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THREE MINUTE DECLAMATIONS

FOR

COLLEGE MEN

SELECTED AND EDITED BY

HARRY CASSELL Davis, A.M., PH.D., AND JOHN C. BRIDGMAN, A.B.

FOURTH EDITION, REVISED BY DR. DAVIS

WITH CLASSIFIED INDEX AND INDEX TO AUTHORS

"Persuasion sat upon his lips."- Eupolis on Pericles.

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HINDS, NOBLE & ELDREDGE

31-33-35 WEST 15TH STREET, NEW YORK CITY

093 D262

PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.

The issue of a revised edition affords the publishers an opportunity to express their grateful appreciation of the cordial reception accorded this book, by which it appears that the volume contains just what college students have been calling for but could not find,-live topics presented by live men, addresses full of new vitality for prize speaking, and other matter of an up-to-date quality.

It is therefore with a confidence born of the approval of many new aquaintances, that in a revised edition we submit to the judgment of a still larger audience this volume including in its personnel, among hundreds of others, the familiar names of Chauncey M. Depew, Abram S. Hewitt, Carl Schurz, William E. Gladstone, Edward J. Phelps, Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, General Horace Porter, Doctor Storrs, President Eliot (Harvard), George Parsons Lathrop, Bishop Potter, Sir Charles Russell, President Carter (Williams), T. DeWitt Talmage, Ex-Pres. White (Cornell), Rev. Newman Smyth, Emilio Castelar, George William Curtis, Lowell, Blaine, Phillips Brooks, Beecher, Garfield, Disraeli, Bryant, Grady, Choate, Longfellow, Holmes, Tennyson, Byron, Whittier, Schiller, Shelley, Hood.

HARRY CASSELL DAVIS.

WILKESBARRE, PA., February, 1899.

PREFACE.

THIS volume has been prepared with a view of bringing together pieces that are generally new, brief, and suitable for speaking.

While a number of the "oid favorites" have been retained because of their acknowledged merit as models for declamation, the endeavor has been to impress upon the book a modern aspect.

Pieces should be brought within a three-minute limit. It is best to concentrate effort upon a few lines. They will be better learned, better spoken, and better listened to.

The opportunities of youth for committing to memory are golden. Therefore, the aim in such a book should be to put before the pupil a varied collection that will enrich the memory, form the taste, and afford after-service and delight.

An attempt has been made, so far as possible, to give the dates of the birth and death of authors, with an indication of their principal pursuits and places of residence. Fullness was of course more practicable in some cases than in others.

It is a great pleasure to acknowledge the kindness of those who have responded to requests for selections from their own speeches or writings, and also the

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courtesy of Messrs. Harper & Brothers, Houghton, Mifflin & Company, D. Lothrop Company, Perry Mason & Company, Gebbie & Company, Dodd, Mead & Company, and the Century Company in allowing us to use certain matter from their publications.

To those friends whose aid and suggestion have been a constant encouragement and guide must be largely attributed whatever success may attend the work.

Wilkesbarré PA.. June 25, 1890.

BRIEF DECLAMATIONS.

THE TWO SPIES, ANDRÉ AND HALE.

By CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW, Lawyer, Orator, Railroad President. B. 1834, New York.

Extract from an oration delivered September 23, 1880, at the Centennial Celebration of the capture of Major André, at Tarrytown, N. Y.

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, his skill with pen and pencil, the brightness of his

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