toast-master or the last speaker to try to hold the waning crowd at midnight, be

as original as you can. How is it possible to summarize the qualities that go to

make up the good after-dinner speech, when we remember the inimitable

serious-drollery of Mark Twain, the sweet southern eloquence of Henry W. Grady,

the funereal gravity of the humorous Charles Battell Loomis, the charm of Henry

Van Dyke, the geniality of F. Hopkinson Smith, and the all-round delightfulness

of Chauncey M. Depew? America is literally rich in such gladsome speakers, who

punctuate real sense with nonsense, and so make both effective.

 

Commemorative occasions, unveilings, commencements, dedications, eulogies, and

all the train of special public gatherings, offer rare opportunities for the

display of tact and good sense in handling occasion, theme, and audience. When

to be dignified and when colloquial, when to soar and when to ramble arm in arm

with your hearers, when to flame and when to soothe, when to instruct and when

to amuse--in a word, the whole matter of APPROPRIATENESS must constantly be in

mind lest you write your speech on water.

 

Finally, remember the beatitude: Blessed is the man that maketh short speeches,

for he shall be invited to speak again.

 

SELECTIONS FOR STUDY

 

_LAST DAYS OF THE CONFEDERACY_

 

(Extract)