. Why was _he_ singled out? If an attack has been made on the +East, he, he assures us, did not begin it; it was made by the gentleman +from Missouri. Sir, I answered the gentleman's speech because I +happened to hear it; and because, also, I chose to give an answer to +that speech, which, if unanswered, I thought most likely to produce +injurious impressions. I did not stop to inquire who was the original +drawer of the bill. I found a responsible indorser before me, and it +was my purpose to hold him liable, and to bring him to his just +responsibility, without delay. + + +FAITH IN THE PEOPLE + +BY JOHN BRIGHT + +Our opponents have charged us with being the promoters of a dangerous +excitement. They have the effrontery to say that I am the friend of +public disorder. I am one of the people. Surely, if there be one thing +in a free country more clear than another, it is, that any one of the +people may speak openly to the people. If I speak to the people of +their rights, and indicate to them the way to secure them,--if I speak +of their danger to the monopolists of power,--am I not a wise +counsellor, both to the people and to their rulers? + +Suppose I stood at the foot of Vesuvius, or Aetna, and, seeing a hamlet +or a homestead planted on its slope, I said to the dwellers in that +hamlet, or in that homestead, "You see that vapor which ascends from +the summit of the mountain. That vapor may become a dense, black smoke, +that will obscure the sky. You see the trickling of lava from the +crevices in the side of the mountain. That trickling of lava may become +a river of fire. You hear that muttering in the bowels of the mountain. +That muttering may become a bellowing thunder, the voice of violent +convulsion, that may shake half a continent. You know that at your feet +is the grave of great cities, for which there is no resurrection, as +histories tell us that dynasties and aristocracies have passed away, +and their names have been known no more forever." + +If I say this to the dwellers upon the slope of the mountain, and if +there comes hereafter a catastrophe which makes the world to shudder, +am I responsible for that catastrophe? I did not build the mountain, or +fill it with explosive materials. I merely warned the men that were in +danger. So, now, it is not I that am stimulating men to the violent +pursuit of their acknowledged constitutional rights. + +The class which has hitherto ruled in this country has failed +miserably. It revels in power and wealth, whilst at its feet, a +terrible peril for its future, lies the multitude which it has +neglected. If a class has failed, let us try the nation. + +That is our faith, that is our purpose, that is our cry. Let us try the +nation. This it is which has called together these countless numbers of +the people to demand a change; and from these gatherings, sublime in +their vastness and their resolution, I think I see, as it were, above +the hilltops of time, the glimmerings of the dawn of a better and a +nobler day for the country and the people that I love so well. + + +THE FRENCH AGAINST HAYTI + +From a lecture, "Toussaint L'Ouverture," with the permission of +Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, Boston, publishers + +BY WENDELL PHILLIPS + +You remember when Bonaparte returned from Elba, and Louis XVIII sent an +army against him, Bonaparte descended from his carriage, opened his +coat, offering his breast to their muskets, and saying, "Frenchmen, it +is the Emperor!" and they ranged themselves behind him, his soldiers +shouting, "Vive l'Empereur!" That was in 1815. Twelve years before, +Toussaint, finding that four of his regiments had deserted and gone to +Leclerc, drew his sword, flung it on the grass, went across the field +to them, folded his arms, and said, "Children, can you point a bayonet +at me?" The blacks fell on their knees, praying his pardon. It was +against such a man that Napoleon sent his army, giving to General +Leclerc, the husband of his beautiful sister Pauline, thirty thousand +of his best troops, with orders to reintroduce slavery. Among these +soldiers came all of Toussaint's old mulatto rivals and foes. + +Holland lent sixty ships. England promised by special message to be +neutral; and you know neutrality means sneering at freedom, and sending +arms to tyrants. England promised neutrality, and the black looked out +on the whole civilized world marshaled against him. America, full of +slaves, of course was hostile. Only the Yankee sold him poor muskets at +a very high price. Mounting his horse, and riding to the eastern end of +the island, Samana, he looked out on a sight such as no native had ever +seen before. Sixty ships of the line, crowded by the best soldiers of +Europe, rounded the point. They were soldiers who had never yet met an +equal, whose tread, like Cęsar's, had shaken Europe,--soldiers who had +scaled the Pyramids, and planted the French banners on the Walls of +Rome. He looked a moment, counted the flotilla, let the reins fall on +the neck of his horse, and turning to Christophe, exclaimed: "All +France is come to Hayti; they can only come to make us slaves; and we +are lost!" He then recognized the only mistake of his life,--his +confidence in Bonaparte, which had led him to disband his army. + +Returning to the hills, he issued the only proclamation which bears his +name and breathes vengeance: "My children, France comes to make us +slaves. God gave us liberty; France has no right to take it away. Burn +the cities, destroy the harvests, tear up the roads with cannon, poison +the wells, show the white man the hell he comes to make";--and he was +obeyed. When the great William of Orange saw Louis XIV cover Holland +with troops, he said, "Break down the dikes, give Holland back to +ocean"; and Europe said, "Sublime!" When Alexander saw the armies of +France descend upon Russia, he said, "Burn Moscow, starve back the +invaders"; and Europe said, "Sublime!" This black saw all Europe +marshaled to crush him, and gave to his people the same heroic example +of defiance. + + +THE NECESSITY OF FORCE + +From a speech in the United States Senate, March 24, 1898 + +BY JOHN M. THURSTON + +I counseled silence and moderation from this floor when the passion of +the nation seemed at white heat over the destruction of the +_Maine_; but it seems to me the time for action has now come. No +greater reason for it can exist to-morrow than exists to-day. Every +hour's delay only adds another chapter to the awful story of misery and +death. Only one power can intervene--the United States of America. Ours +is the one great nation of the New World, the mother of American +republics. She holds a position of trust and responsibility toward the +peoples and affairs of the whole Western Hemisphere. It was her +glorious example which inspired the patriots of Cuba to raise the flag +of liberty in her eternal hills. We cannot refuse to accept this +responsibility which the God of the universe has placed upon us as the +one great power in the New World. We must act! What shall our action +be? Some say, The acknowledgment of the belligerency of the +revolutionists. The hour and the opportunity for that have passed away. +Others say, Let us by resolution or official proclamation recognize the +independence of the Cubans. It is too late for even such recognition to +be of great avail. Others say, Annexation to the United States. God +forbid! I would oppose annexation with my latest breath. The people of +Cuba are not our people; they cannot assimilate with us; and beyond all +that, I am utterly and unalterably opposed to any departure from the +declared policy of the fathers, which would start this republic for the +first time upon a career of conquest and dominion utterly at variance +with the avowed purposes and the manifest destiny of popular +government. + +There is only one action possible, if any is taken; that is, +intervention for the independence of the island. We cannot intervene +and save Cuba without the exercise of force, and force means war; war +means blood. The lowly Nazarene on the shores of Galilee preached the +divine doctrine of love, "Peace on earth, good will toward men." Not +peace on earth at the expense of liberty and humanity. Not good will +toward men who despoil, enslave, degrade, and starve to death their +fellow-men. I believe in the doctrine of Christ. I believe in the +doctrine of peace; but men must have liberty before there can come +abiding peace. When has a battle for humanity and liberty ever been won +except by force? What barricade of wrong, injustice, and oppression has +ever been carried except by force? + +Force compelled the signature of unwilling royalty to the great Magna +Charta; force put life into the Declaration of Independence and made +effective the Emancipation Proclamation; force waved the flag of +revolution over Bunker Hill and marked the snows of Valley Forge with +bloodstained feet; force held the broken line of Shiloh, climbed the +flame-swept hill at Chattanooga, and stormed the clouds on Lookout +Heights; force marched with Sherman to the sea, rode with Sheridan in +the Valley of the Shenandoah, and gave Grant victory at Appomattox; +force saved the Union, kept the stars in the flag, made "niggers" men. +The time for God's force has come again. Let the impassioned lips of +American patriots once more take up the song:-- + + In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, + With a glory in His bosom that transfigured you and me. + As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + For God is marching on. + +Others may hesitate, others may procrastinate, others may plead for +further diplomatic negotiation, which means delay, but for me, I am +ready to act now, and for my action, I am ready to answer to my +conscience, my country, and my God. + + +AGAINST WAR WITH MEXICO + +From a speech to the United States Senate, February 11, 1847 + +BY THOMAS CORWIN + +The President has said he does not expect to hold Mexican territory by +conquest. Why, then, conquer it? Why waste thousands of lives and +millions of money fortifying towns and creating governments, if, at the +end of the war, you retire from the graves of your soldiers and the +desolated country of your foes, only to get money from Mexico for the +expense of all your toil and sacrifice? Who ever heard, since +Christianity was propagated among men, of a nation taxing its people, +enlisting its young men, and marching off two thousand miles to fight a +people merely to be paid for it in money? What is this but hunting a +market for blood, selling the lives of your young men, marching them in +regiments to be slaughtered and paid for like oxen and brute beasts? + +Sir, this is, when stripped naked, that atrocious idea first +promulgated in the President's message, and now advocated here, of +fighting on till we can get our indemnity for the past as well as the +present slaughter. We have chastised Mexico, and if it were worth while +to do so, we have, I dare say, satisfied the world that we can fight. + +Sir, I have read in some account of your Battle of Monterey, of a +lovely Mexican girl, who, with the benevolence of an angel in her bosom +and the robust courage of a hero in her heart, was busily engaged +during the bloody conflict, amid the crash of falling houses, the +groans of the dying, and the wild shriek of battle, in carrying water +to slake the burning thirst of the wounded of either host. While +bending over a wounded American soldier, a cannonball struck her and +blew her to atoms! Sir, I do not charge my brave, generous-hearted +countrymen who fought that fight with this. No, no! We who send them-- +we who know what scenes like this, which might send tears of sorrow +"down Pluto's iron cheek," are the invariable, inevitable attendants on +war--we are accountable for this. And this--this is the way we are to +be made known to Europe. This--this is to be the undying renown of +free, republican America! "She has stormed a city--killed many of its +inhabitants of both sexes--she has room"! So it will read. Sir, if this +were our only history, then may God of His mercy grant that its volume +may speedily come to a close. + +Why is it, sir, that we, the United States, a people of yesterday +compared with the older nations of the world, should be waging war for +territory--for "room?" Look at your country, extending from the +Alleghany Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, capable itself of sustaining +in comfort a larger population than will be in the whole Union for one +hundred years to come. Over this vast expanse of territory your +population is now so sparse that I believe we provided, at the last +session, a regiment of mounted men to guard the mail from the frontier +of Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia; and yet you persist in the +ridiculous assertion, "I want room." One would imagine, from the +frequent reiteration of the complaint, that you had a bursting, teeming +population, whose energy was paralyzed, whose enterprise was crushed, +for want of space. Why should we be so weak or wicked as to offer this +idle apology for ravaging a neighboring Republic? It will impose on no +one at home or abroad. + +Do we not know, Mr. President, that it is a law never to be repealed +that falsehood shall be short-lived? Was it not ordained of old that +truth only shall abide for ever? Whatever we may say to-day, or +whatever we may write in our books, the stern tribunal of history will +review it all, detect falsehood, and bring us to judgment before that +posterity which shall bless or curse us, as we may act now, wisely or +otherwise. We may hide in the grave (which awaits us all) in vain; we +may hope there, like the foolish bird that hides its head in the sand, +in the vain belief that its body is not seen; yet even there this +preposterous excuse of want of "room" shall be laid bare and the quick- +coming future will decide that it was a hypocritical pretense under +which we sought to conceal the avarice which prompted us to covet and +to seize by force that which was not ours. + + +THE MURDER OF LOVEJOY + +From "Speeches and Lectures," with the permission of Lothrop, Lee and +Shepard, Boston, publishers. + +BY WENDELL PHILLIPS + +Mr. Chairman: We have met for the freest discussion of these +resolutions, and the events which gave rise to them. I hope I shall be +permitted to express my surprise at the sentiments of the last +speaker,--surprise not only at such sentiments from such a man, but at +the applause they have received within these walls. A comparison has +been drawn between the events of the Revolution and the tragedy at +Alton. We have heard it asserted here, in Faneuil Hall, that Great +Britain had a right to tax the Colonies, and we have heard the mob at +Alton, the drunken murderers of Lovejoy, compared to those patriot +fathers who threw the tea overboard! Fellow citizens, is this Faneuil +Hall doctrine? The mob at Alton were met to wrest from a citizen his +just rights,--met to resist the laws. We have been told that our +fathers did the same; and the glorious mantle of Revolutionary +precedent has been thrown over the mobs of our day. To make out their +title to such defense, the gentleman says that the British Parliament +had a _right_ to tax these colonies. It is manifest that, without +this, his parallel falls to the ground; for Lovejoy had stationed +himself within constitutional bulwarks. He was not only defending the +freedom of the press, but he was under his own roof, in arms with the +sanction of the civil authority. The men who assailed him went against +and over the laws. The _mob_, as the gentleman terms it,--mob, +forsooth! certainly we sons of the tea-spillers are a marvelously +patient generation!--the "orderly mob" which assembled in the Old South +to destroy the tea were met to resist, not the laws, but illegal +exactions. Shame on the American who calls the tea tax and stamp act +_laws!_ Our fathers resisted, not the King's prerogative, but the +King's usurpation. To find any other account, you must read our +Revolutionary history upside down. Our state archives are loaded with +arguments of John Adams to prove the taxes laid by the British +Parliament unconstitutional,--beyond its power. It was not till this +was made out that the men of New England rushed to arms. The arguments +of the Council Chamber and the House of Representatives preceded and +sanctioned the contest. To draw the conduct of our ancestors into a +precedent for mobs, for a right to resist laws we ourselves have +enacted, is an insult to their memory. The difference between the +excitements of those days and our own, which the gentleman in kindness +to the latter has overlooked, is simply this: the man of that day went +for the right, as secured by the laws. They were the people rising to +sustain the laws and constitution of the Province. The rioters of our +day go for their own wills, right or wrong. Sir, when I heard the +gentleman lay down principles which place the murderers of Alton side +by side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought those +pictured lips [pointing to the portraits in the Hall] would have broken +into voice to rebuke the recreant American,--the slanderer of the dead. +The gentleman said that he should sink into insignificance if he dared +to gainsay the principles of these resolutions. Sir, for the sentiments +he has uttered, on soil consecrated by the prayers of Puritans and the +blood of patriots, the earth should have yawned and swallowed him up. + +I am glad, Sir, to see this crowded house. It is good for us to be +here. When Liberty is in danger, Faneuil Hall has the right, it is her +duty, to strike the keynote for these United States. + + + + +DEPICTING CHARACTER + + +A TALE OF THE PLAINS + +From "Hunting the Grizzly," with the permission of G. P. Putnam's +Sons, New York and London, publishers. + +BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +One of my valued friends in the mountains, and one of the best hunters +with whom I ever traveled, was a man who had a peculiarly light-hearted +way of looking at conventional social obligations. Though in some ways +a true backwoods Donatello, he was a man of much shrewdness and of +great courage and resolution. Moreover, he possessed what only a few +men do possess, the capacity to tell the truth. He saw facts as they +were, and could tell them as they were, and he never told an untruth +unless for very weighty reasons. He was preeminently a philosopher, of +a happy, skeptical turn of mind. He had no prejudices. + +On one occasion when we were out together we killed a bear, and after +skinning it, took a bath in a lake. I noticed he had a scar on the side +of his foot, and asked him how he got it, to which he responded, with +indifference:-- + +"Oh, that? Why, a man shoo tin' at me to make me dance, that was all." + +I expressed some curiosity in the matter, and he went on: + +"Well, the way of it was this: It was when I was keeping a saloon in +New Mexico, and there was a man there by the name of Fowler, and there +was a reward on him of three thousand dollars--" + +"Put on him by the State?" + +"No, put on by his wife," said my friend; "and there was this--" + +"Hold on," I interrupted; "put on by his wife, did you say?" + +"Yes, by his wife. Him and her had been keepin' a faro bank, you see, +and they quarreled about it, so she just put a reward on him, and so--" + +"Excuse me," I said, "but do you mean to say that this reward was put +on publicly?" to which my friend answered with an air of gentlemanly +boredom at being interrupted to gratify my thirst for irrelevant +detail:-- + +"Oh, no, not publicly. She just mentioned it to six or eight intimate +personal friends." + +"Go on," I responded, somewhat overcome by this instance of the +primitive simplicity with which New Mexican matrimonial disputes were +managed, and he continued:-- + +"Well, two men come ridin' in to see me to borrow my guns. My guns was +Colt's self-cockers. It was a new thing then, and they was the only +ones in town. These come to me, and 'Simpson,' says they, 'we want to +borrow your guns; we are goin' to kill Fowler.' + +"'Hold on for a moment,' said I, 'I am willin' to lend you them guns, +but I ain't goin' to know what you'r' goin' to do with them, no, sir; +but of course you can have the guns.'" Here my friend's face lightened +pleasantly, and he continued:-- + +"Well, you may easily believe I felt surprised next day when Fowler +come ridin' in, and, says he, 'Simpson, here's your guns!' He had shot +them two men! 'Well, Fowler,' says I, 'if I had known them men was +after you, I'd never have let them have the guns nohow,' says I. That +wasn't true, for I did know it, but there was no cause to tell him +that." + +I murmured my approval of such prudence, and Simpson continued, his +eyes gradually brightening with the light of agreeable reminiscence:-- + +"Well, they up and they took Fowler before the justice of peace. The +justice of the peace was a Turk." + +"Now, Simpson, what do you mean by that?" I interrupted. + +"Well, he come from Turkey," said Simpson, and I again sank back, +wondering briefly what particular variety of Mediterranean outcast had +drifted down to Mexico to be made a justice of the peace. Simpson +laughed and continued: "That Fowler was a funny fellow. The Turk, he +committed Fowler, and Fowler, he riz up and knocked him down and +tromped all over him and made him let him go!" + +"That was an appeal to a higher law," I observed. Simpson assented +cheerily, and continued:-- + +"Well, that Turk, he got nervous for fear Fowler was goin' to kill him, +and so he comes to me and offers me twenty-five dollars a day to +protect him from Fowler; and I went to Fowler, and 'Fowler,' says I, +'that Turk's offered me twenty-five dollars a day to protect him from +you. Now, I ain't goin' to get shot for no twenty-five dollars a day, +and if you are goin' to kill the Turk, just say so and go and do it; +but if you ain't goin' to kill the Turk, there's no reason why I +shouldn't earn that twenty-five dollars a day!' and Fowler, says he, 'I +ain't goin' to touch the Turk; you just go right ahead and protect +him.'" + +So Simpson "protected" the Turk from the imaginary danger of Fowler, +for about a week, at twenty-five dollars a day. + +Then one evening he happened to go out and meet Fowler, "and," said he, +"the moment I saw him I know he felt mean, for he begun to shoot at my +feet," which certainly did seem to offer presumptive evidence of +meanness. Simpson continued:-- + +"I didn't have no gun, so I just had to stand there and take it until +something distracted his attention, and I went off home to get my gun +and kill him, but I wanted to do it perfectly lawful; so I went up to +the mayor (he was playin' poker with one of the judges), and says I to +him, 'Mr. Mayor,' says I, 'I am goin' to shoot Fowler.' And the mayor +he riz out of his chair and he took me by the hand, and says he, 'Mr. +Simpson, if you do I will stand by you'; and the judge he says, 'I'll +go on your bond.'" + +Fortified by this cordial approval of the executive and judicial +branches of the government, Mr. Simpson started on his quest. +Meanwhile, however, Fowler had cut up another prominent citizen, and +they already had him in jail. The friends of law and order, feeling +some little distrust as to the permanency of their own zeal for +righteousness, thought it best to settle the matter before there was +time for cooling, and accordingly, headed by Simpson, the mayor, the +judge, the Turk, and other prominent citizens of the town, they broke +into the jail and hanged Fowler. The point in the hanging which +especially tickled my friend's fancy as he lingered over the +reminiscence was one that was rather too ghastly to appeal to our own +sense of humor. In the Turk's mind there still rankled the memory of +Fowler's very unprofessional conduct while figuring before him as a +criminal. Said Simpson, with a merry twinkle of the eye: "Do you know, +that Turk, he was a right funny fellow too after all. Just as the boys +were going to string up Fowler, says he, 'Boys, stop; one moment, +gentlemen,--Mr. Fowler, good-by,' and he blew a kiss to him!" + + +GUNGA DIN + +From "Departmental Ditties," with the permission of A. P. Watt and +Son, London, and Doubleday, Page and Company, New York. + +BY RUDYARD KIPLING + + You may talk o' gin and beer + When you're quartered safe out 'ere, +An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it; + But when it comes to slaughter + You will do your work on water, +An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it. + Now in Injia's sunny clime, + Where I used to spend my time +A-servin' of 'Er Majesty the Queen, + Of all them blackfaced crew + The finest man I knew +Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din. + He was "Din! Din! Din! +You limping lump o' brick-dust, Gunga Din! + Hi! slippery hitherao! + Water, get it! Panee lao! [Footnote: Bring water swiftly.] +You squidgy-nosed old idol, Gunga Din." + + The uniform 'e wore + Was nothin' much before, +An' rather less than 'arf o' that be'ind, + For a piece o' twisty rag + An' a goatskin water-bag +Was all the field-equipment 'e could find. + When the sweatin' troop-train lay + In a sidin' through the day, +Where the 'eat would make your bloomin' eyebrows crawl, + We shouted "Harry By!" [Footnote: O Brother] + Till our throats were bricky-dry, +Then we wopped 'im 'cause 'e couldn't serve us all. + It was "Din! Din! Din! + You 'eathen, where the mischief 'ave you been? + You put some juldee in it + Or I'll marrow you this minute, [Footnote: Hit you] +If you don't fill up my helmet, Gunga Din!" + + 'E would dot an' carry one + Till the longest day was done; +An' 'e didn't seem to know the use o' fear. + If we charged or broke or cut, + You could bet your bloomin' nut, +'E'd be waitin' fifty paces right flank rear. + With 'is mussick [Footnote: Water skin] on 'is back, + 'E would skip with our attack, +An' watch us till the bugles made "Retire," + An' for all 'is dirty 'ide + 'E was white, clear white, inside +When 'e went to tend the wounded under fire! + It was "Din! Din! Din!" +With the bullets kickin' dust-spots on the green. + When the cartridges ran out, + You could hear the front-files shout, +"Hi! ammunition-mules an' Gunga Din!" + + I sha'n't forgit the night + When I dropped be'ind the fight +With a bullet where my belt-plate should 'a' been. + I was chokin' mad with thirst, + An' the man that spied me first +Was our good old grinnin', gruntin' Gunga Din. + 'E lifted up my 'ead, + An' he plugged me where I bled, +An' 'e guv me 'arf-a-pint o' water-green: + It was crawlin' and it stunk, + But of all the drinks I've drunk, +I'm gratefullest to one from Gunga Din. + It was "Din! Din! Din!" +'Ere's a beggar with a bullet through 'is spleen; + 'E's chawin' up the ground, + An' 'e's kickin' all around: +"For Gawd's sake git the water, Gunga Din!" + + 'E carried me away + To where a dooli lay, +An' a bullet come an' drilled the beggar clean. + 'E put me safe inside, + An' just before 'e died: +"I 'ope you liked your drink," sez Gunga Din. + So I'll meet 'im later on + At the place where 'e is gone-- +Where it's always double drill and no canteen; + 'E'll be squattin' on the coals, +Givin' drink to poor damned souls, +An' I'll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din! + Yes, Din! Din! Din! +You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din! + Though I've belted you and flayed you, + By the living Gawd that made you, +You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din! + + +ADDRESS OF SERGEANT BUZFUZ + +From "The Pickwick Papers" + +BY CHARLES DICKENS + +Sergeant Buzfuz rose with all the majesty and dignity which the grave +nature of the proceedings demanded, and having whispered to Dodson, and +conferred briefly with Fogg, pulled his gown over his shoulders, +settled his wig, and addressed the jury. + +Sergeant Buzfuz began by saying that never, in the whole course of his +professional experience,--never, from the very first moment of his +applying himself to the study and practice of the law, had he +approached a case with such a heavy sense of the responsibility imposed +upon him,--a responsibility he could never have supported, were he not +buoyed up and sustained by a conviction, so strong that it amounted to +positive certainty, that the cause of truth and justice, or, in other +words, the cause of his much-injured and most oppressed client, +_must_ prevail with the high-minded and intelligent dozen of men +whom he now saw in that box before him. + +Counsel always begin in this way, because it puts the jury on the best +terms with themselves, and makes them think what sharp fellows they +must be. A visible effect was produced immediately; several jurymen +beginning to take voluminous notes. + +"The plaintiff is a widow; yes, gentlemen, a widow. The late Mr. +Bardell, after enjoying, for many years, the esteem and confidence of +his sovereign, as one of the guardians of his royal revenues, glided +almost imperceptibly from the world, to seek elsewhere for that repose +and peace which a custom-house can never afford." + +This was a pathetic description of the decease of Mr. Bardell, who had +been knocked on the head with a quart-pot in a public-house cellar. + +"Of this man Pickwick I will say little; the subject presents but few +attractions; and I, gentlemen, am not the man, nor are you, gentlemen, +the men, to delight in the contemplation of revolting heartlessness and +of systematic villainy." + +Here Mr. Pickwick, who had been writhing in silence, gave a violent +start, as if some vague idea of assaulting Sergeant Buzfuz, in the +august presence of justice and law, suggested itself to his mind. + +"I say systematic villainy, gentlemen," said Sergeant Buzfuz, looking +through Mr. Pickwick, and talking _at_ him, "and when I say +systematic villainy, let me tell the defendant, Pickwick,--if he be in +court, as I am informed he is,--that it would have been more decent in +him, more becoming, in better judgment, and in better taste, if he had +stopped away. + +"I shall show you, gentlemen, that for two years Pickwick continued to +reside without interruption or intermission at Mrs. Bardell's house. I +shall show you that, on many occasions, he gave halfpence, and on some +occasions even sixpences, to her little boy; and I shall prove to you, +by a witness whose testimony it will be impossible for my learned +friend to weaken or controvert, that on one occasion he patted the boy +on the head, and, after inquiring whether he had won any _alley +tors_ or _commoneys_ lately (both of which I understand to be a +particular species of marbles much prized by the youth of this town), +made use of this remarkable expression: 'How should you like to have +another father?' I shall prove to you, gentlemen, on the testimony of +three of his own friends,--most unwilling witnesses, gentlemen,--most +unwilling witnesses,--that on that morning he was discovered by them +holding the plaintiff in his arms, and soothing her agitation by his +caresses and endearments. + +"And now, gentlemen, but one word more. Two letters have passed between +these parties,--letters which are admitted to be in the handwriting of +the defendant. Let me read the first:--'Garraway's, twelve o'clock. +Dear Mrs. B.--Chops and Tomato sauce. Yours, Pickwick.' Gentlemen, what +does this mean? Chops! Gracious heavens! and Tomato sauce! Gentlemen, +is the happiness of a sensitive and confiding female to be trifled away +by such shallow artifices as these? The next has no date whatever, +which is in itself suspicious. 'Dear Mrs. B., I shall not be at home +till to-morrow. Slow coach.' And then follows this very remarkable +expression. 'Don't trouble yourself about the warming-pan.' Why, +gentlemen, who _does_ trouble himself about a warming-pan? Why is +Mrs. Bardell so earnestly entreated not to agitate herself about this +warming-pan, unless it is, as I assert it to be, a mere cover for +hidden fire,--a mere substitute for some endearing word or promise, +agreeably to a preconcerted system of correspondence, artfully +contrived by Pickwick with a view to his contemplated desertion, and +which I am not in a condition to explain? + +"Enough of this. My client's hopes and prospects are ruined. But +Pickwick, gentlemen,--Pickwick, the ruthless destroyer of this domestic +oasis in the desert of Goswell Street,--Pickwick, who has choked up the +well, and thrown ashes on the sward,--Pickwick, who comes before you +to-day with his heartless Tomato sauce and warming-pans,--Pickwick +still rears his head with unblushing effrontery, and gazes without a +sigh on the ruin he has made. Damages, gentlemen, heavy damages, are +the only punishment with which you can visit him, the only recompense +you can award to my client. And for those damages she now appeals to an +enlightened, a high-minded, a right-feeling, a conscientious, a +dispassionate, a sympathizing, a contemplative jury of her civilized +countrymen." + + +A NATURAL PHILOSOPHER + +BY MACCABE + +Ladies and Gentlemen: I see so many foine-lookin' people sittin' before +me that if you'll excuse me I'll be after takin' a seat meself. You +don't know me, I'm thinking, as some of yees 'ud be noddin' to me afore +this. I'm a walkin' pedestrian, a travelin' philosopher. Terry +O'Mulligan's me name. I'm from Dublin, where many philosophers before +me was raised and bred. Oh, philosophy is a foine study! I don't know +anything about it, but it's a foine study! Before I kirn over I +attended an important meetin' of philosophers in Dublin, and the +discussin' and talkin' you'd hear there about the world 'ud warm the +very heart of Socrates or Aristotle himself. Well, there was a great +many _imminent_ and learned _min_ there at the meetin', and I +was there too, and while we was in the very thickest of a heated +argument, one comes to me and says he, "Do you know what we're talkin' +about?" "I do," says I, "but I don't understand yees." "Could ye +explain the sun's motion around the earth?" says he. "I could," says I, +"but I'd not know could you understand or not." "Well," says he, "we'll +see," says he. Sure'n I didn't know anything, how to get out of it +then, so I piled in, "for," says I to myself, "never let on to any one +that you don't know anything, but make them believe that you do know +all about it." So says I to him, takin' up me shillalah this way +(holding a very crooked stick perpendicular), "We'll take that for the +straight line of the earth's equator"--how's that for gehography? (to +the audience). Ah, that was straight till the other day I bent it in an +argument. "Wery good," says he. "Well," says I, "now the sun rises in +the east" (placing the disengaged hand at the eastern end of the +stick). Well, he couldn't deny that. "And when he gets up he + + Darts his rosy beams + Through the mornin' gleams." + +Do you moind the poetry there? (to the audience with a smile). "And he +keeps on risin' and risin' till he reaches his meriden." "What's that?" +says he. "His dinner-toime," says I; "sure'n that's my Latin for +dinner-toime, and when he gets his dinner + + He sinks to rest + Behind the glorious hills of the west." + +Oh, begorra, there's more poetry! I fail it creepin' out all over me. +"There," says I, well satisfied with myself, "will that do for ye?" +"You haven't got done with him yet," says he. "Done with him," says I, +kinder mad like; "what more do you want me to do with him? Didn't I +bring him from the east to the west? What more do you want?" "Oh," says +he, "you'll have to bring him back again to the east to rise next +mornin'." By Saint Patrick! and wasn't I near betrayin' me ignorance, +Sure'n I thought there was a large family of suns, and they rise one +after the other. But I gathered meself quick, and, says I to him, +"Well," says I, "I'm surprised you axed me that simple question. I +thought any man 'ud know," says I, "when the sun sinks to rest in the +west--when the sun--" says I. "You said that before," says he. "Well, I +want to press it stronger upon you," says I. "When the sun sinks to +rest in the east--no--west, why he--why he waits till it grows dark, +and then he goes _back in the noight toime_!" + + +RESPONSE TO A TOAST + +From "A Charity Dinner" + +BY LITCHFIELD MOSELEY + +"Milors and Gentlemans!" commences the Frenchman, elevating his +eyebrows and shrugging his shoulders. "Milors and Gentlemans--You +excellent chairman, M. le Baron de Mount-Stuart, he have say to me, +'Make de toast.' Den I say to him dat I have no toast to make; but he +nudge my elbow ver soft, and say dat dere is von toast dat nobody but +von Frenchman can make proper; and, derefore, wid your kind permission, +I vill make de toast. 'De brevete is de sole of de feet,' as you great +philosophere, Dr. Johnson, do say, in dat amusing little vork of his, +de Pronouncing Dictionnaire; and, derefore, I vill not say ver moch to +de point. Ven I vas a boy, about so moch tall, and used for to +promenade de streets of Marseilles et of Rouen, vid no feet to put onto +my shoe, I nevare to have expose dat dis day vould to have arrive. I +vas to begin de vorld as von garēon--or, vat you call in dis countrie, +von vaitaire in a café--vere I vork ver hard, vid no habillemens at all +to put onto myself, and ver little food to eat, excep' von old blue +blouse vat vas give to me by de proprietaire, just for to keep myself +fit to be showed at; but, tank goodness, tings dey have change ver moch +for me since dat time, and I have rose myself, seulement par mon +industrie et perseverance. Ah! mes amis! ven I hear to myself de +flowing speech, de oration magnifique of you Lor' Maire, Monsieur +Gobbledown, I feel dat it is von great privilege for von étrangé to sit +at de same table, and to eat de same food, as dat grand, dat majestique +man, who are de terreur of de voleurs and de brigands of de metropolis; +and who is also, I for to suppose, a halterman and de chef of you +common scoundrel. Milors and gentlemans, I feel dat I can perspire to +no greatare honneur dan to be von common scoundrelman myself; but, +hélas! dat plaisir are not for me, as I are not freeman of your great +cité, not von liveryman servant of von of you compagnies joint-stock. +But I must not forget de toast. Milors and Gentlemans! De immortal +Shakispeare he have write, 'De ting of beauty are de joy for +nevermore.' It is de ladies who are de toast. Vat is more entrancing +dan de charmante smile, de soft voice, der vinking eye of de beautiful +lady! It is de ladies who do sweeten de cares of life. It is de ladies +who are de guiding stars of our existence. It is de ladies who do cheer +but not inebriate, and, derefore, vid all homage to de dear sex, de +toast dat I have to propose is, "De Ladies! God bless dem all!" + + +PARTRIDGE AT THE PLAY + +From "Tom Jones" + +BY HENRY FIELDING + +In the first row of the first gallery did Mr. Jones, Mrs. Miller, her +youngest daughter, and Partridge, take their places. Partridge +immediately declared it was the finest place he had ever been in. When +the first music was played, he said, "It was a wonder how so many +fiddlers could play at one time, without putting one another out." +While the fellow was lighting the upper candles, he cried out to Mrs. +Miller, "Look, look, madam, the very picture of the man in the end of +the common-prayer book before the gunpowder-treason service." Nor could +he help observing, with a sigh, when all the candles were lighted, +"That here were candles enough burnt in one night, to keep an honest +poor family for a whole twelvemonth." + +As soon as the play, which was Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, began, +Partridge was all attention, nor did he break silence till the entrance +of the ghost; upon which he asked Jones, "What man that was in the +strange dress; something," said he, "like what I have seen in a +picture. Sure it is not armor, is it?" Jones answered, "That is the +ghost." To which Partridge replied with a smile, "Persuade me to that, +sir, if you can. ... No, no, sir, ghosts don't appear in such dresses +as that, neither." In this mistake, which caused much laughter in the +neighborhood of Partridge, he was suffered to continue, till the scene +between the ghost and Hamlet, when Partridge gave that credit to Mr. +Garrick, which he had denied to Jones, and fell into so violent a +trembling, that his knees knocked against each other. Jones asked him +what was the matter, and whether he was afraid of the warrior upon the +stage? "O la! sir," said he, "I perceive now it is what you told me. ... +Nay, you may call me coward if you will; but if that little man +there upon the stage is not frightened, I never saw any man frightened +in my life. Ay, ay: go along with you: Ay, to be sure! Who's fool then? +Will you? Lud have mercy upon such foolhardiness!--Whatever happens, +it is good enough for you.--Follow you? I'd follow the devil as soon. +Nay, perhaps it is the devil--for they say he can put on what likeness +he pleases.--Oh! here he is again.--No farther! No, you have gone far +enough already; farther than I'd have gone for all the king's +dominions." Jones offered to speak, but Partridge cried, "Hush, hush! +dear sir, don't you hear him?" And during the whole speech of the +ghost, he sat with his eyes fixed partly on the ghost and partly on +Hamlet, and with his mouth open; the same passions which succeeded each +other in Hamlet, succeeding likewise in him. + +During the second act, Partridge made very few remarks. He greatly +admired the fineness of the dresses; nor could he help observing upon +the king's countenance. "Well," said he, "how people may be deceived by +faces! _Nulla fides fronti_ is, I find, a true saying. Who would +think, by looking into the king's face, that he had ever committed a +murder?" He then inquired after the ghost; but Jones, who intended he +should be surprised, gave him no other satisfaction than "that he might +possibly see him again soon, and in a flash of fire." + +Partridge sat in a fearful expectation of this; and now, when the ghost +made his next appearance, Partridge cried out, "There, sir, now; what +say you now? is he frightened now or no? As much frightened as you +think me, and, to be sure, nobody can help some fears. I would not be +in so bad a condition as what's his name, squire Hamlet, is there, for +all the world. Bless me! what's become of the spirit! As I am a living +soul, I thought I saw him sink into the earth." "Indeed, you saw +right," answered Jones, "Well, well," cries Partridge, "I know it is +only a play: and besides, if there was any thing in all this, Madam +Miller would not laugh so; for as to you, sir, you would not be afraid, +I believe, if the devil was here in person.--There, there--Aye, no +wonder you are in such a passion; shake the vile wicked wretch to +pieces. If she was my own mother, I would serve her so. To be sure all +duty to a mother is forfeited by such wicked doings.--Aye, go about +your business, I hate the sight of you." + +Little more worth remembering occurred during the play, at the end of +which Jones asked him which of the players he had liked best? To this +he answered, with some appearance of indignation at the question, "The +king, without doubt." "Indeed, Mr. Partridge," says Mrs. Miller, "you +are not of the same opinion with the town; for they are all agreed, +that Hamlet is acted by the best player who ever was on the stage." "He +the best player!" cries Partridge, with a contemptuous sneer, "why, I +could act as well as he myself. I am sure, if I had seen a ghost, I +should have looked in the very same manner, and done just as ne did. +And then, to be sure, in that scene, as you called it, between him and +his mother, where you told me he acted so fine, why, Lord help me, any +man, that is, any good man, that had such a mother, would have done +exactly the same. I know you are only joking with me; but indeed, +madam, though I was never at a play in London, yet I have seen acting +before in the country; and the king for my money; he speaks all his +words distinctly, half as loud again as the other.--Anybody may see he +is an actor." + + +A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT + +BY ROBERT BURNS + +Is there for honest poverty + That hings his head, an' a' that? +The coward slave, we pass him by-- + We dare be poor for a' that. +For a' that, an' a' that, + Our toils obscure, an' a' that, +The rank is but the guinea's stamp, + The man's the gowd [Footnote: gold] for a' that! + +What tho' on hamely [Footnote: homely, plain] fare we dine, + Wear hoddin [Footnote: homespun] gray, an' a' that; +Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine-- + A man's a man, for a' that. +For a' that, an' a' that, + Their tinsel show, an' a' that, +The honest man, though e'er sae poor, + Is king o' men for a' that! + +Ye see yon birkie [Footnote: fellow], ca'd a lord, + Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that; +Tho' hundreds worship at his word, + He's but a coof [Footnote: fool (pronounce like German _o_ or + _oe_)] for a' that; +For a' that, an' a' that, + His riband, star, an' a' that; +The man of independent mind, + He looks an' laughs at a' that. + +A prince can mak a belted knight, + A marquis, duke, an' a' that; +But an honest man's aboon [Footnote: above] his might-- + Gude faith, he maunna fa' [Footnote: must not claim (to make the + honest man)] that! +For a' that, an' a' that, + Their dignities, an' a' that, +The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth, + Are higher ranks than a' that. + +Then let us pray that come it may, + As come it will for a' that, +That sense an' worth, o'er a' the earth, + Shall bear the gree, [Footnote: prize] an' a' that. +For a' that, an' a' that, + It's comin' yet, for a' that-- +That man to man, the warld o'er, + Shall brothers be for a' that. + + +ARTEMUS WARD'S LECTURE + +From "Complete Works of Artemus Ward" with the permission of the +G. W. Dillingham Company, New York, publishers. + +BY CHARLES FARRAR BROWN (ARTEMUS WARD) + +I don't expect to do great things here--but I have thought that if I +could make money enough to buy me a passage to New Zealand I should +feel that I had not lived in vain. I don't want to live in vain. I'd +rather live in Texas--or here. + +If you should be dissatisfied with anything here to-night--I will +admit you all free in New Zealand--if you will come to me there for the +orders. Any respectable cannibal will tell you where I live. This shows +that I have a forgiving spirit. + +I really don't care for money. I only travel round to see the world and +to exhibit my clothes. These clothes I have on have been a great +success in America. + +How often do large fortunes ruin young men! I should like to be ruined, +but I can get on very well as I am. + +I am not an Artist. I don't paint myself--though perhaps if I were a +middle-aged single lady I should--yet I have a passion for pictures.--I +have had a great many pictures--photographs--taken of myself. Some of +them are very pretty--rather sweet to look at for a short time--and as +I said before, I like them. I've always loved pictures. I could draw on +wood at a very tender age. When a mere child I once drew a small +cartload of raw turnips over a wooden bridge.--The people of the +village noticed me. I drew their attention. They said I had a future +before me. Up to that time I had an idea it was behind me. + +Time passed on. It always does, by the way. You may possibly have +noticed that Time passes on.--It is a kind of way Time has. + +I became a man. I haven't distinguished myself at all as an artist--but +I have always been more or less mixed up with art. I have an uncle who +takes photographs--and I have a servant who--takes anything he can get +his hands on. + +When I was in Rome--Rome in New York State, I mean--a distinguished +sculpist wanted to sculp me. But I said "No." I saw through the +designing man. My model once in his hands--he would have flooded the +market with my busts--and I couldn't stand it to see everybody going +round with a bust of me. Everybody would want one of course--and +wherever I should go I should meet the educated classes with my bust, +taking it home to their families. This would be more than my modesty +could stand--and I should have to return home--where my creditors are. + +I like art. I admire dramatic art--although I failed as an actor. + +It was in my schoolboy days that I failed as an actor.--The play was +"The Ruins of Pompeii."--I played the ruins. It was not a very +successful performance--but it was better than the "Burning Mountain." +He was not good. He was a bad Vesuvius. + +The remembrance often makes me ask--"Where are the boys of my youth?" I +assure you this is not a conundrum. Some are amongst you here--some in +America--some are in jail. + +Hence arises a most touching question--"Where are the girls of my +youth?" Some are married--some would like to be. + +Oh, my Maria! Alas! she married another. They frequently do. I hope she +is happy--because I am.--Some people are not happy. I have noticed +that. + +A gentleman friend of mine came to me one day with tears in his eyes. I +said, "Why these weeps?" He said he had a mortgage on his farm--and +wanted to borrow $200. I lent him the money--and he went away. Some +time afterward he returned with more tears. He said he must leave me +forever. I ventured to remind him of the $200 he borrowed. He was much +cut up. I thought I would not be hard upon him--so told him I would +throw off $100. He brightened--shook my hand--and said,--"Old friend-- +I won't allow you to outdo me in liberality--I'll throw off the other +hundred." + +I like Music.--I can't sing. As a singist I am not a success. I am +saddest when I sing. So are those who hear me. They are sadder even +than I am. + +I met a man in Oregon who hadn't any teeth--not a tooth in his head-- +yet that man could play on the bass drum better than any man I ever +met. He kept a hotel. They have queer hotels in Oregon. I remember one +where they gave me a bag of oats for a pillow--I had nightmares of +course. In the morning the landlord said,--"How do you feel--old hoss-- +hay?"--I told him I felt my oats. + +As a manager I was always rather more successful than as an actor. + +Some years ago I engaged a celebrated Living American Skeleton for a +tour through Australia. He was the thinnest man I ever saw. He was a +splendid skeleton. He didn't weigh anything scarcely--and I said to +myself--the people of Australia will flock to see this tremendous cu- +riosity. It is a long voyage--as you know--from New York to Melbourne-- +and to my utter surprise the skeleton had no sooner got out to sea than +he commenced eating in the most horrible manner. He had never been on +the ocean before--and he said it agreed with him--I thought so!--I +never saw a man eat so much in my life. Beef, mutton, pork--he +swallowed them all like a shark--and between meals he was often +discovered behind barrels eating hard-boiled eggs. The result was that, +when we reached Melbourne, this infamous skeleton weighed sixty-four +pounds more than I did! + +I thought I was ruined--but I wasn't. I took him on to California-- +another very long sea voyage--and when I got him to San Francisco I +exhibited him as a fat man. + +This story hasn't anything to do with my entertainment, I know--but one +of the principal features of my entertainment is that it contains so +many things that don't have anything to do with it. + + +JIM BLUDSO, OF THE PRAIRIE BELLE + +By permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin +Company, authorized publishers of this author's work. + +BY JOHN HAY + +Wall, no! I can't tell whar he lives, +Because he don't live, you see; +Leastways, he's got out of the habit +Of livin' like you and me. +Whar have you been for the last three year +That you haven't heard folks tell +How Jimmy Bludso passed in his checks +The night of the "Prairie Belle"? + +He weren't no saint,--them engineers +Is all pretty much alike,-- +One wife in Natchez-under-the-Hill +And another one here, in Pike; +A keerless man in his talk was Jim, +And an awkward hand in a row, +But he never flunked, and he never lied,-- +I reckon he never knowed how. + +And this was all the religion he had,-- +To treat his engine well; +Never be passed on the river; +To mind the pilot's bell; +And if ever the "Prairie Belle" took fire,-- +A thousand times he swore, +He'd hold her nozzle agin the bank +Till the last soul got ashore. + +All boats has their day on the Mississip, +And her day come at last,-- +The "Movastar" was a better boat, +But the "Belle" she _wouldn't_ be passed. +And so she come tearin' along that night-- +The oldest craft on the line-- +With a nigger squat on her safety valve, +And her furnace crammed, rosin and pine. + +The fire bust out as she cleared the bar, +And burnt a hole in the night, +And quick as a flash she turned, and made +For that willer-bank on the right. +There was runnin' and cursing but Jim yelled out, +Over all the infernal roar, +"I'll hold her nozzle agin the bank +Till the last galoot's ashore." + +Through the hot, black breath of the burnin' boat +Jim Bludso's voice was heard, +And they all had trust in his cussedness, +And knowed he would keep his word. +And, sure's you're born, they all got off +Afore the smokestacks fell,-- +And Bludso's ghost went up alone +In the smoke of the "Prairie Belle." + +He weren't no saint,--but at jedgment +I'd run my chance with Jim, +'Longside of some pious gentlemen +That wouldn't shake hands with him. +He seen his duty, a dead-sure thing,-- +And he went for it thar and then; +And Christ ain't agoing to be too hard +On a man that died for men. + + +THE TRIAL OF ABNER BARROW + +From "The Boy Orator of Zepata City" in "The Exiles and Other Stories." +Copyrighted, 1894, Harper and Brothers. Reprinted with permission. + +BY RICHARD HARDING DAVIS + +Abe Barrow had been closely associated with the early history of +Zepata; he had killed in his day several of the Zepata citizens. His +fight with Thompson had been a fair fight--as those said who remembered +it--and Thompson was a man they could well spare; but the case against +Barrow had been prepared by the new and youthful district attorney, and +the people were satisfied and grateful. + +Harry Harvey, "The Boy Orator of Zepata City," as he was called, turned +slowly on his heels, and swept the court room carelessly with a glance +of his clever black eyes. The moment was his. + +"This man," he said, and as he spoke even the wind in the corridors +hushed for the moment, "is no part or parcel of Zepata city of to-day. +He comes to us a relic of the past--a past that was full of hardships +and glorious efforts in the face of daily disappointments, +embitterments and rebuffs. But the part _this_ man played in that +past lives only in the court records of that day. This man, Abe Barrow, +enjoys, and has enjoyed, a reputation as a 'bad man,' a desperate and +brutal ruffian. Free him to-day, and you set a premium on such +reputations; acquit him of this crime, and you encourage others to like +evil. Let him go, and he will walk the streets with a swagger, and +boast that you were afraid to touch him--_afraid_, gentlemen--and +children and women will point after him as the man who has sent nine +others into eternity, and who yet walks the streets a free man. And he +will become, in the eyes of the young and the weak, a hero and a god. + +"For the last ten years, your honor, this man, Abner Barrow, has been +serving a term of imprisonment in the state penitentiary; I ask you to +send him back there again for the remainder of his life. Abe Barrow is +out of date. This Rip Van Winkle of the past returns to find a city +where he left a prairie town; a bank where he spun his roulette-wheel; +this magnificent courthouse instead of a vigilance committee! He is +there, in the prisoner's pen, a convicted murderer and an unconvicted +assassin, the last of his race,--the bullies and bad men of the +border,--a thing to be forgotten and put away forever from the sight of +men. And I ask you, gentlemen, to put him away where he will not hear +the voice of man nor children's laughter, nor see a woman's smile. Bury +him with the bitter past, with the lawlessness that has gone--that has +gone, thank God--and which must not return." + +The district attorney sat down suddenly, and was conscious of nothing +until the foreman pronounced the prisoner at the bar guilty of murder +in the second degree. + +Judge Truax leaned across his desk and said, simply, that it lay in his +power to sentence the prisoner to not less than two years' confinement +in the state penitentiary, or for the remainder of his life. + +"Before I deliver sentence on you, Abner Barrow," he said with an old +man's kind severity, "is there anything you have to say on your own +behalf?" + +Barrow's face was white with the prison tan, and pinched and hollow- +eyed and worn. When he spoke his voice had the huskiness which comes +from non-use, and cracked and broke like a child's. + +"I don't know, Judge," he said, "that I have anything to say in my own +behalf. I guess what the gentleman said about me is all there is to +say. I _am_ a back number, I _am_ out of date; I _was_ a loafer and a +blackguard. He told you I had no part or parcel in this city, or in +this world; that I belonged to the past; that I ought to be dead. Now +that's not so. I have just one thing that belongs to this city, and to +this world--and to me; one thing that I couldn't take to jail with me, +and I'll have to leave behind me when I go back to it. I mean my wife. +You, sir, remember her, sir, when I married her twelve years ago. She +gave up everything a woman ought to have, to come to me. She thought +she was going to be happy with me; that's why she come, I guess. Maybe +she was happy for about two weeks. After that first two weeks her life, +sir, was a hell, and I made it a hell. Respectable women wouldn't speak +to her because she was my wife--and she had no children. That was her +life. She lived alone over the dance-hall, and sometimes when I was +drunk--I beat her. + +"At the end of two years I killed Welsh, and they sent me to the pen +for ten years, and she was free. She could have gone back to her folks +and got a divorce if she'd wanted to, and never seen me again. It was +an escape most women'd gone down on their knees and thanked their Maker +for. + +"But what did this woman do--my wife, the woman I misused and beat and +dragged down in the mud with me? She was too mighty proud to go back to +her people, or to the friends who shook her when she was in trouble; +and she sold out the place, and bought a ranch with the money, and +worked it by herself, worked it day and night, until in ten years she +had made herself an old woman, as you see she is to-day. + +"And for what? To get _me_ free again; to bring _me_ things to eat in +jail, and picture papers, and tobacco--when she was living on bacon and +potatoes, and drinking alkali water--working to pay for a lawyer to +fight for _me_--to pay for the _best_ lawyer. + +"And what I want to ask of you, sir, is to let me have two years out of +jail to show her how I feel about it. It's all I've thought of when I +was in jail, to be able to see her sitting in her own kitchen with her +hands folded, and me working and sweating in the fields for her, +working till every bone ached, trying to make it up to her. + +"And I can't, I can't! It's too late! It's too late! Don't send me back +for life! Give me a few years to work for her--to show her what I feel +here, what I never felt for her before. Look at her, gentlemen, look +how worn she is, and poorly, and look at her hands, and you men must +feel how I feel--I don't ask you for myself. I don't want to go free on +my own account. My God! Judge, don't bury me alive, as that man asked +you to. Give me this last chance. Let me prove that what I'm saying is +true." + +Judge Truax looked at the papers on his desk for some seconds, and +raised his head, coughing as he did so. + +"It lies--it lies at the discretion of this Court to sentence the +prisoner to a term of imprisonment of two years, or for an indefinite +period, or for life. Owing to--on account of certain circumstances +which were--have arisen--this sentence is suspended. This Court stands +adjourned." + + + + +PART THREE + + +PLATFORM PRACTICE + +THE SPEECH OF FORMAL OCCASION + + +THE BENEFITS OF A COLLEGE EDUCATION + +From an address by the President to the students of Harvard University, +at the announcement of Academic Distinctions, 1909 + +BY ABBOTT LAWRENCE LOWELL + +This meeting is held not merely to honor the men who have won prizes, +attained high rank, or achieved distinction in studies. In a larger +sense it is a tribute paid by the University to the ideals of +scholarship. It is a public confession of faith in the aims for which +the University was established. We may, therefore, not inappropriately +consider here the nature and significance of scholarship. + +Without attempting an exhaustive catalogue of the benefits of +education, we may note three distinct objects of college study. The +first is the development of the mental powers with a view to their use +in any subsequent career. In its broadest sense this may be called +training for citizenship, for we must remember that good citizenship +does not consist exclusively in rendering public service in political +and philanthropic matters. It includes also conducting an industrial or +professional career so as not to leave the public welfare out of sight. + +Popular government is exacting. It implies that in some form every man +shall voluntarily consecrate a part of his time and force to the state, +and the better the citizen, the greater the effort he will make. On the +function of colleges in fitting men for citizenship and for active +work, much emphasis has been laid of late. Yet it is not the only aim +of college studies. Another object is cultivation of the mind, +refinement of taste, a development of the qualities that distinguish +the civilized man from the barbarian. Nor does the value of these +things lie in personal satisfaction alone. There is a culture that is +selfish and exclusive, that is self-centered and conceited. The +intellectual snob is quite as repellant as any other. But this is true +of the moral distortion of all good qualities. The culture that narrows +the sympathies, instead of enlarging them, has surely missed the object +that should give its chief worth and dignity. The culture that reveals +beauty in all its forms, that refines the sensibilities, and expands +the mental horizon, that, without a sense of superiority, desires to +share these things with others, and makes the lives of all men better +worth living, is like the glow of fire in a cold room. It is a form of +social service of a high order. + +A third benefit of college education is the contact it affords with the +work of creative imagination. The highest type of scholar is the +creative scholar, just as the highest type of citizen is the statesman. +The greatest figures in history, as almost every one will admit, are +the thinkers and the rulers of men. People will always differ in the +relative value they ascribe to these two supreme forms of human power. +But if one may indulge in apocalyptic visions, I should prefer in +another world to be worthy of the friendship of Aristotle rather than +of Alexander, of Shakespeare or Newton than of Napoleon or Frederick +the Great. + +When I spoke of the benefit of college life in training for +citizenship, and in imparting culture, I was obviously dealing with +things which lie within the reach of every student; but in speaking of +creative scholarship you may think that I am appealing only to the few +men who have the rare gift of creative genius. But happily the progress +of the world is not in the exclusive custody of the occasional men of +genius. Great originality is, indeed, rare; but on a smaller scale it +is not uncommon, and the same principles apply to the production of all +creative work. The great scholar and the lesser intellectual lights +differ in brilliancy, but the same process must be followed to bring +them to their highest splendor. Nor is it the genius alone, or even the +man of talent, who can enjoy and aid productive thought. It is not +given to all men to possess creative scholarship themselves; but most +men by following its footsteps can learn to respect it and feel its +charm; and for any man who passes through college without doing so, +college education has been in one of its most vital elements a failure. +If he has not recognized the glowing imagination, the lofty ideals, the +patience and the modesty, that characterize the true scholar, his time +here has been spent, not perhaps without profit, but without +inspiration. + +All productive work is largely dependent upon appreciation by the +community. The great painters of Italy would have been sterile had not +the citizens of Florence been eager to carry Cimabue's masterpiece in +triumph through the streets. Kant would never have written among a +people who despised philosophy; and the discoveries of our own day +would have been impossible in an unscientific age. Every man who has +learned to respect creative scholarship can enter into its spirit, and +by respecting it he helps to foster it. + + +WHAT THE COLLEGE GIVES + +From "Girls and Education," a commencement address, Bryn Mawr College, +1911, by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton +Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of this author's works. + +BY LE BARON RUSSELL BRIGGS + +One of the best gifts that a college can bestow is the power of taking +a new point of view through putting ourselves into another's place. To +many students this comes hard, but come it must, as they hope to be +saved. + +To the American world the name of Charles Eliot Norton stands for all +that is fastidious, even for what is over-fastidious; but Charles Eliot +Norton's collection of verse and prose called "The Heart of Oak Books" +shows a catholicity which few of his critics could approach, a refined +literary hospitality not less noteworthy than the refined human +hospitality of his Christmas Eve at Shady Hill. As an old man this +interpreter of Dante saw and hailed with delight the genius of Mr. +Kipling. If you leave college without catholicity of taste, something +is wrong either with the college or with you. + +As in literature, so in life. The greatest teachers--even Christ +himself--have taught nothing greater than the power of seeing with the +eyes of another soul. "Browning," said a woman who loves poetry, "seems +to me not so much man as God." For Browning, beyond all men in the past +century, beyond nearly all men of all time, could throw himself into +the person of another. + + "God be thanked, the meanest of his creatures + Boasts two soul-sides, one to face the world with, + One to show a woman when he loves her," + +said this same great poet, writing to his wife. But Browning has as +many soul-sides as humanity. Hence it has been truly called a new life, +like conversion, or marriage, or the mystery of a great sorrow,--a +change and a bracing change in our outlook on the whole world, to +discover Browning. The college should be our Browning, revealing the +motive power of every life, the poetry of good and bad. It is only the +"little folk of little soul" who come out of college as the initiated +members of an exclusive set. Justify yourself and your college years by +your catholic democracy. + +It is the duty of the college not to train only, but to inspire; to +inspire not to learning only, but to a disciplined appreciation of the +best in literature, in art, and in life, to a catholic taste, to a +universal sympathy. It is the duty of the student to take the +inspiration, to be not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but to +justify four years of delight, by scholarship at once accurate and +sympathetic, by a finer culture, by a leadership without self-seeking +or pride, by a whole-souled democracy. How simple and how old it all +is! Yet it is not so simple that any one man or woman has done it to +perfection; nor so old that any one part of it fails to offer fresh +problems and fresh stimulus to the most ambitious of you all. + +Nothing is harder than to take freely and eagerly the best that is +offered us, and never turn away to the pursuit of false gods. Now the +best that is offered in college is the inspiration to learn, and having +learned, to do:-- + + "Friends of the great, the high, the perilous years, + Upon the brink of mighty things we stand-- + Of golden harvests and of silver tears, + And griefs and pleasures that like grains of sand + Gleam in the hourglass, yield their place and die." + +So said the college poet. + +"Art without an ideal," said a great woman, "is neither nature nor art. +The question involves the whole difference between Phidias and Mme. +Tussaud." Let us never forget that the chief business of college +teachers and college taught is the giving and receiving of ideals, and +that the ideal is a burning and a shining light, not now only, or now +and a year or two more, but for all time. What else is the patriot's +love of country, the philosopher's love of truth, the poet's love of +beauty, the teacher's love of learning, the good man's love of an +honest life, than keeping the ideal, not merely to look at, but to see +by? In its light, and only in its light, the greatest things are done. +Thus the ideal is not merely the most beautiful thing in the world; it +is the source of all high efficiency. In every change, in every joy or +sorrow that the coming years may bring, do you who graduate to-day +remember that nothing is so practical as a noble ideal steadily and +bravely pursued, and that now, as of old, it is the wise men who see +and follow the guiding star. + + +MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS + +From "After-Dinner and Other Speeches," with the permission of the +author. + +BY JOHN D. LONG + +In memory of the dead, in honor of the living, for inspiration to our +children, we gather to-day to deck the graves of our patriots with +flowers, to pledge commonwealth and town and citizen to fresh +recognition of the surviving soldier, and to picture yet again the +romance, the reality, the glory, the sacrifice of his service. As if it +were but yesterday, you recall him. He had but turned twenty. The +exquisite tint of youthful health was in his cheek. His pure heart +shone from frank, outspeaking eyes. His fair hair clustered from +beneath his cap. He had pulled a stout oar in the college race, or +walked the most graceful athlete on the village green. He had just +entered on the vocation of his life. The doorway of his home at this +season of the year was brilliant in the dewy morn with the clambering +vine and fragrant flower, as in and out he went, the beloved of mother +and sisters, and the ideal of a New England youth:-- + + "In face and shoulders like a god he was; + For o'er him had the goddess breathed the charm + Of youthful locks, the ruddy glow of youth, + A generous gladness in his eyes: such grace + As carver's hand to ivory gives, or when + Silver or Parian stone in yellow gold + Is set." + +And when the drum beat, when the first martyr's blood sprinkled the +stones of Baltimore, he took his place in the ranks and went forward. +You remember his ingenuous and glowing letters to his mother, written +as if his pen were dipped in his very heart. How novel seemed to him +the routine of service, the life of camp and march! How eager the wish +to meet the enemy and strike his first blow for the good cause! What +pride at the promotion that came and put its chevron on his arm or its +strap upon his shoulder! + +They took him prisoner. He wasted in Libby and grew gaunt and haggard +with the horror of his sufferings and with pity for the greater horror +of the sufferings of his comrades who fainted and died at his side. He +tunneled the earth and escaped. Hungry and weak, in terror of +recapture, he followed by night the pathway of the railroad. He slept +in thickets and sank in swamps. He saw the glitter of horsemen who +pursued him. He knew the bloodhound was on his track. He reached the +line; and, with his hand grasping at freedom, they caught and took him +back to his captivity. He was exchanged at last; and you remember, when +he came home on a short furlough, how manly and war-worn he had grown. +But he soon returned to the ranks and to the welcome of his comrades. +They recall him now alike with tears and pride. In the rifle pits +around Petersburg you heard his steady voice and firm command. Some one +who saw him then fancied that he seemed that day like one who forefelt +the end. But there was no flinching as he charged. He had just turned +to give a cheer when the fatal ball struck him. There was a convulsion +of the upward hand. His eyes, pleading and loyal, turned their last +glance to the flag. His lips parted. He fell dead, and at nightfall lay +with his face to the stars. Home they brought him, fairer than Adonis +over whom the goddess of beauty wept. They buried him in the village +churchyard under the green turf. Year by year his comrades and his kin, +nearer than comrades, scatter his grave with flowers. Do you ask who he +was? He was in every regiment and every company. He went out from every +Massachusetts village. He sleeps in every Massachusetts burying ground. +Recall romance, recite the names of heroes of legend and song, but +there is none that is his peer. + + +WILLIAM MCKINLEY + +From an address in the United States Senate + +BY JOHN HAY + +For the third time the Congress of the United States are assembled to +commemorate the life and the death of a President slain by the hand of +an assassin. The attention of the future historian will be attracted to +the features which reappear with startling sameness in all three of +these awful crimes: the uselessness, the utter lack of consequence of +the act; the obscurity, the insignificance of the criminal; the +blamelessness--so far as in our sphere of existence the best of men may +be held blameless--of the victim. Not one of our murdered Presidents +had an enemy in the world; they were all of such preeminent purity of +life that no pretext could be given for the attack of passional crime; +they were all men of democratic instincts, who could never have +offended the most jealous advocates of equality; they were of kindly +and generous nature, to whom wrong or injustice was impossible; of +moderate fortune, whose slender means nobody could envy. They were men +of austere virtue, of tender heart, of eminent abilities, which they +had devoted with single minds to the good of the Republic. If ever men +walked before God and man without blame, it was these three rulers of +our people. The only temptation to attack their lives offered was their +gentle radiance--to eyes hating the light that was offense enough. + +The obvious elements which enter into the fame of a public man are few +and by no means recondite. The man who fills a great station in a +period of change, who leads his country successfully through a time of +crisis; who, by his power of persuading and controlling others, has +been able to command the best thought of his age, so as to leave his +country in a moral or material condition in advance of where he found +it,--such a man's position in history is secure. If, in addition to +this, his written or spoken words possess the subtle qualities which +carry them far and lodge them in men's hearts; and, more than all, if +his utterances and actions, while informed with a lofty morality, are +yet tinged with the glow of human sympathy,--the fame of such a man +will shine like a beacon through the mists of ages--an object of +reverence, of imitation, and of love. It should be to us an occasion of +solemn pride that in the three great crises of our history such a man +was not denied us. The moral value to a nation of a renown such as +Washington's and Lincoln's and McKinley's is beyond all computation. No +loftier ideal can be held up to the emulation of ingenuous youth. With +such examples we cannot be wholly ignoble. Grateful as we may be for +what they did, let us be still more grateful for what they were. While +our daily being, our public policies, still feel the influence of their +work, let us pray that in our spirits their lives may be voluble, +calling us upward and onward. + +There is not one of us but feels prouder of his native land because the +august figure of Washington presided over its beginnings; no one but +vows it a tenderer love because Lincoln poured out his blood for it; no +one but must feel his devotion for his country renewed and kindled when +he remembers how McKinley loved, revered, and served it, showed in his +life how a citizen should live, and in his last hour taught us how a +gentleman could die. + + +ROBERT E. LEE + +From an address at the unveiling of a statue of General Lee, at +Washington and Lee University, 1883 + +BY JOHN W. DANIEL + +Mounted in the field and at the head of his troops, a glimpse of Lee +was an inspiration. His figure was as distinctive as that of Napoleon. +The black slouch hat, the cavalry boots, the dark cape, the plain gray +coat without an ornament but the three stars on the collar, the calm, +victorious face, the splendid, manly figure on the gray war horse,--he +looked every inch the true knight--the grand, invincible champion of a +great principle. + +The men who wrested victory from his little band stood wonder-stricken +and abashed when they saw how few were those who dared oppose them, and +generous admiration burst into spontaneous tribute to the splendid +leader who bore defeat with the quiet resignation of a hero. The men +who fought under him never revered or loved him more than on the day he +sheathed his sword. Had he but said the word, they would have died for +honor. It was because he said the word that they resolved to live for +duty. + +Plato congratulated himself, first, that he was born a man; second, +that he had the happiness of being a Greek; and third, that he was a +contemporary of Sophocles. And in this audience to-day, and here and +there the wide world over, is many an one who wore the gray, who +rejoices that he was born a man to do a man's part for his suffering +country; that he had the glory of being a Confederate; and who feels a +justly proud and glowing consciousness in his bosom when he says unto +himself: "I was a follower of Robert E. Lee. I was a soldier in the +army of Northern Virginia." + +As president of Washington and Lee University, General Lee 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. In the quiet walks of academic life, far removed from "war or +battle's sound," came into view the towering grandeur, the massive +splendor, and the loving-kindness of his character. There he revealed +in manifold gracious hospitalities, tender charities, and patient, +worthy counsels, how deep and pure and inexhaustible were the fountains +of his virtues. And loving hearts delight to recall, as loving lips +will ever delight to tell, the thousand little things he did which sent +forth lines of light to irradiate the gloom of the conquered land and +to lift up the hopes and cheer the works of his people. + +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. Let us crown his tomb with the +oak, the emblem of his strength, and with the laurel, the emblem of his +glory. And as we seem to gaze once more on him we loved and hailed as +Chief, the tranquil face is clothed with heaven's light, and the mute +lips seem eloquent with the message that in life he spoke, "There is a +true glory and a true honor; the glory of duty done, the honor of the +integrity of principle." + + +FAREWELL ADDRESS TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE + +BY HENRY CLAY + +From 1806, the period of my entrance upon this noble theater, with +short intervals, to the present time, I have been engaged in the public +councils, at home or abroad. Of the services rendered during that long +and arduous period of my life it does not become me to speak; history, +if she deign to notice me, and posterity, if the recollection of my +humble actions shall be transmitted to posterity, are the best, the +truest, and the most impartial judges. + +I have not escaped the fate of other public men, nor failed to incur +censure and detraction of the bitterest, most unrelenting, and most +malignant character. But I have not meanwhile been unsustained. +Everywhere throughout the extent of this great continent I have had +cordial, warmhearted, faithful, and devoted friends, who have known me, +loved me, and appreciated my motives. + +In the course of a long and arduous public service, especially during +the last eleven years in which I have held a seat in the Senate, from +the same ardor and enthusiasm of character, I have no doubt, in the +heat of debate, and in an honest endeavor to maintain my opinions +against adverse opinions alike honestly entertained, as to the best +course to be adopted for the public welfare, I may have often +inadvertently and unintentionally, in moments of excited debate, made +use of language that has been offensive, and susceptible of injurious +interpretation towards my brother Senators. If there be any here who +retain wounded feelings of injury or dissatisfaction produced on such +occasions, I beg to assure them that I now offer the most ample apology +for any departure on my part from the established rules of +parliamentary decorum and courtesy. On the other hand, I assure +Senators, one and all, without exception and without reserve, that I +retire from this chamber without carrying with me a single feeling of +resentment or dissatisfaction toward the Senate or any one of its +members. + +In retiring, as I am about to do, forever, from the Senate, suffer me +to express my heartfelt wishes that all the great and patriotic objects +of the wise framers of our Constitution may be fulfilled; that the high +destiny designed for it may be fully answered; and that its +deliberations, now and hereafter, may eventuate in securing the +prosperity of our beloved country, in maintaining its rights and honor +abroad, and upholding its interests at home. I retire, I know, at a +period of infinite distress and embarrassment. I wish I could take my +leave of you under more favorable auspices; but, without meaning at +this time to say whether on any or on whom reproaches for the sad +condition of the country should fall, I appeal to the Senate and to the +world to bear testimony to my earnest and continued exertions to avert +it, and to the truth that no blame can justly attach to me. + +May the most precious blessings of heaven rest upon the whole Senate +and each member of it, and may the labors of every one redound to the +benefit of the nation and the advancement of his own fame and renown. +And when you shall retire to the bosom of your constituents, may you +receive that most cheering and gratifying of all human rewards--their +cordial greeting of "Well done, good and faithful servant." + +And now, Mr. President, and Senators, I bid you all a long, a lasting, +and a friendly farewell. + + +THE DEATH OF GARFIELD + +From an address before both houses of Congress, February, 1882 + +BY JAMES G. BLAINE + +Surely, if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this +world, on that quiet July morning James A. Garfield may well have been +a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him, no slightest +premonition of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him +in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the +years stretching peacefully out before him. The next he lay wounded, +bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence and +the grave. + +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, with 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 center 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 winepress 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. + +As the end drew near, his early craving for the sea returned. The +stately mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital of +pain, and he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its +oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness and its hopelessness. +Gently, silently, the love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to +the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God should +will, within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of its manifold +voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze he +looked out wistfully upon the ocean's changing wonders--on its far +sails whitening in the morning light; on its restless waves rolling +shoreward to break and die beneath the noonday sun; on the red clouds +of evening arching low to the horizon; on the serene and shining +pathway of the stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic +meaning which only the rapt and parting soul may know. Let us believe +that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves +breaking on a farther shore, and felt already upon his wasted brow the +breath of the eternal morning. + + +THE SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS + +Delivered from the steps of the Capitol at Washington, 1865. + +BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +FELLOW COUNTRYMEN,--At this second appearing to take the oath of the +Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than +there was at first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course +to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of +four years, during which public declarations have been constantly +called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still +absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little +that is new could be presented. + +The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as +well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably +satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no +prediction in regard to it is ventured. + +On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were +anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all +sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered +from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, +insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it with war-- +seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects by negotiation. +Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than +let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let +it perish, and the war came. One eighth of the whole population were +colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized +in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and +powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of +the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the +object for which the insurgents would rend the Union by war, while the +Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial +enlargement of it. + +Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which +it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the +conflict might cease when, or even before, the conflict itself should +cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental +and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God, and +each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any +men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread +from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be +not judged. The prayer of both could not be answered. That of neither +has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. Woe unto +the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, +but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. If we shall suppose +that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence +of God, must needs come, but which having continued through His +appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North +and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense +came, shall we discern there any departure from those divine attributes +which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we +hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may +speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the +wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of +unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with +the lash shall be repaid by another drawn with the sword, as was said +three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, that the judgments +of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. + +With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the +right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are +in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have +borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which +may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and +with all nations. + + +THE DEATH OF PRINCE ALBERT + +From an address in the House of Commons, February, 1862 + +BY BENJAMIN DISRAELI + +No person can be insensible to the fact that the House meets to-night +under circumstances very much changed from those which have attended +our assembling for many years. Of late years--indeed, for more than +twenty years past--whatever may have been our personal rivalries, and +whatever our party strife, there was at least one sentiment in which we +all coincided, and that was a sentiment of admiring gratitude to that +Throne whose wisdom and whose goodness had so often softened the +acerbities of our free public life, and had at all times so +majestically represented the matured intelligence of an enlightened +people. + +Sir, all that is changed. He is gone who was "the comfort and support" +of that Throne. It has been said that there is nothing which England so +much appreciates as the fulfillment of duty. The Prince whom we have +lost not only was eminent for the fulfillment of duty, but it was the +fulfillment of the highest duty under the most difficult circumstances. +Prince Albert was the Consort of his Sovereign--he was the father of +one who might be his Sovereign--he was the Prime Councillor of a realm, +the political constitution of which did not even recognize his +political existence. + +Sir, it is sometimes deplored by those who admired and loved him that +he was thwarted occasionally in his undertakings, and that he was not +duly appreciated. But these are not circumstances for regret, but for +congratulation. They prove the leading and original mind which has so +long and so advantageously labored for this country. Had he not +encountered these obstacles, had he not been subject to this occasional +distrust and misconception, it would only have shown that he was a man +of ordinary mold and temper. Those who improve must change, those who +change must necessarily disturb and alarm men's prejudices. What he had +to encounter was only a demonstration that he was a man superior to his +age, and therefore admirably adapted for the work of progress. There is +one other point, and one only, on which I will presume for a moment to +dwell, and it is not for the sake of you, Sir, or those who now hear +me, or of the generation to which we belong, but it is that those who +come after us may not misunderstand the nature of this illustrious man. +Prince Albert was not a mere patron; he was not one of those who by +their gold or by their smiles reward excellence or stimulate exertion. +His contributions to the cause of State were far more powerful and far +more precious. He gave to it his thought, his time, his toil; he gave +to it his life. On both sides and in all parts of the House I see many +gentlemen who occasionally have acted with the Prince at those council +boards where they conferred and consulted upon the great undertakings +with which he was connected. I ask them, without fear of a denial, +whether he was not the leading spirit, whether his was not the mind +which foresaw the difficulty, his not the resources that supplied the +remedy; whether his was not the courage which sustained them under +apparently overpowering difficulties; whether every one who worked with +him did not feel that he was the real originator of those plans of +improvement which they assisted in carrying into effect? + +But what avail these words? This House to-night has been asked to +condole with the Crown upon this great calamity. No easy office. To +condole, in general, is the office of those who, without the pale of +sorrow, still feel for the sorrowing. But in this instance the country +is as heart-stricken as its Queen. Yet in the mutual sensibility of a +Sovereign and a people there is something ennobling--something which +elevates the spirit beyond the level of mere earthly sorrow. The +counties, the cities, the corporations of the realm--those illustrious +associations of learning and science and art and skill, of which he was +the brightest ornament and the inspiring spirit, have bowed before the +Throne. It does not become the Parliament of the country to be silent. +The expression of our feelings may be late, but even in that lateness +may be observed some propriety. To-night the two Houses sanction the +expression of the public sorrow, and ratify, as it were, the record of +a nation's woe. + + +AN APPRECIATION OF MR. GLADSTONE + +From an address in the House of Commons + +BY ARTHUR J. BALFOUR + +I feel myself unequal even to dealing with what is, perhaps, more +strictly germane to this address--I mean, Mr. Gladstone as a +politician, as a Minister, as a leader of public thought, as an eminent +servant of the Queen; and if I venture to say anything, it is rather of +Mr. Gladstone, the greatest member of the greatest deliberative +assembly, which, so far, the world has seen. + +Sir, I think it is the language of sober and unexaggerated truth to say +that there is no gift which would enable a man to move, to influence, +to adorn an assembly like this that Mr. Gladstone did not possess in a +supereminent degree. Debaters as ready there may have been, orators as +finished. It may have been given to others to sway as skillfully this +assembly, or to appeal with as much directness and force to the simpler +instincts of the great masses in the country; but, sir, it has been +given to no man to combine all these great gifts as they were combined +in the person of Mr. Gladstone. From the conversational discussion +appropriate to our work in committees, to the most sustained eloquence +befitting some great argument, and some great historic occasion, every +weapon of Parliamentary warfare was wielded by him with the success and +ease of a perfect, absolute, and complete mastery. I would not venture +myself to pronounce an opinion as to whether he was most excellent in +the exposition of a somewhat complicated budget of finance or +legislation, or whether he showed it most in the heat of extemporary +debate. At least this we may say, that from the humbler arts of +ridicule or invective to the subtlest dialectic, the most persuasive +eloquence, the most cogent appeals to everything that was highest and +best in the audience that he was addressing, every instrument which +could find place in the armory of a member of this House, he had at his +command without premeditation, without forethought, at the moment and +in the form which appeared best suited to carry out his purpose. + +It may, perhaps, be asked whether I have nothing to say about Mr. +Gladstone's place in history, about the judgment we ought to pass upon +the great part which he has played in the history of his country and +the history of the world during the many years in which he held a +foremost place in this assembly. These questions are legitimate +questions. But they are not to be discussed by me to-day. Nor, indeed, +do I think that the final answer can be given to them--the final +judgment pronounced--in the course of this generation. But one service +he did--in my opinion incalculable--which is altogether apart from the +judgment which we may be disposed to pass on the particular opinions, +the particular views, or the particular lines of policy which Mr. +Gladstone may from time to time have adopted. Sir, he added a dignity +and he added a weight to the deliberations of this House by his genius +which I think it is impossible adequately to express. + +It is not enough, in my opinion, to keep up simply a level, though it +be a high level, of probity and of patriotism. The mere virtue of civic +honesty is not sufficient to preserve this assembly from the fate which +has overcome so many other assemblies, the products of democratic +forces. More than this is required, more than this was given to us by +Mr. Gladstone. Those who seek to raise in the public estimation the +level of our proceedings will be the most ready to admit the infinite +value of those services, and realize how much the public prosperity is +involved in the maintenance of the work of public life. Sir, that is a +view which, it seems to me, places the services of Mr. Gladstone to +this assembly, which he loved so well, and of which he was so great a +member, in as clear a light and on as firm a basis as it is possible to +place them. + + +WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE + +From an address in the House of Lords, May, 1898 + +BY LORD ROSEBERY + +My Lords, this is, as has been pointed out, an unique occasion. Mr. +Gladstone always expressed a hope that there might be an interval left +to him between the end of his political and of his natural life. That +period was given to him, for it is more than four years since he +quitted the sphere of politics. Those four years have been with him a +special preparation for his death, but have they not also been a +preparation for his death with the nation at large? Had he died in the +plenitude of his power as Prime Minister, would it have been possible +for a vigorous and convinced Opposition to allow to pass to him, +without a word of dissent, the honors which are now universally +conceded? Hushed for the moment are the voices of criticism; hushed are +the controversies in which he took part; hushed for the moment is the +very sound of party conflict. I venture to think that this is a notable +fact in our history. It was not so with the elder Pitt. It was not so +with the younger Pitt. It was not so with the elder Pitt--in spite of +his tragic end, of his unrivaled services, and of his enfeebled old +age. It was not so with the younger Pitt--in spite of his long control +of the country and his absolute and absorbed devotion to the State. I +think that we should remember this as creditable not merely to the man, +but to the nation. + +My Lords, there is one deeply melancholy feature of Mr. Gladstone's +death--by far the most melancholy--to which I think none of my noble +friends have referred. I think that all our thoughts must be turned, +now that Mr. Gladstone is gone, to that solitary and pathetic figure +who, for sixty years, shared all the sorrows and all the joys of Mr. +Gladstone's life; who received his every confidence and every +aspiration; who shared his triumphs with and cheered him under his +defeats; who, by her tender vigilance, I firmly believe, sustained and +prolonged his years. I think that the occasion ought not to pass +without letting Mrs. Gladstone know that she is in all our thoughts to- +day. And yet, my Lords--putting that one figure aside--to me, at any +rate, this is not an occasion for absolute and entire and unreserved +lamentation. Were it, indeed, possible so to protract the inexorable +limits of human life that we might have hoped that future years, and +even future generations, might see Mr. Gladstone's face and hear his +matchless voice, and receive the lessons of his unrivaled experience-- +we might, perhaps, grieve to-day as those who have no hope. But that is +not the case. He had long exceeded the span of mortal life; and his +latter months had been months of unspeakable pain and distress. He is +now in that rest for which he sought and prayed, and which was to give +him relief from an existence which had become a burden to him. Surely +this should not be an occasion entirely for grief; when a life +prolonged to such a limit, so full of honor, so crowned with glory, had +come to its termination. The nation lives that produced him. The nation +that produced him may yet produce others like him; and, in the +meantime, it is rich in his memory, rich in his life, and rich, above +all, in his animating and inspiring example. Nor do I think that we +should regard this heritage as limited to our own country or to our own +race. It seems to me that, if we may judge from the papers of to-day, +that it is shared by, that it is the possession of, all civilized +mankind, and that generations still to come, through many long years, +will look for encouragement in labor, for fortitude in adversity, for +the example of a sublime Christianity, with constant hope and constant +encouragement, to the pure, the splendid, the dauntless figure of +William Ewart Gladstone. + + +THE SOLDIER'S CREED + +From a centennial address at the United States Military Academy at West +Point, with the author's permission. + +BY HORACE PORTER + +As we stand here to-day a hundred years of history pass in review +before us. The present permanent Academy was founded in 1802. The class +that year contained two cadets. During the ten years following the +average number was twenty. We might say of the cadets of those days +what Curran said of the books in his library--"not numerous, but +select." + +And now a word to the Corps of Cadets, the departure of whose +graduating class marks the close of the first century of the Academy's +life. The boy is father to the man. The present is the mold in which +the future is cast. The dominant characteristics of the cadet are seen +in the future general. You have learned here how to command, and a +still more useful lesson, how to obey. You have been taught obedience +to the civil, as well as to the military, code, for in this land the +military is always subordinate to the civil law. Not the least valuable +part of your education is your service in the cadet ranks, performing +the duties of a private soldier. That alone can acquaint you with the +feelings and the capabilities of the soldiers you will command. It +teaches you just how long a man can carry a musket in one position +without overfatigue, just how hard it is to keep awake on sentry duty +after an exhausting day's march. You will never forget this part of +your training. When Marshal Lannes's grenadiers had been repulsed in an +assault upon the walls of a fortified city, and hesitated to renew the +attack, Lannes seized a scaling ladder and, rushing forward, cried: +"Before I was a marshal I was a grenadier, and I have not forgotten my +training." Inspired by his example, the grenadiers carried the walls +and captured everything before them. + +Courage is the soldier's cardinal virtue. You will seldom go amiss in +following General Grant's instructions to his commanders, "When in +doubt move to the front." + +A generous country has with fostering care equipped you for your +career. It is entitled to your undivided allegiance. In closing, let me +mention, by way of illustration, a most touching and instructive scene +which I once witnessed at the annual meeting in the great hall of the +Sorbonne in Paris for the purpose of awarding medals of honor to those +who had performed acts of conspicuous bravery in saving human life at +sea. A bright-eyed boy of scarcely fourteen summers was called to the +platform. The story was recounted of how one winter's night when a +fierce tempest was raging on the rude Normandy coast, he saw signals of +distress at sea and started with his father, the captain of a small +vessel, and the mate to attempt a rescue. By dint of almost superhuman +effort the crew of a sinking ship was safely taken aboard. A wave then +washed the father from the deck. The boy plunged into the seething +waves to save him, but the attempt was in vain, and the father +perished. The lad struggled back to the vessel to find that the mate +had also been washed overboard. Then lashing himself fast, he took the +wheel and guided the boat, with its precious cargo of human souls, +through the howling storm safely into port. The minister of public +instruction, after paying a touching tribute to the boy's courage in a +voice broken with emotion, pinned the medal on his breast, placed in +his hands a diploma of honor, and then, seizing the brave lad in his +arms, imprinted a kiss on each cheek. For a moment the boy seemed +dazed, not knowing which way to turn, as he stood there with the tears +streaming down his bronzed cheeks while every one in that vast hall +wept in sympathy. Suddenly his eyes turned toward his old peasant +mother, she to whom he owed his birth and his training, as she sat at +the back of the platform with bended form and wearing her widow's cap. +He rushed to her, took the medal from his breast, and, casting it and +his diploma into her lap, threw himself on his knees at her feet. + +Men of West Point, in the honorable career which you have chosen, +whatever laurels you may win, always be ready to lay them at the feet +of your country to which you owe your birth and your education. + + +COMPETITION IN COLLEGE + +From an address at Columbia University, June, 1909 + +BY ABBOTT LAWRENCE LOWELL + +We have seen that the sifting out of young men capable of scholarship +is receiving to-day less attention than it deserves; and that this +applies not only to recruiting future leaders of thought, but also to +prevailing upon every young man to develop the intellectual powers he +may possess. We have seen also that, while the graduate school can +train scholars, it cannot create love of scholarship. That work must be +done in undergraduate days. We have found reasons to believe that +during the whole period of training, mental and physical, which reaches +its culmination in college, competition is not only a proper but an +essential factor; and we have observed the results that have been +achieved at Oxford and Cambridge by its use. In this country, on the +other hand, several causes, foremost among them the elective system, +have almost banished competition in scholarship from our colleges; +while the inadequate character of our tests, and the corporate nature +of self-interest in these latter times, raise serious difficulties in +making it effective. + +Nevertheless, I have faith that these obstacles can be overcome, and +that we can raise intellectual achievement in college to its rightful +place in public estimation. We are told that it is idle to expect young +men to do strenuous work before they feel the impending pressure of +earning a livelihood; that they naturally love ease and self- +indulgence, and can be aroused from lethargy only by discipline, or by +contact with the hard facts of a struggle with the world. If I believed +that, I would not be president of a college for a moment. It is not +true. A normal young man longs for nothing so much as to devote himself +to a cause that calls forth his enthusiasm, and the greater the +sacrifice involved, the more eagerly will he grasp it. If we were at +war and our students were told that two regiments were seeking +recruits, one of which would be stationed at Fortress Monroe, well- +housed and fed, living in luxury, without risk of death or wounds, +while the other would go to the front, be starved and harassed by +fatiguing marches under a broiling sun, amid pestilence, with men +falling from its ranks killed or suffering mutilation, not a single man +would volunteer for the first regiment, but the second would be quickly +filled. Who is it that makes football a dangerous and painful sport? Is +it the faculty or the players themselves? + +A young man wants to test himself on every side, in strength, in +quickness, in skill, in courage, in endurance; and he will go through +much to prove his merit. He wants to test himself, provided he has +faith that the test is true, and that the quality tried is one that +makes for manliness; otherwise he will have none of it. Now we have not +convinced him that high scholarship is a manly thing worthy of his +devotion, or that our examinations are faithful tests of intellectual +power; and in so far as we have failed in this we have come short of +what we ought to do. Universities stand for the eternal worth of +thought, for the preeminence of the prophet and the seer; but instead +of being thrilled by the eager search for truth, our classes too often +sit listless on the bench. It is not because the lecturer is dull, but +because the pupils do not prize the end enough to relish the drudgery +required for skill in any great pursuit, or indeed in any sport. To +make them see the greatness of that end, how fully it deserves the +price that must be paid for it, how richly it rewards the man who may +compete for it, we must learn--and herein lies the secret--we must +learn the precious art of touching their imagination. + + +A MASTER OF THE SITUATION + +From a lecture, entitled "Masters of the Situation" + +BY JAMES T. FIELDS + +There was once a noble ship full of eager passengers, freighted with a +rich cargo, steaming at full speed from England to America. Two thirds +of a prosperous voyage thus far were over, as in our mess we were +beginning to talk of home. Fore and aft the songs of good cheer and +hearty merriment rose from deck to cabin. + + "As if the beauteous ship enjoyed the beauty of the sea, + She lifteth up her stately head, and saileth joyfully, + A lovely path before her lies, a lovely path behind; + She sails amid the loveliness like a thing of heart and mind." + +Suddenly, a dense fog came, shrouding the horizon, but as this was a +common occurrence in the latitude we were sailing, it was hardly +mentioned in our talk that afternoon. There are always croakers on +board ship, if the weather changes however slightly, but the +_Britannia_ was free, that voyage, of such unwelcome passengers. A +happier company never sailed upon an autumn sea! The storytellers are +busy with their yarns to audiences of delighted listeners in sheltered +places; the ladies are lying about on couches, and shawls, reading or +singing; children in merry companies are taking hands and racing up and +down the decks,--when a quick cry from the lookout, a rush of officers +and men, and we are grinding on a ledge of rocks off Cape Race! One of +those strong currents, always mysterious, and sometimes impossible to +foresee, had set us into shore out of our course, and the ship was +blindly beating on a dreary coast of sharp and craggy rocks. + +I heard the order given, "Every one on deck!" and knew what that +meant--the masts were in danger of falling. Looking over the side, we +saw bits of the keel, great pieces of plank, floating out into the deep +water. A hundred pallid faces were huddled together near the stern of +the ship where we were told to go and wait. I remember somebody said +that a little child, the playfellow of passengers and crew, could not +be found, and that some of us started to find him; and that when we +returned him to his mother she spake never a word, but seemed dumb with +terror at the prospect of separation and shipwreck, and that other +specter so ghastly when encountered at sea. + +Suddenly we heard a voice up in the fog in the direction of the +wheelhouse, ringing like a clarion above the roar of the waves, and the +clashing sounds on shipboard, and it had in it an assuring, not a +fearful tone. As the orders came distinctly and deliberately through +the captain's trumpet, to "ship the cargo," to "back her," to "keep her +steady," we felt somehow that the commander up there in the thick mist +on the wheelhouse knew what he was about, and that through his skill +and courage, by the blessing of heaven, we should all be rescued. The +man who saved us so far as human aid ever saves drowning mortals, was +one fully competent to command a ship; and when, after weary days of +anxious suspense, the vessel leaking badly, and the fires in danger of +being put out, we arrived safely in Halifax, old Mr. Cunard, agent of +the line, on hearing from the mail officer that the steamer had struck +on the rocks and had been saved only by the captain's presence of mind +and courage, simply replied, "Just what might have been expected in +such a disaster; Captain Harrison is always master of the situation." +Now, no man ever became master of the situation by accident or +indolence. I believe with Shelley, that the Almighty has given men and +women arms long enough to reach the stars if they will only put them +out! It was an admirable saying of the Duke of Wellington, "that no +general ever blundered into a great victory." St. Hilaire said, "I +ignore the existence of a blind chance, accident, and haphazard +results." "He happened to succeed," is a foolish, unmeaning phrase. No +man happens to succeed. + + +WIT AND HUMOR + +Reprinted from "American Wit and Humor," copyrighted in "Modern +Eloquence," Geo. L. Shuman and Company, Chicago, publishers. + +BY MINOT J. SAVAGE + +Wit may take many forms, but it resides essentially in the thought or +the imagination. In its highest forms it does not deal in things but +with ideas. It is the shock of pleased surprise which results from the +perception of unexpected likeness between things that differ or of an +unexpected difference between things that are alike. Or it is where +utterly incongruous things are apparently combined in the expression of +one idea. Wit may be bitter or kindly or entirely neutral so far as the +feelings are concerned. When extremes of feeling, one way or the other, +are concerned, then it takes on other names which will be considered by +themselves. + +But not to stop any longer with definition, it is almost pure wit when +some one said of an endless talker that he had "occasional brilliant +flashes of silence." So of the saying of Mr. Henry Clapp. You know it +is said of Shakespeare, "He is not for a day, but for all time." +Speaking of the bore who calls when you are busy and never goes, Mr. +Clapp said, "He is not for a time, but for all day." And what could be +more deliciously perfect than the following: Senator Beck of Kentucky +was an everlasting talker. One day a friend remarked to Senator Hoar, +"I should think Beck would wear his brain all out talking so much." +Whereupon Mr. Hoar replied, "Oh, that doesn't affect him any: he rests +his mind when he is talking." This has, indeed, a touch of sarcasm; but +it is as near the pure gold of wit as you often get. Or, take this. +There being two houses both of which are insisted on as the real +birthplace of the great philosopher and statesman, Mark Twain gravely +informs us that "Franklin was twins, having been born simultaneously in +two different houses in Boston." + +One of the finest specimens of clear-cut wit is the saying of the Hon. +Carroll D. Wright. Referring to the common saying, he once keenly +remarked: "I know it is said that figures won't lie, but, +unfortunately, liars will figure." + +In contradistinction from wit, humor deals with incidents, characters, +situations. True humor is altogether kindly; for, while it points out +and pictures the weaknesses and foibles of humanity, it feels no +contempt and leaves no sting. It has its root in sympathy and blossoms +out in toleration. + +It would take too long at this point in my lecture to quote complete +specimens of humor; for that would mean spreading out before you +detailed scenes or full descriptions. But fortunately it is not +necessary. Cervantes, Shakespeare, Charles Lamb, Dickens, and a host of +others will readily occur to you. But what could be better of its kind +than this? General Joe Johnston was one day riding leisurely behind his +army on the march. Food had been scarce and rations limited. He spied a +straggler in the brush beside the road. He called out sharply, "What +are you doing here?" Being caught out of the ranks was a serious +offense, but the soldier was equal to the emergency. So to the +General's question he replied, "Pickin' 'simmons." The persimmon, as +you know, has the quality of puckering the mouth, as a certain kind of +wild cherry used to mine when I was a boy. "What are you picking +'simmons for?" sharply rejoined the General. Then came the humorous +reply that disarmed all of the officer's anger and appealed to his +sympathy, while it hinted all "the boys" were suffering for the cause. +"Well, the fact of it is, General, I'm trying to shrink up my stomach +to the size of my rations, so I won't starve to death." + + +A MESSAGE TO GARCIA + +From an article in The Philistine, with the permission of the author + +BY ELBERT HUBBARD + +When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very +necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. +Garcia was somewhere in the mountain fastnesses of Cuba--no one knew +where. No mail or telegraph message could reach him. The President +must secure his cooperation, and quickly. + +What to do! + +Some one said to the President, "There's a fellow by the name of Rowan +will find Garcia for you if anybody can." Rowan was sent for and given +a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How "the fellow by the name of +Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oilskin pouch, strapped it +over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from +an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out +on the other side of the island, having traversed a hostile country on +foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special +desire now to tell in detail. + +The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be +delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is +he at?" By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in +deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It +is not book learning young men need, nor instruction about this and +that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be +loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies; do the +thing--"Carry a message to Garcia!" + +General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias. No man who has +endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but +has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average +man--the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do +it. Slipshod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, and +half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or +crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or +mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an angel +of light for an assistant. + +And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this +infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to catch hold and lift, are +the things that put pure socialism so far into the future. If men will +not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of the +effort is for all? + +My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the "boss" is away +as well as when he is at home. And the man, who, when given a letter +for Garcia, quietly takes the missive, without asking any idiotic +questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the +nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets "laid +off," nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one +long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks +shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to +let him go. He is wanted in every city, town, and village--in every +office, shop, store, and factory. The world cries out for such; he is +needed, and needed badly-the man who can carry a message to Garcia. + + +SHAKESPEARE'S "MARK ANTONY" + +ANONYMOUS + +A Roman, an orator, and a triumvir, a conqueror when all Rome seemed +armed against him only to have his glory "false played" by a woman +"unto an enemy's triumph,"--such is Shakespeare's story of Mark Antony. +Passion alternates with passion, purpose with purpose, good with evil, +and strength with weakness, until his whole nature seems changed, and +we find the same and yet another man. + +In "Julius Cęsar" Antony is seen at his best. He is the one triumphant +figure of the play. Cęsar falls. Brutus and Cassius are in turn +victorious and defeated, but Antony is everywhere a conqueror. Antony +weeping over Cęsar's body, Antony offering his breast to the daggers +which have killed his master, is as plainly the sovereign power of the +moment as when over Cęsar's corpse he forces by his magnetic oratory +the prejudiced populace to call down curses on the heads of the +conspirators. + +Cęsar's spirit still lives in Antony,--a spirit that dares face the +conspirators with swords still red with Cęsar's blood and bid them, + + Whilst their purple hands do reek and smoke, + +fulfill their pleasure,--a spirit that over the dead body of Cęsar +takes the hand of each and yet exclaims:-- + + "Had I as many eyes as thou hast wounds, + Weeping as fast as they stream forth thy blood, + It would become me better than to close + In terms of friendship with thine enemies." + +Permission is granted Antony to speak a farewell word over the body of +Cęsar in the crowded market place. Before the populace, hostile and +prejudiced, Antony stands as the friend of Cęsar. Slowly, surely, +making his approach step by step, with consummate tact he steals away +their hearts and paves the way for his own victory. The honorable men +gradually turn to villains of the blackest dye. Cęsar's mantle, which +but a moment before had called forth bitter curses, now brings tears to +every Roman's eye. The populace fast yields to his eloquence. He +conquers every vestige of distrust as he says:-- + + "I am no orator, as Brutus is; + But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man, + That love my friend; and that they know full well + That gave me public leave to speak of him." + +And now the matchless orator throws off his disguise. With resistless +vehemence he pours forth a flood of eloquence which bears the fickle +mob like straws before its tide:-- + + "I tell you that which you yourselves do know; + Show you sweet Cęsar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths, + And bid them speak for me; but were I Brutus, + And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony + Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue + In every wound of Cęsar, that would move + The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny." + +The effect is magical. The rage of the populace is quickened to a white +heat; and, baffled, beaten by a plain, blunt man, the terror-stricken +conspirators ride like madness through the gates of Rome. + + +ANDR. AND HALE + +From "Orations and After-Dinner Speeches," the Cassell Publishing +Company, New York, publishers. + +BY CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW + +André's story is the one overmastering romance of the Revolution. +American and English literature is full of eloquence and poetry in +tribute to his memory and sympathy for his fate. After the lapse of a +hundred years, there is no abatement of absorbing interest. What had +this young man done to merit immortality? The mission whose tragic +issue lifted him out of the oblivion of other minor British officers, +in its inception was free from peril or daring, and its objects and +purposes were utterly infamous. + +Had he succeeded by the desecration of the honorable uses of passes and +flags of truce, his name would have been held in everlasting +execration. In his failure the infant Republic escaped the dagger with +which he was feeling for its heart, and the crime was drowned in tears +for his untimely end. His youth and beauty, the brightness of his life, +the calm courage in the gloom of his death, his early love and +disappointment, surrounded him with a halo of poetry and pity which +have secured for him what he most sought and could never have won in +battles and sieges,--a fame and recognition which have outlived that of +all the generals under whom he served. + +Are kings only grateful, and do not republics forget? Is fame a +travesty, and the judgment of mankind a farce? America had a parallel +case in Captain Nathan Hale. Of the same age as André, he, after +graduation at Yale College with high honors, enlisted in the patriot +cause at the beginning of the contest, and secured the love and +confidence of all about him. When none else would go upon a most +important and perilous mission, he volunteered, and was captured by the +British. + +While André received every kindness, courtesy, and attention, and was +fed from Washington's table, Hale was thrust into a noisome dungeon in +the sugarhouse. While André was tried by a board of officers and had +ample time and every facility for defense, Hale was summarily ordered +to execution the next morning. While André's last wishes and bequests +were sacredly followed, the infamous Cunningham tore from Hale his +cherished Bible and destroyed before his eyes his last letter to his +mother and sister, and asked him what he had to say. "All I have to +say," was his reply, "is, I regret I have but one life to lose for my +country." + +The dying declarations of Andre and Hale express the animating spirit +of their several armies, and teach why, with all her power, England +could not conquer America. "I call upon you to witness that I die like +a brave man," said André, and he spoke from British and Hessian +surroundings, seeking only glory and pay. "I regret I have but one life +to lose for my country," said Hale; and, with him and his comrades, +self was forgotten in that absorbing, passionate patriotism which +pledges fortune, honor, and life to the sacred cause. + + +THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON + +BY THEODORE PARKER + +One raw morning in spring--it will be eighty years the nineteenth day +of this month--Hancock and Adams, the Moses and Aaron of that Great +Deliverance, were both at Lexington; they also had "obstructed an +officer" with brave words. British soldiers, a thousand strong, came to +seize them and carry them over sea for trial, and so nip the bud of +Freedom auspiciously opening in that early spring. The town militia +came together before daylight, "for training." A great, tall man, with +a large head and a high, wide brow, their captain,--one who had "seen +service,"--marshaled them into line, numbering but seventy, and bade +"every man load his piece with powder and ball." "I will order the +first man shot that runs away," said he, when some faltered. "Don't +fire unless fired upon, but if they want to have a war, let it begin +here." + +Gentlemen, you know what followed; those farmers and mechanics "fired +the shot heard round the world." A little monument covers the bones of +such as before had pledged their fortune and their sacred honor to the +Freedom of America, and that day gave it also their lives. I was born +in that little town, and bred up amid the memories of that day. When a +boy, my mother lifted me up, on Sunday, in her religious, patriotic +arms, and held me while I read the first monumental line I ever saw-- +"Sacred to Liberty and the Rights of Mankind." + +Since then I have studied the memorial marbles of Greece and Rome, in +many an ancient town; nay, on Egyptian obelisks, have read what was +written before the Eternal roused up Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, +but no chiseled stone has ever stirred me to such emotion as these +rustic names of men who fell "In the Sacred Cause of God and their +Country." + +Gentlemen, the Spirit of Liberty, the Love of Justice, was early fanned +into a flame in my boyish heart. The monument covers the bones of my +own kinsfolk; it was their blood which reddened the long, green grass +at Lexington. It was my own name which stands chiseled on that stone; +the tall Captain who marshaled his fellow farmers and mechanics into +stern array, and spoke such brave and dangerous words as opened the war +of American Independence,--the last to leave the field,--was my +father's father. I learned to read out of his Bible, and with a musket +he that day captured from the foe, I learned also another religious +lesson, that "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God." I keep them +both "Sacred to Liberty and the Rights of Mankind," to use them both +"In the Sacred Cause of God and my Country." + + +THE HOMES OF THE PEOPLE + +Reprinted with the permission of Henry W. Grady, Jr. + +BY HENRY W. GRADY + +I went to Washington the other day, and I stood on the Capitol Hill; my +heart beat quick as I looked at the towering marble of my country's +Capitol, and the mist gathered in my eyes as I thought of its +tremendous significance, and the armies and the treasury, and the +judges and the President, and the Congress and the courts, and all that +was gathered there. And I felt that the sun in all its course could not +look down on a better sight than that majestic home of a republic that +had taught the world its best lessons of liberty. And I felt that if +honor and wisdom and justice abided therein, the world would at last +owe that great house in which the ark of the covenant of my country is +lodged, its final uplifting and its regeneration. + +Two days afterward, I went to visit a friend in the country, a modest +man, with a quiet country home. It was just a simple, unpretentious +house, set about with big trees, encircled in meadow and field rich +with the promise of harvest. + +Inside was quiet, cleanliness, thrift, and comfort. Outside, there +stood my friend, the master, a simple, upright man, with no mortgage on +his roof, no lien on his growing crops, master of his own land and +master of himself. There was his old father, an aged, trembling man, +but happy in the heart and home of his son. + +They started to their home, and as they reached the door the old mother +came with the sunset falling fair on her face, and lighting up her +deep, patient eyes, while her lips, trembling with the rich music of +her heart, bade her husband and son welcome to their home. Beyond was +the housewife, busy with her household cares, clean of heart and +conscience, the buckler and helpmeet of her husband. Down the lane came +the children, trooping home after the cows, seeking as truant birds do +the quiet of their home nest. + +And I saw the night come down on that house, falling gently as the +wings of the unseen dove. And the old man--while a startled bird called +from the forest, and the trees were shrill with the cricket's cry, and +the stars were swarming in the sky--got the family around him, and, +taking the old Bible from the table, called them to their knees, the +little baby hiding in the folds of its mother's dress, while he closed +the record of that simple day by calling down God's benediction on that +family and on that home. And while I gazed, the vision of that marble +Capitol faded. Forgotten were its treasures and its majesty, and I +said, "Oh, surely here in the homes of the people are lodged at last +the strength and the responsibility of this government, the hope and +the promise of this republic." + + +GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT + +BY CANON G. W. FARRAR + +When Abraham Lincoln sat, book in hand, day after day, under the tree, +moving round it as the shadow crossed, absorbed in mastering his task; +when James Garfield rang the bell at Hiram Institute on the very stroke +of the hour and swept the schoolroom as faithfully as he mastered his +Greek lesson; when Ulysses Grant, sent with his team to meet some men +who came to load his cart with logs, and, finding no men, loaded the +cart with his own boy's strength, they showed in the conscientious +performance of duty the qualities which were to raise them to become +kings of men. When John Adams was told that his son, John Quincy Adams, +had been elected President of the United States, he said, "He has +always been laborious, child and man, from infancy." + + +But the youth was not destined to die in the deep valley of obscurity +and toil, in which it is the lot--and perhaps the happy lot--of most of +us to spend our little lives. The hour came; the man was needed. In +1861 there broke out that most terrible war of modern days. Grant +received a commission as Colonel of Volunteers, and in four years the +struggling toiler had been raised to the chief command of a vaster army +than has ever been handled by any mortal man. Who could have imagined +that four years would make that enormous difference? But it is often +so. The great men needed for some tremendous crisis have stepped often, +as it were, out of a door in the wall which no man had noticed; and, +unannounced, unheralded, without prestige, have made their way silently +and single-handed to the front. And there was no luck in it. It was a +work of inflexible faithfulness, of indomitable resolution, of +sleepless energy, and iron purpose and tenacity. In the campaigns at +Fort Donelson; in the desperate battle at Shiloh; in the siege of +Corinth; in battle after battle, in seige after seige; whatever Grant +had to do, he did it with his might. Other generals might fail--he +would not fail. He showed what a man could do whose will was strong. He +undertook, as General Sherman said of him, what no one else would have +ventured and his very soldiers began to reflect something of his +indomitable determination. + +His sayings revealed the man. "I have nothing to do with opinions," he +said at the outset," and shall only deal with armed rebellion." "In +riding over the field," he said at Shiloh, "I saw that either side was +ready to give way, if the other showed a bold front. I took the +opportunity, and ordered an advance along the whole line." "No terms," +he wrote to General Buckner at Fort Donelson (and it is pleasant to +know that General Buckner stood as a warm friend beside his dying bed); +"no terms other than unconditional surrender can be accepted." "My +headquarters," he wrote from Vicksburg, "will be on the field." With a +military genius which embraced the vastest plans while attending to the +smallest details, he defeated, one after another, every great general +of the Confederates except Stonewall Jackson. The Southerners felt that +he held them as in the grasp of a vise; that this man could neither be +arrested nor avoided. For all this he has been severely blamed. He +ought not to be blamed. He has been called a butcher, which is grossly +unjust. He loved peace; he hated bloodshed; his heart was generous and +kind. His orders were to save lives, to save treasure, but at all costs +to save his country--and he did save his country. + +After the surrender at Appomattox Court House, the war was over. He had +put his hand to the plow and had looked not back. He had made blow +after blow, each following where the last had struck; he had wielded +like a hammer the gigantic forces at his disposal, and had smitten +opposition into the dust. It was a mighty work, and he had done it +well. Surely history has shown that for the future destinies of a +mighty nation it was a necessary and blessed work! + + +AMERICAN COURAGE + +From the copyrighted print in "A Modern Reader and Speaker," by George +Riddle, with the permission of Duffield and Company, New York, +publishers. + +BY SHERMAN HOAR + +I fear we undervalue the devotion to country which comes from a +contemplation of what has been done and suffered in her name. I feel +that we teach those who are to make or mar the future of this nation +too much of what has been done elsewhere, and too little of what has +been done here. Courage is the characteristic of no one land or time. +The world's history is full of it and the lessons it teaches. American +courage, however, is of this nation; it is ours, and if the finest +national spirit is worth the creating; if patriotism is still a quality +to be engendered in our youth; if love of country is still to be a +strong power for good, those acts of devotion and of heroic personal +sacrifice with which our history is filled, are worthy of earnest +study, of continued contemplation, and of perpetual consideration. + + "Let him who will, sing deeds done well across the sea, + Here, lovely Land, men bravely live and die for Thee." + +The particular example I desire to speak about is of that splendid +quality of courage which dares everything not for self or country, but +for an enemy. It is of that kind which is called into existence not by +dreams of glory, or by love of land, but by the highest human desire; +the desire to mitigate suffering in those who are against us. + +In the afternoon of the day after the battle of Fredericksburg, General +Kershaw of the Confederate army was sitting in his quarters when +suddenly a young South Carolinian named Kirkland entered, and, after +the usual salutations, said: "General, I can't stand this." The +general, thinking the statement a little abrupt, asked what it was he +could not stand, and Kirkland replied: "Those poor fellows out yonder +have been crying for water all day, and I have come to you to ask if I +may go and give them some." The "poor fellows" were Union soldiers who +lay wounded between the Union and Confederate lines. To go to them, +Kirkland must go beyond the protection of the breastworks and expose +himself to a fire from the Union sharpshooters, who, so far during that +day, had made the raising above the Confederate works of so much as a +head an act of extreme danger. General Kershaw at first refused to +allow Kirkland to go on his errand, but at last, as the lad persisted +in his request, declined to forbid him, leaving the responsibility for +action with the boy himself. Kirkland, in perfect delight, rushed from +the general's quarters to the front, where he gathered all the canteens +he could carry, filled them with water, and going over the breastworks, +started to give relief to his wounded enemies. No sooner was he in the +open field than our sharpshooters, supposing he was going to plunder +their comrades, began to fire at him. For some minutes he went about +doing good under circumstances of most imminent personal danger. Soon, +however, those to whom he was taking the water recognized the character +of his undertaking. All over the field men sat up and called to him, +and those too hurt to raise themselves, held up their hands and +beckoned to him. Soon our sharpshooters, who luckily had not hit him, +saw that he was indeed an Angel of Mercy, and stopped their fire, and +two armies looked with admiration at the young man's pluck and loving- +kindness. With a beautiful tenderness, Kirkland went about his work, +giving of the water to all, and here and there placing a knapsack +pillow under some poor wounded fellow's head, or putting in a more +comfortable position some shattered leg or arm. Then he went back to +his own lines and the fighting went on. Tell me of a more exalted +example of personal courage and self-denial than that of that +Confederate soldier, or one which more clearly deserves the name of +Christian fortitude. In that terrible War of the Rebellion, Kirkland +gave up his life for a mistaken cause in the battle of Chickamauga, but +I cannot help thanking God that, in our reunited country, we are joint +heirs with the men from the South in the glory and inspiration that +come from such heroic deeds as his. + + +THE MINUTEMEN OF THE REVOLUTION + +Reprinted, with permission, from "The Orations and Addresses of George +William Curtis," Vol. III. Copyright, 1894, by Harper and Brothers. + +BY GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS + +The Minuteman of the Revolution! And who was he? He was the old, the +middle-aged, and the young. He was the husband and the father, who left +his plow in the furrow and his hammer on the bench, and marched to die +or be free. He was the son and lover, the plain, shy youth of the +singing school and the village choir, whose heart beat to arms for his +country, and who felt, though he could not say with the old English +cavalier:-- + + "I could not love thee, dear, so much, + Loved I not honor more." + +He was the man who was willing to pour out his life's blood for a +principle. Intrenched in his own honesty, the king's gold could not buy +him; enthroned in the love of his fellow citizens, the king's writ +could not take him; and when, on the morning of Lexington, the king's +troops marched to seize him, his sublime faith saw, beyond the clouds +of the moment, the rising sun of the America we behold, and, careless +of himself, mindful only of his country, he exultingly exclaimed, "Oh, +what a glorious morning!" And then, amid the flashing hills, the +ringing woods, the flaming roads, he smote with terror the haughty +British column, and sent it shrinking, bleeding, wavering, and reeling +through the streets of the village, panic-stricken and broken. + +Him we gratefully recall to-day; him we commit in his immortal youth to +the reverence of our children. And here amid these peaceful fields,-- +here in the heart of Middlesex County, of Lexington and Concord and +Bunker Hill, stand fast, Son of Liberty, as the minuteman stood at the +old North Bridge. But should we or our descendants, false to justice or +humanity, betray in any way their cause, spring into life as a hundred +years ago, take one more step, descend, and lead us, as God led you in +saving America, to save the hopes of man. + +No hostile fleet for many a year has vexed the waters of our coast; nor +is any army but our own likely to tread our soil. Not such are our +enemies to-day. They do not come, proudly stepping to the drumbeat, +their bayonets flashing in the morning sun. But wherever party spirit +shall strain the ancient guarantees of freedom; or bigotry and +ignorance shall lay their fatal hands on education; or the arrogance of +caste shall strike at equal rights; or corruption shall poison the very +springs of national life,--there, Minuteman of Liberty, are your +Lexington Green and Concord Bridge. And as you love your country and +your kind, and would have your children rise up and call you blessed, +spare not the enemy. Over the hills, out of the earth, down from the +clouds, pour in resistless might. Fire from every rock and tree, from +door and window, from hearthstone and chamber. Hang upon his flank from +morn to sunset, and so, through a land blazing with indignation, hurl +the hordes of ignorance and corruption and injustice back--back in +utter defeat and ruin. + + +PAUL REVERE'S RIDE + +Reprinted with permission from "The Orations and Addresses of George +William Curtis," Vol. III. Copyright 1894, by Harper and Brothers. + +BY GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS + +On Tuesday, April 18, 1775, Gage, the royal governor, who had decided +to send a force to Concord to destroy the stores, picketed the roads +from Boston into Middlesex, to prevent any report of the intended march +from spreading into the country. But the very air was electric. In the +tension of the popular mind, every sound and sight was significant. In +the afternoon, one of the governor's grooms strolled into a stable +where John Ballard was cleaning a horse. John Ballard was a son of +liberty; and when the groom idly remarked in nervous English "about +what would occur to-morrow," John's heart leaped and his hand shook, +and, asking the groom to finish cleaning the horse, he ran to a friend, +who carried the news straight to Paul Revere. + +Gage thought that his secret had been kept, but Lord +Percy, who had heard the people say on the Common that +the troops would miss their aim, undeceived him. Gage +instantly ordered that no one should leave the town. But +Dr. Warren was before him, and, as the troops crossed the +river, Paul Revere was rowing over the river farther down +to Charlestown, having agreed with his friend, Robert +Newman, to show lanterns from the belfry of the Old North +Church,-- + + "One, if by land, and two, if by sea," + +as a signal of the march of the British. + It was a brilliant April night. The winter had been unusually mild and +the spring very forward. The hills were already green; the early grain +waved in the fields, and the air was sweet with blossoming orchards. +Under the cloudless moon the soldiers silently marched, and Paul Revere +swiftly rode, galloping through Medford and West Cambridge, rousing +every house as he went, spurring for Lexington and Hancock and Adams, +and evading the British patrols, who had been sent out to stop the +news. + +Stop the news! Already the village church bells were beginning to ring +the alarm, as the pulpits beneath them had been ringing for many a +year. In the awakening houses lights flashed from window to window. +Drums beat faintly far away and on every side. Signal guns flashed and +echoed. The watchdogs barked; the cocks crew. + +Stop the news! Stop the sunrise! The murmuring night trembled with the +summons so earnestly expected, so dreaded, so desired. And as, long +ago, the voice rang out at midnight along the Syrian shore, wailing +that great Pan was dead, but in the same moment the choiring angels +whispered, "Glory to God in the highest, for Christ is born," so, if +the stern alarm of that April night seemed to many a wistful and loyal +heart to portend the passing glory of British dominion and the tragical +chance of war, it whispered to them with prophetic inspiration, "Good +will to men; America is born!" + +There is a tradition that long before the troops reached Lexington an +unknown horseman thundered at the door of Captain Joseph Robbins in +Acton, waking every man and woman and babe in the cradle, shouting that +the regulars were marching to Concord and that the rendezvous was the +old North Bridge. Captain Robbins' son, a boy of ten years, heard the +summons in the garret where he lay, and in a few minutes was on his +father's old mare, a young Paul Revere, galloping along the road to +rouse Captain Isaac Davis, who commanded the minutemen of Acton. The +company assembled at his shop, formed, and marched a little way, when +he halted them and returned for a moment to his house. He said to his +wife, "Take good care of the children," kissed her, turned to his men, +gave the order to march, and saw his home no more. Such was the history +of that night in how many homes! + +The hearts of those men and women of Middlesex might break, but they +could not waver. They had counted the cost. They knew what and whom +they served; and, as the midnight summons came, they started up and +answered, "Here am I!" + + +THE ARTS OF THE ANCIENTS + +From "Speeches and Lectures," with the permission of Lothrop, Lee and +Shepard, Boston, publishers. + +BY WENDELL PHILLIPS + +We have a pitying estimate, a tender compassion, for the narrowness, +ignorance, and darkness of the bygone ages. We seem to ourselves not +only to monopolize, but to have begun, the era of light. In other +words, we are all running over with a fourth-day-of-July spirit of +self-content. I am often reminded of the German whom the English poet +Coleridge met at Frankfort. He always took off his hat with profound +respect when he ventured to speak of himself. It seems to me, the +American people might be painted in the chronic attitude of taking off +its hat to itself. + +Considering their employment of the mechanical forces, and their +movement of large masses from the earth, we know that the Egyptians had +the five, seven, or three mechanical powers; but we cannot account for +the multiplication and increase necessary to perform the wonders they +accomplished. + +There is a book telling how Domenico Fontana of the sixteenth century +set up the Egyptian obelisk at Rome on end, in the Papacy of Sixtus V. +Wonderful! Yet the Egyptians quarried that stone, and carried it a +hundred and fifty miles, and the Romans brought it seven hundred and +fifty miles, and never said a word about it. + +Take canals. The Suez canal absorbs half its receipts in cleaning out +the sand which fills it continually, and it is not yet known whether it +is a pecuniary success. The ancients built a canal at right angles to +ours; because they knew it would not fill up if built in that +direction, and they knew such a one as ours would. There were +magnificent canals in the land of the Jews, with perfectly arranged +gates and sluices. We have only just begun to understand ventilation +properly for our houses; yet late experiments at the Pyramids in Egypt +show that those Egyptian tombs were ventilated in the most perfect and +scientific manner. + +Again, cement is modern, for the ancients dressed and joined their +stones so closely, that, in buildings thousands of years old the thin +blade of a penknife cannot be forced between them. The railroad dates +back to Egypt. Arago has claimed that they had a knowledge of steam. A +painting has been discovered of a ship full of machinery, and a could +only be accounted for by supposing the motive power to have been steam. +Bramah acknowledges that he took the idea of his celebrated lock from +an ancient Egyptian pattern. De Tocqueville says that there was no +social question that was not discussed to rags in Egypt. + +"Well," say you, "Franklin invented the lightning rod." I have no doubt +he did; but years before his invention, and before muskets were +invented, the old soldiers on guard on the towers used Franklin's +invention to keep guard with; and if a spark passed between them and +the spearhead, they ran and bore the warning of the state and condition +of affairs. After that you will admit that Benjamin Franklin was not +the only one that knew of the presence of electricity, and the +advantages derived from its use. Solomon's Temple you will find was +situated on an exposed point of the hill: the temple was so lofty that +it was often in peril, and was guarded by a system exactly like that of +Benjamin Franklin. + +Well, I may tell you a little of ancient manufactures. The Duchess of +Burgundy took a necklace from the neck of a mummy, and wore it to a +ball given at the Tuileries; and everybody said they thought it was the +newest thing there. A Hindoo princess came into court; and her father, +seeing her, said, "Go home, you are not decently covered,--go home;" +and she said, "Father, I have seven suits on;" but the suits were of +muslin so thin that the king could see through them, A Roman poet says, +"the girl was in the poetic dress of the country." I fancy the French +would be rather astonished at this. Four hundred and fifty years ago +the first spinning machine was introduced into Europe. I have evidence +to show that it made its first appearance two thousand years before. + +Why have I groped among these ashes? I have told you these facts to +show you that we have not invented everything--that we do not +monopolize the encyclopedia. The past had knowledge. But it was the +knowledge of the classes, not of the masses. "The beauty that was +Greece and the grandeur that was Rome" were exclusive, the possession +of the few. The science of Egypt was amazing; but it meant privilege-- +the privilege of the king and the priest. It separated royalty and +priesthood from the people, and was the engine of oppression. When +Cambyses came down from Persia and thundered across Egypt, treading out +royalty and priesthood, he trampled out at the same time civilization +itself. + +The distinctive glory of the nineteenth century is that it distributes +knowledge; that it recognizes the divine will, which is that every man +has a right to know whatever may be serviceable to himself or to his +fellows; that it makes the church, the schoolhouse, and the town hall, +its symbols, and humanity its care. This democratic spirit will animate +our arts with immortality, if God means that they shall last. + + +A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY + +An extract from "A Man Without a Country" + +BY EDWARD EVERETT HALE + +Philip Nolan was as fine a young officer as there was in the "Legion of +the West," as the Western division of our army was then called. When +Aaron Burr made his first dashing expedition down to New Orleans in +1805, at Fort Massac, or somewhere above on the river, he met, as the +devil would have it, this gay, dashing, bright young fellow; at some +dinner party, I think. Burr marked him, talked to him, walked with him, +took him a day or two's voyage in his flatboat, and, in short, +fascinated him. For the next year, barrack life was very tame to poor +Nolan. He occasionally availed himself of the permission the great man +had given him to write to him. Long, high-worded, stilted letters the +poor boy wrote and rewrote and copied. But never a line did he have in +reply from the gay deceiver. The other boys in the garrison sneered at +him, because he sacrificed in this unrequited affection for a +politician the time which they devoted to Monongahela, hazard, and +high-low-jack. But one day Nolan had his revenge. This time Burr came +down the river, not as an attorney seeking a place for his office, but +as a disguised conquerer. He had defeated I know not how many district +attorneys; he had dined at I know not how many public dinners; he had +been heralded in I don't know how many "Weekly Arguses," and it was +rumored that he had an army behind him and an empire before him. It was +a great day--his arrival--to poor Nolan. Burr had not been at the fort +an hour before he sent for him. That evening he asked Nolan to take him +out in his skiff, to show him a canebrake or a cottonwood tree, as he +said--really to seduce him; and by the time the sail was over, Nolan +was enlisted body and soul. From that time, though he did not yet know +it, he lived as A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY. + +What Burr meant to do I know no more than you. It is none of our +business just now. Only, when the grand catastrophe came, and Jefferson +and the House of Virginia of that day undertook to break on the wheel +all the possible Clarences of the then House of York, by the great +treason trial at Richmond, some of the lesser fry in that distant +Mississippi Valley, which was farther from us than Puget's Sound is to- +day, introduced the like novelty on their provincial stage; and, to +while away the monotony of the summer at Fort Adams, got up, for +"spectacles," a string of court-martials on the officers there. One and +another of the colonels and majors were tried, and, to fill out the +list, little Nolan, against whom, Heaven knows, there was evidence +enough--that he was sick of the service, had been willing to be false +to it, and would have obeyed any order to march any-whither with any +one who would follow him had the order been signed, "By command of His +Exc. A. Burr." The courts dragged on. The big flies escaped--rightly +for all I know. Nolan was proved guilty enough, as I say; yet you and I +would never have heard of him, but that, when the president of the +court asked him at the close whether he wished to say anything to show +that he had always been faithful to the United States, he cried out, in +a fit of frenzy:--"Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of +the United States again!" + +I suppose he did not know how the words shocked old Colonel Morgan, who +was holding the court. He, on his part, had grown up in the West of +those days, in the midst of "Spanish plot," "Orleans plot," and all the +rest. He had spent half his youth with an older brother, hunting horses +in Texas; and, in a word, to him "United States" was scarcely a +reality. Yet he had been fed by "United States" for all the years since +he had been in the army. He had sworn on his faith as a Christian to be +true to "United States." It was "United States" which gave him the +uniform he wore, and the sword by his side. I do not excuse Nolan; I +only explain to the reader why he damned his country, and wished he +might never hear her name again. + +He never did hear her name but once again. From that moment, September +23, 1807, till the day he died, May 11, 1863, he never heard her name +again. For that half century and more he was a man without a country. + +Old Morgan, as I said, was terribly shocked. He called the court into +his private room, and returned in fifteen minutes, with a face like a +sheet, to say:-- + +"Prisoner, hear the sentence of the court! The court decides, subject +to the approval of the president, that you never hear the name of the +United States again." + +Nolan laughed. But nobody else laughed. Old Morgan was too solemn, and +the whole room was hushed dead as night for a minute. Even Nolan lost +his swagger in a moment. Then Morgan added:-- + +"Mr. Marshal, take the prisoner to Orleans in an armed boat, and +deliver him to the naval commander there." + +The marshal gave his orders and the prisoner was taken out of court. + +"Mr. Marshal," continued old Morgan, "see that no one mentions the +United States to the prisoner. Mr. Marshal, make my respects to +Lieutenant Mitchell at Orleans, and request him to order that no one +shall mention the United States to the prisoner while he is on board +ship. You will receive your written orders from the officer on duty +here this evening. The court is adjourned without day." + +The plan then adopted was substantially the same which was necessarily +followed ever after. The Secretary of the Navy was requested to put +Nolan on board a government vessel bound on a long cruise, and to +direct that he should be only so far confined there as to make it +certain that he never saw or heard of the country. One afternoon a lot +of the men sat on the deck smoking and reading aloud. Well, so it +happened that in his turn Nolan took the book and read to the others; +and he read very well. Nobody in the circle knew a line of the poem, +only it was all magic and Border chivalry, and was ten thousand years +ago. Poor Nolan read steadily through the fifth canto without a thought +of what was coming:-- + + "Breathes there the man with soul so dead, + Who never to himself hath said,"-- + +It seems impossible to us that anybody ever heard this for the first +time; but all these fellows did then, and poor Nolan himself went on, +still unconsciously or mechanically:-- + + "This is my own, my native land!" + +Then they all saw something was to pay; but he expected to get through, +I suppose, turned a little pale, but plunged on:-- + + "Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned + As home his footsteps he hath turned + From wandering on a foreign strand?-- + If such there breathe, go, mark him well,"-- + +By this time the men were all beside themselves, wishing there was any +way to make him turn over two pages; but he had not quite presence of +mind for that; he gagged a little, colored crimson, and staggered on:-- + + "For him no minstrel raptures swell; + High though his titles, proud his name, + Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, + Despite these titles, power, and pelf, + The wretch, concentred all in self,"-- + +and here the poor fellow choked, could not go on, but started up, swung +the book into the sea, vanished into his stateroom, and we did not see +him for two months again. He never entered in with the young men +exactly as a companion again; but generally he had the nervous, tired +look of a heart-wounded man. + +And when Nolan died, there was found in his Bible a slip of paper at +the place where he had marked the text:-- + +"They desire a country, even a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed +to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city." + +On this slip of paper he had written:-- + +"Bury me in the sea; it has been my home, and I love it. But will not +some one set up a stone for my memory at Fort Adams or at Orleans, that +my disgrace may not be more than I ought to bear? Say on it:-- + "In Memory of + "PHILIP NOLAN, + "_Lieutenant in the Army of the United States_. + "He loved his country as no other man has loved her; but + no man deserved less at her hands." + + +THE EXECUTION OF RODRIGUEZ + +From "Cuba in War Time," with the author's permission + +BY RICHARD HARDING DAVIS + +Adolfo Rodriguez was the only son of a Cuban farmer. When the +revolution broke out, young Rodriguez joined the insurgents, leaving +his father and mother and two sisters at the farm. He was taken by the +Spanish, was tried by a military court for bearing arms against the +government, and sentenced to be shot by a fusillade some morning before +sunrise. His execution took place a half mile distant from the city, on +the great plain that stretches from the forts out to the hills, beyond +which Rodriguez had lived for nineteen years. + +There had been a full moon the night preceding the execution, and when +the squad of soldiers marched out from town, it was still shining +brightly through the mists. It lighted a plain two miles in extent +broken by ridges and gullies and covered with thick, high grass and +with bunches of cactus and palmetto. + +The execution was quickly finished with rough, and, but for one +frightful blunder, with merciful swiftness. The crowd fell back when it +came to the square of soldiery, and the condemned man, the priests, and +the firing squad of six young volunteers passed in and the lines closed +behind them. + +Rodriguez bent and kissed the cross which the priest held up before +him. He then walked to where the officer directed him to stand, and +turned his back to the square and faced the hills and the road across +them which led to his father's farm. As the officer gave the first +command he straightened himself as far as the cords would allow, and +held up his head and fixed his eyes immovably on the morning light +which had just begun to show above the hills. + +The officer had given the order, the men had raised their pieces, and +the condemned man had heard the clicks of the triggers as they were +pulled back, and he had not moved. And then happened one of the most +cruelly refined, though unintentional, acts of torture that one can +very well imagine. As the officer slowly raised his sword, preparatory +to giving the signal, one of the mounted officers rode up to him and +pointed out silently--the firing squad were so placed that when they +fired they would shoot several of the soldiers stationed on the extreme +end of the square. + +Their captain motioned his men to lower their pieces, and then walked +across the grass and laid his hand on the shoulder of the waiting +prisoner. It is not pleasant to think what that shock must have been. +The man had steeled himself to receive a volley of bullets in the back. +He believed that in the next instant he would be in another world; he +had heard the command given, had heard the click of the Mausers as the +locks caught--and then, at that supreme moment, a human hand had been +laid upon his shoulder and a voice spoke in his ear. + +You would expect that any man who had been snatched back to life in +such a fashion would start and tremble at the reprieve, or would break +down altogether, but this boy turned his head steadily, and followed +with his eyes the direction of the officer's sword, then nodded his +head gravely, and with his shoulders squared, took up a new position, +straightened his back again, and once more held himself erect. As an +exhibition of self-control this should surely rank above feats of +heroism performed in battle, where there are thousands of comrades to +give inspiration. This man was alone, in sight of the hills he knew, +with only enemies about him, with no source to draw on for strength but +that which lay within himself. + +The officer of the firing squad, mortified by his blunder, hastily +whipped up his sword, the men once more leveled their rifles, the sword +rose, dropped, and the men fired. At the report the Cuban's head +snapped back almost between his shoulders, but his body fell slowly, as +though some one had pushed him gently forward from behind and he had +stumbled. He sank on his side in the wet grass without a struggle or +sound, and did not move again. + +At that moment the sun, which had shown some promise of its coming in +the glow above the hills, shot up suddenly from behind them in all the +splendor of the tropics, a fierce, red disk of heat, and filled the air +with warmth and light. + + + + +THE INFORMAL DISCUSSION + + +THE FLOOD OF BOOKS + +From "Essays in Application," with the permission of Charles Scribner's +Sons, New York, publishers. + +BY HENRY VAN DYKE + +There is the highest authority for believing that a man's life, even +though he be an author, consists not in the abundance of things that he +possesses. Rather is its real value to be sought in the quality of the +ideas and feelings that possess him, and in the effort to embody them +in his work. + +The work is the great thing. The delight of clear and steady thought, +of free and vivid imagination, of pure and strong emotion; the +fascination of searching for the right words, which sometimes come in +shoals like herring, so that the net can hardly contain them, and at +other times are more shy and fugacious than the wary trout which refuse +to be lured from their hiding places; the pleasure of putting the fit +phrase in the proper place, of making a conception stand out plain and +firm with no more and no less than is needed for its expression, of +doing justice to an imaginary character so that it shall have its own +life and significance in the world of fiction, of working a plot or an +argument clean through to its inevitable close: these inward and +unpurchasable joys are the best wages of the men and women who write. + +What more will they get? Well, unless history forgets to repeat itself, +their additional wages, their personal dividends under the profit- +sharing system, so to speak, will be various. Some will probably get +more than they deserve, others less. + +The next best thing to the joy of work is the winning of gentle readers +and friends who find some good in your book, and are grateful for it, +and think kindly of you for writing it. + +The next best thing to that is the recognition, on the part of people +who know, that your work is well done, and of fine quality. That is +called fame, or glory, and the writer who professes to care nothing for +it is probably deceiving himself, or else his liver is out of order. +Real reputation, even of a modest kind and of a brief duration, is a +good thing; an author ought to be able to be happy without it, but +happier with it. + + +EFFECTIVENESS IN SPEAKING + +From the Introduction to "The World's Famous Orations," with the +permission of Funk and Wagnalls Company, New York and London, +publishers. + +BY WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN + +While it is absolutely necessary for the orator to master his subject +and to speak with earnestness, his speech can be made more effective by +the addition of clearness, brevity and apt illustrations. + +Clearness of statement is of very great importance. It is not +sufficient to say that there are certain self-evident truths; it is +more accurate to say that all truth is self-evident. Because truth is +self-evident, the best service that one can render a truth is to state +it so clearly that it can be comprehended, needs no argument in its +support. In debate, therefore, one's first effort should be to state +his own side so clearly and concisely as to make the principles +involved easily understood. His second object should be so to divest +his opponent's argument of useless verbiage as to make it stand forth +clearly; for as truth is self-evident, so error bears upon its face its +own condemnation. Error needs only to be exposed to be overthrown. + +Brevity of statement also contributes to the force of a speaker. It is +possible so to enfold a truth in long-drawn-out sentences as +practically to conceal it. The epigram is powerful because it is full +of meat and short enough to be remembered. To know when to stop is +almost as important as to know where to begin and how to proceed. The +ability to condense great thoughts into small words and brief sentences +is an attribute of genius. Often one lays down a book with the feeling +that the author has "said nothing with elaboration," while in perusing +another book one finds a whole sermon in a single sentence, or an +unanswerable argument couched in a well-turned phrase. + +The interrogatory is frequently employed by the orator, and when wisely +used is irresistible. What dynamic power for instance, there is in that +question propounded by Christ, "What shall it profit a man if he gain +the whole world and lose his own soul?" Volumes could not have +presented so effectively the truth that he sought to impress upon his +hearers. + +The illustration has no unimportant place in the equipment of the +orator. We understand a thing more easily when we know that it is like +something which we have already seen. Illustrations may be drawn from +two sources--nature and literature--and of the two, those from nature +have the greater weight. All learning is valuable; all history is +useful. By knowing what has been we can better judge the future; by +knowing how men have acted heretofore we can understand how they will +act again in similar circumstances. But people know nature better than +they know books, and the illustrations drawn from everyday life are the +most effective. + +If the orator can seize upon something within the sight or hearing of +his audience,--something that comes to his notice at the moment and as +if not thought of before,--it will add to the effectiveness of the +illustration. For instance, Paul's speech to the Athenians derived a +large part of its strength from the fact that he called attention to an +altar near by, erected "to the Unknown God," and then proceeded to +declare unto them the God whom they ignorantly worshiped. + +Abraham Lincoln used scripture quotations very frequently and very +powerfully. Probably no Bible quotation, or, for that matter, no +quotation from any book ever has had more influence upon a people than +the famous quotation made by Lincoln in his Springfield speech of +1858,--"A house divided against itself cannot stand." It is said that +he had searched for some time for a phrase which would present in the +strongest possible way the proposition he intended to advance--namely, +that the nation could not endure half slave and half free. + +It is a compliment to a public speaker that the audience should discuss +what he says rather than his manner of saying it; more complimentary +that they should remember his arguments, than that they should praise +his rhetoric. The orator should seek to conceal himself behind his +subject. If he presents himself in every speech he is sure to become +monotonous, if not offensive. If, however, he focuses attention upon +his subject, he can find an infinite number of themes and, therefore, +give variety to his speech. + + +BOOKS, LITERATURE, AND THE PEOPLE + +From "Essays in Application," with the permission of Charles Scribner's +Sons, New York, publishers. + +BY HENRY VAN DYKE + +Every one knows what books are. But what is literature? It is the ark +on the flood. It is the light on the candlestick. It is the flower +among the leaves; the consummation of the plant's vitality, the crown +of its beauty, and the treasure house of its seeds. It is hard to +define, easy to describe. + +Literature is made up of those writings which translate the inner +meanings of nature and life, in language of distinction and charm, +touched with the personality of the author, into artistic forms of +permanent interest. The best literature, then, is that which has the +deepest significance, the most lucid style, the most vivid +individuality, and the most enduring form. + +On the last point contemporary judgment is but guess-work, but on the +three other points it should not be impossible to form, nor improper to +express, a definite opinion. + +Literature has its permanent marks. It is a connected growth, and its +life history is unbroken. Masterpieces have never been produced by men +who have had no masters. Reverence for good work is the foundation of +literary character. The refusal to praise bad work, or to imitate it, +is an author's personal chastity. + +Good work is the most honorable and lasting thing in the world. Four +elements enter into good work in literature:--An original impulse--not +necessarily a new idea, but a new sense of the value of an idea. A +first-hand study of the subject and the material. A patient, joyful, +unsparing labor for the perfection of form. A human aim--to cheer, +console, purify, or ennoble the life of the people. Without this aim +literature has never sent an arrow close to the mark. It is only by +good work that men of letters can justify their right to a place in the +world. The father of Thomas Carlyle was a stonemason, whose walls stood +true and needed no rebuilding. Carlyle's prayer was, "Let me write my +books as he built his houses." + + +EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS + +From an address before the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1890 + +BY CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT + +Before we can talk together to advantage about the value of education +in business, we ought to come to a common understanding about the sort +of education we mean and the sort of business. + +We must not think of the liberal education of to-day as dealing with a +dead past--with dead languages, buried peoples, exploded philosophies; +on the contrary, everything which universities now teach is quick with +life and capable of application to modern uses. They teach indeed the +languages and literature of Judea, Greece, and Rome; but it is because +those literatures are instinct with eternal life. They teach +mathematics, but it is mathematics mostly created within the lifetime +of the older men here present. In teaching English, French, and German, +they are teaching the modern vehicles of all learning--just what Latin +was in medieval times. As to history, political science, and natural +science, the subjects, and all the methods by which they are taught, +may properly be said to be new within a century. Liberal education is +not to be justly regarded as something dry, withered, and effete; it is +as full of sap as the cedars of Lebanon. + +And what sort of business do we mean? Surely the larger sorts of +legitimate and honorable business; that business which is of advantage +both to buyer and seller, and to producer, distributor, and consumer +alike, whether individuals or nations, which makes common some useful +thing which has been rare, or makes accessible to the masses good +things which have been within reach only of the few--I wish I could say +simply which make dear things cheap; but recent political connotations +of the word cheap forbid. We mean that great art of production and +exchange which through the centuries has increased human comfort, +cherished peace, fostered the fine arts, developed the pregnant +principle of associated action, and promoted both public security and +public liberty. + +With this understanding of what we mean by education on the one hand +and business on the other, let us see if there can be any doubt as to +the nature of the relations between them. The business man in large +affairs requires keen observation, a quick mental grasp of new +subjects, and a wide range of knowledge. Whence come these powers and +attainments--either to the educated or to the uneducated--save through +practice and study? But education is only early systematic practice and +study under guidance. The object of all good education is to develop +just these powers--accuracy in observation, quickness and certainty in +seizing upon the main points of new subjects, and discrimination in +separating the trivial from the important in great masses of facts. +This is what liberal education does for the physician, the lawyer, the +minister, and the scientist. This is what it can do also for the man of +business; to give a mental power is one of the main ends of the higher +education. Is not active business a field in which mental power finds +full play? Again, education imparts knowledge, and who has greater need +to know economics, history, and natural science than the man of large +business? + +Further, liberal education develops a sense of right, duty, and honor; +and more and more, in the modern world, large business rests on +rectitude and honor, as well as on good judgment. Education does this +through the contemplation and study of the moral ideals of our race; +not in drowsiness or dreaminess or in mere vague enjoyment of poetic +and religious abstractions, but in the resolute purpose to apply +spiritual ideals to actual life. The true university fosters ideals, +but always to urge that they be put into practice in the real world. +When the universities hold up before their youth the great Semitic +ideals which were embodied in the Decalogue, they mean that those +ideals should be applied in politics. When they teach their young men +that Asiatic ideal of unknown antiquity, the Golden Rule, they mean +that their disciples shall apply it to business; when they inculcate +that comprehensive maxim of Christian ethics, "Ye are all members of +one another," they mean that this moral principle is applicable to all +human relations, whether between individuals, families, states, or +nations. + + +THE BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN ORATORY + +From the author's lectures on oratory, with his permission + +BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON + +It is a singular fact that the three leaders of the revolution, in the +Massachusetts colony, John Adams, Sam Adams, and Oxenbridge Thatcher, +were all trained originally to be clergymen, and all afterwards +determined to be lawyers, and get their legal training in addition. +John Adams did it; Oxenbridge Thatcher did it. Sam Adams's parents held +so hard to the doctrine that the law was a disreputable profession that +they never allowed him to enter it. He went into business, but before +he got through, mixed himself up with legal questions more than the two +others put together. And what is more, and what has only lately been +brought out distinctly, there existed in the southern colonies +represented by Virginia very much the same feeling, only coming from a +different source. It was not a question of church membership or of +ecclesiastical training--the southern colonies never troubled +themselves very much about those things--but turned upon a wholly +different thing. The southern colonies were based on land ownership; +the aim was to build up a type of society like the English type, an +aristocratic system of landowners as in England. And these +miscellaneous men who, without owning large estates or large numbers of +slaves, came forward to try cases in court, were regarded with the same +sort of suspicion which the same class had to meet in Massachusetts. + +Patrick Henry, the greatest of Virginians for the purpose for which +Providence had marked him out, was always regarded by Jefferson in very +much the same light in which Sam Adams was by his uncles, who were +afraid he wanted to be a lawyer. Henry was regarded as a man from the +people, an irregularly trained man. Jefferson, you will find, +criticizes his pronunciation severely. He talked about "yearth" instead +of "earth." He said that a man's "nateral" parts needed to be improved +by "eddication." Jefferson had traveled in Europe and talked with +cultivated men in other countries. He did not do that sort of thing, +and he, not being a man of the most generous or candid nature, always +tries to make us think that Patrick Henry was a nobody who had very +little practice. And it was not until the admirable life of him written +for the "American Statesmen" series by my predecessor in this +lectureship, Moses Coit Tyler, whose loss we so greatly mourn, that it +was clearly made out that, on the contrary, he had an immense legal +practice and was wonderfully successful in a great variety of cases. + +So, both North and South, there was this antagonism to this new class +coming forward; and yet that new class stepped forward and took the +leadership of the American Revolution. Not that the clergy were false +to their duty. They did their duty well. There is a book by J. Wingate +Thornton, called "The Clergy of the American Revolution," which +contains an admirable and powerful series of sermons by those very +clergymen whom I have criticized for their limitations. They did their +part admirably, and yet one sees as time goes on that the lawyers are +taking matters into their own hands. + +But the change was not always a benefit to the style of oratory. It was +a period of somewhat formal style; it was not a period when the English +language was reaching to its highest sources. You will be surprised to +find, for instance, in the books and addresses of that period how +little Shakespeare is quoted, how much oftener much inferior poets. In +Edmund Burke's orations he quotes Shakespeare very little; and Edmund +Burke's orations are interesting especially for this, that they are not +probably the original addresses which he gave, are literature rather +than oratory, and are now generally supposed to have been written out +afterwards. + +Like Burke most of the orators of that period have a certain formal +style. When all is said and done, the clergy got a certain pithiness +from that terrific habit they had of going back every little while and +pinning down their thought with a text. One English clergyman of the +period compared his text to a horse block on which he ascended when he +wished to mount his horse, and then he rode his horse as long as he +wished and might or might not come back to that horse block again. +Therefore we see in the oratory of that time a certain formality. + +Moreover, in the absence of the modern reporter, we really do not know +exactly what was said in the greatest speeches of that day. The modern +reporter, whose aim is to report everything that is said, and who +generally succeeds in putting in a great many fine things which haven't +occurred to the orators--the modern reporter was not known, and we have +but very few descriptions even of the great orations. + + +DANIEL WEBSTER, THE MAN + +From the author's lectures on oratory, with his permission + +BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON + +It happened to me, when I was in college, to be once on some business +at an office on State Street in Boston, then as now the central +business street of the place, in a second-story office where there were +a number of young men writing busily at their desks. Presently one of +the youths, passing by accident across the room, stopped suddenly and +said,-- + +"There is Daniel Webster!" + +In an instant every desk in that room was vacated, every pane in every +window was filled with a face looking out, and I, hastening up behind +them, found it difficult to get a view of the street so densely had +they crowded round it. And once looking out, I saw all up and down the +street, in every window I could see, just the same mass of eager faces +behind the windows. Those faces were all concentrated on a certain +figure, a farmer-like, sunburned man who stood, roughly clothed, with +his hands behind him, speaking to no one, looking nowhere in +particular; waiting, so far as I could see, for nothing, with broad +shoulders and heavy muscles, and the head of a hero above. Such a brow, +such massive formation, such magnificent black eyes, such straight +black eyebrows I had never seen before. + +That man, it appeared, was Daniel Webster! I saw people go along the +street sidling along past him, looking up at him as if he were the +Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World in New York harbor. Nobody +knew what he wanted, it never was explained; he may have been merely +waiting for some companion to go fishing. But there he was, there he +stands in my memory. I don't know what happened afterwards, or how +these young men ever got back to their desks--if they ever did. + +For me, however, that figure was revealed by one brief duplicate +impression, which came in a few months afterwards when I happened to be +out in Brookline, a suburb of Boston, where people used to drive then, +as they drive now, on summer afternoons for afternoon tea--only, +afternoon tea not having been invented, they drove out to their +neighbors' houses for fruit or a cup of chocolate. + +You have heard Boston perhaps called the "Hub of the universe." A lady, +not a Bostonian, once said that if Boston were the hub of the universe, +Brookline ought to be called the "Sub-hub." In the "sub-hub" I was +sitting in the house of a kinsman who had a beautiful garden; who was +the discoverer, in fact, of the Boston nectarine, which all the world +came to his house to taste. I heard voices in the drawing-room and went +in there. And there I saw again before me the figure of that day on +State street, but it was the figure of a man with a beamingly good- +natured face, seated in a solid chair brought purposely to accommodate +his weight, sitting there with the simple culinary provision of a cup +of chocolate in his hand. + +It so happened that the great man, the godlike Daniel, as the people +used to call him, had expressed the very mortal wish for a little more +sugar in his chocolate; and I, if you please, was the fortunate youth +who, passing near him, was selected as the Ganymede to bring to him the +refreshment desired. I have felt ever since that I, at least, was +privileged to put one drop of sweetness into the life of that great +man, a life very varied and sometimes needing refreshment. And I have +since been given by my classmates to understand--I find they recall it +to this day--that upon walking through the college yard for a week or +two after that opportunity, I carried my head so much higher than usual +as to awaken an amount of derision which undoubtedly, if it had been at +West Point, would have led to a boxing match. + +That was Daniel Webster, one of the two great lawyers of Boston--I +might almost say, of the American bar at that time. + + +THE ENDURING VALUE OF SPEECH + +From the author's lectures on oratory, with his permission + +BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON + +The Englishman, as far as I have observed, as a rule gets up with +reluctance, and begins with difficulty. Just as you are beginning to +feel seriously anxious for him, you gradually discover that he is on +the verge of saying some uncommonly good thing. Before you are fully +prepared for it he says that good thing, and then to your infinite +amazement he sits down! + +The American begins with an ease which relieves you of all anxiety. The +anxiety begins when he talks a while without making any special point. +He makes his point at last, as good perhaps as the Englishman's, +possibly better. But then when he has made it, you find that he goes on +feeling for some other good point, and he feels and feels so long, that +perhaps he sits down at last without having made it. + +My ideal of a perfect speech in public would be that it should be +conducted by a syndicate or trust, as it were, of the two nations, and +that the guaranty should be that an American should be provided to +begin every speech and an Englishman provided to end it. + +Then, when we go a little farther and consider the act of speech +itself, and its relation to the word, we sometimes meet with a doubt +that we see expressed occasionally in the daily papers provided for us +with twenty pages per diem and thirty-two on Sunday, whether we will +need much longer anything but what is called sometimes by clergymen +"the printed word"--whether the whole form of communication through +oral speech will not diminish or fade away. + +It seems to me a truly groundless fear--like wondering whether there +will ever be a race with only one arm or one leg, or a race of people +who live only by the eye or by the ear. The difference between the +written word and the spoken word is the difference between solitude and +companionship, between meditation and something so near action that it +is at least halfway to action and creates action. It is perfectly +supposable to imagine a whole race of authors of whom not one should +ever exchange a word with a human being while his greatest work is +being produced. + +The greatest work of American literature, artistically speaking, +Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter," was thus produced. His wife records that +during the year that he was writing it, he shut himself up in his study +every day. She asked no questions; he volunteered no information. She +only knew that something was going on by the knot in his forehead which +he carried all that year. At the end of the year he came from his study +and read over to her the whole book; a work of genius was added to the +world. It was the fruit of solitude. + +And sometimes solitude, I regret as an author to say, extends to the +perusal of the book, for I have known at least one volume of poems of +which not a copy was ever sold; and I know another of which only one +copy was sold through my betraying the secret of the author and +mentioning the book to a classmate, who bought that one copy. + +Therefore, in a general way, we may say that literature speaks in a +manner the voice of solitude. As soon as the spoken word comes in, you +have companionship. There can be no speech without at least one person +present, if it is only the janitor of the church. Dean Swift in reading +the Church of England service to his manservant only, adapted the +service as follows: "Dearly beloved Roger, the Scripture moveth thee +and me in sundry places," etc.; but in that very economy of speech he +realized the presence of an audience. It takes a speaker and an +audience together to make a speech--I can say to you what I could not +first have said to myself. "The sea of upturned faces," as Daniel +Webster said, borrowing the phrase, however, from Scott's "Rob Roy"-- +"the sea of upturned faces makes half the speech." And therefore we may +assume that there will always be this form of communication. It has, +both for the speaker and for the audience, this one vast advantage. + + +TO COLLEGE GIRLS + +From "Girls and Education," by permission of, and by special +arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of +this author's works. + +BY LE BARON RUSSELL BRIGGS + +I doubt whether any one has told more effectively what a college may do +for a girl's mind than Dr. Thomas Fuller. In his "Church History of +Britain" he gives a short chapter to "The Conveniency of She-Colleges." +(I once quoted this chapter at Smith College, and was accused of making +it up.) "Nunneries also," he observes, "were good She-Schools, wherein +the girls and maids of the neighborhood were taught to read and work; +and sometimes a little Latin was taught them therein. Yea, give me +leave to say, if such feminine foundations had still continued, haply +the weaker sex might be heightened to a higher perfection than hitherto +hath been attained. That sharpness of their wits, and suddenness of +their conceits, which their enemies must allow unto them, might by +education be improved into a judicious solidity." + +The feminine mind, with its quick intuitions and unsteady logic, may +keep the intuitions and gain a firmness which makes it more than +transiently stimulating. The emotional mind has its charm, especially +if its emotions are favorable to ourselves. + +In some things it may be well that emotion is greater than logic; but +emotion _in logic_ is sad to contend with, sad even to contemplate--and +such is too often the reasoning of the untrained woman. Do not for a +moment suppose that I believe such reasoning peculiar to women; but +from the best men it has been in great measure trained out. + +In a right-minded, sound-hearted girl, college training tends toward +control of the nervous system; and control of the nervous system-- +making it servant and not master--is almost the supreme need of women. +Without such control they become helpless; with it they know scarcely a +limit to their efficiency. The world does not yet understand that for +the finest and highest work it looks and must look to the naturally +sensitive, whether women or men. I remember expressing to the late +Professor Greenough regret that a certain young teacher was nervous. +His answer has been a comfort to me ever since. "I wouldn't give ten +cents for any one who isn't." The nervous man or woman is bound to +suffer; but the nervous man or woman may rise to heights that the +naturally calm can never reach and can seldom see. To whom do you go +for counsel? To the calm, no doubt; but never to the phlegmatic-never +to the calm who are calm because they know no better (like the man in +Ruskin "to whom the primrose is very accurately the primrose because he +does not love it"). You go to the calm who have fought for their +calmness, who have known what it is to quiver in every nerve, but have +put through whatever they have taken in hand. + +There are numberless sweet and patient women who never studied beyond +the curriculum of the district school, women who help every one near +them by their own unselfish loveliness; but the intelligently patient, +the women who can put themselves into the places of all sorts of +people, who can sympathize not merely with great and manifest griefs, +but with every delicate jarring of the human soul--hardest of all, with +the ambitions of the dull--these women, who must command a respect +intellectual as well as moral, reach their highest efficiency through +experience based on college training. + +College life, designed as it is to strengthen a girl's intellect and +character, should teach her to understand better, and not worse, +herself as distinguished from other beings of her own sex or the +opposite, should fortify her individuality, her power of resisting, and +her determination to resist, the contagion of the unwomanly. +Exaggerated study may lessen womanly charm; but there is nothing loud +or masculine about it. Nor should we judge mental training or anything +else by scattered cases of its abuse. The only characteristics of women +that the sensible college girl has lost are feminine frivolity, and +that kind of headless inaccuracy in thought and speech which once +withheld from the sex--or from a large part of it--the intellectual +respect of educated men. + +At college, if you have lived rightly, you have found enough learning +to make you humble, enough friendship to make your hearts large and +warm, enough culture to teach you the refinement of simplicity, enough +wisdom to keep you sweet in poverty and temperate in wealth. Here you +have learned to see great and small in their true relation, to look at +both sides of a question, to respect the point of view of every honest +man or woman, and to recognize the point of view that differs most +widely from your own. Here you have found the democracy that excludes +neither poor nor rich, and the quick sympathy that listens to all and +helps by the very listening. Here too, it may be at the end of a long +struggle, you have seen--if only in transient glimpses--that after +doubt comes reverence, after anxiety peace, after faintness courage, +and that out of weakness we are made strong. Suffer these glimpses to +become an abiding vision, and you have the supreme joy of life. + + +THE ART OF ACTING + +From an address to the students of Harvard University, 1885. Published +in "The Drama; Addresses by Henry Irving," William Heinemann, London, +publisher, 1893 + +BY HENRY IRVING + +What is the art of acting? I speak of it in its highest sense, as the +art to which Roscius, Betterton, and Garrick owed their fame. It is the +art of embodying the poet's creations, of giving them flesh and blood, +of making the figures which appeal to your mind's eye in the printed +drama live before you on the stage. "To fathom the depths of character, +to trace its latent motives, to feel its finest quiverings of emotion, +to comprehend the thoughts that are hidden under words, and thus +possess one's self of the actual mind of the individual man"--such was +Macready's definition of the player's art; and to this we may add the +testimony of Talma. He describes tragic acting as "the union of +grandeur without pomp and nature without triviality." It demands, he +says, the endowment of high sensibility and intelligence. + +You will readily understand from this that to the actor the well-worn +maxim that art is long and life is short has a constant significance. +The older we grow the more acutely alive we are to the difficulties of +our craft. I cannot give you a better illustration of this fact than a +story which is told of Macready. A friend of mine, once a dear friend +of his, was with him when he played Hamlet for the last time. The +curtain had fallen, and the great actor was sadly thinking that the +part he loved so much would never be his again. And as he took off his +velvet mantle and laid it aside, he muttered almost unconsciously the +words of Horatio, "Good-night, sweet Prince" then turning to his +friend, "Ah," said he, "I am just beginning to realise the sweetness, +the tenderness, the gentleness of this dear Hamlet!" Believe me, the +true artist never lingers fondly upon what he has done. He is ever +thinking of what remains undone: ever striving toward an ideal it may +never be his fortune to attain. + +It is often supposed that great actors trust to the inspiration of the +moment. Nothing can be more erroneous. There will, of course, be such +moments, when an actor at a white heat illumines some passage with a +flash of imagination (and this mental condition, by the way, is +impossible to the student sitting in his armchair); but the great +actor's surprises are generally well weighed, studied, and balanced. We +know that Edmund Kean constantly practiced before a mirror effects +which startled his audience by their apparent spontaneity. It is the +accumulation of such effects which enables an actor, after many years, +to present many great characters with remarkable completeness. + +I do not want to overstate the case, or to appeal to anything that is +not within common experience, so I can confidently ask you whether a +scene in a great play has not been at some time vividly impressed on +your minds by the delivery of a single line, or even of one forcible +word. Has not this made the passage far more real and human to you than +all the thought you have devoted to it? An accomplished critic has said +that Shakespeare himself might have been surprised had he heard the +"Fool, fool, fool!" of Edmund Kean. And though all actors are not +Keans, they have in varying degree this power of making a dramatic +character step out of the page, and come nearer to our hearts and our +understandings. + +After all, the best and most convincing exposition of the whole art of +acting is given by Shakespeare himself: "To hold, as 'twere, the mirror +up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and +the very age and body of the time his form and pressure." Thus the poet +recognized the actor's art as a most potent ally in the representation +of human life. He believed that to hold the mirror up to nature was one +of the worthiest functions in the sphere of labor, and actors are +content to point to his definition of their work as the charter of +their privileges. + + +ADDRESS TO THE FRESHMAN CLASS AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY + +From "The Harvard Graduates Magazine" + +BY CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT + +Just in the last few years we have had a striking illustration of +strong reaction against prevailing educational policies. There has come +upon us right here on these grounds and among Harvard's constituents, +and widespread over the country as well, a distrust of freedom for +students, of freedom for citizens, of freedom for backward races of +men. This is one of the striking phenomena of our day, a distrust of +freedom. + +Now, there is no moment in life when there comes a greater sudden +access of freedom than this moment in which you find yourselves. When +young men come to an American college, I care not at all which +college--to any American college from the parents' home or from school, +they experience a tremendous access of freedom. Is it an injury? Is it a +danger? Are you afraid of it? Has society a right to be afraid of it? +What is freedom for? What does it do for us? Does it hurt us or help +us? Do we grow in it, or do we shrink in it? That is quite an important +question in the management of Harvard University. It is the important +question in modern government. It is pretty clear that when young men +or old men are free, they make mistakes, and they go wrong; having +freedom to do right or wrong, they often do right and they often do +wrong. When you came hither, you found yourselves in possession of a +new freedom. You can overeat yourselves, for example; you can +overdrink; you can take no care for sleep; you can take no exercise or +too much; you can do little work or too much; you can indulge in +harmful amusements: in short, you have a great new freedom here. Is it +a good thing for you or a bad thing? Clearly you can go astray, for the +road is not fenced. You can make mistakes; you can fall into sin. Have +you learned to control yourselves? Have you got the will-power in you +to regulate your own conduct? Can you be your own taskmaster? You have +been in the habit of looking to parents, perhaps, or to teachers, or to +the heads of your boarding schools or your day schools for control in +all these matters. Have you got it in yourselves to control yourselves? +That is the prime question which comes up with regard to every one of +you when you come to the University. Have you the sense and the +resolution to regulate your own conduct? + +It is pretty clear that in other spheres freedom is dangerous. How is +it with free political institutions? Do they always yield the best +government? Look at the American cities and compare them with the +cities of Europe. Clearly, free institutions do not necessarily produce +the best government. Are then free institutions wrong or inexpedient? +What is freedom for? Why has God made men free, as he has not made the +plants and the animals? Is freedom dangerous? Yes! but it is necessary +to the growth of human character, and that is what we are all in the +world for, and that is what you and your like are in college for. That +is what the world was made for, for the occupation of men who in +freedom through trial win character. It is choice which makes the +dignity of human nature. It is habitual choosing after examination, +consideration, reflection, and advice, which makes the man of power. It +is through the internal motive power of the will that men imagine, +invent, and thrust thoughts out into the obscure beyond, into the +future. The will is the prime motive power; and you can only train your +wills, in freedom. That is what freedom is for, in school and college, +in society, industries, and governments. Fine human character is the +ultimate object, and freedom is the indispensable condition of its +development. + +Now, there are some clear objects for choice here in college, for real +choice, for discreet choice. I will mention only two. In the first +place, choose those studies--there is a great range of them here--which +will, through your interest in them, develop your working power. You +know it is only through work that you can achieve anything, either in +college or in the world. Choose those studies on which you can work +intensely with pleasure, with real satisfaction and happiness. That is +the true guide to a wise choice. Choose that intellectual pursuit which +will develop within you the power to do enthusiastic work, an internal +motive power, not an external compulsion. Then choose an ennobling +companionship. You will find out in five minutes that this man stirs +you to good, that man to evil. Shun the latter; cling to the former. +Choose companionship rightly, choose your whole surroundings so that +they shall lift you up and not drag you down. Make these two choices +wisely, and be faithful in labor, and you will succeed in college and +in after life. + + +WITH TENNYSON AT FARRINGFORD + +From "Alfred Lord Tennyson, A Memoir by His Son," with the permission +of The Macmillan Company, New York and London, publishers. + +Before leaving for Aldworth we spent some delightful sunny days in the +Farringford gardens. In the afternoons my father sat in his summerhouse +and talked to us and his friends. + +This spring he had enjoyed seeing the unusually splendid blossom of +apple and pear tree, of white lilacs, and of purple aubretia that +bordered the walks. + +At intervals he strolled to the bottom of the kitchen garden to look at +the roses, or at the giant fig tree ("like a breaking wave," as he +said) bursting into leaf; or he marked the "branching grace" of the +stately line of elms, between the boles of which, from his summerhouse, +he caught a glimpse of far meadows beyond. He said that he did not +believe in Emerson's pretty lines:-- + + "Only to children children sing, + Only to youth the Spring is Spring." + +"For age does feel the joy of spring, though age can only crawl over +the bridge while youth skips the brook." His talk was grave and gay +together. In the middle of anecdotes he would stop short and say +something of what he felt to be the sadness and mystery of life. + +What impressed all his friends was his choice of language, the felicity +of his turns of expression, his imagery, the terseness of his unadorned +English, and his simple directness of manner, which none will ever be +able to reproduce, however many notes they may have taken. His dignity +and repose of manner, his low musical voice, and the power of his +magnetic dark eye kept the attention riveted. His argument was clear +and logical and never wandered from the point except by way of +illustration, and his illustrations were the most various I have ever +heard, and were taken from nature and science, from high and low life, +from the rich and from the poor, and his analysis of character was +always subtle and powerful. + +While he talked of the mysteries of the universe, his face, full of the +strong lines of thought, was lighted up; and his words glowed as it +were with inspiration. + +When conversing with my brother and myself or our college friends, he +was, I used to think, almost at his best, for he would quote us the +fine passages from ancient or modern literature and show us why they +are fine, or he would tell us about the great facts and discoveries in +astronomy, geology, botany, chemistry, and the great problems in +philosophy, helping us toward a higher conception of the laws which +govern the world and of "the law behind the law." He was so sympathetic +that the enthusiasm of youth seemed to kindle his own. He spoke out of +the fullness of his heart, and explained more eloquently than ever +where his own difficulties lay, and what he, as an old man, thought was +the true mainspring of human life and action; and + + "How much of act at human hands + The sense of human will demands + By which we dare to live or die." + +The truth is that real genius, unless made shallow by prejudice, is +seldom frozen by age, and that, until absolute physical decay sets in, +the powers of the mind may become stronger and stronger. + +On one of these June mornings, Miss L--, who was a stranger to us, but +whose brother we had known for some time, called upon us. My father +took her over the bridge to the summerhouse looking on the Down. After +a little while he said: "Miss L--, my son says I am to read to you," +and added, "I will read whatever you like." He read some of "Maud," +"The Spinster's Sweet-Arts," and some "Enoch Arden." + +His voice, as Miss L-- noticed, was melodious and full of change, and +quite unimpaired by age. There was a peculiar freshness and passion in +his reading of "Maud," giving the impression that he had just written +the poem, and that the emotion which created it was fresh in him. This +had an extraordinary influence on the listener, who felt that the +reader had been _present_ at the scenes he described, and that he +still felt their bliss or agony. + +He thoroughly enjoyed reading his "The Spinster's Sweet-Arts," and when +he was reading "Enoch Arden" he told Miss L-- to listen to the sound of +the sea in the line, + + "The league-long roller thundering on the reef," + +and to mark Miriam Lane's chatter in + + "He ceased; and Miriam Lane + Made such a voluble answer promising all." + + +NOTES ON SPEECH-MAKING + +From "Notes on Speech-Making," with the permission of Longmans, Green +and Company, New York and London, publishers. + +BY BRANDER MATTHEWS + +We are told that the five-minute speeches with which Judge Hoar year +after year delighted the Harvard chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa +contained but one original idea, clearly stated, and but one fresh +story, well told. This is indeed a model to be admired of all men; yet +how few of us will take the trouble of copying it! + +The speaker who rambles and ambles along, saying nothing, and his +fellow, the speaker who links jest to jest, saying little more, are +both of them unabashed in the presence of an audience. They are devoid +of all shyness. They are well aware that they have "the gift of the +gab"; they rejoice in its possession; they lie in wait for occasions to +display it. They have helped to give foreigners the impression that +every American is an oratorical revolver, ready with a few remarks +whenever any chairman may choose to pull the trigger. And yet there are +Americans not a few to whom the making of an after-dinner speech is a +most painful ordeal. When the public dinner was given to Charles +Dickens in New York, on his first visit to America, Washington Irving +was obviously the predestined presiding officer. Curtis tells us that +Irving went about muttering: "I shall certainly break down; I know I +shall break down." When the dinner was eaten, and Irving arose to +propose the health of Dickens, he began pleasantly and smoothly in two +or three sentences; then hesitated, stammered, smiled, and stopped; +tried in vain to begin again; then gracefully gave it up, announced the +toast, "Charles Dickens, the guest of the nation," and sank into his +chair amid immense applause, whispering to his neighbor, "There! I told +you I should break down, and I've done it." + +When Thackeray came, later, Irving "consented to preside at a dinner, +if speeches were absolutely forbidden; the condition was faithfully +observed" (so Curtis records), "but it was the most extraordinary +instance of American self-command on record." Thackeray himself had no +fondness for after-dinner speaking, nor any great skill in the art. He +used to complain humorously that he never could remember all the good +things he had thought of in the cab; and in "Philip" he went so far as +to express a hope that "a day will soon arrive (but I own, mind you, +that I do not carve well) when we shall have the speeches done by a +skilled waiter at a side table, as we now have the carving." + +Hawthorne was as uncomfortable on his feet as were Thackeray and +Irving; but his resolute will steeled him for the trial. When he dined +with the Mayor of Liverpool, he was called upon for the toast of the +United States. "Being at bay, and with no alternative, I got upon my +legs and made a response," he wrote in his notebook, appending this +comment: "Anybody may make an after-dinner speech who will be content +to talk onward without saying anything. My speech was not more than two +or three inches long; ... but, being once started, I felt no +embarassment, and went through it as coolly as if I were going to be +hanged." + +He also notes that his little speech was quite successful, "considering +that I did not know a soul there, except the Mayor himself, and that I +am wholly unpracticed in all sorts of oratory, and that I had nothing +to say." To each of these three considerations of Hawthorne's it would +be instructive to add a comment, for he spoke under a triple +disadvantage. A speech cannot really be successful when the speaker has +nothing to say. It is rarely successful unless he knows the tastes and +the temper of those he is addressing. It can be successful only +casually unless he has had some practice in the simpler sort of +oratory. + + +HUNTING THE GRIZZLY + +From "Hunting the Grizzly" with the permission of G. P. Putnam's Sons, +New York and London, publishers. + +BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +For half a mile I walked quickly and silently over the pine needles, +across a succession of slight ridges separated by narrow, shallow +valleys. The forest here was composed of lodge-pole pines, which on the +ridges grew close together, with tall slender trunks, while in the +valleys the growth was more open. Though the sun was behind the +mountains, there was yet plenty of light by which to shoot, but it +faded rapidly. + +At last, as I was thinking of turning toward camp, I stole up to the +crest of one of the ridges, and looked over into the valley some sixty +yards off. Immediately I caught the loom of some large, dark object; +and another glance showed me a big grizzly walking slowly off with his +head down. He was quartering to me, and I fired into his flank, the +bullet, as I afterward found, ranging forward and piercing one lung. At +the shot he uttered a loud, moaning grunt and plunged forward at a +heavy gallop, while I raced obliquely down the hill to cut him off. +After going a few hundred feet, he reached a laurel thicket, some +thirty yards broad, and two or three times as long, which he did not +leave. I ran up to the edge and there halted, not liking to venture +into the mass of twisted, close-growing stems and glossy foliage. +Moreover, as I halted, I heard him utter a peculiar, savage kind of +whine from the heart of the brush. Accordingly, I began to skirt the +edge, standing on tiptoe and gazing earnestly to see if I could not +catch a glimpse of his hide. When I was at the narrowest part of the +thicket, he suddenly left it directly opposite, and then wheeled and +stood broadside to me on the hillside, a little above. He turned his +head stiffly toward me; scarlet strings of froth hung from his lips; +his eyes burned like embers in the gloom. + +I held true, aiming at the shoulder, and my bullet shattered the point +or lower end of his heart, taking out a big nick. Instantly the great +bear turned with a harsh roar of fury and challenge, blowing the bloody +foam from his mouth, so that I saw the gleam of his white fangs; and +then he charged straight at me, crashing and bounding through the +laurel bushes, so that it was hard to aim. I waited till he came to a +fallen tree, raking him as he topped it with a ball, which entered his +chest and went through the cavity of his body, but he neither swerved +nor flinched, and at the moment I did not know that I had struck him. +He came steadily on, and in another second was almost upon me. I fired +for his forehead, but my bullet went low, entering his open mouth, +smashing his lower jaw and going into the neck. I leaped to one side +almost as I pulled the trigger; and through the hanging smoke the first +thing I saw was his paw as he made a vicious side blow at me. The rush +of his charge carried him past. As he struck he lurched forward, +leaving a pool of bright blood where his muzzle hit the ground; but he +recovered himself and made two or three jumps onward, while I hurriedly +jammed a couple of cartridges into the magazine, my rifle holding only +four, all of which I had fired. Then he tried to pull up, but as he did +so his muscles seemed suddenly to give way, his head dropped, and he +rolled over and over like a shot rabbit. Each of my first three bullets +had inflicted a mortal wound. + +It was already twilight, and I merely opened the carcass, and then +trotted back to camp. Next morning I returned and with much labor took +off the skin. The fur was very fine, the animal being in excellent +trim, and unusually bright colored. Unfortunately, in packing it out I +lost the skull, and had to supply its place with one of plaster. The +beauty of the trophy, and the memory of the circumstances under which I +produced it, make me value it perhaps more highly than any other in my +house. + + + + +ARGUMENT AND PERSUASION + +DEBATES AND CAMPAIGN SPEECHES + + +ON RETAINING THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS + +SPEECH OF GEORGE F. HOAR + +A famous orator once imagined the nations of the world uniting to erect +a column to Jurisprudence in some stately capital. Each country was to +bring the name of its great jurist to be inscribed on the side of the +column, with a sentence stating what he and his country through him had +done toward establishing the reign of law and justice for the benefit +of mankind. + +I have sometimes fancied that we might erect here in the capital of the +country a column to American Liberty which alone might rival in height +the beautiful and simple shaft which we have erected to the fame of the +Father of the Country. I can fancy each generation bringing its +inscription, which should recite its own contribution to the great +structure of which the column should be but the symbol. + +The generation of the Puritan and the Pilgrim and the Huguenot claims +the place of honor at the base. "I brought the torch of freedom across +the sea. I cleared the forest. I subdued the savage and the wild beast. +I laid in Christian liberty and law the foundations of empire." + +The next generation says: "What my fathers founded I builded. I left +the seashore to penetrate the wilderness. I planted schools and +colleges and churches." + +Then comes the generation of the great colonial day: "I stood by the +side of England on many a hard-fought field. I helped humble the power +of France." + +Then comes the generation of the revolutionary time: "I encountered the +power of England. I declared and won the independence of my country. I +placed that declaration on the eternal principles of justice and +righteousness which all mankind have read, and on which all mankind +will one day stand. I affirmed the dignity of human nature and the +right of the people to govern themselves." + +The next generation says: "I encountered England again. I vindicated +the right of an American ship to sail the seas the wide world over +without molestation. I made the American sailor as safe at the ends of +the earth as my fathers had made the American farmer safe in his home." + +Then comes the next generation: "I did the mighty deeds which in your +younger years you saw and which your fathers told. I saved the Union. I +freed the slave. I made of every slave a freeman, and of every freeman +a citizen, and of every citizen a voter." + +Then comes another who did the great work in peace, in which so many of +you had an honorable share: "I kept the faith. I paid the debt. I +brought in conciliation and peace instead of war. I built up our vast +domestic commerce. I made my country the richest, freest, strongest, +happiest people on the face of the earth." + +And now what have we to say? What have we to say? Are we to have a +place in that honorable company? Must we engrave on that column: "We +repealed the Declaration of Independence. We changed the Munroe +Doctrine from a doctrine of eternal righteousness and justice, resting +on the consent of the governed, to a doctrine of brutal selfishness, +looking only to our own advantage. We crushed the only republic in +Asia. We made war on the only Christian people in the East. We +converted a war of glory into a war of shame. We vulgarized the +American flag. We introduced perfidy into the practice of war. We +inflicted torture on unarmed men to extort confession. We put children +to death. We established reconcentrado camps. We devastated provinces. +We baffled the aspirations of a people for liberty"? + +No, Mr. President. Never! Never! Other and better counsels will yet +prevail. The hours are long in the life of a great people. The +irrevocable step is not yet taken. + +Let us at least have this to say: "We, too, have kept the faith of the +fathers. We took Cuba by the hand. We delivered her from her age-long +bondage. We welcomed her to the family of nations. We set mankind an +example never beheld before of moderation in victory. We led hesitating +and halting Europe to the deliverance of their beleaguered ambassadors +in China. We marched through a hostile country--a country cruel and +barbarous--without anger or revenge. We returned benefit for injury, +and pity for cruelty. We made the name of America beloved in the East +as in the West. We kept faith with the Philippine people. We kept faith +with our own history. We kept our national honor unsullied. The flag +which we received without a rent we handed down without a stain." + + +SPEECH OF WILLIAM MCKINLEY + +I do not know why in the year 1899 this Republic has unexpectedly had +placed before it mighty problems which it must face and meet. They have +come and are here, and they could not be kept away. We have fought a +war with Spain. + +The Philippines, like Cuba and Porto Rico, were intrusted to our hands +by the war, and to that great trust, under the Providence of God and in +the name of human progress and civilization, we are committed. It is a +trust we have not sought; it is a trust from which we will not flinch. +The American people will hold up the hands of their servants at home to +whom they commit its execution, while Dewey and Otis and the brave men +whom they command will have the support of the country in upholding our +flag where it now floats, the symbol and assurance of liberty and +justice. + +There is universal agreement that the Philippines shall not be turned +back to Spain. No true American consents to that. Even if unwilling to +accept them ourselves, it would have been a weak evasion of manly duty +to require Spain to transfer them to some other power or powers, and +thus shirk our own responsibility. Even if we had had, as we did not +have, the power to compel such a transfer, it could not have been made +without the most serious international complications. Such a course +could not be thought of. And yet had we refused to accept the cession +of them, we should have had no power over them even for their own good. + +We could not discharge the responsibilities upon us until these islands +became ours, either by conquest or treaty. There was but one +alternative, and that was either Spain or the United States in the +Philippines. The other suggestions--first, that they should be tossed +into the arena of contention for the strife of nations; or, second, be +left to the anarchy and chaos of no protectorate at all--were too +shameful to be considered. + +The treaty gave them to the United States. Could we have required less +and done our duty? Could we, after freeing the Filipinos from the +domination of Spain, have left them without government and without +power to protect life or property or to perform the international +obligations essential to an independent state? Could we have left them +in a state of anarchy and justified ourselves in our own consciences or +before the tribunal of mankind? Could we have done that in the sight of +God or man? + +No imperial designs lurk in the American mind. They are alien to +American sentiment, thought, and purpose. Our priceless principles +undergo no change under a tropical sun. They go with the flag. They are +wrought in every one of its sacred folds, and are indistinguishable as +its shining stars. + + "Why read ye not the changeless truth, + The free can conquer but to save?" + +If we can benefit these remote peoples, who will object? If in the +years of the future they are established in government under law and +liberty, who will regret our perils and sacrifices? Who will not +rejoice in our heroism and humanity? Always perils, and always after +them safety; always darkness and clouds, but always shining through +them the light and the sunshine; always cost and sacrifice, but always +after them the fruition of liberty, education, and civilization. + +I have no light or knowledge not common to my countrymen. I do not +prophesy. The present is all-absorbing to me, but I cannot bound my +vision by the blood-stained trenches around Manila, where every red +drop, whether from the veins of an American soldier or a misguided +Filipino, is anguish to my heart; but by the broad range of future +years, when that group of islands, under the impulse of the year just +past, shall have become the gems and glories of those tropical seas; a +land of plenty and of increasing possibilities; a people redeemed from +savage indolence and habits, devoted to the arts of peace, in touch +with the commerce and trade of all nations, enjoying the blessings of +freedom, of civil and religious liberty, of education and of homes, and +whose children and children's children shall for ages hence bless the +American Republic because it emancipated and redeemed their fatherland +and set them in the pathway of the world's best civilization. + + +DEBATE ON THE TARIFF + +SPEECH OF THOMAS B. REED + +Whether the universal sentiment in favor of protection as applied to +every country is sound or not, I do not stop to discuss. Whether it is +best for the United States of America alone concerns me now, and the +first thing I have to say is, that after thirty years of protection, +undisturbed by any menace of free trade, up to the very year now last +past, this country was the greatest and most flourishing nation on the +face of this earth. Moreover, with the shadow of this unjustifiable +bill resting cold upon it, with mills closed, with hundreds of +thousands of men unemployed, industry at a standstill, and prospects +before it more gloomy than ever marked its history--except once--this +country is still the greatest and the richest that the sun shines on, +or ever did shine on. + +According to the usual story that is told, England had been engaged +with a long and vain struggle with the demon of protection, and had +been year after year sinking farther into the depths until at a moment +when she was in her distress and saddest plight her manufacturing +system broke down, "protection, having destroyed home trade by +reducing," as Mr. Atkinson says, "the entire population to beggary, +destitution, and want." Mr. Cobden and his friends providentially +appeared, and after a hard struggle established a principle for all +time and for all the world, and straightway England enjoyed the sum of +human happiness. Hence all good nations should do as England has done +and be happy ever after. + +Suppose England, instead of being a little island in the sea, had been +the half of a great continent full of raw material, capable of an +internal commerce which would rival the commerce of all the rest of the +world. + +Suppose every year new millions were flocking to her shores, and every +one of those new millions in a few years, as soon as they tasted the +delights of a broader life, would become as great a consumer as any one +of her own people. + +Suppose that these millions, and the 70,000,000 already gathered under +the folds of her flag, were every year demanding and receiving a higher +wage and therefore broadening her market as fast as her machinery could +furnish production. Suppose she had produced cheap food beyond all her +wants, and that her laborers spent so much money that whether wheat was +sixty cents a bushel or twice that sum hardly entered the thoughts of +one of them, except when some Democratic tariff bill was paralyzing his +business. + +Suppose that she was not only but a cannon shot from France, but that +every country in Europe had been brought as near to her as Baltimore is +to Washington--for that is what cheap ocean freights mean between us +and European producers. Suppose all those countries had her machinery, +her skilled workmen, her industrial system, and labor forty per cent +cheaper. Suppose under that state of facts, with all her manufacturers +proclaiming against it, frantic in their disapproval, England had been +called upon by Cobden to make the plunge into free trade, would she +have done it? Not if Cobden had been backed by the angelic host. +History gives England credit for great sense. + + +SPEECH OF CHARLES F. CRISP + +I assume that the cause of protection has no more able advocate than +the gentleman from Maine. I assume that the argument for protection can +be put in no more alluring form than that to which we have listened to- +day. So assuming, I shall ask you calmly and dispassionately to examine +with me that argument, to see upon what it is based, and then I shall +invoke the unprejudiced judgment of this House as to whether the cause +attempted to be sustained by the gentleman from Maine has been +sustained, or can be before any tribunal where the voice of reason is +heard or the sense of justice is felt. + +The gentleman from Maine, with a facility that is unequaled, when he +encounters an argument which he is unable to answer passes it by with +some bright and witty saying and thereby invites and receives the +applause of those who believe as he does. But the gentleman does not +attempt, the gentleman has not to-day attempted, to reply to the real +arguments that are made in favor of freer trade and greater liberty of +commerce. + +The gentleman points to the progress of the United States, he points to +the rate of wages in the United States, he points to the aggregated +wealth of the United States, and claims all this is due to protection. +But he does not explain how we owe these blessings to protection. He +says, we have protection in the United States, wages are high in the +United States; therefore protection makes high wages. + +When we ask the gentleman from Maine to give us a reason why a high +protective tariff increases the rate of wages he points to the glory, +the prosperity, and the honor of our country. We on this side unite +with him in every sentiment, in every purpose, in every effort that has +for its object the advancement of the general welfare of the people of +the United States, but we differ from him as to the method of promoting +their welfare. The gentleman belongs to that school who believe that +scarcity is a blessing, and that abundance should be prohibited by law. +We belong to that school who believe that scarcity is a calamity to be +avoided, and that abundance should be, if possible, encouraged by law. + +The gentleman belongs to that class who believe that by a system of +taxation we can make the country rich. He believes that it is possible +by tax laws to advance the prosperity of all the industries and all the +people in the United States. + +Either, Mr. Speaker, that statement is an absurdity upon its face, or +it implies that in some way we have the power to make some persons not +resident of the United States pay the taxes that we impose. I insist +that you do not increase the taxable wealth of the United States when +you tax a gentleman in Illinois and give the benefit of that tax to a +gentleman in Maine. Such a course prevents the natural and honest +distribution of wealth, but it does not create or augment it. + + +SOUTH CAROLINA AND MASSACHUSETTS + +Delivered in the United States Senate, January, 1830 + +BY ROBERT Y. HAYNE + +The gentleman has made a great flourish about his fidelity to +Massachusetts. I shall make no profession of zeal for the interests and +honor of South Carolina; of that my constituents shall judge. If there +be one State in the Union, Mr. President (and I say it not in a +boastful spirit), that may challenge comparison with any other for a +uniform, zealous, ardent, and uncalculating devotion to the Union, that +State is South Carolina. Sir, from the very commencement of the +Revolution up to this hour there is no sacrifice, however great, she +has not cheerfully made, no service she has ever hesitated to perform. +She has adhered to you in your prosperity; but in your adversity she +has clung to you with more than filial affection. No matter what was +the condition of her domestic affairs, though deprived of her +resources, divided by parties, or surrounded with difficulties, the +call of the country has been to her as the voice of God. Domestic +discord ceased at the sound; every man became at once reconciled to his +brethren, and the sons of Carolina were all seen crowding together to +the temple, bringing their gifts to the altar of their common country. + +What, sir, was the conduct of the South during the Revolution? Sir, I +honor New England for her conduct in that glorious struggle. But great +as is the praise which belongs to her, I think at least equal honor is +due to the South. They espoused the quarrel of their brethren with a +generous zeal, which did not suffer them to stop to calculate their +interest in the dispute. Favorites of the mother country, possessed of +neither ships nor seamen to create a commercial rivalship, they might +have found in their situation a guaranty that their trade would be +forever fostered and protected by Great Britain. But, trampling on all +considerations either of interest or of safety, they rushed into the +conflict, and, fighting for principle, periled all in the sacred cause +of freedom. Never were there exhibited in the history of the world +higher examples of noble daring, dreadful suffering, and heroic +endurance than by the Whigs of Carolina during the Revolution. The +whole State, from the mountains to the sea, was overrun by an +overwhelming force of the enemy. The fruits of industry perished on the +spot where they were produced, or were consumed by the foe. The "plains +of Carolina" drank up the most precious blood of her citizens. Black +and smoking ruins marked the places where had been the habitations of +her children. Driven from their homes into the gloomy and almost +impenetrable swamps, even there the spirit of liberty survived, and +South Carolina (sustained by the example of her Sumters and her +Marions) proved by her conduct that, though her soil might be overrun, +the spirit of her people was invincible. + + +REPLY BY DANIEL WEBSTER + +The eulogium pronounced by the honorable gentleman on the character of +the State of South Carolina for her Revolutionary and other merits +meets my hearty concurrence. I shall not acknowledge that the honorable +member goes before me in regard for whatever of distinguished talent, +or distinguished character, South Carolina has produced. I claim part +of the honor, I partake in the pride, of her great names. I claim them +for countrymen, one and all,--the Laurenses, the Rutledges, the +Pinckneys, the Sumters, the Marions, Americans all, whose fame is no +more to be hemmed in by State lines than their talents and patriotism +were capable of being circumscribed within the same narrow limits. In +their day and generation they served and honored the country, and the +whole country; and their renown is of the treasures of the whole +country. Him whose honored name the gentleman himself bears,--does he +esteem me less capable of gratitude for his patriotism, or sympathy for +his sufferings, than if his eyes had first opened upon the light of +Massachusetts instead of South Carolina? Sir, does he suppose it in his +power to exhibit a Carolina name so bright as to produce envy in my +bosom? No, sir, increased gratification and delight, rather. I thank +God that, if I am gifted with little of the spirit which is able to +raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of that other +spirit which would drag angels down. When I shall be found, sir, in my +place here in the Senate or elsewhere, to sneer at public merit because +it happens to spring up beyond the little limits of my own State or +neighborhood; when I refuse, for any such cause, or for any cause, the +homage due to American talent, to elevated patriotism, to sincere +devotion to liberty and the country; or, if I see an uncommon endowment +of Heaven, if I see extraordinary capacity and virtue in any son of the +South, and if, moved by local prejudice or gangrened by State jealousy, +I get up here to abate the tithe of a hair from his just character and +just fame,--may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth! + +Sir, let me recur to pleasing recollections; let me indulge in +refreshing remembrance of the past; let me remind you that, in early +times, no States cherished greater harmony, both of principle and +feeling, than Massachusetts and South Carolina. Would to God that +harmony might again return! Shoulder to shoulder they went through the +Revolution; hand in hand they stood round the administration of +Washington, and felt his own great arm lean on them for support. Unkind +feeling, if it exist, alienation and distrust, are the growth, +unnatural to such soils, of false principles since sown. They are +weeds, the seeds of which that same great arm never scattered. + +Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she +needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There +is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is +secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill; +and there they will remain forever. The bones of her sons, falling in +the great struggle for independence, now lie mingled with the soil of +every State from New England to Georgia; and there they will lie +forever. And, sir, where American liberty raised its first voice, and +where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives in the +strength of its manhood and full of its original spirit. If discord and +party strife shall succeed in separating it from that Union by which +alone its existence is made sure,--it will stand in the end by the side +of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked, and it will fall at +last, if fall it must, amidst the proudest monuments of its own glory +and on the very spot of its origin. + + +THE REPUBLICAN PARTY + +BY JOHN HAY + +Our platform is before the country. Perhaps it is lacking in novelty. +There is certainly nothing sensational about it. Its principles have +been tested by eight years of splendid success and have received the +approval of the country. It is in line with all our platforms of the +past, except where prophecy and promise in those days have become +history in these. We stand by the ancient ways which have proved good. +We come before the country in a position which cannot be successfully +attacked in front, or flank, or rear. What we have done, what we are +doing, and what we intend to do--on all three we confidently challenge +the verdict of the American people. The record of fifty years will show +whether as a party we are fit to govern; the state of our domestic and +foreign affairs will show whether as a party we have fallen off; and +both together will show whether we can be trusted for a while longer. + +I want to say a word to the young men whose political life is +beginning. Any one entering business would be glad of the chance to +become one of an established firm with years of success behind it, with +a wide connection, with unblemished character, with credit founded on a +rock. How infinitely brighter the future when the present is so sure, +the past so glorious! Everything great done by this country in the last +fifty years has been done under the auspices of the Republican Party. +Is not this consciousness a great asset to have in your mind and +memory? As a mere item of personal comfort is it not worth having? +Lincoln and Grant, Hayes and Garfield, Harrison and McKinley--names +secure in the heaven of fame--they all are gone, leaving small estates +in worldly goods, but what vast possessions in principles, memories, +sacred associations! It is a start in life to share that wealth. Who +now boasts that he opposed Lincoln? who brags of his voting against +Grant? though both acts may have been from the best of motives. In our +form of government there must be two parties, and tradition, +circumstances, temperament, will always create a sufficient opposition. +But what young man would not rather belong to the party that does +things, instead of one that opposes them; to the party that looks up, +rather than down; to the party of the dawn, rather than of the sunset? +For fifty years the Republican Party has believed in the country and +labored for it in hope and joy; it has reverenced the flag and followed +it; it has carried it under strange skies and planted it on far- +receding horizons. It has seen the nation grow greater every year and +more respected; by just dealing, by intelligent labor, by a genius for +enterprise, it has seen the country extend its intercourse and its +influence to regions unknown to our fathers. Yet it has never abated +one jot or tittle of the ancient law imposed on us by our God-fearing +ancestors. We have fought a good fight, but also we have kept the +faith. The Constitution of our fathers has been the light to our feet; +our path is, and will ever remain, that of ordered progress, of liberty +under the law. The country has vastly increased, but the great-brained +statesmen who preceded us provided for infinite growth. The discoveries +of science have made miraculous additions to our knowledge. But we are +not daunted by progress; we are not afraid of the light. The fabric our +fathers builded on such sure foundations will stand all shocks of fate +or fortune. There will always be a proud pleasure in looking back on +the history they made; but, guided by their example, the coming +generation has the right to anticipate work not less important, days +equally memorable to mankind. We who are passing off the stage bid you, +as the children of Israel encamping by the sea were bidden, to Go +Forward; we whose hands can no longer hold the flaming torch pass it on +to you that its clear light may show the truth to the ages that are to +come. + + +NOMINATING ULYSSES S. GRANT + +BY ROSCOE CONKLING + +In obedience to instructions I should never dare to disregard-- +expressing, also, my own firm convictions--I rise to propose a +nomination with which the country and the Republican party can grandly +win. The election before us is to be the Austerlitz of American +politics. It will decide, for many years, whether the country shall be +Republican or Cossack. The supreme need of the hour is not a candidate +who can carry Michigan. All Republican candidates can do that. The need +is not of a candidate who is popular in the Territories, because they +have no vote. The need is of a candidate who can carry doubtful States. +Not the doubtful States of the North alone, but doubtful States of the +South, which we have heard, if I understand it aright, ought to take +little or no part here, because the South has nothing to give, but +everything to receive. No, gentlemen, the need that presses upon the +conscience of this Convention is of a candidate who can carry doubtful +States both North and South. And believing that he, more surely than +any other man, can carry New York against any opponent, and can carry +not only the North, but several States of the South, New York is for +Ulysses S. Grant. Never defeated in peace or in war, his name is the +most illustrious borne by living man. + +His services attest his greatness, and the country--nay, the world-- +knows them by heart. His fame was earned not alone in things written +and said, but by the arduous greatness of things done. And perils and +emergencies will search in vain in the future, as they have searched in +vain in the past, for any other on whom the nation leans with such +confidence and trust. Never having had a policy to enforce against the +will of the people, he never betrayed a cause or a friend, and the +people will never desert nor betray him. Standing on the highest +eminence of human distinction, modest, firm, simple, and self-poised, +having filled all lands with his renown, he has seen not only the +highborn and the titled, but the poor and the lowly, in the uttermost +ends of the earth, rise and uncover before him. He has studied the +needs and the defects of many systems of government, and he has +returned a better American than ever. + +His integrity, his common-sense, his courage, his unequaled experience, +are the qualities offered to his country. The only argument, the only +one that the wit of man or the stress of politics has devised is one +that would have dumbfounded Solomon, because he thought there was +nothing new under the sun. Having tried Grant twice and found him +faithful, we are told that we must not, even after an interval of +years, trust him again. My countrymen! my countrymen! what +stultification does not such a fallacy involve! Is this an +electioneering juggle, or is it hypocrisy's masquerade? There is no +field of human activity, responsibility, or reason, in which rational +beings object to an agent because he has been weighed in the balance +and not found wanting. There is, I say, no department of human reason +in which sane men reject an agent because he has had experience making +him exceptionally competent and fit. + +This Convention is master of a supreme opportunity. It can name the +next President. It can make sure of his election. It can make sure not +only of his election, but of his certain and peaceful inauguration. + +Gentlemen, we have only to listen above the din and look beyond the +dust of an hour to behold the Republican party advancing with its +ensigns resplendent with illustrious achievements, marching to certain +and lasting victory with its greatest Marshal at its head. + + +THE CHOICE OF A PARTY + +From a speech delivered in New York, 1880. Depew's "Library of +Oratory," E. J. Bowen and Company, New York, publishers. + +BY ROSCOE CONKLING + +We are citizens of a republic. We govern ourselves. Here no pomp of +eager array in chambers of royalty awaits the birth of boy or girl to +wield an hereditary scepter. We know no scepter save a majority's +constitutional will. To wield that scepter in equal share is the duty +and the right, nay, the birthright, of every citizen. The supreme, the +final, the only peaceful arbiter here, is the ballot box; and in that +urn should be gathered and from it should be sacredly recorded the +conscience, the judgment, the intelligence of all. The right of free +self-government has been in all ages the bright dream of oppressed +humanity,--the sighed-for privilege to which thrones, dynasties, and +power have so long blocked the way. In the fullness of freedom the +Republic of America is alone in the earth; alone in its grandeur; alone +in its blessings; alone in its promises and possibilities, and +therefore alone in the devotion due from its citizens. + +The time has come when law, duty, and interest require the nation to +determine for at least four years its policy in many things. Two +parties exist; parties should always exist in a government of +majorities, and to support and strengthen the party which most nearly +holds his views is among the most laudable, meritorious acts of an +American citizen; and this whether he be in official or in private +station. Two parties contend for the management of national affairs. +The question is, Which of the two is it safer and wiser to trust? It is +not a question of candidates. A candidate, if he be an honest, genuine +man, will not seek and accept a party nomination to the presidency, +vice presidency, or Congress, and after he is elected become a law unto +himself. The higher obligations among men are not set down in writing +and signed or sealed; they reside in honor and good faith. The fidelity +of a nominee belongs to this exalted class, and therefore the candidate +of a party is but the exponent of a party. The object of political +discussion and action is to settle principles, policies, and issues. It +is a paltry incident of an election affecting fifty million people that +it decides for an occasion the aspirations of individual men. The +Democratic party is the Democratic candidate, and I am against the +ticket and all its works. + +A triumphant nationality--a regenerated constitution--a free Republic-- +an unbroken country--untarnished credit--solvent finances--unparalleled +prosperity--all these are ours despite the policy and the efforts of +the Democratic party. Along with the amazing improvement in national +finances, we have amazing individual thrift on every side. In every +walk of life new activity is felt. Labor, agriculture, manufactures, +commerce, enterprises, and investments, all are flourishing, content +and hopeful. But in the midst of this harmony and encouragement comes a +harsh discord crying, "Give us a change--anything for a change." This +is not a bearing year for "a change." Every other crop is good, but not +the crop of "change"--that crop is good only when the rest are bad. The +country does not need nor wish the change proposed, and to the pressing +invitation of our Democratic friends a good-natured but firm "No, I +thank you," will be the response at the polls. + +Upon its record and its candidates the Republican party asks the +country's approval, and stands ready to avow its purposes for the +future. It proposes to rebuild our commercial marine. It proposes to +foster labor, industry, and enterprise. It proposes to stand for +education, humanity, and progress. It proposes to administer the +government honestly, to preserve amity with all the world, observing +our own obligations with others and seeing that others observe theirs +with us, to protect every citizen in his rights and equality before the +law, to uphold the public credit and the sanctity of engagements; and +by doing these things the Republican party proposes to assure to +industry, humanity, and civilization in America the amplest welcome and +the safest home. + + +NOMINATING JOHN SHERMAN + +From a speech nominating a candidate for President of the United States +at the Republican National Convention, 1880 + +BY JAMES A. GARFIELD + +I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of this Convention with deep +solicitude. Nothing touches my heart more quickly than a tribute of +honor to a great and noble character; but as I sat in my seat and +witnessed this demonstration, this assemblage seemed to me a human +ocean in tempest. I have seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into +spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man; but I +remember that it is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea, +from which all heights and depths are measured. When the storm has +passed and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, when the sunlight +bathes its peaceful surface, then the astronomer and surveyor take the +level from which they measure all terrestrial heights and depths. + +Gentlemen of the Convention, your present temper may not mark the +healthful pulse of our people. Not here, in this brilliant circle, +where fifteen thousand men and women are gathered, is the destiny of +the Republic to be decreed for the next four years. Not here, where I +see the enthusiastic faces of seven hundred and fifty-six delegates, +waiting to cast their lots into the urn and determine the choice of the +Republic, but by four millions of Republican firesides, where the +thoughtful voters, with wives and children about them, with the calm +thoughts inspired by love of home and country, with the history of the +past, the hopes of the future, and reverence for the great men who have +adorned and blessed our nation in days gone by, burning in their +hearts,--there God prepares the verdict which will determine the wisdom +of our work to-night. Not in Chicago, in the heat of June, but at the +ballot boxes of the Republic, in the quiet of November, after the +silence of deliberate judgment, will this question be settled. + +Now, gentlemen, I am about to present a name for your consideration,-- +the name of one who was the comrade, associate, and friend of nearly +all the noble dead, whose faces look down upon us from these walls to- +night; a man who began his career of public service twenty-five years +ago. + +You ask for his monument. I point you to twenty-five years of national +statutes. Not one great, beneficent law has been placed on our statute +books without his intelligent and powerful aid. He aided in formulating +the laws to raise the great armies and navies which carried us through +the war. His hand was seen in the workmanship of those statutes that +restored and brought back "the unity and married calm of States." His +hand was in all that great legislation that created the war currency, +and in all the still greater work that redeemed the promises of the +government and made the currency equal to gold. + +When at last he passed from the halls of legislation into a high +executive office, he displayed that experience, intelligence, firmness, +and poise of character, which have carried us through a stormy period +of three years, with one half the public press crying "Crucify him!" +and a hostile Congress seeking to prevent success. In all this he +remained unmoved until victory crowned him. The great fiscal affairs of +the nation, and the vast business interests of the country, he guarded +and preserved while executing the law of resumption, and effected its +object without a jar and against the false prophecies of one half of +the press and of all the Democratic party. + +He has shown himself able to meet with calmness the great emergencies +of the government. For twenty-five years he has trodden the perilous +heights of public duty, and against all the shafts of malice has borne +his breast unharmed. He has stood in the blaze of "that fierce light +that beats against the throne"; but its fiercest ray has found no flaw +in his armor, no stain upon his shield. I do not present him as a +better Republican or a better man than thousands of others that we +honor; but I present him for your deliberate and favorable +consideration. I nominate JOHN SHERMAN, OF OHIO. + + +THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY + +From "The Speeches and Addresses of William E. Russell." Copyrighted +1893, by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, publishers. + +BY WILLIAM E. RUSSELL + +As I stand here to-night, a Democrat, speaking to Democrats, and to men +whose conscience party could not bind,--men who carry their sovereignty +each under his own hat,--there comes vividly back to me the stirring +words with which the chairman opened a similar meeting on the eve of +the great battle of 1884, "This is a union meeting;" and, as he spoke, +the minds of his hearers went back to war days, when principle was +placed above party, and patriotism above partisanship. + +Our union is not for the triumph of any man, but for the triumph of +ideas; for a living faith, a progressive spirit. It is of that to-night +I speak. + +It has often been said that there was little difference between the two +parties. Perhaps that was the criticism of honest men, whose earnest +desire for honest candidates led them to look no farther. To-day every +intelligent man in Massachusetts knows that there is a wide difference +between the parties,--all the difference that there is between standing +still and moving forward. I do not believe that this difference is +accidental. It is the natural evolution of the history and purpose of +the parties. A political prophet of a generation ago, who knew this +history, who had studied the Democratic faith, had seen the birth of +the Republican party and its purpose, could have predicted the position +of the parties to-day. The Democratic party is old enough to have +outlived and defeated all other parties, young enough to represent the +progressive spirit of to-day. It must be founded on vital principles +and have a living faith. Its creed from its first to its thirty-ninth +article is an abiding trust in the people, a belief that men, +irrespective of the accident of birth or fortune, have a right to a +voice in the government that rules them. Its principles are the +equality and freedom of all men in affairs of State and before the +altar of their God,--that there should be allowed the greatest possible +personal liberty, that a government least felt is best, that it should +lightly and never unnecessarily impose its burdens of taxation and +restriction, that in its administration there should be simplicity, +purity, and economy, and in its form it should be closely within the +reach and control of the people. + +Progress, merely as progress, is nothing; but progress that sees the +changes of a generation,--a blessed, lasting peace in place of the +horrors and burdens of civil war, a reunited, loyal country; progress +that hears the demand of the people for pure and economic +administration, for relief from restrictions and taxation; progress +that feels the discontent and suffering of great masses of the +people,--this progress, if willing and ready to shape into legislation +the new wishes and the new wants, rises to the height of statesmanship. + + +THE CALL TO DEMOCRATS + +From a speech opening the National Democratic Convention, at Baltimore, +Maryland, June, 1912. + +BY ALTON B. PARKER + +It is not the wild and cruel methods of revolution and violence that +are needed to correct the abuses incident to our Government as to all +things human. Neither material nor moral progress lies that way. We +have made our Government and our complicated institutions by appeals to +reason, seeking to educate all our people that, day after day, year +after year, century after century, they may see more clearly, act more +justly, become more and more attached to the fundamental ideas that +underlie our society. If we are to preserve undiminished the heritage +bequeathed us, and add to it those accretions without which society +would perish, we shall need all the powers that the school, the church, +the court, the deliberative assembly, and the quiet thought of our +people can bring to bear. + +We are called upon to do battle against the unfaithful guardians of our +Constitution and liberties and the hordes of ignorance which are +pushing forward only to the ruin of our social and governmental fabric. + +Too long has the country endured the offenses of the leaders of a party +which once knew greatness. Too long have we been blind to the bacchanal +of corruption. Too long have we listlessly watched the assembling of +the forces that threaten our country and our firesides. + +The time has come when the salvation of the country demands the +restoration to place and power of men of high ideals who will wage +unceasing war against corruption in politics, who will enforce the law +against both rich and poor, and who will treat guilt as personal and +punish it accordingly. + +What is our duty? To think alike as to men and measures? Impossible! +Even for our great party! There is not a reactionary among us. All +Democrats are Progressives. But it is inevitably human that we shall +not all agree that in a single highway is found the only road to +progress, or each make the same man of all our worthy candidates his +first choice. + +It is possible, however, and it is our duty to put aside all +selfishness, to consent cheerfully that the majority shall speak for +each of us, and to march out of this convention shoulder to shoulder, +intoning the praises of our chosen leader--and that will be his due, +whichever of the honorable and able men now claiming our attention +shall be chosen. + + +NOMINATING WOODROW WILSON + +At the National Democratic Convention, Baltimore, Maryland, June, 1912. + +BY JOHN W. WESCOTT + +The New Jersey delegation is commissioned to represent the great cause +of Democracy and to offer you as its militant and triumphant leader a +scholar, not a charlatan; a statesman, not a doctrinaire; a profound +lawyer, not a splitter of legal hairs; a political economist, not an +egotistical theorist; a practical politician, who constructs, modifies, +restrains, without disturbance and destruction; a resistless debater +and consummate master of statement, not a mere sophist; a humanitarian, +not a defamer of characters and lives; a man whose mind is at once +cosmopolitan and composite of America; a gentleman of unpretentious +habits, with the fear of God in his heart and the love of mankind +exhibited in every act of his life; above all a public servant who has +been tried to the uttermost and never found wanting--matchless, +unconquerable, the ultimate Democrat, Woodrow Wilson. + +New Jersey has reasons for her course. Let us not be deceived in our +premises. Campaigns of vilification, corruption and false pretence have +lost their usefulness. The evolution of national energy is towards a +more intelligent morality in politics and in all other relations. The +situation admits of no compromise. The temper and purpose of the +American public will tolerate no other view. The indifference of the +American people to politics has disappeared. Any platform and any +candidate not conforming to this vast social and commercial behest will +go down to ignominious defeat at the polls. + +Men are known by what they say and do. They are known by those who hate +and oppose them. Many years ago Woodrow Wilson said, "No man is great +who thinks himself so, and no man is good who does not try to secure +the happiness and comfort of others." This is the secret of his life. +The deeds of this moral and intellectual giant are known to all men. +They accord, not with the shams and false pretences of politics, but +make national harmony with the millions of patriots determined to +correct the wrongs of plutocracy and reestablish the maxims of American +liberty in all their regnant beauty and practical effectiveness. New +Jersey loves Woodrow Wilson not for the enemies he has made. New Jersey +loves him for what he is. New Jersey argues that Woodrow Wilson is the +only candidate who can not only make Democratic success a certainty, +but secure the electoral vote of almost every State in the Union. + +New Jersey will indorse his nomination by a majority of 100,000 of her +liberated citizens. We are not building for a day, or even a +generation, but for all time. New Jersey believes that there is an +omniscience in national instinct. That instinct centers in Woodrow +Wilson. He has been in political life less than two years. He has had +no organization; only a practical ideal--the reestablishment of equal +opportunity. Not his deeds alone, not his immortal words alone, not his +personality alone, not his matchless powers alone, but all combined +compel national faith and confidence in him. Every crisis evolves its +master. Time and circumstance have evolved Woodrow Wilson. The North, +the South, the East, and the West unite in him. New Jersey appeals to +this convention to give the nation Woodrow Wilson, that he may open the +gates of opportunity to every man, woman, and child under our flag, by +reforming abuses, and thereby teaching them, in his matchless words, +"to release their energies intelligently, that peace, justice and +prosperity may reign." New Jersey rejoices, through her freely chosen +representatives, to name for the presidency of the United States the +Princeton schoolmaster, Woodrow Wilson. + + +DEMOCRATIC FAITH + +From "The Speeches and Addresses of William E. Russell." Copyrighted, +1894, by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Publishers + +BY WILLIAM E. RUSSELL + +For the honor and privilege of addressing this gathering of Young +Democracy I am deeply grateful. With earnestness and enthusiasm, with +devotion to the party and its principles, and with unflinching loyalty +to its glorious leaders, Young Democracy meets to-day for organization +and action. Gladly it volunteers in a campaign where its very faith is +at stake; impatiently it awaits the coming of the battle. + +We fight for measures, not men; the principles of government, not men's +characters, are to be discussed; a nation's policy, not personal +ambition, is to be determined. + +Thank God, we enter the fight with a living faith, founded upon +principles that are just, enduring, as old as the nation itself, yet +ever young, vigorous, and progressive, because there is ever work for +them to do. Our party was not founded for a single mission, which +accomplished, left it drifting with no fixed star of principle to guide +it. It was born and has lived to uphold great truths of government that +need always to be enforced. The influence of the past speaks to us in +the voice of the present. Jefferson and Jackson still lead us, not +because they are glorious reminiscences, but because the philosophy of +the one, the courage of the other, the Democracy of both, are potent +factors in determining Democracy to-day. + +We believe that a government which controls the lives, liberties, and +property of a people in its administration should be honest, +economical, and efficient; and in its form a local self-government kept +near to the power that makes and obeys it. To safeguard the rights and +liberty of the individual, the Democratic party demands home rule. +Democracy stands beside the humblest citizen to protect him from +oppressive government; it is the bulwark of the silent people to resist +having the power and purpose of government warped by the clamorous +demands of selfish interests. Its greatest good, its highest glory, is +that it is, and is to be, the people's party. To it government is a +power to protect and encourage men to make the most of themselves, and +not something for men to make the most out of. + +And, lastly, we believe in the success, the glory, and the splendid +destiny of this great Republic. It leaped into life from the hands of +Democrats. More than three-quarters of a century it has been nurtured +and strengthened by Democratic rule. Under Democratic administrations, +in its mighty sweep, it has stretched from ocean to ocean, not as a +North and South and East and West, but now as a glorious Union of +sovereign States, reunited in love and loyalty, a great nation of +millions of loyal subjects. + +The faith we profess is distinctly an American faith; the principles we +proclaim are distinctly American principles, and have been from their +first utterance in the Declaration of Independence to their latest in +the platform of the St. Louis Convention; the policy they demand of us +as Democrats is emphatically an American policy. + +Our great leader lives in the faith we profess. He speaks in the +principles we assert. He leads because we follow Democracy, its faith, +its principles, and its policy and hail him as the foremost Democrat of +the Nation. Thus comes victory. Thus victory means something. Thus +power and responsibility go together, and the only influence behind him +are the wishes, the rights, and the welfare of the great American +people. In such a cause, with such a leader, there is no room for +failure. + + "To doubt would be disloyalty, + To falter would be sin." + + +ENGLAND AND AMERICA + +BY JOHN BRIGHT + +What can be more monstrous than that we, as we call ourselves, to some +extent, an educated, a moral, and a Christian nation--at a moment when +an accident of this kind occurs, before we have made a representation +to the American government, before we have heard a word from it in +reply--should be all up in arms, every sword leaping from its scabbard, +and every man looking about for his pistols and his blunderbusses? I +think the conduct pursued--and I have no doubt just the same is pursued +by a certain class in America--is much more the conduct of savages than +of Christian and civilized men. No, let us be calm. You recollect how +we were dragged into the Russian war--how we "drifted" into it. You +know that I, at least, have not upon my head any of the guilt of that +fearful war. You know that it cost one hundred millions of money to +this country; that it cost at least the lives of forty thousand +Englishmen; that it disturbed your trade; that it nearly doubled the +armies of Europe; that it placed the relations of Europe on a much less +peaceful footing than before; and that it did not effect a single thing +of all those that it was promised to effect. + +Now, then, before I sit down, let me ask you what is this people, about +which so many men in England at this moment are writing, and speaking, +and thinking, with harshness, I think with injustice, if not with great +bitterness? Two centuries ago, multitudes of the people of this country +found a refuge on the North American continent, escaping from the +tyranny of the Stuarts and from the bigotry of Laud. Many noble spirits +from our country made great experiments in favor of human freedom on +that continent. Bancroft, the great historian of his own country, has +said, in his own graphic and emphatic language, "The history of the +colonization of America is the history of the crimes of Europe." + +At this very moment, then, there are millions in the United States who +personally, or whose immediate parents have at one time been citizens +of this country. They found a home in the Far West; they subdued the +wilderness; they met with plenty there, which was not afforded them in +their native country; and they have become a great people. There may be +persons in England who are jealous of those States. There may be men +who dislike democracy, and who hate a republic; there may be those +whose sympathies warm only toward an oligarchy or a monarchy. But of +this I am certain, that only misrepresentation the most gross, or +calumny the most wicked, can sever the tie which unites the great mass +of the people of this country with their friends and brethren beyond +the Atlantic. + +Now, whether the Union will be restored or not, or the South achieve an +unhonored independence or not, I know not, and I predict not. But this +I think I know--that in a few years, a very few years, the twenty +millions of freemen in the North will be thirty millions, or even fifty +millions--a population equal to or exceeding that of this kingdom. When +that time comes, I pray that it may not be said among them, that in the +darkest hour of their country's trials, England, the land of their +fathers, looked on with icy coldness and saw unmoved the perils and +calamities of her children. As for me, I have but this to say: I am but +one in this audience, and but one in the citizenship of this country; +but if all other tongues are silent, mine shall speak for that policy +which tends, and which always shall tend, to generous thoughts, and +generous words, and generous deeds, between the two great nations who +speak the English language, and from their origin are alike entitled to +the English name. + + +ON HOME RULE IN IRELAND + +BY WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE + +There has been no great day of hope for Ireland, no day when you might +hope completely and definitely to end the controversy till now--more +than ninety years. The long periodic time has at last run out, and the +star has again mounted into the heavens. What Ireland was doing for +herself in 1795 we at length have done. The Roman Catholics have been +emancipated--emancipated after a woeful disregard of solemn promises +through twenty-nine years, emancipated slowly, sullenly, not from good +will, but from abject terror, with all the fruits and consequences +which will always follow that method of legislation. The second problem +has been also solved, and the representation of Ireland has been +thoroughly reformed; and I am thankful to say that the franchise was +given to Ireland on the readjustment of last year with a free heart, +with an open hand; and the gift of that franchise was the last act +required to make the success of Ireland in her final effort absolutely +sure. We have given Ireland a voice; we must all listen for a moment to +what she says. We must all listen, both sides, both parties--I mean as +they are divided on this question--divided, I am afraid, by an almost +immeasurable gap. We do not undervalue or despise the forces opposed to +us. I have described them as the forces of class and its dependents; +and that as a general description--as a slight and rude outline of a +description--is, I believe, perfectly true. You have power, you have +wealth, you have rank, you have station, you have organization. What +have we? We think that we have the people's heart; we believe and we +know we have the promise of the harvest of the future. As to the +people's heart, you may dispute it, and dispute it with perfect +sincerity. Let that matter make its own proof. As to the harvest of the +future, I doubt if you have so much confidence; and I believe that +there is in the breast of many a man who means to vote against us to- +night a profound misgiving, approaching even to a deep conviction, that +the end will be as we foresee, and not as you do--that the ebbing tide +is with you, and the flowing tide with us. Ireland stands at your bar, +expectant, hopeful, almost suppliant. Her words are the words of truth +and soberness. She asks a blessed oblivion of the past, and in that +oblivion our interest is deeper than even hers. My right honorable +friend, the member for East Edinburgh, asks us tonight to abide by the +traditions of which we are the heirs. What traditions? By the Irish +traditions? Go into the length and breadth of the world, ransack the +literature of all countries, find, if you can, a single voice, a single +book--find, I would almost say, as much as a single newspaper article, +unless the product of the day,--in which the conduct of England towards +Ireland is anywhere treated except with profound and bitter +condemnation. Are these the traditions by which we are exhorted to +stand? No; they are a sad exception to the glory of our country. They +are a broad and black blot upon the pages of its history; and what we +want to do is to stand by the traditions of which we are the heirs in +all matters except our relations with Ireland, and to make our +relations with Ireland to conform to the other traditions of our +country. So we treat our traditions, so we hail the demand of Ireland +for what I call a blessed oblivion of the past. She asks also a boon +for the future; and that boon for the future, unless we are much +mistaken, will be a boon to us in respect of honor, no less than a boon +to her in respect of happiness, prosperity, and peace. Such, sir, is +her prayer. Think, I beseech you, think well, think wisely, think, not +for the moment, but for the years that are to come, before you reject +this Bill. + + + + +THE LEGAL PLEA + + +THE DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CASE + +BY DANIEL WEBSTER + +The case before the court is not of ordinary importance, nor of +everyday occurrence. It affects not this college only, but every +college, and all the literary institutions of the country. They have +flourished hitherto, and have become in a high degree respectable and +useful to the community. They have all a common principle of existence, +the inviolability of their charters. It will be a dangerous, a most +dangerous experiment to hold these institutions subject to the rise and +fall of popular parties, and the fluctuations of political opinions. If +the franchise may be at any time taken away, or impaired, the property +also may be taken away, or its use perverted. Benefactors will have no +certainty of effecting the object of their bounty; and learned men will +be deterred from devoting themselves to the service of such +institutions, from the precarious title of their offices. Colleges and +halls will be deserted by all better spirits, and become a theater for +the contentions of politics. Party and faction will be cherished in the +places consecrated to piety and learning. + +When the court in North Carolina declared the law of the State, which +repealed a grant to its university, unconstitutional and void, the +legislature had the candor and the wisdom to repeal the law. This +example, so honorable to the State which exhibited it, is most fit to +be followed on this occasion. And there is good reason to hope that a +State which has hitherto been so much distinguished for temperate +counsels, cautious legislation, and regard to law, will not fail to +adopt a course which will accord with her highest and best interests, +and in no small degree elevate her reputation. + +It was for many and obvious reasons most anxiously desired that the +question of the power of the legislature over this charter should have +been finally decided in the State court. An earnest hope was +entertained that the judges of the court might have reviewed the case +in a light favorable to the rights of the trustees. That hope has +failed. It is here that those rights are now to be maintained, or they +are prostrated forever. + +This, sir, is my case. It is the case, not merely of that humble +institution, it is the case of every college in the land. It is more. +It is the case of every eleemosynary institution throughout our +country--of all those great charities formed by the piety of our +ancestors, to alleviate human misery, and scatter blessings along the +pathway of life. It is more! It is, in some sense, the case of every +man among us who has property, of which he may be stripped, for the +question is simply this: Shall our State legislatures be allowed to +take that which is not their own; to turn it from its original use, and +to apply it to such ends or purposes as they in their discretion shall +see fit? + +Sir, you may destroy this little institution; it is weak; it is in your +hands! I know it is one of the lesser lights in the literary horizon of +our country. You may put it out. But, if you do so, you must carry +through your work! You must extinguish, one after another, all those +greater lights of science, which, for more than a century, have thrown +their radiance over our land! + +It is, sir, as I have said, a small college, and yet there are those +who love it. + +Sir, I know not how others may feel, but for myself, when I see my Alma +Mater surrounded, like Cęsar, in the senate house, by those who are +reiterating stab after stab, I would not, for this right hand, have her +turn to me, and say, _et tu quoque, mi fili! And thou too, my son!_ + + +IN DEFENSE OF THE KENNISTONS + +BY DANIEL WEBSTER + +Gentlemen of the Jury,--It is true that the offense charged in the +indictment in this case is not capital; but perhaps this can hardly be +considered as favorable to the defendants. To those who are guilty, and +without hope of escape, no doubt the lightness of the penalty of +transgression gives consolation. But if the defendants are innocent, it +is more natural for them to be thinking upon what they have lost by +that alteration of the law which has left highway robbery no longer +capital, than what the guilty might gain by it. They have lost those +great privileges in their trial, which the law allows, in capital +cases, for the protection of innocence against unfounded accusation. +They have lost the right of being previously furnished with a copy of +the indictment, and a list of the government witnesses. They have lost +the right of peremptory challenge; and, notwithstanding the prejudices +which they know have been excited against them, they must show legal +cause of challenge, in each individual case, or else take the jury as +they find it. They have lost the benefit of assignment of counsel by +the court. They have lost the benefit of the Commonwealth's process to +bring in witnesses in their behalf. When to these circumstances it is +added that they are strangers, almost wholly without friends, and +without the means for preparing their defense, it is evident they must +take their trial under great disadvantages. + +But without dwelling on these considerations, I proceed, Gentlemen of +the Jury, to ask your attention to those circumstances which cannot but +cast doubts on the story of the prosecutor. + +The jury will naturally look to the appearances exhibited on the field +after the robbery. The portmanteau was there. The witnesses say that +the straps which fastened it to the saddle had been neither cut nor +broken. They were carefully unbuckled. This was very considerate for +robbers. It had been opened, and its contents were scattered about the +field. The pocket book, too, had been opened, and many papers it +contained found on the ground. Nothing valuable was lost but money. The +robbers did not think it well to go off at once with the portmanteau +and the pocket book. The place was so secure, so remote, so +unfrequented; they were so far from the highway, at least one full rod; +there were so few persons passing, probably not more than four or five +then in the road, within hearing of the pistols and the cries of +Goodridge; there being, too, not above five or six dwelling-houses, +full of people, within the hearing of the report of a pistol; these +circumstances were all so favorable to their safety, that the robbers +sat down to look over the prosecutor's papers, carefully examined the +contents of his pocket book and portmanteau, and took only the things +which they needed! There was money belonging to other persons. The +robbers did not take it. They found out it was not the prosecutor's, +and left it. It may be said to be favorable to the prosecutor's story, +that the money which did not belong to him, and the plunder of which +would seem to be the most probable inducement he could have to feign a +robbery, was not taken. But the jury will consider whether this +circumstance does not bear quite as strongly the other way, and whether +they can believe that robbers could have left this money, either from +accident or design. + +II + +The witnesses on the part of the prosecution have testified that the +defendants, when arrested, manifested great agitation and alarm; +paleness overspread their faces, and drops of sweat stood on their +temples. This satisfied the witnesses of the defendants' guilt, and +they now state the circumstances as being indubitable proof. This +argument manifests, in those who use it, an equal want of sense and +sensibility. It is precisely fitted to the feeling and the intellect of +a bum-bailiff. In a court of justice it deserves nothing but contempt. +Is there nothing that can agitate the frame or excite the blood but the +consciousness of guilt? If the defendants were innocent, would they not +feel indignation at this unjust accusation? If they saw an attempt to +produce false evidence against them, would they not be angry? And, +seeing the production of such evidence, might they not feel fear and +alarm? And have indignation, and anger, and terror no power to affect +the human countenance or the human frame? + +Miserable, miserable, indeed, is the reasoning which would infer any +man's guilt from his agitation when he found himself accused of a +heinous offense; when he saw evidence which he might know to be false +and fraudulent brought against him; when his house was filled, from the +garret to the cellar, by those whom he might esteem as false witnesses; +and when he himself, instead of being at liberty to observe their +conduct and watch their motions, was a prisoner in close custody in his +own house, with the fists of a catchpoll clenched upon his throat. + +From the time of the robbery to the arrest, five or six weeks, the +defendants were engaged in their usual occupations. They are not found +to have passed a dollar of money to anybody. They continued their +ordinary habits of labor. No man saw money about them, nor any +circumstance that might lead to a suspicion that they had money. +Nothing occurred tending in any degree to excite suspicion against +them. When arrested, and when all this array of evidence was brought +against them, and when they could hope in nothing but their innocence, +immunity was offered them again if they would confess. They were +pressed, and urged, and allured, by every motive which could be set +before them, to acknowledge their participation in the offense, and to +bring out their accomplices. They steadily protested that they could +confess nothing because they knew nothing. In defiance of all the +discoveries made in their house, they have trusted to their innocence. +On that, and on the candor and discernment of an enlightened jury, they +still rely. + +If the jury are satisfied that there is the highest improbability that +these persons could have had any previous knowledge of Goodridge, or +been concerned in any previous concert to rob him; if their conduct +that evening and the next day was marked by no circumstance of +suspicion; if from that moment until their arrest nothing appeared +against them; if they neither passed money, nor are found to have had +money; if the manner of the search of their house, and the +circumstances attending it, excite strong suspicions of unfair and +fraudulent practices; if, in the hour of their utmost peril, no +promises of safety could draw from the defendants any confession +affecting themselves or others, it will be for the jury to say whether +they can pronounce them guilty. + + +IN DEFENCE OF JOHN E. COOK + +Published in Depew's "Library of Oratory," E. J. Bowen and Company, +New York, publishers. + +BY D. W. VOORHEES + +Who is John E. Cook? + +He has the right himself to be heard before you; but I will answer for +him. Sprung from an ancestry of loyal attachment to the American +government, he inherits no blood of tainted impurity. His grandfather, +an officer of the Revolution, by which your liberty, as well as mine, +was achieved, and his gray-haired father, who lived to weep over him, a +soldier of the war of 1812, he brings no dishonored lineage into your +presence. Born of a parent stock occupying the middle walks of life, +and possessed of all those tender and domestic virtues which escape the +contamination of those vices that dwell on the frozen peaks, or in the +dark and deep caverns of society, he would not have been here had +precept and example been remembered in the prodigal wanderings of his +short and checkered life. + +Poor deluded boy! wayward, misled child! An evil star presided over thy +natal hour and smote it with gloom. + +In an evil hour--and may it be forever accursed!--John E. Cook met John +Brown on the prostituted plains of Kansas. On that field of fanaticism, +three years ago, this fair and gentle youth was thrown into contact +with the pirate and robber of civil warfare. + +Now look at John Cook, the follower. He is in evidence before you. +Never did I plead for a face that I was more willing to show. If evil +is there, I have not seen it. If murder is there, I am to learn to mark +the lines of the murderer anew. If the assassin is in that young face, +then commend me to the look of an assassin. No, gentlemen, it is a face +for a mother to love, and a sister to idolize, and in which the natural +goodness of his heart pleads trumpet-tongued against the deep damnation +that estranged him from home and its principles. + +John Brown was the despotic leader and John E. Cook was an ill-fated +follower of an enterprise whose horror be now realizes and deplores. I +defy the man, here or elsewhere, who has ever known John E. Cook, who +has ever looked once fully into his face, and learned anything of his +history, to lay his hand on his heart and say that he believes him +guilty of the origin or the results of the outbreak at Harper's Ferry. + +Here, then, are the two characters whom you are thinking to punish +alike. Can it be that a jury of Christian men will find no +discrimination should be made between them? Are the tempter and the +tempted the same in your eyes? Is the beguiled youth to die the same as +the old offender who has pondered his crimes for thirty years? Are +there no grades in your estimations of guilt? Is each one, without +respect to age or circumstances, to be beaten with the same number of +stripes? + +Such is not the law, human or divine. We are all to be rewarded +according to our works, whether in punishment for evil, or blessings +for good that we have done. You are here to do justice, and if justice +requires the same fate to befall Cook that befalls Brown, I know +nothing of her rules, and do not care to learn. They are as widely +asunder, in all that constitutes guilt, as the poles of the earth, and +should be dealt with accordingly. It is in your power to do so, and by +the principles by which you yourselves are willing to be judged +hereafter, I implore you to do it! + + +IN DEFENSE OF THE SOLDIERS + +Published in "Depew's Library of Oratory," E. J. Bowen and Company, +New York, publishers + +BY JOSIAH QUINCY, JR. + +May it please your honors, and you gentlemen of the jury,--We have at +length gone through the evidence in behalf of the prisoners. The +witnesses have now placed before you that state of facts from which +results our defense. + +I stated to you, gentlemen, your duty in opening this cause--do not +forget the discharge of it. You are paying a debt you owe the community +for your own protection and safety: by the same mode of trial are your +own rights to receive a determination; and in your turn a time may come +when you will expect and claim a similar return from some other jury of +your fellow subjects. + +How much need was there for my desire that you should suspend your +judgment till the witnesses were all examined? How different is the +complexion of the cause? Will not all this serve to show every honest +man the little truth to be attained in partial hearings? In the present +case, how great was the prepossession against us? And I appeal to you, +gentlemen, what cause there now is to alter our sentiments? Will any +sober, prudent man countenance the proceedings of the people in King +Street,--can any one justify their conduct,--is there any one man or +any body of men who are interested to espouse and support their +conduct? + +Surely, no! But our inquiry must be confined to the legality of their +conduct, and here can be no difficulty. It was certainly illegal, +unless many witnesses are directly perjured: witnesses, who have no +apparent interest to falsify,--witnesses who have given their testimony +with candor and accuracy,--witnesses whose credibility stands +untouched,--whose credibility the counsel for the king do not pretend +to impeach or hint a suggestion to their disadvantage. + +I say, gentlemen, by the standard of the law are we to judge the +actions of the people who were the assailants and those who were the +assailed and then on duty. And here, gentlemen, the rule we formerly +laid down takes place. To the facts, gentlemen, apply yourselves. +Consider them as testified; weigh the credibility of the witnesses-- +balance their testimony--compare the several parts of it--see the +amount of it; and then, according to your oath, "make true deliverance +according to your evidence." That is, gentlemen, having settled the +facts, bring them truly to the standard of the law; the king's judges, +who are acquainted with it, who are presumed best to know it, will then +inspect this great standard of right and wrong, truth and justice; and +they are to determine the degree of guilt to which the fact rises. + +II + +May it please your honors, and you gentlemen of the jury,--After having +thus gone through the evidence and considered it as applicatory to all +and every one of the prisoners, let us take once more a brief and +cursory survey of matters supported by the evidence. And here let me +ask in sober reason, what language more opprobrious, what actions more +exasperating, than those used on this occasion? Words, I am sensible, +are no justification of blows, but they serve as the grand clew to +discover the temper and the designs of the agents; they serve also to +give us light in discerning the apprehensions and thoughts of those who +are the objects of abuse. + +"You lobsters!"--"You bloody-back!"--"You coward!"--"You dastard!" are +but some of the expressions proved. What words more galling? What more +cutting and provoking to a soldier? But accouple these words with the +succeeding actions,--"You dastard!"--"You coward!" A soldier and a +coward! + +This was touching "the point of honor and the pride of virtue." But +while these are as yet fomenting the passions and swelling the bosom, +the attack is made; and probably the latter words were reiterated at +the onset; at least, were yet sounding in the ear. Gentlemen of the +jury, for Heaven's sake, let us put ourselves in the same situation! +Would you not spurn at that spiritless institution of society which +tells you to be a subject at the expense of your manhood? + +But does the soldier step out of his ranks to seek his revenge? Not a +witness pretends it. Did not the people repeatedly come within the +points of their bayonets and strike on the muzzles of the guns? You +have heard the witnesses. + +Does the law allow one member of the community to behave in this manner +towards his fellow citizen, and then bid the injured party be calm and +moderate? The expressions from one party were--"Stand off, stand +off!"--"I am upon my station."--"If they molest me upon my post, I will +fire."--"Keep off!" + +These words were likely to produce reflection and procure peace. But +had the words on the other hand a similar tendency? Consider the temper +prevalent among all parties at this time. Consider the situation of the +soldiery; and come to the heat and pressure of the action. The +materials are laid, the spark is raised, the fire enkindles, all +prudence and true wisdom are utterly consumed. Does common sense, does +the law expect impossibilities? + +Here, to expect equanimity of temper, would be as irrational as to +expect discretion in a madman. But was anything done on the part of the +assailants similar to the conduct, warnings, and declarations of the +prisoners? Answer for yourselves, gentlemen! The words reiterated all +around stabbed to the heart; the actions of the assailants tended to a +worse end,--to awaken every passion of which the human breast is +susceptible; fear, anger, pride, resentment, revenge, alternately take +possession of the whole man. + +To expect, under these circumstances, that such words would assuage the +tempest, that such actions would allay the flames,--you might as +rationally expect the inundations of a torrent would suppress a deluge, +or rather that the flames of Aetna would extinguish a conflagration! + +III + +Gentlemen of the Jury,--This case has taken up much of your time, and +is likely to take up so much more that I must hasten to a close. +Indeed, I should not have troubled you, by being thus lengthy, but from +a sense of duty to the prisoners; they who in some sense may be said to +have put their lives in my hands; they whose situation was so peculiar +that we have necessarily taken up more time than ordinary cases +require. They, under all these circumstances, placed a confidence it +was my duty not to disappoint, and which I have aimed at discharging +with fidelity. I trust you, gentlemen, will do the like; that you will +examine and judge with a becoming temper of mind; remembering that they +who are under oath to declare the whole truth think and act very +differently from bystanders, who, being under no ties of this kind, +take a latitude which is by no means admissible in a court of law. + +I cannot close this cause better than by desiring you to consider well +the genius and spirit of the law which will be laid down, and to govern +yourselves by this great standard of truth. To some purposes, you may +be said, gentlemen, to be ministers of justice; and "ministers," says a +learned judge, "appointed for the ends of public justice, should have +written on their hearts the solemn engagements of his Majesty, at his +coronation, to cause law and justice in mercy to be executed in all his +judgments." + + "The quality of mercy is not strained; + It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven:... + It is twice blessed; + It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes." + +I leave you, gentlemen, hoping you will be directed in your inquiry and +judgment to a right discharge of your duty. We shall all of us, +gentlemen, have an hour of cool reflection when the feelings and +agitations of the day shall have subsided; when we shall view things +through a different and a much juster medium. It is then we all wish an +absolving conscience. May you, gentlemen, now act such a part as will +hereafter insure it; such a part as may occasion the prisoners to +rejoice. May the blessing of those who were in jeopardy of life come +upon you--may the blessing of Him who is "not faulty to die" descend +and rest upon you and your posterity. + + +IN DEFENSE OF LORD GEORGE GORDON + +Before the Court of King's Bench, 1781 + +BY LORD THOMAS ERSKINE + +Gentlemen,--You have now heard, upon the solemn oaths of honest, +disinterested men, a faithful history of the conduct of Lord George +Gordon, from the day that he became a member of the Protestant +Association to the day that he was committed a prisoner to the Tower. +And I have no doubt, from the attention with which I have been honored +from the beginning, that you have still kept in your minds the +principles to which I entreated you would apply it, and that you have +measured it by that standard. You have, therefore, only to look back to +the whole of it together; to reflect on all you have heard concerning +him; to trace him in your recollection through every part of the +transaction; and, considering it with one manly, liberal view, to ask +your own honest hearts, whether you can say that this noble and +unfortunate youth is a wicked and deliberate traitor, who deserves by +your verdict to suffer a shameful and ignominious death, which will +stain the ancient honors of his house forever. + +The crime which the Crown would have fixed upon him is, that he +assembled the Protestant Association round the House of Commons, not +merely to influence and persuade Parliament by the earnestness of their +supplications, but actually to coerce it by hostile, rebellious force; +that, finding himself disappointed in the success of that coercion, he +afterward incited his followers to abolish the legal indulgences to +Papists, which the object of the petition was to repeal, by the burning +of their houses of worship, and the destruction of their property, +which ended, at last, in a general attack on the property of all orders +of men, religious and civil, on the public treasures of the nation, and +on the very being of the government. + +To support a charge of so atrocious and unnatural a complexion, the +laws of the most arbitrary nations would require the most +incontrovertible proof. And what evidence, gentlemen of the jury, does +the Crown offer to you in compliance with these sound and sacred +doctrines of justice? A few broken, interrupted, disjointed words, +without context or connection--uttered by the speaker in agitation and +heat--heard, by those who relate them to you, in the midst of tumult +and confusion--and even those words, mutilated as they are, in direct +opposition to, and inconsistent with, repeated and earnest declarations +delivered at the very same time and on the very same occasion, related +to you by a much greater number of persons, and absolutely incompatible +with the whole tenor of his conduct. Which of us all, gentlemen, would +be safe, standing at the bar of God or man, if we were not to be judged +by the regular current of our lives and conversations, but by detached +and unguarded expressions, picked out by malice, and recorded, without +context or circumstances, against us? Yet such is the only evidence on +which the Crown asks you to dip your hands, and to stain your +consciences, in the innocent blood of the noble and unfortunate youth +who stands before you. + +I am sure you cannot but see, notwithstanding my great inability, +increased by a perturbation of mind (arising, thank God! from no +dishonest cause), that there has been not only no evidence on the part +of the Crown to fix the guilt of the late commotions upon the prisoner, +but that, on the contrary, we have been able to resist the probability, +I might almost say the possibility of the charge, not only by living +witnesses, whom we only ceased to call because the trial would never +have ended, but by the evidence of all the blood that has paid the +forfeit of that guilt already; since, out of all the felons who were +let loose from prisons, and who assisted in the destruction of our +property, not a single wretch was to be found who could even attempt to +save his own life by the plausible promise of giving evidence to-day. + +What can overturn such a proof as this? Surely a good man might, +without superstition, believe that such a union of events was something +more than natural, and that a Divine Providence was watchful for the +protection of innocence and truth. + +I may now, therefore, relieve you from the pain of hearing me any +longer, and be myself relieved from speaking on a subject which +agitates and distresses me. Since Lord George Gordon stands clear of +every hostile act or purpose against the Legislature of his country, or +the properties of his fellow-subjects--since the whole tenor of conduct +repels the belief of the _traitorous intention_ charged by the +indictment--my task is finished. I shall make no address to your +passions. I will not remind you of the long and rigorous imprisonment +he has suffered; I will not speak to you of his great youth, of his +illustrious birth, and of his uniformly animated and generous zeal in +Parliament for the Constitution of his country. Such topics might be +useful in the balance; yet, even then, I should have trusted to the +honest hearts of Englishmen to have felt them without excitation. At +present, the plain and rigid rules of justice and truth are sufficient +to entitle me to your verdict. + + +PRONOUNCING SENTENCE FOR HIGH TREASON + +BY SIR ALFRED WILLS + +Arthur Alfred Lynch, otherwise Arthur Lynch, the jury have found you +guilty of the crime of high treason, a crime happily so rare that in +the present day a trial for treason seems to be almost an anachronism-- +a thing of the past. The misdeeds which have been done in this case, +and which have brought you to the lamentable pass in which you stand, +must surely convince the most skeptical and apathetic of the gravity +and reality of the crime. What was your action in the darkest hour of +your country's fortunes, when she was engaged in the deadly struggle +from which she has just emerged? You joined the ranks of your country's +foes. Born in Australia, a land which has nobly shown its devotion to +its parent country, you have indeed taken a different course from that +which was adopted by her sons. You have fought against your country, +not with it. You have sought, as far as you could, to dethrone Great +Britain from her place among the nations, to make her name a byword and +a reproach, a synonym for weakness and irresolution. Nor can I forget +that you have shed the blood, or done your best to shed the blood, of +your countrymen who were fighting for their country. How many wives +have been made widows, how many children orphans, by what you and those +who acted under your command have done, Heaven only knows! You thought +it safe at that dark hour of the Empire's fate, when Ladysmith, when +Kimberley, when Mafeking, were in the very jaws of deadly peril--you +thought it safe, no doubt, to lift the parricidal hand against your +country. You thought she would shrink from the costly struggle wearied +out by her gigantic efforts, and that, at the worst, a general peace +would be made which would comprehend a general amnesty and cover up +such acts as yours and save you from personal peril. You misjudged your +country and failed to appreciate that, though slow to enter into a +quarrel, however slow to take up arms, it has yet been her wont that in +the quarrel she shall bear herself so that the opposer may beware of +her, and that she is seldom so dangerous to her enemies as when the +hour of national calamity has raised the dormant energies of her +people--knit together every nerve and fiber of the body politic, and +has made her sons determined to do all, to sacrifice all on behalf of +the country that gave them birth. And against what a Sovereign and what +a country did you lift your hand! A Sovereign the best beloved and most +deeply honored of all the long line of English Kings and Queens, and +whose lamented death was called back to my remembrance only yesterday +as a fresh sorrow to many an English household. Against a country which +has been the home of progress and freedom, and under whose beneficent +sway, whenever you have chosen to stay within her dominions, you have +enjoyed a liberty of person, a freedom of speech and action, such as +you can have in no other country in Europe, and it is not too much to +say in no other country in the world. The only--I will not say excuse, +but palliation that I can find for conduct like yours is that it has +been for some years past the fashion to treat lightly matters of this +kind, so that men have been perhaps encouraged to play with sedition +and to toy with treason, wrapt in a certain proud consciousness of +strength begotten of the deep-seated and well-founded conviction that +the loyalty of her people is supreme, and true authority in this +country has slumbered or has treated with contemptuous indifference +speeches and acts of sedition. It may be that you have been misled into +the notion that, no matter what you did, so long as your conduct could +be called a political crime, it was of no consequence. But it is one +thing to talk sedition and to do small seditious acts, it is quite +another thing to bear arms in the ranks of the foes of your country, +and against it. Between the two the difference is immeasurable. But had +you and those with whom you associated yourself succeeded, what fatal +mischief might have been done to the great inheritance which has been +bequeathed to us by our forefathers--that inheritance of power which it +must be our work to use nobly and for good things; an inheritance of +influence which will be of little effect even for good unless backed by +power, and of duty which cannot be effectually performed if our power +be shattered and our influence impaired. He who has attempted to do his +country such irreparable wrong must be prepared to submit to the +sentence which it is now my duty to pronounce upon you. The sentence of +this Court--and it is pronounced in regard to each count of the +indictment--is that you be taken hence to the place from which you +came, and from thence to a place of execution, there to be hanged by +the neck until you are dead. + + +THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON + +From the Official Records of the Trial in the United States Senate, +1868 + +BY GEORGE S. BOUTWELL + +Andrew Johnson has disregarded and violated the laws and Constitution +of his own country. Under his administration the government has not +been strengthened, but weakened. Its reputation and influence at home +and abroad have been injured and diminished. Ten States of this Union +are without law, without security, without safety; public order +everywhere violated, public justice nowhere respected; and all in +consequence of the evil purposes and machinations of the President. +Forty millions of people have been rendered anxious and uncertain as to +the preservation of public peace and the perpetuity of the institutions +of freedom in this country. All classes are oppressed by the private +and public calamities which he has brought upon them. They appeal to +you for relief. The nation waits in anxiety for the conclusion of these +proceedings. Forty millions of people, whose interest in public affairs +is in the wise and just administration of the laws, look to this +tribunal as a sure defense against the encroachments of a criminally +minded Chief Magistrate. + +Will any one say that the heaviest judgment which you can render is any +adequate punishment for these crimes? Your office is not punishment, +but to secure the safety of the republic. But human tribunals are +inadequate to punish those criminals who, as rulers or magistrates, by +their example, conduct, policy, and crimes, become the scourge of +communities and nations. No picture, no power of the imagination, can +illustrate or conceive the suffering of the poor but loyal people of +the South. A patriotic, virtuous, law-abiding chief magistrate would +have healed the wounds of war, soothed private and public sorrows, +protected the weak, encouraged the strong, and lifted from the Southern +people the burdens which now are greater than they can bear. + +Travelers and astronomers inform us that in the southern heavens, near +the southern cross, there is a vast space which the uneducated call the +hole in the sky, where the eye of man, with the aid of the powers of +the telescope, has been unable to discover nebulae, or asteroid, or +comet, or planet, or star, or sun. In that dreary, cold, dark region of +space, which is only known to be less than infinite by the evidences of +creation elsewhere, the Great Author of celestial mechanism has left +the chaos which was in the beginning. If this earth were capable of the +sentiments and emotions of justice and virtue, which in human mortal +beings are the evidences and the pledge of our Divine origin and +immortal destiny, it would heave and throw, with the energy of the +elemental forces of nature, and project this enemy of two races of men +into that vast region, there forever to exist in a solitude eternal as +life, or as the absence of life, emblematical of, if not really, that +"outer darkness" of which the Savior of man spoke in warning to those +who are the enemies of themselves, of their race, and of their God. But +it is yours to relieve, not to punish. This done and our country is +again advanced in the intelligent opinion of mankind. In other +governments an unfaithful ruler can be removed only by revolution, +violence, or force. The proceeding here is judicial, and according to +the forms of law. Your judgment will be enforced without the aid of a +policeman or a soldier. What other evidence will be needed of the value +of republican institutions? What other test of the strength and vigor +of our government? What other assurance that the virtue of the people +is equal to any emergency of national life? + + +BY WILLIAM M. EVARTS + +Mr. Chief Justice and Senators,--If indeed we have arrived at a settled +conclusion that this is a court, that it is governed by the law, that +it is to confine its attention to the facts applicable to the law, and +regard the sole evidence of those facts to be embraced within the +testimony of witnesses or documents produced in court, we have made +great progress in separating, at least, from your further consideration +much that has been impressed upon your attention heretofore. It follows +from this that the President is to be tried upon the charges which are +produced here, and not upon common fame. + +I may as conveniently at this point of the argument as at any other pay +some attention to the astronomical punishment which the learned and +honorable manager, Mr. Boutwell, thinks should be applied to this novel +case of impeachment of the President. Cicero I think it is who says +that a lawyer should know everything, for sooner or later there is no +fact in history, in science, or of human knowledge that will not come +into play in his arguments. Painfully sensible of my ignorance, being +devoted to a profession which "sharpens and does not enlarge the mind," +I yet can admire without envy the superior knowledge evinced by the +honorable manager. Indeed, upon my soul, I believe he is aware of an +astronomical fact which many professors of that science are wholly +ignorant of. But nevertheless, while some of his honorable colleagues +were paying attention to an unoccupied and unappropriated island on the +surface of the seas, Mr. Manager Boutwell, more ambitious, had +discovered an untenanted and unappropriated region in the skies, +reserved, he would have us think, in the final councils of the +Almighty, as the place of punishment for convicted and deposed American +Presidents. + +At first I thought that his mind had become so "enlarged" that it was +not "sharp" enough to discover the Constitution had limited the +punishment; but on reflection I saw that he was as legal and logical as +he was ambitious and astronomical, for the Constitution has said +"removal from office," and has put no limit to the distance of the +removal, so that it may be, without shedding a drop of his blood, or +taking a penny of his property, or confining his limbs, instant removal +from office and transportation to the skies. Truly, this is a great +undertaking; and if the learned manager can only get over the obstacles +of the laws of nature the Constitution will not stand in his way. He +can contrive no method but that of a convulsion of the earth that shall +project the deposed President to this infinitely distant space; but a +shock of nature of so vast an energy and for so great a result on him +might unsettle even the footing of the firm members of Congress. We +certainly need not resort to so perilous a method as that. How shall we +accomplish it? Why, in the first place, nobody knows where that space +is but the learned manager himself, and he is the necessary deputy to +execute the judgment of the court. + +Let it then be provided that in case of your sentence of deposition and +removal from office the honorable and astronomical manager shall take +into his own hands the execution of the sentence. With the President +made fast to his broad and strong shoulders, and, having already +essayed the flight by imagination, better prepared than anybody else to +execute it in form, taking the advantage of ladders as far as ladders +will go to the top of this great Capitol, and spurning then with his +foot the crest of Liberty, let him set out upon his flight, while the +two houses of Congress and all the people of the United States shall +shout, "_Sic itur ad astra_." + +II + +But here a distressing doubt strikes me; how will the manager get back? +He will have got far beyond the reach of gravitation to restore him, +and so ambitious a wing as his could never stoop to a downward flight. +Indeed, as he passes through the constellations, that famous question +of Carlyle by which he derides the littleness of human affairs upon the +scale of the measure of the heavens, "What thinks Botes as he drives +his dogs up the zenith in their race of sidereal fire?" will force +itself on his notice. What, indeed, would Botes think of this new +constellation? + +Besides, reaching this space, beyond the power of Congress even "to +send for persons and papers," how shall he return, and how decide in +the contest, there become personal and perpetual, the struggle of +strength between him and the President? In this new revolution, thus +established forever, who shall decide which is the sun and which is the +moon? Who determine the only scientific test which reflects the hardest +upon the other? + +Mr. Chief Justice and Senators, we have come all at once to the great +experiences and trials of a full-grown nation, all of which we thought +we should escape--the distractions of civil strife, the exhaustions of +powerful war. We could summon from the people a million of men and +inexhaustible treasure to help the Constitution in its time of need. +Can we summon now resources enough of civil prudence and of restraint +of passion to carry us through this trial, so that whatever result may +follow, in whatever form, the people may feel that the Constitution has +received no wound! To this court, the last and best resort for this +determination, it is to be left. And oh, if you could only carry +yourselves back to the spirit and the purpose and the wisdom and the +courage of the framers of the government, how safe would it be in your +hands? How safe is it now in your hands, for you who have entered into +their labors will see to it that the structure of your work comports in +durability and excellence with theirs. Indeed, so familiar has the +course of the argument made us with the names of the men of the +convention and of the first Congress that I could sometimes seem to +think that the presence even of the Chief Justice was replaced by the +serene majesty of Washington, and that from Massachusetts we had Adams +and Ames, from Connecticut, Sherman and Ellsworth, from New Jersey, +Paterson and Boudinot, and from New York, Hamilton and Benson, and that +they were to determine this case for us. Act, then, as if under this +serene and majestic presence your deliberations were to be conducted to +their close, and the Constitution was to come out from the watchful +solicitude of these great guardians of it as if from their own judgment +in this court of impeachment. + + + + +THE AFTER-DINNER SPEECH + + +AT A UNIVERSITY CLUB DINNER + +Reprinted, with the author's permission, from a speech at a dinner of +The Harvard Club of New York City. + +BY HENRY E. HOWLAND + +There should be a proper amount of modesty in one called upon to +address such an intelligent audience of educated men as I see before +me, and I am conscious of it in the same sense as the patient who said +to his physician, "I suffer a great deal from nervous dyspepsia, and I +attribute it to the fact that I attend so many public dinners." "Ah, I +see," said the doctor, "you are often called upon to speak, and the +nervous apprehension upsets your digestion." "Not at all; my +apprehension is entirely on account of the other speakers; I never say +a thing;" and it is with some hesitation that I respond to your call. + +Following out that line of thought, there is a great deal that is +attractive in a gathering of College men. They have such a winsome and +a winning way with them. + +Richest in endowments, foremost in progress, honored by the renown of a +long line of distinguished sons, the university that claims you is +worthy of the homage and respect which it receives from the educated +men of America. + +The study of the development of the human race by educational processes +which change by necessity under changing conditions and environment, is +one of the most interesting that we can engage in. The greatest men of +this country, or any other, have not always been made by the +university, however it may be with the average. You cannot always tell +by a man's degree what manner of man he is likely to be. But the value +of a technical or academic training is apparent as time goes on, +population increases, occupations multiply and compete, and the strife +of life becomes more fierce and strenuous. + +Many in these days seem to prefer notoriety to fame, because it runs +along the line of least resistance. A man has to climb for fame, but he +can get notoriety by an easy tumble. And others forget the one +essential necessary to success, of personal effort, and, assuming there +is a royal road to learning, are content with the distinction of a +degree from a university, without caring for what it implies, and +answer as the son did to his father who asked him: "Why don't you work, +my son? If you only knew how much happiness work brings, you would +begin at once." "Father, I am trying to lead a life of self-denial in +which happiness cuts no figure; do not tempt me." + +But notwithstanding all these tendencies, the level of mankind is +raised at these fountains of learning, the tone is higher, and the +standards are continually advanced. The discipline and the training +reaches and acts upon a willing and eager army of young recruits and +works its salutary effect, like that upon a man who listened with rapt +attention to a discourse from the pulpit and was congratulated upon his +devotion, and asked if he was not impressed. "Yes," he replied, "for it +is a mighty poor sermon that doesn't hit me somewhere." + +However discouraging the action of our governing bodies through the +obstruction and perverse action of an ignorant or corrupt majority or +minority in them may be in the administration of great public affairs, +the time at last comes when the nation arouses from its lethargy, +shakes off its torpor, shows the strain of its blood, and follows its +trained and intelligent leaders, like the man who, in a time of sore +distress, after the ancient fashion, put ashes on his head, rent his +garments, tore off his coat, his waistcoat, his shirt, and his +undershirt, and at last came to himself. At such times, by the +universal voice of public opinion and amid hearty applause of the whole +people, we welcome to public office and the highest responsible +stations such men as our universities have given to the country. It +matters not to what family we belong--Harvard, Yale, Columbia, or +Princeton--we are all of us one in our welcome to them, for they +represent the university spirit and what it teaches--honor, high- +mindedness, intelligence, truthfulness, unselfishness, courage, and +patriotism. + + +THE EVACUATION OF NEW YORK + +Reprinted with the author's permission + +BY JOSEPH H. CHOATE + +Mr. President and Gentlemen,--I came here to-night with some notes for +a speech in my pocket, but I have been sitting next to General Butler, +and in the course of the evening they have mysteriously disappeared. +The consequence is, gentlemen, that you may expect a very good speech +from him and a very poor one from me. When I read this toast which you +have just drunk in honor of Her Gracious Majesty, the Queen of Great +Britain, and heard how you received the letter of the British Minister +that was read in response, and how heartily you joined in singing "God +Save the Queen," when I look up and down these tables and see among you +so many representatives of English capital and English trade, I have my +doubts whether the evacuation of New York by the British was quite as +thorough and lasting as history would fain have us believe. If George +III, who certainly did all he could to despoil us of our rights and +liberties and bring us to ruin--if he could rise from his grave and see +how his granddaughter is honored at your hands to-night, why, I think +he would return whence he came, thanking God that his efforts to +enslave us, in which for eight long years he drained the resources of +the British Empire, were not successful. + +The truth is, the boasted triumph of New York in getting rid of the +British once and forever has proved, after all, to be but a dismal +failure. We drove them out in one century only to see them return in +the next to devour our substance and to carry off all the honors. We +have just seen the noble Chief Justice of England, the feasted favorite +of all America, making a triumphal tour across the Continent and +carrying all before him at the rate of fifty miles an hour. Night after +night at our very great cost we have been paying the richest tribute to +the reigning monarch of the British stage, and nowhere in the world are +English men and women of character and culture received with a more +hearty welcome, a more earnest hospitality, than in this very state of +New York. The truth is, that this event that we celebrate to-day, which +sealed the independence of America and seemed for a time to give a +staggering blow to the prestige and the power of England, has proved to +be no less a blessing to her own people than to ours. The latest and +best of the English historians has said that, however important the +independence of America might be in the history of England, it was of +overwhelming importance in the history of the world, and that though it +might have crippled for a while the supremacy of the English nation, it +founded the supremacy of the English race. And in the same spirit we +welcome the fact that those social, political, and material barriers +that separated the two nations a century ago have now utterly vanished; +that year by year we are being drawn closer and closer together, and +that this day may be celebrated with equal fitness on both sides of the +Atlantic and by all who speak the English tongue. + + +TIES OF KINSHIP + +From "Modern Eloquence," Vol. I, Geo. L. Shuman and Company, Chicago, +publishers. + +BY SIR EDWIN ARNOLD + +When I was conversing recently with Lord Tennyson, he said to me: "It +is bad for us that English will always be a spoken speech, since that +means that it will always be changing, and so the time will come when +you and I will be as hard to read for the common people as Chaucer is +to-day." You remember what opinion your brilliant humorist, Artemus +Ward, let fall concerning that ancient singer. "Mr. Chaucer," he +observed casually, "is an admirable poet, but as a spellist, a very +decided failure." + +To the treasure house of that noble tongue the United States has +splendidly contributed. It would be far poorer to-day without the +tender lines of Longfellow, the serene and philosophic pages of +Emerson, the convincing wit and clear criticism of my illustrious +departed friend, James Russell Lowell, the Catullus-like perfection of +the lyrics of Edgar Allan Poe, and the glorious, large-tempered +dithyrambs of Walt Whitman. + +These stately and sacred laurel groves grow here in a garden forever +extending, ever carrying further forward, for the sake of humanity, the +irresistible flag of our Saxon supremacy, leading one to falter in an +attempt to eulogize America and the idea of her potency and her +promise. The most elaborate panegyric would seem but a weak +impertinence, which would remind you, perhaps too vividly, of Sydney +Smith, who, when he saw his grandchild pat the back of a large turtle, +asked her why she did so. The little maid replied: "Grandpa, I do it to +please the turtle." "My child," he answered, "you might as well stroke +the dome of St. Paul's to please the Dean and chapter" + +I myself once heard, in our Zoological gardens in London, another +little girl ask her mamma whether it would hurt the elephant if she +offered him a chocolate drop. In that guarded and respectful spirit is +it that I venture to tell you here to-night how truly in England the +peace and prosperity of your republic is desired, and that nothing +except good will is felt by the mass of our people toward you, and +nothing but the greatest satisfaction in your wealth and progress. + +Between these two majestic sisters of the Saxon blood the hatchet of +war is, please God, buried. No cause of quarrel, I think and hope, can +ever be otherwise than truly out of proportion to the vaster causes of +affection and accord. We have no longer to prove to each other, or to +the world, that Englishmen and Americans are high-spirited and +fearless; that Englishmen and Americans alike will do justice, and will +have justice, and will put up with nothing else from each other and +from the nations at large. Our proofs are made on both sides, and +indelibly written on the page of history. Not that I wish to speak +platitudes about war. It has been necessary to human progress; it has +bred and preserved noble virtues; it has been inevitable, and may be +again; but it belongs to a low civilization. Other countries have, +perhaps, not yet reached that point of intimate contact and rational +advance, but for us two, at least, the time seems to have come when +violent decisions, and even talk of them, should be as much abolished +between us as cannibalism. + +I ventured, when in Washington, to propose to President Harrison that +we should some day, the sooner the better, choose five men of public +worth in the United States, and five in England; give them gold coats +if you please, and a handsome salary, and establish them as a standing +and supreme tribunal of arbitration, referring to them the little +family fallings-out of America and of England, whenever something goes +wrong between us about a sealskin in Behring Strait, a lobster pot, an +ambassador's letter, a border tariff, or an Irish vote. He showed +himself very well disposed toward my suggestion. + +Mr. President, in the sacred hope that you take me to be a better poet +than orator, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your +reception to-night, and personally pray for the tranquility and +prosperity of this free and magnificent republic. + + +CANADA, ENGLAND, AND THE UNITED STATES + +From an address in Brewer's "The World's Best Orations," Vol. VII, Ferd +P. Kaiser, St. Louis, Chicago, publishers. + +BY SIR WILFRED LAURIER + +Mr. Toastmaster, Mr. President, and Gentlemen,--I very fully and very +cordially appreciate the very kind feelings which have just now been +uttered by the toastmaster in terms so eloquent, and which you +gentlemen have accepted and received in so sympathetic a manner. Let me +say at once, in the name of my fellow-Canadians who are here with me +and also, I may say, in the name of the Canadian people, that these +feelings we shall at all times reciprocate; reciprocate, not only in +words evanescent, but in actual living deeds. + +Because I must say that I feel that, though the relations between +Canada and the United States are good, though they are brotherly, +though they are satisfactory, in my judgment they are not as good, as +brotherly, as satisfactory as they ought to be. We are of the same +stock. We spring from the same races on one side of the line as on the +other. We speak the same language. We have the same literature, and for +more than a thousand years we have had a common history. + +Let me recall to you the lines which, in the darkest days of the Civil +War, the Puritan poet of America issued to England:-- + + "Oh, Englishmen! Oh, Englishmen! + In hope and creed, + In blood and tongue, are brothers, + We all are heirs of Runnymede." + +Brothers we are, in the language of your own poet. May I not say that +while our relations are not always as brotherly as they should have +been, may I not ask, Mr. President, on the part of Canada and on the +part of the United States, if we are sometimes too prone to stand by +the full conceptions of our rights, and exact all our rights to the +last pound of flesh? May I not ask if there have not been too often +between us petty quarrels, which happily do not wound the heart of the +nation? + +There was a civil war in the last century. There was a civil war +between England, then, and her colonies. The union which then existed +between England and her colonies was severed. If it was severed, +American citizens, as you know it was, through no fault of your +fathers, the fault was altogether the fault of the British Government +of that day. If the British Government of that day had treated the +American colonies as the British Government for the last twenty or +fifty years has treated its colonies; if Great Britain had given you +then the same degree of liberty which it gives to Canada, my country; +if it had given you, as it has given us, legislative independence +absolute,--the result would have been different; the course of victory, +the course of history, would have been very different. + +But what has been done cannot be undone. You cannot expect that the +union which was then severed shall ever be restored; but can we not +expect--can we not hope that the banners of England and the banners of +the United States shall never, never again meet in conflict, except +those conflicts provided by the arts of peace, such as we see to-day in +the harbor of New York in the contest between the _Shamrock_ and +the _Columbia_ for the supremacy of naval architecture and naval +prowess? Can we not hope that if ever the banners of England and the +banners of the United States are again to meet on the battlefield, they +shall meet entwined together in the defense of some holy cause, in the +defense of holy justice, for the defense of the oppressed, for the +enfranchisement of the downtrodden, and for the advancement of liberty, +progress, and civilization? + + +MONSIEUR AND MADAME + +From a speech in "Modern Eloquence," Vol. I, Geo. L. Shuman and +Company, Chicago, publishers. + +BY PAUL BLOUET (MAX O'RELL) + +Now, the attitude of men towards women is very different, according to +the different nations to which they belong. You will find a good +illustration of that different attitude of men toward women in France, +in England, and in America, if you go to the dining-rooms of their +hotels. You go to the dining-room, and you take, if you can, a seat +near the entrance door, and you watch the arrival of the couples, and +also watch them as they cross the room and go to the table that is +assigned to them by the head waiter. Now, in Europe, you would find a +very polite head waiter, who invites you to go in, and asks you where +you will sit; but in America the head waiter is a most magnificent +potentate who lies in wait for you at the door, and bids you to follow +him sometimes in the following respectful manner, beckoning, "There." +And you have got to do it, too. + +I traveled six times in America, and I never saw a man so daring as not +to sit there. In the tremendous hotels of the large cities, where you +have got to go to Number 992 or something of the sort, I generally got +a little entertainment out of the head waiter. He is so thoroughly +persuaded that it would never enter my head not to follow him, he will +never look round to see if I am there. Why, he knows I am there, but +I'm not. I wait my time, and when he has got to the end I am sitting +down waiting for a chance to be left alone. He says, "You cannot sit +here." I say: "Why not? What is the matter with this seat?" He says, +"You must not sit there." I say, "I don't want a constitutional walk; +don't bother, I'm all right." Once, indeed, after an article in the +_North American Review_--for your head waiter in America reads +reviews--a head waiter told me to sit where I pleased. I said, "Now, +wait a minute, give me time to realize that; do I understand that in +this hotel I am going to sit where I like?" He said, "Certainly!" He +was in earnest. I said, "I should like to sit over there at that table +near the window." He said, "All right, come with me." When I came out, +there were some newspaper people in the hotel waiting for me, and it +was reported in half a column in one of the papers, with one of those +charming headlines which are so characteristic of American journalism, +"Max sits where he likes!" Well, I said, you go to the dining-room, you +take your seat, and you watch the arrival of the couples, and you will +know the position of men. In France Monsieur and Madame come in +together abreast, as a rule arm in arm. They look pleasant, smile, and +talk to each other. They smile at each other, even though married. + +In England, in the same class of hotel, John Bull comes in first. He +does not look happy. John Bull loves privacy. He does not like to be +obliged to eat in the presence of lots of people who have not been +introduced to him, and he thinks it very hard he should not have the +whole dining-room to himself. That man, though, mind you, in his own +house undoubtedly the most hospitable, the most kind, the most +considerate of hosts in the world, that man in the dining-room of a +hotel always comes in with a frown. He does not like it, he grumbles, +and mild and demure, with her hands hanging down, modestly follows Mrs. +John Bull. But in America, behold the arrival of Mrs. Jonathan! behold +her triumphant entry, pulling Jonathan behind! Well, I like my own +country, and I cannot help thinking that the proper and right way is +the French. Ladies, you know all our shortcomings. Our hearts are +exposed ever since the rib which covered them was taken off. Yet we ask +you kindly to allow us to go through life with you, like the French, +arm in arm, in good friendship and camaraderie. + + +THE TYPICAL AMERICAN + +From "The New South," with the permission of Henry W. Grady, Jr. + +BY HENRY W. GRADY + +Pardon me one word, Mr. President, spoken for the sole purpose of +getting into the volumes that go out annually freighted with the rich +eloquence of your speakers--the fact that the Cavalier as well as the +Puritan was on the continent in its early days, and that he was "up and +able to be about." I have read your books carefully and I find no +mention of that fact, which seems to me an important one for preserving +a sort of historical equilibrium if for nothing else. Let me remind you +that the Virginia Cavalier first challenged France on this continent-- +that Cavalier, John Smith, gave New England its very name, and was so +pleased with the job that he has been handing his own name around ever +since--and that while Miles Standish was cutting off men's ears for +courting a girl without her parents' consent, and forbade men to kiss +their wives on Sunday, the Cavalier was courting everything in sight, +and that the Almighty had vouchsafed great increase to the Cavalier +colonies, the huts in the wilderness being full as the nests in the +woods. + +But having incorporated the Cavalier as a fact in your charming little +books, I shall let him work out his own salvation, as he always has +done with engaging gallantry, and we will hold no controversy as to his +merits. Why should we? Neither Puritan nor Cavalier long survive as +such. The virtues and traditions of both happily still live for the +inspiration of their sons and the saving of the old fashion. But both +Puritan and Cavalier were lost in the storm of the first Revolution; +and the American citizen, supplanting both and stronger than either, +took possession of the Republic bought by their common blood and +fashioned to wisdom, and charged himself with teaching men government +and establishing the voice of the people as the voice of God. + +My friend Dr. Talmage has told you that the typical American has yet to +come. Let me tell you that he has already come. Great types, like +valuable plants, are slow to flower and fruit. But from the union of +these colonist Puritans and Cavaliers, from the straightening of their +purposes and the crossing of their blood, slow perfecting through a +century, came he who stands as the first typical American, the first +who comprehended within himself all the strength and gentleness, all +the majesty and grace, of this Republic--Abraham Lincoln. He was the +sum of Puritan and Cavalier, for in his ardent nature were fused the +virtues of both, and in the depths of his great soul the faults of both +were lost. He was greater than Puritan, greater than Cavalier, in that +he was American, and in that in his homely form were first gathered the +vast and thrilling forces of his ideal government--charging it with +such tremendous meaning and so elevating it above human suffering that +martyrdom, though infamously aimed, came as a fitting crown to a life +consecrated from the cradle to human liberty. Let us, each cherishing +the traditions and honoring his fathers, build with reverent hands to +the type of this simple but sublime life, in which all types are +honored; and in our common glory as Americans there will be plenty and +to spare for your forefathers and for mine. + + +THE PILGRIM MOTHERS + +Reprinted with the author's permission + +BY JOSEPH H. CHOATE + +I really don't know, at this late hour, Mr. Chairman, how you expect me +to treat this difficult and tender subject. + +I might take up the subject etymologically, and try and explain how +woman ever acquired that remarkable name. But that has been done before +me by a poet with whose stanzas you are not familiar, but whom you will +recognize as deeply versed in this subject, for he says:-- + + "When Eve brought woe to all mankind, + Old Adam called her woe-man, + But when she woo'd with love so kind, + He then pronounced her woman. + + "But now, with folly and with pride, + Their husbands' pockets trimming, + The ladies are so full of whims + That people call them w(h)imen." + +Mr. Chairman, I believe you said I should say something about the +Pilgrim mothers. Well, sir, it is rather late in the evening to venture +upon that historic subject. But, for one, I pity them. The occupants of +the galleries will bear me witness that even these modern Pilgrims-- +these Pilgrims with all the modern improvements--how hard it is to put +up with their weaknesses, their follies, their tyrannies, their +oppressions, their desire of dominion and rule. But when you go back to +the stern horrors of the Pilgrim rule, when you contemplate the rugged +character of the Pilgrim fathers, why, you give credence to what a +witty woman of Boston said--she had heard enough of the glories and +sufferings of the Pilgrim fathers; for her part, she had a world of +sympathy for the Pilgrim mothers, because they not only endured all +that the Pilgrim fathers had done, but they also had to endure the +Pilgrim fathers to boot. Well, sir, they were afraid of woman. They +thought she was almost too refined a luxury for them to indulge in. +Miles Standish spoke for them all, and I am sure that General Sherman, +who so much resembles Miles Standish, not only in his military renown +but in his rugged exterior and in his warm and tender heart, will echo +his words when he says:-- + +"I can march up to a fortress, and summon the place to surrender, But +march up to a woman with such a proposal, I dare not. I am not afraid +of bullets, nor shot from the mouth of a cannon, But of a thundering +'No!' point-blank from the mouth of a woman, That I confess I'm afraid +of, nor am I ashamed to confess it." + +Mr. President, did you ever see a more self-satisfied or contented set +of men than these that are gathered at these tables this evening? I +never come to the Pilgrim dinner and see these men, who have achieved +in the various departments of life such definite and satisfactory +success, but that I look back twenty or thirty or forty years, and see +the lantern-jawed boy who started out from the banks of the +Connecticut, or some more remote river of New England, with five +dollars in his pocket and his father's blessing on his head and his +mother's Bible in his carpetbag, to seek those fortunes which now they +have so gloriously made. And there is one woman whom each of these, +through all his progress and to the last expiring hour of his life, +bears in tender remembrance. It is the mother who sent him forth with +her blessing. A mother is a mother still--the holiest thing alive; and +if I could dismiss you with a benediction to-night, it would be by +invoking upon the heads of you all the blessing of the mothers that we +left behind us. + + +BRIGHT LAND TO WESTWARD + +From "Modern Eloquence," Vol. III, Geo. L. Shuman and Company, Chicago, +publishers. + +BY E. O. WOLCOTT + +Mr. President and Gentlemen,--It was with great diffidence that I +accepted the invitation of your President to respond to a toast to- +night. I realized my incapacity to do justice to the occasion, while at +the same time I recognized the high compliment conveyed. I felt +somewhat as the man did respecting the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy; +he said he didn't know whether Lord Bacon wrote Shakespeare's works or +not, but if he didn't, he missed the greatest opportunity of his life. + +We are a plain people, and live far away. We are provincial; we have no +distinctive literature and no great poets; our leading personage abroad +of late seems to be the Honorable "Buffalo Bill"; and we use our +adjectives so recklessly that the polite badinage indulged in toward +each other by your New York editors to us seems tame and spiritless. In +mental achievement we may not have fully acquired the use of the fork, +and are "but in the gristle and not yet hardened into the bone of +manhood." We stand toward the East somewhat as country to city cousin; +about as New to Old England, only we don't feel half so badly about it, +and on the whole are rather pleased with ourselves. There is not in the +whole broad West a ranch so lonely or so remote that a public school is +not within reach of it. With generous help from the East, Western +colleges are elevating and directing Western thought, and men busy +making States yet find time to live manly lives and to lend a hand. All +this may not be aesthetic, but it is virile, and it leads up and not +down. + +There are some things more important than the highest culture. The West +is the Almighty's reserve ground, and as the world is filling up, He is +turning even the old arid plains and deserts into fertile acres, and is +sending there the rain as well as the sunshine. A high and glorious +destiny awaits us; soon the balance of population will lie the other +side of the Mississippi, and the millions that are coming must find +waiting for them schools and churches, good government, and a happy +people:-- + + "Who love the land because it is their own, + And scorn to give aught other reason why; + Would shake hands with a King upon his throne, + And think it kindness to his Majesty." + +In everything which pertains to progress in the West, the Yankee +reėnforcements step rapidly to the front. Every year she needs more of +them, and as the country grows the annual demand becomes greater. +Genuine New Englanders are to be had on tap only in six small States, +and remembering this we feel that we have the right to demand that in +the future, even more than in the past, the heads of the New England +households weary not in the good work. + +In these days of "booms" and New Souths and Great Wests, when everybody +up North who fired a gun is made to feel that he ought to apologize for +it, and good fellowship everywhere abounds, there is a sort of tendency +to fuse; only big and conspicuous things are much considered; and New +England being small in area and most of her distinguished people being +dead, she is just now somewhat under an eclipse. But in her past she +has undying fame. You of New England and her borders live always in the +atmosphere of her glories; the scenes which tell of her achievements +are ever near at hand, and familiarity and contact may rob them of +their charms, and dim to your eyes their sacredness. The sons of New +England in the West revisit her as men who make pilgrimage to some holy +shrine, and her hills and valleys are still instinct with noble +traditions. In her glories and her history we claim a common heritage, +and we never wander so far away from her that, with each recurring +anniversary of this day, our hearts do not turn to her with renewed +love and devotion for our beloved New England; yet-- + + "Not by Eastern windows only, + When daylight comes, comes in the light; + In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly, + But Westward, look, the land is bright!" + + +WOMAN + +From "Modern Eloquence," Vol. Ill, Geo. L. Shuman and Company, Chicago, +publishers. + +BY THEODORE TILTON + +You must not forget, Mr. President, in eulogizing the early men of New +England, who are your clients to-night, that it was only through the +help of the early women of New England, who are mine, that your boasted +heroes could ever have earned their title of the Pilgrim Fathers. A +health, therefore, to the women in the cabin of the Mayflower! A +cluster of Mayflowers themselves, transplanted from summer in the old +world to winter in the new! Counting over those matrons and maidens, +they numbered, all told, just eighteen. Their names are now written +among the heroines of history! For as over the ashes of Cornelia stood +the epitaph "The Mother of the Gracchi," so over these women of the +Pilgrimage we write as proudly "The Mothers of the Republic." There was +good Mistress Bradford, whose feet were not allowed of God to kiss +Plymouth Rock, and who, like Moses, came only near enough to see but +not to enter the Promised Land. She was washed overboard from the +deck--and to this day the sea is her grave and Cape Cod her monument! +There was Mistress Carver, wife of the first governor, who, when her +husband fell under the stroke of sudden death, followed him first with +heroic grief to the grave, and then, a fortnight after, followed him with +heroic joy up into Heaven! There was Mistress White--the mother of the +first child born to the New England Pilgrims on this continent. And it +was a good omen, sir, that this historic babe was brought into the +world on board the Mayflower between the time of the casting of her +anchor and the landing of her passengers--a kind of amphibious prophecy +that the newborn nation was to have a birthright inheritance over the +sea and over the land. There also was Rose Standish, whose name is a +perpetual June fragrance, to mellow and sweeten those December winds. + +Then, after the first vessel with these women, there came other women-- +loving hearts drawn from the olden land by those silken threads which +afterwards harden into golden chains. For instance, Governor Bradford, +a lonesome widower, went down to the seabeach, and, facing the waves, +tossed a love letter over the wide ocean into the lap of Alice +Southworth in old England, who caught it up, and read it, and said, +"Yes, I will go." And she went! And it is said that the governor, at +his second wedding, married his first love! Which, according to the New +Theology, furnishes the providential reason why the first Mrs. Bradford +fell overboard! + +Now, gentlemen, as you sit to-night in this elegant hall, think of the +houses in which the _Mayflower_ men and women lived in that first +winter! Think of a cabin in the wilderness--where winds whistled--where +wolves howled--where Indians yelled! And yet, within that log house, +burning like a lamp, was the pure flame of Christian faith, love, +patience, fortitude, heroism! As the Star of the East rested over the +rude manger where Christ lay, so--speaking not irreverently--there +rested over the roofs of the Pilgrims a Star of the West--the Star of +Empire; and to-day that empire is the proudest in the world! + +And now, to close, let me give you just a bit of good advice. The +cottages of our forefathers had few pictures on the walls, but many +families had a print of "King Charles's Twelve Good Rules," the +eleventh of which was, "Make no long meals." Now King Charles lost his +head, and you will have leave to make a long meal. But when, after your +long meal, you go home in the wee small hours, what do you expect to +find? You will find my toast--"Woman, a beautiful rod!" Now my advice +is, "Kiss the rod!" + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +Reprinted with the author's permission + +BY HORACE PORTER + +The story of the life of Abraham Lincoln savors more of romance than +reality. It is more like a fable of the ancient days than the story of +a plain American of the nineteenth century. The singular vicissitudes +in the life of our martyred President surround him with an interest +which attaches to few men in history. He sprang from that class which +he always alluded to as the "plain people," and never attempted to +disdain them. He believed that the government was made for the people, +not the people for the government. He felt that true Republicanism is a +torch--the more it is shaken in the hands of the people the brighter it +will burn. He was transcendently fit to be the first successful +standard bearer of the progressive, aggressive, invincible Republican +party. He might well have said to those who chanced to sneer at his +humble origin what a marshal of France raised from the ranks said to +the haughty nobles of Vienna boasting of their long line of descent, +when they refused to associate with him: "I am an ancestor; you are +only descendants!" He was never guilty of any posing for effect, any +attitudinizing in public, any mawkish sentimentality, any of that +puppyism so often bred by power, that dogmatism which Johnson said was +only puppyism grown to maturity. He made no claim to knowledge he did +not possess. He felt with Addison that pedantry and learning are like +hypocrisy in religion--the form of knowledge without the power of it. +He had nothing in common with those men of mental malformation who are +educated beyond their intellects. + +The names of Washington and Lincoln are inseparably associated, and yet +as the popular historian would have us believe one spent his entire +life in chopping down acorn trees and the other splitting them up into +rails. Washington could not tell a story. Lincoln always could. And +Lincoln's stories always possessed the true geometrical requisites, +they were never too long, and never too broad. + +But his heart was not always attuned to mirth; its chords were often +set to strains of sadness. Yet throughout all his trials he never lost +the courage of his convictions. When he was surrounded on all sides by +doubting Thomases, by unbelieving Saracens, by discontented Catilines, +his faith was strongest. As the Danes destroyed the hearing of their +war horses in order that they might not be affrighted by the din of +battle, so Lincoln turned a deaf ear to all that might have discouraged +him, and exhibited an unwavering faith in the justice of the cause and +the integrity of the Union. + +It is said that for three hundred years after the battle of Thermopylę +every child in the public schools of Greece was required to recite from +memory the names of the three hundred martyrs who fell in the defense +of that pass. It would be a crowning triumph in patriotic education if +every school child in America could contemplate each day the grand +character and utter the inspiring name of Abraham Lincoln, who has +handed down unto a grateful people the richest legacy which man can +leave to man--the memory of a good name, the inheritance of a great +example! + + +TO ATHLETIC VICTORS + +From a speech at a dinner of graduates of Yale University, in New York, +1889. By the kindness of the author. + +BY HENRY E. HOWLAND + +On Boston Common, under the shadow of the State House, and within the +atmosphere of Harvard University, there is an inscription on a column, +in honor of those who, on land and sea, maintained the cause of their +country during four years of civil war. The visitor approaches it with +respect and reverently uncovers as he reads. + +With similar high emotions we, as citizens of the world of letters, and +acknowledging particular allegiance to the province thereof founded by +Elihu Yale, are assembled to pour libations, to partake of a +sacrificial feast, and to crown with honors and with bays those who, on +land and sea, with unparalleled courage and devotion, have borne their +flag to victory in desperate encounters. + +Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war. + +On large fields of strife, the record of success like that which we are +called upon to commemorate would give the victors a high place in +history and liken their country to ancient Thebes,-- + + "Which spread her conquest o'er a thousand states, + And poured her heroes through a hundred gates." + +There are many reasons why Yale men win. One is that which was stated +by Lord Beaconsfield, "The Secret of success is constancy of purpose." +That alone sufficiently accounts for it. + +We are here present in no vain spirit of boasting, though if our right +to exalt ourselves were questioned, we might reply in the words of the +American girl who was shown some cannon at Woolwich Arsenal, the +sergeant in charge remarking, "You know we took them from you at Bunker +Hill." "Yes," she replied, "I see you've got the cannon, but I guess +we've got the hill." + +We come rather in a spirit of true modesty to recognize the plaudits of +an admiring world, to tell you how they were won. It was said in the +days of Athenian pride and glory that it was easier to find a god in +Athens than a man. We must be careful in these days of admiration of +athletic effort that no such imputation is laid upon us, and that the +deification of the human form divine is not carried to extremes. + +It is a curious coincidence that a love of the classics and proficiency +in intellectual pursuits should coexist with admiration for physical +perfection and with athletic superiority during all the centuries of +which the history is written. The youth who lisped in Attic numbers and +was brought up on the language we now so painfully and imperfectly +acquire, who was lulled to sleep by songs of Ęschylus and Sophocles, +who discussed philosophy in the porches of Plato, Aristotle, and +Epicurus, was a more accomplished classical scholar than the most +learned pundit of modern times, and was a model of manly beauty, yet he +would have died to win the wreath of parsley at the Olympian games, +which all esteemed an immortal prize. While, in our time, to be the +winning crew on the Isis, the Cam, the English or American Thames, is +equal in honor and influence to the position of senior wrangler, +valedictorian, or Deforest prize man. + +The man who wins the world's honors to-day must not be overtrained +mentally or physically; not, as John Randolph said of the soil of +Virginia,--"poor by nature and ruined by cultivation," hollow-chested, +convex in back, imperfect in sight, shuffling in gait, and flabby in +muscle. The work of such a man will be musty like his closet, narrow as +the groove he moves in, tinctured with the peculiarities that border on +insanity, and out of tune with nature. + +No man can work in the world unless he knows it, struggles with it, and +becomes a part of it, and the statement of the English statesman that +the undergraduate of Oxford or Cambridge who had the best stomach, the +hardest muscles, and the greatest ambition would be the future Lord +Chancellor of England, had a solid basis of truth. + +Gentlemen of the bat, the oar, the racquet, the cinder path, and the +leathern sphere, never were conquerors more welcome guests, in palace +or in hall, at the tables of their friends than you are here. + +You come with your laurels fresh from the fields you have won, to +receive the praise which is your due and which we so gladly bestow. +Your self-denial, devotion, skill, and courage have brought honor to +your University, and for it we honor you. + + +THE BABIES + +At a banquet in honor of General Grant, Chicago, 1877 + +BY SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (Mark Twain) + +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 try to go back +fifty or a hundred years, to your early married life, and recontemplate +your first baby--you will remember that he amounted to a good deal--and +even something over. + +You soldiers all know that when that little fellow arrived at family +headquarters, you had to hand in your resignation. He took entire +command. You had to execute his order whether it was possible or not. +And there was only one form of marching in his manual of tactics, and +that was the double-quick. When he called for soothing syrup, did you +venture to throw out any remarks about certain services unbecoming to +an officer and a gentleman? No; you got up and got it! If he ordered +his pap bottle, and it wasn't warm, did you talk back? Not you; you +went to work and warmed it. You even descended so far in your menial +office as to take a suck at that warm, insipid stuff yourself, to see +if it was right!--three parts water to one of milk, a touch of sugar to +modify the colic, and a drop of peppermint to kill those immortal +hiccoughs. I can taste that stuff yet. + +And how many things you learned as you went along! Sentimental young +folks still take stock in that beautiful old saying, that when a baby +smiles in his sleep it is because the angels are whispering to him. +Very pretty, but "too thin"--simply wind on the stomach, my friends. I +like the idea that a baby doesn't amount to anything! Why, one baby is +just a house and a front yard full by itself; one baby can furnish more +business than you and your whole interior department can attend to; he +is enterprising, irrepressible, brimful of lawless activities. Do what +you please you can't make him stay on the reservation. Sufficient unto +the day is one baby. As long as you are in your right mind don't ever +pray for twins. Twins amount to a permanent riot; and there ain't any +real difference between triplets and insurrections. + +Among the three or four million cradles now rocking in the land there +are some which this nation would preserve for ages as sacred things, if +we could know which ones they are. For in one of these cradles the +unconscious Farragut of the future is at this moment teething; in +another the future great historian is lying, and doubtless he will +continue to lie until his earthly mission is ended. And in still one +more cradle, somewhere under the flag, the future illustrious +commander-in-chief of the American armies is so little burdened with +his approaching grandeurs and responsibilities as to be giving his +whole strategic mind at this moment, to trying to find out some way to +get his own big toe into his mouth, an achievement to which (meaning no +disrespect) the illustrious guest of this evening also turned his +attention some fifty-six years ago! And if the child is but the +prophecy of the man, there are mighty few will doubt that he succeeded. + + + + +THE OCCASIONAL POEM + + +CHARLES DICKENS + +Read by Mr. Watson in New York, at the celebration of the Dickens +Centenary, 1912. Reprinted from the public press. + +BY WILLIAM WATSON + +When Nature first designed +In her all-procreant mind +The man whom here tonight we are met to honor-- +When first the idea of Dickens flashed upon her-- +"Where, where" she said, "upon my populous earth +Shall this prodigious child be brought to birth? +Where shall we have his earliest wondering look +Into my magic book? +Shall he be born where life runs like a brook, +Pleasant and placid as of old it ran, +Far from the sound and shock of mighty deeds, +Among soft English meads? +Or shall he first my pictured volume scan +Where London lifts its hot and fevered brow +For cooling night to fan?" +"Nay, nay," she said, "I have a happier plan +For where at Portsmouth, on the embattled tides +The ships of war step out with thundering prow +And shake their stormy sides-- +In yonder place of arms, whose gaunt sea wall +Flings to the clouds the far-heard bugle call-- +He shall be born amid the drums and guns, +He shall be born among my fighting sons, +Perhaps the greatest warrior of them all." + +II + +So there, where from the forts and battle gear +And all the proud sea babbles Nelson's name, +Into the world this later hero came-- +He, too, a man that knew all moods but fear-- +He, too, a fighter. Yet not his the strife +That leaves dark scars on the fair face of life. +He did not fight to rend the world apart; +He fought to make it one in mind and heart, +Building a broad and noble bridge to span +The icy chasm that sunders man from man. +Wherever wrong had fixed its bastions deep, +There did his fierce yet gay assault surprise +Some fortress girt with lucre or with lies; +There his light battery stormed some ponderous keep; +There charged he up the steep, +A knight on whom no palsying torpor fell, +Keen to the last to break a lance with Hell. +And still undimmed his conquering weapons shine; +On his bright sword no spot of rust appears, +And still across the years +His soul goes forth to battle, and in the face +Of whatso'er is false, or cruel, or base, +He hurls his gage and leaps among the spears, +Being armed with pity and love and scorn divine, +Immortal laughter and immortal tears. + + +THE MARINERS OF ENGLAND + +BY THOMAS CAMPBELL + +Ye Mariners of England +That guard our native seas! +Whose flag has braved, a thousand years, +The battle and the breeze! +Your glorious standard launch again +To match another foe: +And sweep through the deep, +While the stormy winds do blow; +While the battle rages loud and long +And the stormy winds do blow. + +The spirit of your fathers +Shall start from every wave, +For the deck it is our field of fame, +And Ocean was their grave: +Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell +Your manly heart shall glow, +As ye sweep through the deep, +While the stormy winds do blow; +While the battle rages loud and long +And the stormy winds do blow. + +Britannia needs no bulwarks, +No towers along the steep; +Her march is o'er the mountain waves, +Her home is on the deep. +With thunders from her native oak +She quells the floods below, +As they roar on the shore, +When the stormy winds do blow; +When the battle rages loud and long +And the stormy winds do blow. + +The meteor-flag of England +Shall yet terrific burn; +Till danger's troubled night depart +And the star of peace return. +Then, then, ye ocean warriors! +Our song and feast shall flow +To the fame of your name, +When the storm has ceased to blow; +When the fiery fight is heard no more, +And the storm has ceased to blow. + + +CLASS POEM + +Read in Sanders Theater at the Harvard Class Day Exercises, 1903. +Reprinted with permission. + +BY LANGDON WARNER + +Not unto every one of us shall come + The bugle call that sounds for famous deeds; +Not far lands, but the pleasant paths of home, + Not broad seas to traffic, but the meads +Of fruitful midland ways, where daily life + Down trellised vistas, heavy in the Fall, +Seems but the decent way apart from strife; + And love, and work, and laughter there seem all. + +War, and the Orient Sun uprising, + The East, the West, and Man's shrill clamorous strife, +Travail, disaster, flood, and far emprising, + Man may not reach, yet take fast hold on life. +Let us now praise men who are not famous, + Striving for good name rather than for great; +Hear we the quiet voice calling to claim us, + Heed it no less than the trumpet-call of fate! + +Profit we to-day by the men who've gone before us, + Men who dared, and lived, and died, to speed us on our way. +Fair is their fame, who make that mighty chorus, + And gentle is the heritance that comes to us to-day. + +They pulled with the strength that was in them, + But 'twas not for the pewter cup, +And not for the fame 'twould win them + When the length of the race was up. +For the college stood by the river, + And they heard, with cheeks that glowed, +The voice of the coxswain calling + At the end of the course--"Well rowed!" + +We have pulled at the sweep and run at the games, +We have striven to stand to our boyhood aims, +And we know the worth of our fathers' names; + Shall we have less care for our own? +The praise of men they dared despise, +They set the game above the prize, +Must we fear to look in our fathers' eyes, + Nor reap where they have sown? + +Do we lose the zest we've known before? +The joy of running?--The kick of the oar + When the ash sweeps buckle and bend? + Is the goal too far?--Too hard to gain? +We know that the candle is not the play, +We know the reward is not to-day, + And may not come at the end. + +But we hear the voice of each bygone class +From the river's bank when our own crews pass, + And the backs of the men are bowed, +With a steady lift and a squandering strength, +For the heave that shall drive us a nation's length, + Till the coxswain calls--"Well rowed." + +Now all to the tasks that may find us-- + To the saddle, the home, or the sea, +Still hearing the voices behind us + The voices that set us free; +Free to be bound by our honor, + Free to our birthright of toil, +The masters, and slaves, of the nation, + The Serfs, and the Lords, of the soil! + +Proudly we lift the burdens + That humbled the ages past, +And pray to the God that gave them + We may bear them on to the last; + +That our sons and our younger brothers, + When our gaps in the front they fill, +May know that the class has faltered not, + And the line is even still. + +Then out to the wind and weather! + Down the course our fathers showed, +And finish well together, + As the coxswain calls--"Well rowed!" + + +A TROOP OF THE GUARD + +Harvard Class Poem, 1907, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, publishers, +Reprinted with permission. + +BY HERMANN HAGEDORN, JR. + +There's a trampling of hoofs in the busy street, + There's a clanking of sabers on floor and stair, +There's a sound of restless, hurrying feet, +Of voices that whisper, of lips that entreat,-- + Will they live, will they die, will they strive, will they dare?-- +The houses are garlanded, flags flutter gay, +For a troop of the Guard rides forth to-day. + +Oh, the troopers will ride and their hearts will leap, + When it's shoulder to shoulder and friend to friend-- +But it's some to the pinnacle, some to the deep, +And some in the glow of their strength to sleep, + And for all it's a fight to the tale's far end, +And it's each to his goal, nor turn nor sway, +When the troop of the Guard rides forth to-day. + +The dawn is upon us, the pale light speeds + To the zenith with glamour and golden dart. +On, up! Boot and saddle! Give spurs to your steeds! +There's a city beleaguered that cries for men's deeds, + With the pain of the world in its cavernous heart. + + Ours be the triumph! Humanity calls! + Life's not a dream in the clover! + On to the walls, on to the walls, + On to the walls, and over! + +The wine is spent, the tale is spun, +The revelry of youth is done. +The horses prance, the bridles clink, +While maidens fair in bright array +With us the last sweet goblet drink, +Then bid us, "Mount and away!" +Into the dawn, we ride, we ride, +Fellow and fellow, side by side; +Galloping over the field and hill, +Over the marshland, stalwart still, +Into the forest's shadowy hush, +Where specters walk in sunless day, +And in dark pool and branch and bush +The treacherous will-o'-the-wisp lights play. +Out of the wood 'neath the risen sun, +Weary we gallop, one and one, +To a richer hope and a stronger foe +And a hotter fight in the fields below-- +Each man his own slave, each his lord, +For the golden spurs and the victor's sword! + +An anxious generation sends us forth +On the far conquest of the thrones of might. +From west to east, from south to north, +Earth's children, weary-eyed from too much light, +Cry from their dream-forsaken vales of pain, +"Give us our gods, give us our gods again!" +A lofty and relentless century, +Gazing with Argus eyes, +Has pierced the very inmost halls of faith; +And left no shelter whither man may flee +From the cold storms of night and lovelessness and death. + +Old gods have fallen and the new must rise! +Out of the dust of doubt and broken creeds, +The sons of those who cast men's idols low +Must build up for a hungry people's needs +New gods, new hopes, new strength to toil and grow; +Knowing that nought that ever lived can die,-- +No act, no dream but spreads its sails, sublime, +Sweeping across the visible seas of time +Into the treasure-haven of eternity. +The portals are open, the white road leads + Through thicket and garden, o'er stone and sod. +On, up! Boot and saddle! Give spurs to your steeds! +There's a city beleaguered that cries for men's deeds, + For the faith that is strength and the love that is God! + On, through the dawning! Humanity calls! + Life's not a dream in the clover! + On to the walls, on to the walls, + On to the walls, and over! + + +THE BOYS + +At a class reunion. By permission of, and by special arrangement with, +Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of this author's works. + +BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES + +Has there any old fellow got mixed with the boys? +If there has, take him out, without making a noise. +Hang the Almanac's cheat and the Catalogue's spite! +Old Time is a liar! We're twenty to-night! + +We're twenty! We're twenty! Who says we are more? +He's tipsy, young jackanapes!--show him the door! +'Gray temples at twenty?'--Yes! _white_ if we please; +Where the snowflakes fall thickest there's nothing can freeze! + +Was it snowing I spoke of? Excuse the mistake! +Look close,--you will see not a sign of a flake! +We want some new garlands for those we have shed,-- +And these are white roses in place of the red. + +We've a trick, we young fellows, you may have been told, +Of talking (in public) as if we were old:-- +That boy we call 'Doctor,' and this we call 'Judge'; +It's a neat little fiction,--of course it's all fudge. + +That fellow's the 'Speaker,'--the one on the right: +'Mr. Mayor,' my young one, how are you to-night? +That's our 'Member of Congress,' we say when we chaff; +There's the 'Reverend' What's his name?--don't make me laugh. + +That boy with the grave mathematical look +Made believe he had written a wonderful book, +And the ROYAL SOCIETY thought it was _true_! +So they chose him right in; a good joke it was, too! + +There's a boy, we pretend, with a three-decker brain, +That could harness a team with a logical chain; +When he spoke for our manhood in syllabled fire, +We called him 'The Justice,' but now he's 'The Squire.' + +And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith,-- +Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith; +But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,-- +Just read on his medal, 'My country,' 'of thee!' + +You hear that boy laughing?--You think he's all fun; +But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done; +The children laugh loud as they troop to his call, +And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all! + +Yes, we're boys,--always playing with tongue or with pen,-- +And I sometimes have asked,--Shall we ever be men? +Shall we always be youthful, and laughing, and gay, +Till the last dear companion drops smiling away? + +Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its gray! +The stars of its winter, the dews of its May! +And when we have done with our life-lasting toys, +Dear Father, take care of thy children, the BOYS! + + + + +THE ANECDOTE + + +THE MOB CONQUERED + +From "The Orations and Addresses of George William Curtis," Vol. 1 +Copyright 1893, by Harper and Brothers. Reprinted with permission. + +BY GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS + +It is especially necessary for us to perceive the vital relation of +individual courage and character to the common welfare, because ours is +a government of public opinion, and public opinion is but the aggregate +of individual thought. We have the awful responsibility as a community +of doing what we choose; and it is of the last importance that we +choose to do what is wise and right. In the early days of the +antislavery agitation a meeting was called at Faneuil Hall, in Boston, +which a good-natured mob of sailors was hired to suppress. They took +possession of the floor and danced breakdowns and shouted choruses and +refused to hear any of the orators upon the platform. The most eloquent +pleaded with them in vain. They were urged by the memories of the +Cradle of Liberty, for the honor of Massachusetts, for their own honor +as Boston boys, to respect liberty of speech. But they still laughed +and sang and danced, and were proof against every appeal. At last a man +suddenly arose from among themselves, and began to speak. Struck by his +tone and quaint appearance, and with the thought that he might be one +of themselves, the mob became suddenly still, "Well, fellow-citizens," +he said, "I wouldn't be quiet if I didn't want to." The words were +greeted with a roar of delight from the mob, which supposed it had +found its champion, and the applause was unceasing for five minutes, +during which the strange orator tranquilly awaited his chance to +continue. The wish to hear more hushed the tumult, and when the hall +was still he resumed: "No, I certainly wouldn't stop if I hadn't a mind +to; but then, if I were you, I _would_ have a mind to!" The oddity +of the remark and the earnestness of the tone, held the crowd silent, +and the speaker continued, "not because this is Faneuil Hall, nor for +the honor of Massachusetts, nor because you are Boston boys, but +because you are men, and because honorable and generous men always love +fair play." The mob was conquered. Free speech and fair play were +secured. Public opinion can do what it has a mind to in this country. +If it be debased and demoralized, it is the most odious of tyrants. It +is Nero and Caligula multiplied by millions. Can there then be a more +stringent public duty for every man--and the greater the intelligence +the greater the duty--than to take care, by all the influence he can +command, that the country, the majority, public opinion, shall have a +mind to do only what is just and pure and humane? + + +AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH + +From "The New South." Reprinted with permission + +BY HENRY W. GRADY + +Permitted, through your kindness, to catch my second wind, let me say +that I appreciate the significance of being the first Southerner to +speak at this board, which bears the substance, if it surpasses the +semblance, of original New England hospitality--and honors the +sentiment that in turn honors you, but in which my personality is lost, +and the compliment to my people made plain. + +I bespeak the utmost stretch of your courtesy to-night. I am not +troubled about those from whom I come. You remember the man whose wife +sent him to a neighbor with a pitcher of milk, and who, tripping on the +top step, fell with such casual interruptions as the landings afforded +into the basement, and, while picking himself up, had the pleasure of +hearing his wife call out: "John, did you break the pitcher?" + +"No, I didn't," said John, "but I'll be dinged if I don't." + +So, while those who call me from behind may inspire me with energy, if +not with courage, I ask an indulgent hearing from you. I beg that you +will bring your full faith in American fairness and frankness to +judgment upon what I shall say. There was an old preacher once who told +some boys of the Bible lesson he was going to read in the morning. The +boys, finding the place, glued together the connecting pages. The next +morning he read on the bottom of one page, "When Noah was one hundred +and twenty years old he took unto himself a wife, who was--" then +turning the page--"140 cubits long, 40 cubits wide, built of gopher +wood--and covered with pitch inside and out." He was naturally puzzled +at this. He read it again, verified it, and then said, "My friends, +this is the first time I ever met this in the Bible, but I accept this +as an evidence of the assertion that we are fearfully and wonderfully +made." If I could get you to hold such faith to-night I could proceed +cheerfully to the task I otherwise approach with a sense of +consecration. + + +THE RAIL-SPLITTER + +From "The Lincoln Story Book," with the permission of G. W. Dillingham +and Co., New York, publishers. + +BY H. L. WILLIAMS + +The Illinois Republican State Convention of 1860 met at Decatur, in a +wigwam built for the purpose, a type of that noted in the Lincoln +Annals as at Chicago. A special welcome was given to Abraham Lincoln as +a "distinguished citizen of Illinois, and one she will ever be +delighted to honor." The session was suddenly interrupted by the +chairman saying: "There is an old Democrat outside who has something to +present to the convention." + +The present was two old fence rails, carried on the shoulder of an +elderly man, recognized by Lincoln as his cousin John Hanks, and by the +Sangamon folks as an old settler in the Bottoms. The rails were +explained by a banner reading: + +"Two rails from a lot made by Abraham Lincoln and John Hanks, in the +Sangamon Bottom, in the year 1830." + +Thunderous cheers for "the rail-splitter" resounded, for this slur on +the statesman had recoiled on aspersers and was used as a title of +honor. The call for confirmation of the assertion led Lincoln to rise, +and blushing--so recorded--said: + +"Gentlemen,--I suppose you want to know something about those things. +Well, the truth is, John and I did make rails in the Sangamon Bottom." +He eyed the wood with the knowingness of an authority on "stumpage," +and added: "I don't know whether we made those rails or not; the fact +is, I don't think they are a credit to the makers!" It was John Hanks' +turn to blush. "But I do know this: I made rails then, and, I think, I +could make better ones now!" + +Whereupon, by acclamation, Abraham Lincoln was declared to be "first +choice of the Republican party in Illinois for the Presidency." + +Riding a man in on a rail became of different and honorable meaning +from that out. + +This incident was a prepared theatrical effect. Governor Oglesby +arranged with Lincoln's stepbrother, John D. Johnston, to provide two +rails, and with Lincoln's mother's cousin, Dennis Hanks, for the latter +to bring in the rails at the telling juncture. Lincoln's guarded manner +about identifying the rails, and sly slap at his ability to make better +ones, show that he was in the scheme, though recognizing that the dodge +was of value politically. + + +O'CONNELL'S WIT + +From a lecture on Daniel O'Connell in "Speeches and Lectures," with the +permission of Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, Boston, publishers. + +BY WENDELL PHILLIPS + +We used to say of Webster, "This is a great effort"; of Everett, "It is +a beautiful effort"; but you never used the word "effort" in speaking +of O'Connell. It provoked you that he would not make an effort. I heard +him perhaps a score of times, and I do not think more than three times +he ever lifted himself to the full sweep of his power. + +And this wonderful power, it was not a thunderstorm: he flanked you +with his wit, he surprised you out of yourself; you were conquered +before you knew it. + +He was once summoned to court out of the hunting field, when a young +friend of his of humble birth was on trial for his life. The evidence +gathered around a hat found next the body of the murdered man, which +was recognized as the hat of the prisoner. The lawyers tried to break +down the evidence, confuse the testimony, and get some relief from the +directness of the circumstances, but in vain, until at last they called +for O'Connell. He came in, flung his riding-whip and hat on the table, +was told the circumstances, and, taking up the hat, said to the +witness, "Whose hat is this?" "Well, Mr. O'Connell, that is Mike's +hat." "How do you know it?" "I will swear to it, sir." "And did you +really find it by the body of the murdered man?" "I did that, sir." +"But you're not ready to swear to that?" "I am, indeed, Mr. O'Connell." +"Pat, do you know what hangs on your word? A human soul. And with that +dread burden, are you ready to tell this jury that the hat, to your +certain knowledge, belongs to the prisoner?" "Y-yes, Mr. O'Connell; +yes, I am." + +O'Connell takes the hat to the nearest window, and peers into it--"J-a- +m-e-s, James. Now, Pat, did you see that name in the hat?" "I did, Mr. +O'Connell." "You knew it was there?" "Yes, sir; I read it after I +picked it up."----"No name in the hat, your Honor." + +So again in the House of Commons. When he took his seat in the House in +1830, the London _Times_ visited him with its constant indignation, +reported his speeches awry, turned them inside out, and made nonsense +of them; treated him as the New York _Herald_ use to treat us +Abolitionists twenty years ago. So one morning he rose and said, +"Mr. Speaker, you know I have never opened my lips in this House, +and I expended twenty years of hard work in getting the right to enter +it,--I have never lifted my voice in this House, but in behalf of the +saddest people the sun shines on. Is it fair play, Mr. Speaker, is it +what you call 'English fair play' that the press of this city will not +let my voice be heard?" The next day the _Times_ sent him word +that, as he found fault with their manner of reporting him, they never +would report him at all, they never would print his name in their +parliamentary columns. So the next day when prayers were ended +O'Connell rose. Those reporters of the _Times_ who were in the +gallery rose also, ostentatiously put away their pencils, folded their +arms, and made all the show they could, to let everybody know how it +was. Well, you know nobody has a right to be in the gallery during the +session, and if any member notices them, the mere notice clears the +gallery; only the reporters can stay after that notice. O'Connell rose. +One of the members said, "Before the member from Clare opens his +speech, let me call his attention to the gallery and the instance of +that 'passive resistance' which he is about to preach." "Thank you," +said O'Connell. "Mr. Speaker, I observe the strangers in the gallery." +Of course they left; of course the next day, in the columns of the +London _Times_, there were no parliamentary debates. And for the +first time, except in Richard Cobden's case, the London _Times_ +cried for quarter, and said to O'Connell, "If you give up the quarrel, +we will." + + +A RELIABLE TEAM + +From "Hunting the Grizzly," with the permission of G. P. Putnam's Sons, +New York and London, Publishers. + +BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +In the cow country there is nothing more refreshing than the light- +hearted belief entertained by the average man to the effect that any +animal which by main force has been saddled and ridden, or harnessed +and driven a couple of times, is a "broke horse." My present foreman is +firmly wedded to this idea, as well as to its complement, the belief +that any animal with hoofs, before any vehicle with wheels, can be +driven across any country. One summer on reaching the ranch I was +entertained with the usual accounts of the adventures and misadventures +which had befallen my own men and my neighbors since I had been out +last. In the course of the conversation my foreman remarked: "We had a +great time out here about six weeks ago. There was a professor from Ann +Arbor came out with his wife to see the Bad Lands, and they asked if we +could rig them up a team, and we said we guessed we could, and Foley's +boy and I did; but it ran away with him and broke his leg! He was here +for a month. I guess he didn't mind it, though." Of this I was less +certain, forlorn little Medora being a "busted" cow town, concerning +which I once heard another of my men remark, in reply to an inquisitive +commercial traveler: "How many people lives here? Eleven--counting the +chickens--when they're all in town!" + +My foreman continued: "By George, there was something that professor +said afterward that made me feel hot. I sent word up to him by Foley's +boy that seein' as how it had come out, we wouldn't charge him nothin' +for the rig; and that professor answered that he was glad we were +showing him some sign of consideration, for he'd begun to believe he'd +fallen into a den of sharks, and that we gave him a runaway team +apurpose. That made me hot, calling that a runaway team. Why, there was +one of them horses never _could_ have run away before; it hadn't +never been druv but twice! and the other horse maybe had run away a few +times, but there was lots of times he _hadn't_ run away. I esteemed +that team full as liable not to run away as it was to run away," +concluded my foreman, evidently deeming this as good a warranty +of gentleness in a horse as the most exacting could possibly require. + + +MEG'S MARRIAGE + +From a lecture entitled "Clear Grit," published in "Modern Eloquence," +Vol. IV, Geo. L. Shuman and Company, Chicago. + +BY ROBERT COLLYER + +In what we call the good old times--say, three hundred years ago--a +family lived on the border between England and Scotland, with one +daughter of a marvelous homeliness. Her name was Meg. She was a capital +girl, as homely girls generally are. She knew she had no beauty, so she +made sure of quality and faculty. But the Scotch say that "while beauty +may not make the best kail, it looks best by the side of the kail-pot." +So Meg had no offer of a husband, and was likely to die in what we call +"single blessedness." Everybody on the border in those days used to +steal, and their best "holt," as we say, was cattle. If they wanted +meat and had no money, they would go out and steal as many beef cattle +as they could lay their hands on, from somebody on the other side of +the border. Well, they generally had no money, and they were always +wanting beef, and they could always be hung for stealing by the man +they stole from if he could catch them, and so they had what an +Irishman would call a fine time entirely. One day a young chief, +wanting some beef as usual, went out with part of his clan, came upon a +splendid herd on the lands of Meg's father, and went to work to drive +them across to his own. But the old fellow was on the lookout, mustered +his clan, bore down on the marauders, beat them, took the young chief +prisoner, and then went home to his peel very much delighted. Meg's +mother, of course, wanted to know all about it, and then she said, +"Noo, laird, what are you gaun to do with the prisoner?" "I am gaun to +hang him," the old man thundered, "just as soon as I have had my +dinner." "But I think ye're noo wise to do that," she said. "He has got +a braw place, ye ken, over the border, and he is a braw fellow. Noo +I'll tell ye what I would do. I would give him his chance to be hung or +marry oor Meg." It struck the old man as a good idea, and so he went +presently down into the dungeon, told the young fellow to get ready to +be hung in thirty minutes, but then got round to the alternative, and +offered to spare his life if he would marry Meg, and give him the beef +into the bargain. He had heard something about Meg's wonderful want of +beauty, and so, with a fine Scotch prudence, he said, "Ye will let me +see her, laird, before I mak' up my mind, because maybe I would rather +be hung." "Aye, mon, that's fair," the old chief answered, and went in +to bid the mother get Meg ready for the interview. The mother did her +best, you may be sure, to make Meg look winsome, but when the poor +fellow saw his unintentional intended he turned round to the chief and +said, "Laird, if ye have nae objection, I think I would rather be +hung." "And sae ye shall, me lad, and welcome," the old chief replied, +in a rage. So they led him out, got the rope around his neck; and then +the young man changed his mind, and shouted, "Laird, I'll tak' her." So +he was marched back into the castle, married before he had time to +change his mind, if that was possible, and the tradition is that there +never was a happier pair in Scotland, and never a better wife in the +world than Meg. But I have told the story because it touches this +point, of the way they hold their own over there when there are great +families of children. They tell me that the family flourishes famously +still; no sign of dying out or being lost about it. Meg's main feature +was a very large mouth, and now in the direct line in almost every +generation the neighbors and friends are delighted, as they say, to get +Meg back. "Here's Meg again," they cry when a child is born with that +wonderful mouth. Sir Walter Scott was one of the descendants of the +family. He had Meg's mouth, in a measure, and was very proud of it when +he would tell the story. + + +OUTDOING MRS. PARTINGTON + +From a speech published in Brewer's "The World's Best Orations," Vol. +IX, Ferd. P. Kaiser, St. Louis, Chicago, publisher. + +BY SIDNEY SMITH I have spoken so often on this subject, that I am sure +both you and the gentlemen here present will be obliged to me for +saying but little, and that favor I am as willing to confer, as you can +be to receive it. I feel most deeply the event which has taken place, +because, by putting the two houses of Parliament in collision with each +other, it will impede the public business and diminish the public +prosperity. I feel it as a churchman, because I cannot but blush to see +so many dignitaries of the Church arrayed against the wishes and +happiness of the people. I feel it more than all, because I believe it +will sow the seeds of deadly hatred between the aristocracy and the +great mass of the people. The loss of the bill I do not feel, and for +the best of all possible reasons--because I have not the slightest idea +that it is lost. I have no more doubt, before the expiration of the +winter, that this bill will pass, than I have that the annual tax bills +will pass, and greater certainty than this no man can have, for +Franklin tells us there are but two things certain in this world--death +and taxes. As for the possibility of the House of Lords preventing ere +long a reform of Parliament, I hold it to be the most absurd notion +that ever entered into human imagination. I do not mean to be +disrespectful, but the attempt of the lords to stop the progress of +reform reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of Sidmouth, and of +the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion. In the +winter of 1824, there set in a great flood upon that town, the tide +rose to an incredible height, the waves rushed in upon the houses, and +everything was threatened with destruction. In the midst of this +sublime and terrible storm, Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, +was seen at the top of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her +mop, squeezing out the water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic +Ocean. The Atlantic was roused. Mrs. Partington's spirit was up; but I +need not tell you that the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat +Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a puddle, but she +should not have meddled with a tempest. Gentlemen, be at your ease--be +quiet and steady. You will beat Mrs. Partington. + + +CIRCUMSTANCE NOT A CAUSE + +From the same speech as the foregoing + +BY SIDNEY SMITH + +An honorable member of the honorable house, much connected with this +town, and once its representative, seems to be amazingly surprised, and +equally dissatisfied, at this combination of king, ministers, nobles, +and people, against his opinion,--like the gentleman who came home from +serving on a jury very much disconcerted, and complaining he had met +with eleven of the most obstinate people he had ever seen in his life, +whom he found it absolutely impossible by the strongest arguments to +bring over to his way of thinking. + +They tell you, gentlemen, that you have grown rich and powerful with +these rotten boroughs, and that it would be madness to part with them, +or to alter a constitution which had produced such happy effects. There +happens, gentlemen, to live near my parsonage a laboring man of very +superior character and understanding to his fellow laborers, and who +has made such good use of that superiority that he has saved what is +(for his station in life) a very considerable sum of money, and if his +existence is extended to the common period he will die rich. It +happens, however, that he is (and long has been) troubled with violent +stomachic pains, for which he has hitherto obtained no relief, and +which really are the bane and torment of his life. Now, if my excellent +laborer were to send for a physician and to consult him respecting this +malady, would it not be very singular language if our doctor were to +say to him: "My good friend, you surely will not be so rash as to +attempt to get rid of these pains in your stomach. Have you not grown +rich with these pains in your stomach? have you not risen under them +from poverty to prosperity? has not your situation since you were first +attacked been improving every year? You surely will not be so foolish +and so indiscreet as to part with the pains in your stomach?" Why, what +would be the answer of the rustic to this nonsensical monition? +"Monster of rhubarb! (he would say) I am not rich in consequence of the +pains in my stomach, but in spite of the pains in my stomach; and I +should have been ten times richer, and fifty times happier, if I had +never had any pains in my stomach at all." Gentlemen, these rotten +boroughs are your pains in the stomach--and you would have been a much +richer and greater people if you had never had them at all. Your wealth +and your power have been owing not to the debased and corrupted parts +of the House of Commons, but to the many independent and honorable +members whom it has always contained within its walls. If there had +been a few more of these very valuable members for close boroughs we +should, I verily believe, have been by this time about as free as +Denmark, Sweden, or the Germanized States of Italy. + +This is the greatest measure which has ever been before Parliament in +my time, and the most pregnant with good or evil to the country; and +though I seldom meddle with political meetings, I could not reconcile +it to my conscience to be absent from this. + +Every year for this half century, the question of reform has been +pressing upon us, till it has swelled up at last into this great and +awful combination; so that almost every city and every borough in +England are at this moment assembled for the same purpose, and are +doing the same thing we are doing. + + +MORE TERRIBLE THAN THE LIONS + +From "Modern Eloquence," Vol. X, Geo. L. Shuman and Company, Chicago, +publishers. + +BY A. A. MCCORMICK + +I do not want to be in the position of a man I once heard of who was a +lion tamer. He was a very brave man. There was no lion, no matter how +big, or strong, or vicious, that had not succumbed to this man's +fearlessness. This man had a wife, and she did not like him to stay out +late at night, and big as he was, and as brave, he had never dared to +disrespect his wife's wishes, until one evening, meeting some old +friends, he fell to talking over old times with them, their early +adventures and experiences. Finally, looking at his watch, to his +amazement he discovered it was midnight. What to do he knew not. He +didn't dare to go home. If he went to a hotel, his wife might discover +him before he discovered her. Finally, in desperation, he sped to the +menagerie, hurriedly passed through and went to the cage of lions. +Entering this he closed and locked the door, and gave a sigh of relief. +He quieted the dangerous brutes, and lay down with his head resting on +the mane of the largest and most dangerous of them all. His wife +waited. Her anger increased as the night wore on. At the first sign of +dawn she went in search of her recreant lord and master. Not finding +him in any of the haunts that he generally frequented, she went to the +menagerie. She also passed through and went to the cage of the lions. +Peering in she saw her husband, the fearless lion tamer, crouching at +the back of the cage. A look of chagrin came over her face, closely +followed by one of scorn and fine contempt, as she shook her finger and +hissed, "You coward!" + + +IRVING, THE ACTOR + +From "In Lighter Vein," with the permission of Paul Elder and Company, +San Francisco, publishers. + +BY JOHN DE MORGAN + +Henry Irving, the actor, was always fond of playing practical jokes. +Clement Scott tells of one played by Irving and Harry Montague upon a +number of their associates. Irving and Montague, hitherto the best of +friends, began to quarrel on their way to a picnic, and their friends +feared some tragic consequences. After luncheon both of the men +disappeared. Business Manager Smale's face turned pale. He felt that +his worst fears had been realized. With one cry, "They're gone! What on +earth has become of them?" he made a dash down the Dargle, over the +rocks and bowlders, with the remainder of the picnickers at his heels. +At the bottom of a "dreadful hollow behind the little wood," a fearful +sight presented itself to the astonished friends. There, on a stone, +sat Henry Irving, in his shirtsleeves, his long hair matted over his +eyes, his thin hands and white face all smeared with blood, and +dangling an open clasp-knife. He was muttering to himself, in a savage +tone: "I've done it, I've done it! I said I would, I said I would!" Tom +Smale, in an agony of fear, rushed up to Irving. "For Heaven's sake, +man," he screamed, "tell us where he is!" Irving, scarcely moving a +muscle, pointed to a heap of dead leaves, and, in that sepulchral tone +of his, cried: "He's there! I've done for him! I've murdered him!" +Smale literally bounded to the heap, almost paralyzed with fear, and +began pulling the leaves away. Presently he found Montague lying face +downward and nearly convulsed with laughter. Never was better acting +seen on any stage. + + +WENDELL PHILLIPS'S TACT + +From "Memories of the Lyceum," in "Modern Eloquence," Vol. VI, Geo. L. +Shuman and Company, Chicago, publishers. + +BY JAMES BURTON POND + +Wendell Phillips was the most polished and graceful orator our country +ever produced. He spoke as quietly as if he were talking in his own +parlor and almost entirely without gestures, yet he had as great a +power over all kinds of audiences as any American of whom we have any +record. Often called before howling mobs, who had come to the lecture- +room to prevent him from being heard, and who would shout and sing to +drown his voice, he never failed to subdue them in a short time. One +illustration of his power and tact occurred in Boston. The majority of +the audience were hostile. They yelled and sang and completely drowned +his voice. The reporters were seated in a row just under the platform, +in the place where the orchestra plays in an ordinary theater. Phillips +made no attempt to address the noisy crowd, but bent over and seemed to +be speaking in a low tone to the reporters. By and by the curiosity of +the audience was excited; they ceased to clamor and tried to hear what +he was saying to the reporters. Phillips looked at them and said +quietly:-- + +"Go on, gentlemen, go on. I do not need your ears. Through these +pencils I speak to thirty millions of people." + +Not a voice was raised again. The mob had found its master and stayed +whipped until he sat down. + +Eloquent as he was as a lecturer, he was far more effective as a +debater. Debate was for him the flint and steel which brought out all +his fire. His memory was something wonderful, He would listen to an +elaborate speech for hours, and, without a single note of what had been +said, in writing, reply to every part of it as fully and completely as +if the speech were written out before him. Those who heard him only on +the platform, and when not confronted by an opponent, have a very +limited comprehension of his wonderful resources as a speaker. He never +hesitated for a word or failed to employ the word best fitted to +express his thought on the point under discussion. + + +BAKED BEANS AND CULTURE + +From "Writings in Prose and Verse, by Eugene Field," with the +permission of Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, publishers. + +BY EUGENE FIELD + +The members of the Boston Commercial Club are charming gentlemen. They +are now the guests of the Chicago Commercial Club, and are being shown +every attention that our market affords. + +Last night five or six of these Boston merchants sat around the office +of the hotel and discussed matters and things. Pretty soon they got to +talking about beans; this was the subject which they dwelt on with +evident pleasure. + +"Waal, sir," said Ephraim Taft, a wholesale dealer in maple sugar and +flavored lozenges, "you kin talk 'bout your new-fashioned dishes an' +high-falutin' vittles; but when you come right down to it, there ain't +no better eatin' than a dish o' baked pork 'n' beans." + +"That's so, b'gosh!" chorused the others. + +"The truth o' the matter is," continued Mr. Taft, "that beans is good +for everybody--'t don't make no difference whether he's well or sick. +Why, I've known a thousand folks--waal, mebbe not quite a thousand; +but--waal, now, jest to show, take the case of Bill Holbrook,--you +remember Bill, don't ye?" + +"Bill Holbrook?" said Mr. Ezra Eastman. "Why, of course I do. Used to +live down to Brimfield, next to Moses Howard farm." + +"That's the man," resumed Mr. Taft. "Waal, Bill fell sick--kinder moped +'round, tired-like, for a week or two, an' then tuck to his bed. His +folks sent for Dock Smith--ol' Dock Smith that used to carry a pair o' +leather saddlebags. Gosh, they don't have no sech doctors nowadays! +Waal, the dock he come; an' he looked at Bill's tongue, an' felt uv his +pulse, an' said that Bill had typhus fever." + +Ol' Dock Smith was a very careful, conserv'tive man, an' he never said +nothin' unless he knowed he was right. + +"Bill began to git wuss, an' he kep' a-gittin' wuss every day. One +mornin' ol' Dock Smith sez, 'Look a-here, Bill, I guess you're a goner; +as I figger it, you can't hol' out till nightfall.' + +"Bill's mother insisted on a con-sul-tation bein' held; so ol' Dock +Smith sent over for young Dock Brainerd. I calc'late that, next +_to_ ol' Dock Smith, young Dock Brainerd was the smartest doctor +that ever lived. + +"Waal, pretty soon along come Dock Brainerd; an' he an' Dock Smith went +all over Bill, an' looked at his tongue, an' felt uv his pulse, an' +told him it was a gone case, an' that he had got to die. Then they went +on into the spare chamber to hold their con-sul-tation. + +"Waal, Bill he lay there in the front room a-pantin' an' a-gaspin', an' +a wond'rin' whether it wuz true. As he wuz thinkin', up comes the girl +to git a clean tablecloth out of the clothespress, an' she left the +door ajar as she come in. Bill he gave a sniff, an' his eyes grew more +natural like; he gathered together all the strength he had, an' he +raised himself up on one elbow an' sniffed again. + +"'Sary,' says he, 'wot's that a-cookin'?' + +"'Beans,' says she; 'beans for dinner.' + +"'Sary,' says the dyin' man, 'I must hev a plate uv them beans!' + +"'Sakes alive, Mr. Holbrook!' says she; 'if you wuz to eat any o' them +beans it'd kill ye!' + +"'If I've got to die,' says he, 'I'm goin' to die happy; fetch me a +plate uv them beans.' + +"Waal, Sary she pikes off to the doctor's. + +"'Look a-here,' says she; 'Mr. Holbrook smelt the beans cookin' an' he +says he's got to have some. Now, what shall I do about it?' + +"'Waal, Doctor,' says Dock Smith, 'what do you think 'bout it?' + +"'He's got to die anyhow,' says Dock Brainerd, 'an' I don't suppose the +beans 'll make any diff'rence.' + +"'That's the way I figger it,' says Dock Smith; 'in all my practice I +never knew of beans hurtin' anybody.' + +"So Sary went down to the kitchen an' brought up a plateful of hot +baked beans. Dock Smith raised Bill up in bed, an' Dock Brainerd put a +piller under the small of Bill's back. Then Sary sat down by the bed +an' fed them beans into Bill until Bill couldn't hold any more. + +"'How air you feelin' now?' asked Dock Smith. + +"Bill didn't say nuthin; he jest smiled sort uv peaceful-like and +closed his eyes. + +"'The end hez come,'f said Dock Brainerd sof'ly; 'Bill is dyin'.' + +"Then Bill murmured kind o' far-away like; 'I ain't dyin'; I'm dead an' +in heaven.' + +"Next mornin' Bill got out uv bed an' done a big day's work on the +farm, an' he ain't bed a sick spell since. Them beans cured him!" + + +SECRETARY CHASE'S CHIN-FLY + +From "Speeches and Addresses of Abraham Lincoln," Current Literature +Publishing Company, New York, publishers. + +BY F. B. CARPENTER + +"Within a month after Mr. Lincoln's first accession to office," says +the Hon. Mr. Raymond, "when the South was threatening civil war, and +armies of office seekers were besieging him in the Executive Mansion, +he said to a friend that he wished he could get time to attend to the +Southern question; he thought he knew what was wanted, and believed he +could do something towards quieting the rising discontent; but the +office seekers demanded all his time. 'I am,' said he, 'like a man so +busy in letting rooms in one end of his house that he can't stop to put +out the fire that is burning the other.' Two or three years later when +the people had made him a candidate for reflection, the same friend +spoke to him of a member of his Cabinet who was a candidate also. Mr. +Lincoln said that he did not concern himself much about that. It was +important to the country that the department over which his rival +presided should be administered with vigor and energy, and whatever +would stimulate the Secretary to such action would do good. 'R----,' +said he, 'you were brought up on a farm, were you not? Then you know +what a _chin-fly_ is. My brother and I,' he added, 'were once plowing +corn on a Kentucky farm, I driving the horse, and he holding the +plow. The horse was lazy; but on one occasion rushed across the +field so that I, with my long legs, could scarcely keep pace with him. +On reaching the end of the furrow, I found an enormous _chin-fly_ +fastened upon him, and knocked him off. My brother asked me what I did +that for. I told him I didn't want the old horse bitten in that way. +"Why," said my brother, "_that's all that made him go!_" Now,' said +Mr. Lincoln, 'if Mr. ---- has a presidential _chin-fly_ biting him, +I'm not going to knock him off if it will only make his department +_go_.'" + + + + +REVIEW EXERCISES + +EXERCISES + + +There exercises should be practiced in only a moderately +strong voice, at times perhaps in a very soft voice, and +always with a good degree of ease and naturalness. They +had better be memorized, and as the technique becomes +more sure, less thought may be given to that and more +to the true expression of the spirit of each passage--or +let the spirit from the first, if it will, help the technique. + + +TONE + + +For rounding and expanding the voice. To be given in an even +sustained tone, with rather open throat and easy low breathing. +Suspend the speech where pauses are marked, for a momentary +recovery of breath. Keep the breath easily firm. Don't drive the +breath through the tone. + +1 + +Roll on, | thou deep and dark blue Ocean, | roll! +Ten thousand fleets | sweep over thee | in vain; +Man marks the earth | with ruin--his control | +Stops | with the shore. + +2 + +O Tiber, | Father Tiber | +To whom the Romans pray, +A Roman's life, | a Roman's arms, +Take thou in charge | this day | + +3 + +O Rome! | my country! | city of the soul! +The orphans of the heart | must turn to thee, +Lone mother of dead empires! | and control +In their shut breasts | their petty misery. + +4 + +Ring joyous chords!-- | ring out again! +A swifter still | and a wilder strain! +And bring fresh wreaths!-- | we will banish all +Save the free in heart | from our banquet hall. + +5 + +O joy to the people | and joy to the throne, +Come to us, | love us | and make us your own: +For Saxon | or Dane | or Norman | we, +Teuton or Celt, | or what ever we be, +We are all of us Danes | in our welcome of thee, Alexandra! + +6 + +Liberty! | Freedom! | Tyranny is dead!-- +Run hence, | proclaim, | cry it about the streets. +Some to the common pulpits, | and cry out, +"Liberty, | freedom, | and enfranchisement!" + + +INFLECTION + + +Give these with a rather vigorous colloquial effect, with clear-cut +form, with point and spirit. + +1 + + Armed, say you? + Armed, my lord. + From top to toe? + My lord, from head to foot. + Then saw you not + His face? + Oh, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up. + What, looked he frowningly? + A countenance more + In sorrow than in anger. + Pale or red? + Nay, very pale. + And fixed his eyes upon you? + Most constantly. + +2 + +But, sir, the Coalition! The Coalition! Aye, "the +murdered Coalition!" The gentleman asks if I were +led or frighted into this debate by the specter of the +Coalition. "Was it the ghost of the murdered Coalition," +he exclaims, "which haunted the member from Massachusetts; +and which, like the ghost of Banquo, would never +down?" "The murdered Coalition." + +3 + +Should he have asked Aguinaldo for an armistice? If +so, upon what basis should he have requested it? What +should he say to him? "Please stop this fighting?" +"What for?" Aguinaldo would say; "do you propose +to retire?" "No." "Do you propose to grant us independence?" +"No, not now." "Well, why then, an armistice?" + +4 + +Alas, poor Yorick!--I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of +infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on +his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my +imagination it is! my gorge rises at it.--Where be your +gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, +that were wont to set the table in a roar? Not +one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chop-fallen? +Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her +paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come; make her +laugh at that. + + +ENUNCIATION + + +Keep first of all a good form to the vowels. Make consonants +definitely by sufficient action of jaw, tongue, and lips. Keep the +throat easy; avoid stiffening and strain. A particularly light, soft, +pure tone, with fine articulation, may generally be best for practice. + +In these first passages, carry the tone well in the head, so as to +give a pure, soft, clear sound to the _m_'s, _n_'s, _ng_'s, and _l_'s. +If need be, these letters may be marked. + +1 + +One cry of wonder, +Shrill as the loon's call, +Rang through the forest, +Startling the silence, +Startling the mourners +Chanting the death-song. + +2 + +One after one, by the star-dogged Moon, +Too quick for groan or sigh, +Each turned his face with a ghastly pang, +And cursed me with his eye. + +Four times fifty living men, +(And I heard nor sigh nor groan,) +With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, +They dropped down one by one. + +3 + + These abominable principles, and this more abominable +avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. + +4 + +Lay the proud usurpers low! +Tyrants fall in every foe! +Liberty's in every blow! +Forward! let us do or die! + +5 + +I closed my lids, and kept them close, +And the balls like pulses beat; +For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky +Lay like a load on my weary eye, +And the dead were at my feet. + + +REVIEW EXERCISES + + +Give clearly the _k_ and the _g_ forms, making a slight percussion in +the back of the mouth. Finish clearly all main words. + +1 + +With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, +We could nor laugh nor wail; +Through utter drought all dumb we stood! +I bit my arm, I sucked the blood, +And cried, A sail! a sail! + +With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, +Agape they heard me call: +Gramercy! they for joy did grin, +And all at once their breath drew in, +As they were drinking all. + +2 + +Where dwellest thou? +Under the canopy. +Under the canopy! +Ay! +Where's that? +I' the city of kites and crows. +I' the city of kites and crows!-- +Then thou dwellest with daws, too? +No: I serve not thy master. + +3 + +Strike | till the last armed foe | expires! +Strike | for your altars and your fires! +Strike | for the green graves of your sires! +God | and your native land! + +For flexibility of the lips, form well the _o_'s and _w_'s. + +1 + +Blow, blow, thou winter wind, +Thou art not so unkind as man's ingratitude. + +2 + +O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful, wonderful! +and yet again wonderful, and after that, out of all hooping! + +3 + +Water, water, everywhere, +And all the boards did shrink; +Water, water, everywhere, +Nor any drop to drink. + +4 + +O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been +Alone on a wide, wide sea: +So lonely 'twas, that God himself +Scarce seemed there to be. + +Have care for _t_'s, _d_'s, _s_'s, the _th_ and the _st_'s. + +1 + +Day after day, day after day, +We stuck, nor breath nor motion; +As idle as a painted ship +Upon a painted ocean. + +Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, +'Twas sad as sad could be; +And we did speak only to break +The silence of the sea! + +2 + +What loud uproar bursts from that door! +The wedding-guests are there: +But in the garden-bower the bride +And bride-maids singing are: +And hark the little vesper bell, +Which biddeth me to prayer! + +3 + +Farewell, farewell! but this I tell +To thee, thou Wedding-Guest! +He prayeth well, who loveth well +Both man and bird and beast. + +He prayeth best, who loveth best +All things both great and small; +For the dear God who loveth us, +He made and loveth all. + +Attend especially to _b_'s and in passage 2 to _p_'s. Give a very soft, +slightly echoing continuation to the _ing_ in "dying." + +1 + +Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, +Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. +Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying: +Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. + +2 + +Hop, and Mop, and Drop so clear, +Pip, and Trip, and Skip that were +To Mab their sovereign dear, + Her special maids of honor; +Fib, and Tib, and Pinck, and Pin, +Tit, and Nit, and Wap, and Win, + The train that wait upon her. + + +EMPHASIS + + +Determine the exact sense and express it pointedly. The primary or +central emphasis takes an absolute fall from a pitch above the general +level; the secondary emphasis takes a circumflex inflection--a fall and +a slight rise. Primary, Hebrew Letter Yod; secondary Gujarati +Vowel Sign li. In the question, the main part of the inflection is +usually rising instead of falling. The effect of suspense or of forward +look requires the slightly upward final turn to the inflection. Note +this in passages 4, 5, and 6. + +1 + +In 1825 the gentleman told the world that the public lands "ought _not_ +to be treated as a _treasure_." He now tells us that "they _must_ be +treated as _so much treasure_." What the deliberate opinion of the +gentleman on this subject may be, belongs not to me to determine. + +2 + +Compare the two. This I offer to give you is _plain_ and _simple;_ the +other full of perplexed and intricate _mazes_. This is mild; that +_harsh_. This is found by experience _effectual for its purposes_; the +other is a _new project_. This is _universal_; the other calculated for +_certain colonies only._ This is _immediate in its conciliatory +operation_; the other _remote, contingent_, full of _hazard_. + +3 + +As Cęsar _loved me_, I _weep_ for him; as he was _fortunate_, I +_rejoice_ at it; as he was _valiant_, I _honor_ him; but as he was +_ambitious_, I _slew_ him. There is _tears_ for his _love_; _joy_ for +his _fortune_; _honor_ for his _valor_; and _death_ for his _ambition_. + +4 + +One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretching +peacefully out before him; the next he lay wounded, bleeding, +_helpless_, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence and the +grave. + +5 + +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_. + +6 + +There was no flinching as he charged. He had just turned to give a +cheer when the fatal ball struck him. There was a convulsion of the +upward hand--his eyes, pleading and loyal, turned their last glance to +the flag--his lips parted--he fell _dead_, and at nightfall lay +with his face to the stars. Home they brought him, fairer than Adonis +over whom the goddess of beauty wept. + +7 + +But the gentleman inquires why _he_ was made the object of such a +reply. Why was _he_ singled out? If an attack has been made on the +_East, he_, he assures us, did not _begin_ it; it was made by +the gentleman from _Missouri_. Sir, I answered the gentleman's +speech because I happened to _hear_ it; and because, also, I chose +to give an answer to that speech which, if _unanswered_, I thought +most likely to produce _injurious impressions_. + + +MELODY + + +Give musical tone and a fitting modulation, or tune, avoiding the so- +called singsong. Note the occasional closing cadence. Observe the +rhythmic movement, with beat and pause. + +1 + +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 Phocian for the Greek, and +Brutus for the Roman, Hampden for England, Fayette for France, choose +Washington 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. + +2 + +Have you read in the Talmud of old, +In the Legends the Rabbins have told +Of the limitless realms of the air, +Have you read it,--the marvelous story +Of Sandalphon, the Angel of Glory, +Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer? + +3 + +You remember King Charles' Twelve Good Rules, the eleventh of which +was, "Make no long meals." Now King Charles lost his head, and you will +have leave to make a long meal. But when, after your long meal, you go +home in the wee small hours, what do you expect to find? You will find +my toast--"Woman, a beautiful rod!" Now my advice is, "Kiss the rod!" + +4 + +Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its gray! +The stars of its winter, the dews of its May! +And when we have done with our life-lasting toys, +Dear Father, take care of Thy children, the Boys! + + +FEELING + + +Have great care not to put any strain upon the throat. Breathe low. Be +moderate in force. + +1 + +O mighty Cęsar! dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, +triumphs, spoils, shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well. + +2 + +Yes, I attack Louis Napoleon; I attack him openly, before all the +world. I attack him before God and man. I attack him boldly and +recklessly for love of the people and for love of France. + +3 + +I am asked what I have to say why sentence of death should not be +pronounced on me according to law. I am charged with being an emissary +of France! and for what end? No; I am no emissary. + +4 + +I see a race without disease of flesh or brain,--shapely and fair,--the +married harmony of form and function,--and as I look, life lengthens, +joy deepens, love canopies the earth. + + +TONE COLOR + + +Use the imagination to see and hear. Suit the voice to the sound, +form or movement of your image, or to the mood of mind indicated. +Read with melody and pause. Take plenty of time. + +1 + +There's a lurid light | in the clouds to-night, +In the wind | there's a desolate moan, +And the rage of the furious sea | is white, +Where it breaks | on the crags of stone. + +2 + +The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out: +At one stride | comes the dark; +With far-heard whisper, | o'er the sea, +Off shot | the specter-bark. + +3 + +Is this a time to be gloomy and sad; +When our mother Nature | laughs around; +When even the deep blue heavens | look glad, +And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground? + +4 + +The breeze comes whispering in our ear, +That dandelions | are blossoming near, + That maize | has sprouted, that streams | are flowing, +That the river is bluer | than the sky, +That the robin | is plastering his nest | hard by; +And if the breeze kept the good news back, +For other couriers | we should not lack; + We could guess it all | by yon heifer's | lowing,-- +And hark! how clear | bold chanticleer, +Warmed | by the new wine | of the year, + Tells all | by his lusty | crowing! + + +VARIETY--IN PITCH, TIME, FORCE, COLOR, AND MODULATION + + +1 + +Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky; +Ring out the false, ring in the true. + +2 + +Good work is the most honorable and lasting thing in the +world. + +3 + +O Thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my +fathers, whence are thy beams, O Sun, thy everlasting light! + +4 + +I am thy father's spirit, +Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, +And for the day confined to fast in fires, +Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature +Are burnt and purg'd away. + +5 + +"Well, gentlemen, I am a Whig. If you break up the Whig party, where am +_I_ to go?" And, says Lowell, we all held our breath, thinking +where he _could_ go. But, says Lowell, if he had been five feet +three, we should have said, Who _cares_ where you go? + + +GESTURE + + +Have the action simple and unstudied, expressing the dominant purpose +rather than illustrating mere words or phrases. Avoid stiltedness and +elaboration. Try to judge where and how the gesture would be made. + +I + +Nor do not _saw the air_ too much with your _hand, thus_, but use all +gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the +whirlwind of passion, _you must acquire and beget a temperance_ that +may give it smoothness. + +2 + +In my native town of Athens is a monument that crowns its central +hills--a plain, white shaft. _Deep cut into its shining side is a +name_ dear to me above the names of men, that of a brave and simple +man who died in brave and simple faith. Not for all the glories of New +England--from Plymouth Rock all the way--would I exchange the heritage +he left me in his soldier's death. + +3 + +Sir, when I heard the gentleman lay down principles which place the +murderers of Alton side by side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and +Adams, _I thought those pictured lips_ (pointing to the portraits +in the Hall) would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant +American,--the slanderer of the dead. + +4 + +Suppose I stood at the foot of Vesuvius, or Ętna, and, seeing a hamlet +or a homestead planted on its slope, I said to the dwellers in that +hamlet, or in that homestead, "_You see that vapor which ascends from +the summit of the mountain._ That vapor may become a dense, black +smoke, that will obscure the sky. _You see the trickling of lava from +the crevices in the side of the mountain._ That trickling of lava +may become a river of fire. _You hear that muttering in the bowels of +the mountain._ That muttering may become a bellowing thunder, the +voice of violent convulsion, that may shake half a continent." + +5 + +And what have we to oppose them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have +been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer +upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light +of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to +entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have +not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive +ourselves longer. + + +CHARACTERIZATION + + +1 + +Learn from real life. Don't go by the spelling. Don't overdo the +dialect. + + 'E carried me away + To where a dooli lay, + An' a bullet come an' drilled the beggar clean. + 'E put me safe inside, + An' just before 'e died: + "I 'ope you liked your drink," sez Gunga Din. + +2 + +Sergeant Buzfuz began by saying that never, in the whole course of his +experience,--never, from the very first moment of his applying himself +to the study and practice of the law, had he approached a case with +such a heavy sense of the responsibility imposed upon him. + +3 + +I'm a walkin' pedestrian, a travelin' philosopher. Terry O'Mulligan's +me name. I'm from Dublin, where many philosophers before me was raised +and bred. Oh, philosophy is a foine study! I don't know anything about +it, but it's a foine study! + +4 + +It is de ladies who do sweeten de cares of life. It is de ladies who +are de guiding stars of our existence. It is de ladies who do cheer but +not inebriate, and, derefore, vid all homage to de dear sex, de toast +dat I have to propose is, "De Ladies! God bless dem all!" + +5 + +What tho' on hamely fare we dine, +Wear hoddin' gray, an' a' that; +Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine-- +A man's a man, for a' that. + +For a' that, an' a' that, +Their tinsel show, an' a' that, +The honest man, though e'er sae poor, +Is king o' men for a' that! + +6 + +A keerless man in his talk was Jim, +And an awkward hand in a row, +But he never flunked, and he never lied,-- +I reckon he never knowed how. +He seen his duty, a dead-sure thing,-- +And he went for it thar and then; +And Christ ain't agoing to be too hard +On a man that died for men. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PUBLIC SPEAKING *** + +This file should be named 6333-8.txt or 6333-8.zip + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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