The M. I. A. Contests, III

The M. I. A. Contests l!Y TOIIX IIKNKY I'.V.WS. OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS UNIVERSITY /// — Public Speaking. "Real oratory," said Chaunccy M. Depew, who was himself one oi America's most graceful speakers, "is one of Heaven's gifts which a man may well pray for. The gift of speaking — of being able to make people listen to what you say; of inspiring men with ideals and convincing them of truth — surely than this no more superb work a man can have. ***** Eloquence is the master element in politics — the most interesting and absorbing game that human beings play. It is the universal and beneficial agent of civilization and religion. At the bar, it is the dependence of the State and the last hope of the accused. Without its graces, no public celebration is complete. For it- inspiriting purposes, it places science, statistics, poetry, history, and art under contribution." Mr. Depew instances as "perhaps the greatest triumph of a public speaker in our generation" the addresses of Henry Ward Beecher in England at the time of our Civil War. At Liverpool and Manchester, especially, mobs were turned into audiences by the magic of "the truth, the word, and the man." And Mr. Depew goes on to say: "'I have heard one of England's greatest speakers describe his own impressions as a youth in the audience at Manchester. He said as he entered the hall, he saw a crowd of people enraged beyond anything he deemed possible, and apparently endeavoring to get at the speaker. It was half an hour before Mr. Beecher could be heard. A hearing was secured by the leading men of Manchester upon the platform begging an opportunity and protecting the speaker. At the end of five minutes the passion of the crowd broke out once more, and it was thirty minutes before Mr. Beecher could start again. At the end of two hours the converted audience had become his enthusiastic admirers, and wanted to carry him about the streets of their city." A gift such as this is to be accounted among the great natural forces of the world. One always has use for the gift of public speaking. Not only the lawyer, the preacher, and the politician find the talent for public address an indispensable part of their training, but the man of affairs who is to be anything higher than his own clerk also

THE M. I. A. CONTESTS. 219 has many occasions arise in his life when the ability to express himself before an audience is almost as necessary. Among the Latter-day Saints the ability to speak in public is at a high premium. Practically every man in the Church is supposed to be able to preach, either at home or abroad. Very naturally one is anxious to do as well as possible what one has to do. Besides, every young man ought to have an ambition to develop to the highest his talent in this direction, not only for his own gratification and good but even more for the pleasure and profit of others in the spread of truth. The ability to preach the gospel effectively should be among the aims of every young Latter-day Saint. Can the ability to speak in public be acquired? This is a question which the young aspirant for the oratorical prize frequently puts to himself. No doubt some have a higher natural endowment in this respect than others, but that this endowment, be it little or much, may be cultivated is also beyond question. "While a really great orator," says Mr. Depew, "is as rare as a really great artist or poet, yet the art of effective public speaking, with all its possibilities for individual and general good, is a natural gift to many men, requiring only practice and self-control on their part for its development." But how can I tell whether or not I have this gift? may be asked. The answer is already in the question : 'By your desire to know whether you have the gift. For if you did not have in some degree the gift of public speech the question would not even occur to you. You would not care whether or not you had it. If you feel that you would like the gift, the probability is that you already have the gift. And all that you need to do is to study, to practice, and to exercise selfcontrol. There are five distinct kinds of public discourse, according to the end to be reached. They are, the clear address, the impressive address, the moving address, and the entertaining address. If your subject is Faith and you wish merely to explain it so that your hearer shall understand it, your aim is clearness. If you wish to arouse his emotions with respect to it, your aim is impressiveness. If you assert that faith is the first principle of the gospel and that it is necessary to salvation, your end is belief — you wish him to agree with you. If you wish him to go out and advocate faith by reason of a conviction you have helped to produce in his heart, then your end is action. If you dilate on the subject in its various human aspects mainly to give pleasure, your aim is entertainment. If the speaker wishes the hearer to see, he must be clear ; if to make him feel, he must be impressive ; if to accept, he must create belief; if to do, he must arouse a desire to act ; if to enjoy, he must be entertaining. The end should not be confused with the means employed

220 IMPROVEMENT ERA to attain the end. "I talk on 'The Personality of Lincoln,' and my end is impressiveness, but as the sense in which I use the term 'personality' must be made intelligible, my first step is clearness. Here clearness is simply a means." It may be helpful to give here briefly a few general principles looking to the development of public speaking ability : In the first place, it is necessary to have a subject. The subject should not be so broad that it cannot be fully treated in the time allotted — ten or fifteen minutes in contests. The "Character of Joseph Smith" would cover too much ground. A single aspect of his character — his manliness, for instance, or his cheerfulness — would be better. Similarly, the " 'Mormon' Philosophy of Life" is too broad for a fifteen minute oration. Again, it is doubtful whether a straight narration of events might properly come under the title public speaking. Not that narration is out of place in an address. Narration may indeed be employed, but only as a means to an end. If incidents are used, they should be tied together by means of a general thought. For an address or an oration is really the development of a central idea or general truth. In the second place, the end to be sought should be deliberately chosen. What is your purpose in speaking on this particular subject? You must decide that before you go on, for the means you adopt will depend on the end you are to reach. Is your end impressiveness, belief, action, or entertainment? I have purposely omitted clearness, for the reason that I do not think it likely to be profitable as an end in a contest ; but I have as purposely included entertainment because I believe we should lend more encouragement to the lighter forms of public discourse than we do. That which so often- passes for wit among us in public address more frequently resembles the gambol of the elephant than the graceful bound of the deer. The subject and the end selected, there comes, in the third place, the development of the central idea, or theme.. Every discourse, long or short, falls naturally into three parts. There is the place where you are getting started — the introduction. There is the place where you are going on — the discussion. And there is the place where you are finishing — the conclusion. In general, the principle which governs all these is proportion ; that is, the law that the introduction and the conclusion should not be longer than they need to be. Long introductions are the besetting sin of the beginner — beware of them, and make them short. Think! Think ! An address should be well and carefully planned. It is an excellent practice to write an outline of the whole address, setting down the ideas to be included under the three general headings of Introduction, Discussion, and Conclusion. The purpose of an introduction is to state your thought, to win the goodwill of