His First Oration

1899

The author of "Little Journeys to the Homes of American Statesmen" tells of his experience when a new teacher inaugurated "Friday Afternoons," to be devoted to "speaking pieces." He had been well drilled at home, but his spirits ran lower and lower as the fateful Friday drew near.

Thursday night I slept little, and all Friday morning I was in a burning fever. At noon I could not eat my luncheon, but I tried manfully, and as I munched the tasteless morsels, salt tears rained on the johnny-cake.

Even when the girls brought in big bunches of wild flowers and corn-stalks and began to decorate the platform, things appeared no brighter.

Finally the teacher went to the door and rang the bell. Nobody seemed to play, and as the scholars took their seats, some, very pale, tried to smile. Others whispered, "Have you got your piece?" Still others kept their lips working, repeating lines that struggled hard to flee.

Names were called, but I did not see who went up, neither did I hear what was said. At last my name was called. It came like a clap of thunder — a great surprise, a shock. I clutched the desk, struggled to my feet, passed down the aisle, the sound of my shoes echoing through the silence like the strokes of a maul. The blood seemed ready to burst from my eyes, ears and nose.

I reached the platform, missed my footing, stumbled, and nearly fell. I heard the giggling that followed, and knew that a red-haired boy, who had just spoken, and was therefore unnecessarily jubilant, had laughed aloud.

I was angry. I shut my fists so that the nails cut my flesh, and glaring straight at his red head, I shot my bolt:

"I know not how others may feel, but sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and independence forever."

That was all of the piece. I gave the whole thing in a mouthful, and started for my seat, got half-way there, and remembered I had forgotten to bow, turned, went back to the platform, bowed with a jerk, started again for my seat, and bearing some one laugh, I ran.

Reaching the seat, I burst into tears.

The teacher came over, patted my head, kissed my cheek, and told me I had done first-rate, and after hearing several others speak, I calmed down and quite agreed with her. — Youth's Companion.

She Teaches Correct Speech

1910

A woman of culture and travel has made a glorious success teaching correct speech. It is surprising how much incorrect speech there is among our educated people. They cling to provincialisms, incorrect pronunciations, wrong use of words and unmusical intonations. The southerner holds to the soft, r-less utterance of his "mammy" days; the middle westerner flattens all his vowels; the Bostonian throws his r's completely out of joint.

This woman undertook to correct such errors and teach a pure, perfect, English speech to a few young women. She became so successful that she was compelled to start a school of correct English which has grown to great proportions. This particularly promising field is open to every town in America. — Delineator


Good Advice

"And now, son," said the old rabbit, "here's a bit of advice. Always keep on the good side of a dog."

"But, pop," queried the youngster, who was about to go forth into the big world, "which is the good side of a dog?"

"The outside, son," answered the old rabbit, as he bit off another hunk of cabbage.


Tired

Some people are so tireless that they become positively tiresome.

Animals and Birds To Talk

1915

So Says Garner, Who Has Spent Years Studying Monkey Language

Los Angeles, Cal. — "There will come a day," says R. L. Garner, who tutored Maeterlinck in the ways of animals, "when all animal and bird life will become articulate. A dream? Cannot the bee teach us a higher communism — the quick, effective elimination of the unfit and shirker? Cannot the birds tell us their secret of flying? Would we not like to know why the oriole, the oven bird or castle building ant are so much better engineers than we?"

Garner says he thinks the gorilla and chimpanzee more civilized than man because they are more monogamous. He spent twenty-five years studying these animals in the Congo and after a vacation will return there. It is from the gorillas and chimpanzees, he says, that "will come the first twin cables from which scientists will hang a bridge on which man and his lesser brothers of the world will meet in oracular converse."


Scientist Whips Polecat

Then University Gives Professor Two Weeks' Leave

Berkeley, Cal. — T. C. Hine, professor of the chemistry department of the University of California, fought a hard battle with a polecat in the library of the university recently.

Victory perched on the crown of the savant after he had bombarded his antagonist with some of the choice volumes of the university library's modern literature and followed up this strategic move by tossing a hat box over the invader.

A quantity of chloroform poured through a tiny hole in the box stopped the polecat's activities.

The professor has been given a two weeks' leave of absence.

Right Words and Their Uses

1914

It is said there are three ways in which one's personality is revealed to the world. The first is by one's appearance, face, manner, carriage and dress. These things appear to the eye. The second is the revelation in notes, letters, handwriting and spelling. The third and most important is in one's speech, that is, in the way of saying what one has to say. This is a test of one's education and good breeding.

Cultured people are keenly critical of those who make mistakes in pronunciation or grammar. A well-trained ear for music is very sensitive to false notes. A well-trained ear for correct sounds in language is sensitive in the same way.

Good advice was given by Lord Chesterfield in one of his letters to his son: "Never use favorite words, nor hard words, but take great care to speak correctly and grammatically and to pronounce properly."

Everyone realizes the necessity of practicing music, drawing, or any other art in order to become proficient, yet there in great neglect of the effort to practice the correct use of the English language.

Observation and memory should help one to correct bad habits in speech. Whenever an unfamiliar word or pronunciation is heard it is well to refer to a good dictionary, discover the meaning and proper pronunciation. This will stamp it indelibly in the mind. No study is more fascinating that that of words. The habit of spending time over a dictionary is to be encouraged.

It is incorrect to say donate for give, transpire for happen, loan for lend, preventative for preventive.

Care should be taken to pronounce address with the accent on the last syllable, and to pronounce catch to rhyme with match, not to say ketch.

Tuesday, new, duty and avenue are pronounced with the broad, clear "u," not Toosday, noo, dooty, avenoo.

It is illiterate to add letters where they do not belong and to say heighth for height, acrost for across.

A careless fault, as well as a breach of good form in expression, is to say "I am going to quit work," or "quit this place," instead of "stop work," or "leave this place."

Often we find careless speakers using the expression, "The two first houses." It is correct to say, "first two." There cannot be "two first." A moment's thought makes this clear in the mind.

An erroneous expression is "Between you and I." The rule that prepositions govern the objective case should be familiar to everyone.

A common error is in such sentences as "These kind of things." "Those sort of entertainment." The form should be: "Things of this kind." "Entertainments of that sort."

French derivatives should be avoided and good Anglo-Saxon words used. Therefore it is best to say station not depot; begin not commence.

Commas and Inflection Make a Difference

1895

Commas and Inflection

A Good Deal Depends on Them Sometimes

We published recently an account of a suit for heavy damages arising from lack of punctuation in a telegram. A man sent the message: "Don't come. Too late." But the doctor received it, "Don't come too late," and immediately engaged a special train to convey him a long distance.

Mr. Story, the sculptor, who began life as a lawyer, tells a good anecdote which illustrates the fact that the emphasis which punctuates has as much to do with determining the sense of a sentence as the meaning of the words. Once, when he was called upon to defend a woman accused of murdering her husband, he adduced as one of the proofs of her innocence the fact of her having attended him on his deathbed, and saying to him, when he was dying, "Goodbye, George!" The counsel for the prosecution declared that that ought rather to be taken as a proof of her guilt, and that the words she had used were "Good! by George!"

A well known clergyman of New York used to make a strong point by reading the verse, "God said, Let there be light, and there was light," with the emphasis on the word light, not on was, as usually rendered.

An elocutionist of considerable note has questioned the method of the great Mrs. Siddons, who in answer to Macbeth's suggestion of possible failure was wont to reply, "Fail!" with a emphatic drop of the voice that implied, "Well, then, fail, that's all there is to it." "Lady Macbeth would never have got him in the world," said this critic, "had she addressed him in that manner. She undoubtedly said, 'Fail,' in a tone of utter contempt for a man who could imagine such an outcome to his villainy. The word should be given in a deep tone, with a falling inflection and then an upward tendency." — Brooklyn Eagle.

Boy Drawn Over Cliff in Coffin

1909

JACKSON, California — Lying unconscious in a coffin, Cecil Miller, 16 years old, was drawn up a 150-foot cliff on the bank of the Cosumnes river, near Plymouth Sunday.

While hunting on the banks young Miller stepped out on a large rock on Eagles' Nest bluff, which gave way suddenly and precipitated the boy down the bank to the water's edge. A companion ran to Plymouth, three miles away, for assistance. Believing that Miller was dead, a coffin was taken along by the rescuing party.

After much difficulty two men were lowered over the bluff with the coffin. The boy was alive, but unconscious, and terribly injured. He was placed in the coffin to be raised to the top of the bluff.


Shoots Both Wife and Himself

DES MOOINES, Iowa — Dennis Sweeney, connected with the coal mines at New Saylor, near Des Moines, shot his wife, from whom he had been separated for some time, and turned the revolver on himself. The body of Sweeney was found in a cornfield. The woman cannot recover.


Surprised, Regains Voice

POTTSVILLE, Pennsylvania. — Surprised by friends, Miss Sallie Sterner suddenly regained the loss of speech she sustained during an illness of five years ago. Physicians, puzzled by the loss of articulation, are still more mystified over the latest developments. The patient now talks as well as ever.