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The speaker who acquires a reputation for it becomes a terror instead of an attraction to an audience. As a rule there is no audience when his name is the only item on the card; he gets his chance speaking with some one else whom the listeners have really come to hear. And this is just when his performance is least desirable.
Each was a digest of elaborate official figures, which an average speaker, if left to his own devices, could hardly have collected in a twelvemonth, but which when thus tabulated he could master in a couple of days.
The Vice-President and secretary of the Senate were seated in advance on his right, and the late speaker and clerk on the left; the justices of the Supreme Court sat before the President, the foreign ministers and members of the House in their usual seats. Washington, once more a private citizen, sat in front of the judges. Mr. Adams then rose and delivered his inaugural speech.
I don't mean that you should be at the mercy of a persuasive speaker, or of the last book you have read but, on the other hand, to meet an interesting man or to read a suggestive book ought to modify your views a little. You ought to be elastic. The only thing that is never quite the same is opinion; and to be holding a ten years' old opinion simply means that you are stranded.
In a private circle, a ready repartee, a shrewd cross-question, ridicule and banter, a caustic remark or an amusing anecdote, whatever sets off the individual to advantage, or gratifies the curiosity or piques the self-love of the hearers, keeps attention alive, and secures the triumph of the speaker it is a personal contest, and depends on personal and momentary advantages.
The men, on seeing the four British officers three of them in the dress of field officers, and one, the speaker, in the uniform of the staff at once drew back. "Come on, mates," one said, as they stood indecisive; "we shall only lose time here, while others are getting as much plunder as they can carry. Let us go on."
They are delightfully expressive; the artist had the advantage of knowing exactly the effect he wished to produce. The interior of the cathedral has a great simplicity and majesty, and, above all, a tremendous height. The nave is extraordinary in this respect; it dwarfs every- thing else I know. I should add, however, that I am, in architecture, always of the opinion of the last speaker.
He is a great defender of the Church of England, and against the Act for Comprehension; which is the work of this day, about which the House is like to sit till night. After dinner with them back to Westminster. Captain Cocke told me that the Speaker says he never heard such a defence made in all his life in the House, and that the Solicitor-generall do commend me even to envy. 12th.
Peak's pleading for himself was scarcely more impressive. In listening, Sylvia understood how completely Sidwell had cast off the beliefs for which her ordinary conversation seemed still to betray a tenderness. 'I know, the speaker concluded, 'that he cannot in that first hour have come to regard me with a feeling strong enough to determine what he then undertook.
This time purpose was stamped upon the man's face, but whether it was deliberate or merely the result of more drinking there was no telling. He lurched directly up to the table and stared across at Gray. "Slapped my face, didn't you?" he cried, after a menacing moment. "I did, indeed," the speaker nodded, pleasantly. "You ain't going to slap it again. You ain't going to slap anybody's "
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