in the things about you with the particular object of correlating them and

storing them for use in public speech. You must hear with the speaker's ear, see

with the speaker's eye, and choose books and companions and sights and sounds

with the speaker's purpose in view. At the same time, be ready to receive

unplanned-for knowledge. One of the fascinating elements in your life as a

public speaker will be the conscious growth in power that casual daily

experiences bring. If your eyes are alert you will be constantly discovering

facts, illustrations, and ideas without having set out in search of them. These

all may be turned to account on the platform; even the leaden events of hum-drum

daily life may be melted into bullets for future battles.

 

_Conservation of Time in Preparation_

 

But, you say, I have so little time for preparation--my mind must be absorbed by

other matters. Daniel Webster never let an opportunity pass to gather material

for his speeches. When he was a boy working in a sawmill he read out of a book

in one hand and busied himself at some mechanical task with the other. In youth

Patrick Henry roamed the fields and woods in solitude for days at a time

unconsciously gathering material and impressions for his later service as a

speaker. Dr. Russell H. Conwell, the man who, the late Charles A. Dana said, had

addressed more hearers than any living man, used to memorize long passages from

Milton while tending the boiling syrup-pans in the silent New England woods at

night. The modern employer would discharge a Webster of today for inattention to

duty, and doubtless he would be justified, and Patrick Henry seemed only an idle

chap even in those easy-going days; but the truth remains: those who take in