THE POPULAR STANDARD SPEAKER. N PART I. HOW TO SPEAK. NO "SYSTEM" REQUISITE. UMBERLESS "Speakers" and "systems" of Elocution are before the public, but, with few exceptions, the books are impracticable as popular text-books-those whose use does not necessitate a teacher. The ruling idea seems to be that the teacher or “system” makes the orator, and, proceeding accordingly, attempt by arbitrary methods to lead, coax, or drive the student into lines of study and action which equally discourage and disgust. The gift of speech is one thing, the gift of eloquence another, and it is as evident to all discerning masters of, or instructors in, the elocutionary art, that Nature alone makes the true orator, as that she makes the poet and painter. The attempt, therefore, to prescribe certain inexorable rules of utterance, action, and expression is equivalent to declaring all oratory or public speaking a mechanical or artificial contrivance which all can adopt with equal good effect. During a long experience as teacher, I have learned that the student, gifted with the orator's precious talent, receives but small aid from the arbitrary systems devised for regulating gesture, action, tone, and facial expression. This I was not once willing to confess, having, like all teachers of the "art" of Public Speaking, certain rules or conceptions of my own which I was fain to press as requisites to success. But, day by day, I was constrained to make such exceptions or qualifications as led me to abandon set forms, and to adapt my instruction to the peculiarities of each student. I found in the keen eye, clear cut nose, and thin lips of the nervous temperament a very Ariel who scorned my leadingstrings; and when I sought to harness him to the phlegmatic temperament of another pupil, it was like yoking the antelope to the OX. My "system was satisfactory to neither professor nor pupil, and I abandoned it to find a rich compensation in giving Nature the leading-strings-in permitting each scholar to assert his own individualism fully. Thereafter I found each person an original, and where any native taste, grace, or talent existed, it was not long in manifesting itself. The great awkward "green-horn," little by little, if encouraged to express himself, began to reach out toward the beautiful, and many a brilliant star shone where an arbitrary "system" would have offered only eclipse or extinguish ment. THE SELF-MADE ORATOR. I one day gave out, to a class of ten, Hood's "Bridge of Sighs." To the pupil who made the best recitation I promised to present a richly bound volume of that author's Poems. Among the young men was one, a plasterer by trade, about twenty-two years of age-a great, uncouth, and uneducated person, of whom, I confess, I expected but little. I had drilled him severely in articulation, for, his education having been neglected, he spoke thickly, and without force, precision, or grace. When the day of trial came, I had made up my mind which of the boys was to bear away the prize-c -one who was grace itself -studied grace. All the class was ready and eager for the trial, to witness which a large audience had assembled. One by one the recitations were made, but all were of unequal merit in parts; not one pleased me as a whole. The plasterer came last; but so frightened was he by the occasion, and the numbers present, that his courage failed, and he was about to abandon the contest-at which all the other contestants laughed. This fired his pride, and he bounded upon the stage, flushing and paling by turns. trepidation, however, was but momentary. Closing his eyesevidently to shut out the surroundings, and to catch the sad spirit of the poem-he commenced. His It was as if a mother's wail over her dead had thrilled the assembly. The voice was low, sweet, but wondrously intoned; the face was white, and the eyes were tearful, but strained in their commingled horror and pity. Instantly we saw before us the beautiful one 'Gone to her Death.' We were awed, astounded, immovable, and hung upon the words as if they were a revelation. We swayed with each emotion-now with terror, then with pity, then with anger, then with a human tenderness that was exquisite pain. We were but reeds bending to each emotion in the air around us; time, place, persons-all were forgotten in the presence of that magic creation. The orator had left the platform and regained his seat before the spell was dissolved. Then the audience-many an eye swim |