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presently experiences a reaction which he calls his opinion, but which is not an opinion at all, being merely the impression that a piece of news or an editorial has made upon him. He cannot be said to be participating in public opinion at all until he has laid his mind alongside the minds of his neighbors and discussed with them the incidents of the day and the tendencies of the time.

"Where I got into trouble was, that I ventured on a comparison. I said that public opinion was not typified on the streets of a busy city, but was typified around the stove in a country store where men sat and probably chewed tobacco and spat into a sawdust box, and made up, before they got through, what was the neighborhood opinion both about persons and events; and then, inadvertently, I added this philosophical reflection, that, whatever might be said against the chewing of tobacco, this at least could be said for it: that it gave a man time to think between sentences. Ever since then I have been represented, particularly in the advertisements of tobacco firms, as in favor of the use of chewing tobacco!"

In the above passage, the foundation for the humorous sally is laid with the sentence, "Where I got into trouble was that I ventured on a comparison." After that, it is smooth going. From this suggestion the student of speaking may note that even purely humorous anecdotes or incidents

can usually be brought in gracefully by a little care in phrasing a transitional sentence which leads from the serious matter into the subject of the pleasantry.

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A clever presentation of an idea, or a witty phrase or epithet serves much the same purpose as the touch of humor. For example, a recent speaker said, "Many nice things have been remarked of Christian Science, and I must confess that I have but two objections to it: first, that it is not Christian; and, second, that it is not science." Without venturing an opinion on the soundness of the objections, I can affirm that the audience was pleased by the neatness of the expression. In another recent address, condemning corporate wealth, the speaker referred to a board of directors as "an opulent and corpulent body of gentlemen.' These two random illustrations serve merely to indicate the kind of expression which may be used occasionally, in addition to the humorous anecdote or incident, to brighten the speaker's style. Without some such piquancy, a substantial speech is apt to fall flat-indeed, oftentimes the more substantial it is, the greater is the fall thereof. The average audience can stand a considerable amount of fact, of logic, of the solid material which, as I have previously emphasized, must constitute the body of a speech with serious purpose. But it is human after all, and prone to

become weary, bored, inattentive or absent. If the great Burke had only injected some bits of pleasantry into that monumental "Conciliation Speech" perhaps history might have taken a different course.

structure.

III. Variety of Sentence Structure

A somewhat less striking, but highly desirable, means of attractiveness is variety of sentence The student will recall numerous ways of variation, but I shall suggest some of the most serviceable. First as to the order of parts; the usual sequence is subject-predicate-object or attribute, for the sake of clearness. But an address which proceeds thus from beginning to end becomes monotonous, just as if one were to speak without vocal inflections. Fortunately an occasional change of order does not confuse the listener; and it assuredly contributes, along with other variations, to his pleasure in hearing a speech. It is well, then, to begin sometimes with a phrase, sometimes with an adverb and again, with an adjective, object, attribute, or dependent clause. Furthermore, it is desirable to vary the declarative form now and then by an interrogation or exclamation. A third possibility of change is in the length of the sentences. The very long sentence will be generally avoided by the speaker,

but an irregular mixture of moderate and short sentences will avoid choppiness of effect on the one hand, and on the other, unnecessary strain upon the attention of the audience. Ordinarily, sentences are what are known as loose, i. e., possible of logical termination at one or more points before the close. But these may be occasionally varied to advantage by a periodic sentence, which suspends the sense until the end. For example, "The work of the committee has stopped on account of lack of funds" (loose); and "On account of lack of funds, the work of the committee has stopped" (periodic). Another means of variation is the balanced structure such as, "Money has been called the root of all evil; but most people seek it as if it were the bulb of all happiness. The possessors of great wealth are said to be weighed down with responsibility; and yet there are few of us who wouldn't gladly assume such a burden." This kind of structure becomes artificial in effect if frequently used, but as an occasional device it is notably emphatic. A final suggestion for securing attractiveness through variety of structure is to use now and then a sentence characterized by words, phrases or clauses in a series of parallel construction. The greatest advantage is usually gained by arranging the members of the series with a view to increasing significance. The following passage from one of John M. Thurs

ton's speeches gives a very striking example of the cumulative force of a series.

"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 beat with naked hands upon the iron gateway of the Bastille and made reprisal in one awful hour for centuries of kingly crime; force waved the flag of revolution over Bunker Hill, and marked the snows of Valley Forge with blood-stained feet; force held the broken line at 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."

F. SUMMARY

Style and diction, though primarily concerned with form rather than substance, are, nevertheless, significant with respect to both conviction and persuasion. In order to appeal to the minds and interests of an audience, a speech should be characterized by the fundamentals of a good style, unity, coherence, clearness, force, and by a fifth quality, attractiveness, which adds greatly to the effectiveness of address. Unity requires

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