The Art of Public Speaking Part 6

_FOOL'S GOLD_

See him there, cold and gray, Watch him as he tries to play; No, he doesn't know the way-- He began to learn too late.

She's a grim old hag, is Fate, For she let him have his pile, Smiling to herself the while, Knowing what the cost would be, When he'd found the Golden Key.

Multimillionaire is he, Many times more rich than we; But at that I wouldn't trade With the bargain that he made.

Came here many years ago, Not a person did he know; Had the money-hunger bad-- Mad for money, piggish mad; Didn't let a joy divert him, Didn't let a sorrow hurt him, Let his friends and kin desert him, While he planned and plugged and hurried On his quest for gold and power.

Every single wakeful hour With a money thought he'd dower; All the while as he grew older, And grew bolder, he grew colder.

And he thought that some day He would take the time to play; But, say--he was wrong.

Life's a song; In the spring Youth can sing and can fling; But joys wing When we're older, Like birds when it's colder.

The roses were red as he went rus.h.i.+ng by, And glorious tapestries hung in the sky, And the clover was waving 'Neath honey-bees' slaving; A bird over there Roundelayed a soft air; But the man couldn't spare Time for gathering flowers, Or resting in bowers, Or gazing at skies That gladdened the eyes.

So he kept on and swept on Through mean, sordid years.

Now he's up to his ears In the choicest of stocks.

He owns endless blocks Of houses and shops, And the stream never stops Pouring into his banks.

I suppose that he ranks Pretty near to the top.

What I have wouldn't sop His ambition one t.i.ttle; And yet with my little I don't care to trade With the bargain he made.

Just watch him to-day-- See him trying to play.

He's come back for blue skies.

But they're in a new guise-- Winter's here, all is gray, The birds are away, The meadows are brown, The leaves lie aground, And the gay brook that wound With a swirling and whirling Of waters, is furling Its bosom in ice.

And he hasn't the price, With all of his gold, To buy what he sold.

He knows now the cost Of the spring-time he lost, Of the flowers he tossed From his way, And, say, He'd pay Any price if the day Could be made not so gray.

_He can't play._

--HERBERT KAUFMAN. Used by permission of _Everybody's Magazine_.

_Change of Tempo Prevents Monotony_

The canary in the cage before the window is adding to the beauty and charm of his singing by a continual change of tempo. If King Solomon had been an orator he undoubtedly would have gathered wisdom from the song of the wild birds as well as from the bees. Imagine a song written with but quarter notes. Imagine an auto with only one speed.

EXERCISES

1. Note the change of tempo indicated in the following, and how it gives a pleasing variety. Read it aloud. (Fast tempo is indicated by italics, slow by small capitals.)

_And he thought that some day he would take the time to play; but, say_--HE WAS WRONG. LIFE'S A SONG; _in the_ SPRING YOUTH _can_ SING _and can_ FLING; BUT JOYS WING WHEN WE'RE OLDER, LIKE THE BIRDS _when it's_ COLDER. _The roses were red as he went rus.h.i.+ng by, and glorious tapestries hung in the sky._

2. Turn to "Fools Gold," on Page 42, and deliver it in an unvaried tempo: note how monotonous is the result. This poem requires a great many changes of tempo, and is an excellent one for practise.

3. Use the changes of tempo indicated in the following, noting how they prevent monotony. Where no change of tempo is indicated, use a moderate speed. Too much of variety would really be a return to monotony.

_THE MOB_

"A MOB KILLS THE WRONG MAN" _was flashed in a newspaper headline lately. The mob is an_ IRRESPONSIBLE, UNTHINKING Ma.s.s. _It always destroys_ BUT NEVER CONSTRUCTS. _It criticises_ BUT NEVER CREATES.

_Utter a great truth_ AND THE MOB WILL HATE YOU. _See how it condemned_ DANTE _to_ EXILE. _Encounter the dangers of the unknown world for its benefit_, AND THE MOB WILL DECLARE YOU CRAZY. _It ridiculed_ COLUMBUS, _and for discovering a new world_ GAVE HIM PRISON AND CHAINS.

_Write a poem to thrill human hearts with pleasure_, AND THE MOB WILL ALLOW YOU TO GO HUNGRY: THE BLIND HOMER BEGGED BREAD THROUGH THE STREETS. _Invent a machine to save labor_ AND THE MOB WILL DECLARE YOU ITS ENEMY. _Less than a hundred years ago a furious rabble smashed Thimonier's invention, the sewing machine._

BUILD A STEAMs.h.i.+P TO CARRY MERCHANDISE AND ACCELERATE TRAVEL _and the mob will call you a fool_. A MOB LINED THE Sh.o.r.eS OF THE HUDSON RIVER TO LAUGH AT THE MAIDEN ATTEMPT OF "FULTON'S FOLLY," _as they called his little steamboat._

Emerson says: "A mob is a society of bodies voluntarily bereaving themselves of reason and traversing its work. The mob is man voluntarily descended to the nature of the beast. _Its fit hour of activity_ is NIGHT. ITS ACTIONS ARE INSANE, _like its whole const.i.tution. It persecutes a principle_--IT WOULD WHIP A RIGHT. It would tar and feather justice by inflicting fire and outrage upon the house and persons of those who have these."

The mob spirit stalks abroad in our land today. Every week gives a fresh victim to its malignant cry for blood. There were 48 persons killed by mobs in the United States in 1913; 64 in 1912, and 71 in 1911. Among the 48 last year were a woman and a child.

Two victims were proven innocent after their death.

IN 399 B.C. A DEMAGOG APPEALED TO THE POPULAR MOB TO HAVE SOCRATES PUT TO DEATH _and he was sentenced to the hemlock cup._ FOURTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AFTERWARD AN ENTHUSIAST APPEALED TO THE POPULAR MOB _and all Europe plunged into the Holy Land to kill and mangle the heathen. In the seventeenth century a demagog appealed to the ignorance of men_ AND TWENTY PEOPLE WERE EXECUTED AT SALEM, Ma.s.s., WITHIN SIX MONTHS FOR WITCHCRAFT. _Two thousand years ago the mob yelled_, "_RELEASE UNTO US BARABBAS_"--AND BARABBAS WAS A MURDERER!

--_From an Editorial by D.C. in "Leslie's Weekly," by permission._

_Present-day business_ is as unlike OLD-TIME BUSINESS as the OLD-TIME OX-CART is unlike the _present-day locomotive._ INVENTION has made the _whole world over again. The railroad, telegraph, telephone_ have bound the people of MODERN NATIONS into FAMILIES. _To do the business of these closely knit millions in every modern country_ GREAT BUSINESS CONCERNS CAME INTO BEING. _What we call big business is the_ CHILD OF THE ECONOMIC PROGRESS OF MANKIND. _So warfare to destroy big business_ is FOOLISH BECAUSE IT CAN NOT SUCCEED _and wicked_ BECAUSE IT OUGHT NOT TO SUCCEED. _Warfare to destroy big business does not hurt big business, which always comes out on top_, SO MUCH AS IT HURTS ALL OTHER BUSINESS WHICH, IN SUCH A WARFARE, NEVER COME OUT ON TOP.

--A.J. BEVERIDGE.

_Change of Tempo Produces Emphasis_

Any big change of tempo is emphatic and will catch the attention. You may scarcely be conscious that a pa.s.senger train is moving when it is flying over the rails at ninety miles an hour, but if it slows down very suddenly to a ten-mile gait your attention will be drawn to it very decidedly. You may forget that you are listening to music as you dine, but let the orchestra either increase or diminish its tempo in a very marked degree and your attention will be arrested at once.

This same principle will procure emphasis in a speech. If you have a point that you want to bring home to your audience forcefully, make a sudden and great change of tempo, and they will be powerless to keep from paying attention to that point. Recently the present writer saw a play in which these lines were spoken:

"I don't want you to forget what I said. I want you to remember it the longest day you--I don't care if you've got six guns." The part up to the dash was delivered in a very slow tempo, the remainder was named out at lightning speed, as the character who was spoken to drew a revolver.

The effect was so emphatic that the lines are remembered six months afterwards, while most of the play has faded from memory. The student who has powers of observation will see this principle applied by all our best actors in their efforts to get emphasis where emphasis is due. But remember that the emotion in the matter must warrant the intensity in the manner, or the effect will be ridiculous. Too many public speakers are impressive over nothing.

Thought rather than rules must govern you while practising change of pace. It is often a matter of no consequence which part of a sentence is spoken slowly and which is given in fast tempo. The main thing to be desired is the change itself. For example, in the selection, "The Mob,"

on page 46, note the last paragraph. Reverse the instructions given, delivering everything that is marked for slow tempo, quickly; and everything that is marked for quick tempo, slowly. You will note that the force or meaning of the pa.s.sage has not been destroyed.

However, many pa.s.sages cannot be changed to a slow tempo without destroying their force. Instances: The Patrick Henry speech on page 110, and the following pa.s.sage from Whittier's "Barefoot Boy."

O for boyhood's time of June, crowding years in one brief moon, when all things I heard or saw, me, their master, waited for. I was rich in flowers and trees, humming-birds and honey-bees; for my sport the squirrel played; plied the snouted mole his spade; for my taste the blackberry cone purpled over hedge and stone; laughed the brook for my delight through the day and through the night, whispering at the garden wall, talked with me from fall to fall; mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pond; mine the walnut slopes beyond; mine, an bending orchard trees, apples of Hesperides! Still, as my horizon grew, larger grew my riches, too; all the world I saw or knew seemed a complex Chinese toy, fas.h.i.+oned for a barefoot boy!

--J.G. WHITTIER.

Be careful in regulating your tempo not to get your movement too fast.

This is a common fault with amateur speakers. Mrs. Siddons rule was, "Take time." A hundred years ago there was used in medical circles a preparation known as "the shot gun remedy;" it was a mixture of about fifty different ingredients, and was given to the patient in the hope that at least one of them would prove efficacious! That seems a rather poor scheme for medical practice, but it is good to use "shot gun" tempo for most speeches, as it gives a variety. Tempo, like diet, is best when mixed.

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1. Define tempo.

2. What words come from the same root?

3. What is meant by a change of tempo?

4. What effects are gained by it?

5. Name three methods of destroying monotony and gaining force in speaking.