,,the ,,art ,,of ,,lecturing by ,,arthur ,m4 ,,lewis ,revised ,edition ,chicago ,charles ,h4 ,kerr ,company ,co-operative ,,contents ,,chapter ,i4 ,,introductory ,,ii4 ,,exordium ,,iii4 ,,begin ,,well ,,iv4 ,,speak ,,deliberately ,v4 ,,peroration ,,vi4 ,,read ,,widely ,,vii4 ,,read ,,the ,,best ,,viii4 ,,subject ,,ix4 ,,learn ,,to ,,stop ,x4 ,,chairman ,,xi4 ,,mannerisms ,,xii4 ,,course ,,lecturing--,,no ,,chairman ,,xiii4 ,,course ,,lecturing--,,learn ,,to ,,classify ,,xiv4 ,,preparation ,,xv4 ,,debating ,,xvi4 ,,tricks ,,of ,,debate ,,xvii4 ,,rhetoric ,,xviii4 ,,the ,,audience ,,xix4 ,,street ,,speaking3 ,,the ,,place ,,the ,,style ,,disturbers ,,police ,,interference ,,book-,,selling ,,and ,,professionalism ,,xx4 ,,book-,,selling ,,at ,,meetings ,,xxi4 ,,example ,,book ,,talks ,,xxii4 ,,conclusion ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,lecturing ,,chapter ,i ,,introductory ,for some time ,i have been besieged with requests to open a ,speakers' ,class or ,a ,school of ,oratory1 or1 as one ingenious correspondent puts it1 a ,forensic ,club4 ,with these requests it is impossible to comply for sheer lack of time4 ,i have decided1 however1 to embody in these pages the results of my own experience1 and the best ,i have learned from the experience of others4 ,there are some things required in a good lecturer which cannot be imparted to a pupil by any teacher1 and we may as well dispose of these4 ,one is a good voice4 ,modern methods1 however1 have done much to make the improvement of the voice possible4 ,while it is probably impossible in the great majority of cases to make a very fine voice out of a very poor one1 no one1 with an average voice1 need be afraid of the platform1 for time and training will greatly increase its range and resonance4 ,it is said that the great ,greek orator1 ,demosthenes1 developed his magnificent voice by shouting above the roar of the sea near which he lived1 but it is probable that he had a better voice to begin with than the tradition represents4 ,in the absence of sea waves1 one's voice may be tested and strengthened by trying to drown the noise of the electric cars at a street meeting4 ,most poor voices are produced in the upper part of the throat or1 still worse1 in the roof of the mouth1 while deep and thrilling tones can only be obtained from further down4 ,the transition from the upper throat or palate to the deeper tones is not nearly so difficult as might be supposed4 ,placing the hand across the chest during practice will help to locate the origin of the sounds produced4 ,the one thing1 however1 which no training seems to create1 but which is wholly indispensable in a good speaker1 is that elusive1 but potential something which has been named personal magnetism4 ,this is probably only another way of saying that the great orator must also be a great man4 ,his imagination and sympathy must be great enough to take possession of him and make him the mere instrument of their outpouring4 ,if nature has omitted these great qualities1 no amount of training will create them4 ,this is why1 among the great number who wish to be speakers1 only a few scale the heights4 ,but men with small personal magnetism and good training have done quite well1 while others with large personal magnetism and no methods1 have made a complete failure1 and herein lies the justification for this volume4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,exordium ,the part of a lecture which consumes the first ten or fifteen minutes is called the exordium1 from the ,latin word exordiri--to begin a web4 ,the invariable rule as to the manner of this part of a lecture is--begin easy4 ,any speaker who breaks this rule invites almost certain disaster4 ,this rule has the universal endorsement of experienced speakers4 ,sometimes a green speaker1 bent on making a hit at once1 will begin with a burst1 and in a high voice4 ,once begun1 he feels that the pace must be maintained or increased4 ,listeners who have the misfortune to be present at such a commencement and who do not wish to have their pity excited1 had better retire at once1 for when such a speaker has been at work fifteen minutes and should be gradually gathering strength like a broadening river1 he is really beginning to decline4 ,from then on the lecture dies a lingering death and the audience welcomes its demise with a sigh of relief4 ,such performances are not common1 as no one can make that blunder twice before the same audience4 ,he may try it1 but if the people who heard him before see his name on the program they will be absent4 ,at the beginning1 the voice should be pitched barely high enough for everybody to hear4 ,this will bring that hush which should mark the commencement of every speech4 ,when all are quiet and settled1 raise the voice so as to be clearly heard by everybody1 but no higher4 ,hold your energies in reserve2 if you really have a lecture1 you will need them later4 ,as to the matter of the exordium1 it should be preparatory to the lecture4 ,here the lecturer clears the ground or paves the way for the main question4 ,if the lecture is biographical and deals with the life and work of some great man1 the exordium naturally tells about his parents1 birthplace and early surroundings1 etc4 ,if some theory in science or philosophy is the subject1 the lecturer naturally uses the exordium to explain the theory which previously occupied that ground and how it came to be overthrown by the theory now to be discussed4 ,here the way is cleared of popular misunderstandings of the question and1 if the theory is to be defended1 all those criticisms that do not really touch the question are easily and gracefully annihilated4 ,here1 if ,darwin is to be defended1 it may be shown that those witticisms1 aimed at him1 about the giraffe getting its long neck by continually stretching it1 or the whale getting its tail by holding its hind legs too close in swimming1 do not apply to ,darwinism1 but to the exploded theory of his great predecessor1 ,lamarck4 ,if ,scientific ,socialism is the question1 it may be appropriately shown in the exordium that nearly all the objections which are still urged against it apply only to the ,utopian ,socialism which ,socialist literature abandoned half a century ago4 ,in short1 the lecturer usually does in the exordium what a family party does when1 having decided to waltz a little in the parlor1 they push the table into a corner and set back the chairs--he clears a space4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,begin ,,well ,the ,shakespearian saying that all's well that ends well is only a half truth4 ,a good lecture must not only end well2 it must begin well4 ,the value of first impressions is universally recognized1 and an audience will be much more lenient with flaws that may come later if its appreciation and confidence have been aroused at the commencement4 ,it is almost impossible to drive a nail properly if it was started wrong1 and the skillful workman will draw it out and start it over again4 ,but such a blunder in lecturing cannot be remedied--at least for that occasion4 ,a stale or confused beginning haunts and depresses the mind of the speaker and makes his best work impossible4 ,it also destroys the confidence of the audience1 so that what comes later is likely to be underestimated4 ,this necessity is recognized not only by lecturers1 but by all the great masters of poetry1 fiction and music4 ,wilhelm ,tell is best known by its overture and what could be more solemn and impressive than the opening bars of ,el ,miserere in ,verdi's ,il ,trovatore4 ,the genius of ,dickens shines most clearly in his opening pages1 and his right to be ranked with ,juvenal as a satirist could be easily established by the first chapter of ,martin ,chuzzlewit4 ,sir ,walter ,scott would rank as one of the world's greatest wits if he had never written anything but the exploits of ,dick ,pinto1 which serve as an introduction to ,the ,bride of ,lammermoor4 ,the opening lines of ,keats' first long poem1 ,endymion1 are immortal1 and the first line of that passage has become an integral part of the ,english language3 ,a thing of beauty is a joy forever2 ,its loveliness increases2 it will never ,pass into nothingness1 but still will keep ,a bower quiet for us1 and a sleep ,full of deep peace and health and quiet breathing4 ,the first stanza of the first canto of ,scott's ,marmion gives a picture of ,norham castle that never leaves the memory4 ,milton's greatest poem1 ,paradise ,lost1 a poem which fascinated the imagination of the great utopian1 ,robert ,owen1 at the age of seven1 has nothing in all its sonorous music that lingers in the mind like its magnificent opening lines1 and one searches in vain through the interminable length of ,wordsworth's ,excursion for a passage equal to the first4 ,no lecturer who aims high should go upon a platform and confront an audience1 except in cases of great emergency1 without having worked out his opening sentences4 ,floundering is fatal1 but many an otherwise capable speaker flounders around and hems and haws for the first ten or fifteen minutes1 as a matter of course4 ,if his auditors are strange1 they get restless and disgusted1 and some of them go out4 ,if they know him1 they smile at one another and the ceiling and wait with more or less patience until he gets started4 ,if it is a meeting where others are to speak1 by the time he gets started the chairman is anxiously looking at his watch and wondering if he will have as much trouble to get done4 ,a lecturer should remember that an audience resents having its time wasted by a long1 floundering1 meaningless preamble1 and it is sure to get even4 ,next time it will come late to avoid that preliminary catch as catch can performance or--it will stay away4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,speak ,,deliberately ,william ,ewart ,gladstone1 one of the most generally admired orators the ,english house of commons ever listened to1 spoke at an average of #ajj words a minute4 ,phillips ,brooks1 the brilliant ,american preacher1 maintained a rate of #bae words a minute and was a terror to the stenographers engaged to report him4 ,he succeeded as a speaker1 not because of his speed1 but in spite of it2 because his enunciation was perfect and every word was cut off clear and distinct4 ,but very few men succeed with such a handicap1 and ,brooks would have done much better if he could have reduced his speed #dj per cent4 ,the average person in an audience thinks slowly1 and the lecturer should aim to meet the requirements of at least a large majority of those present1 and not merely those in the assembly who happen to be as well informed as the lecturer1 and could therefore keep pace with him1 no matter how rapidly he proceeds4 ,new ideas need to be weighed as well as heard1 and the power of weighing is less rapid than the sense of hearing4 ,this is why a pause at the proper place is so helpful4 ,a young lecturer had in his audience on one occasion a veteran of the platform1 and was on that account anxious to do his best4 ,this situation1 as all new speakers know1 is very disconcerting1 and after the young aspirant had rushed through his opening argument pretty well1 as he thought1 lo1 his memory slipped a cog and he waited in silence1 what seemed to him an age1 until it caught again4 ,then he continued to the end without a stop4 ,after the meeting the veteran came forward to shake hands4 ,have you any advice for me8 said the young man1 that awful breakdown looming large in his mind4 ,yes1 said the senior1 cultivate the pause4 ,one of the lecturer's most valuable assets is variety of pace1 and this is almost entirely lost by the speaker whose speed is always high4 ,observe two men arguing in conversation where there is no thought of art or oratory4 ,where the remarks are of an explanatory nature the words come slowly and carefully4 ,when persuasion becomes the object1 deliberation is thrown aside and words begin to flow like a mountain freshet1 and if the speaker has natural capacity he concludes his point with a grand rush that carries everything before it4 ,when a speaker carefully selects his words and it is clear to the audience that he is deliberately weighing and measuring his sentences1 his listeners are unconsciously impressed with a sense of their importance4 ,of course1 deliberation may be overdone1 and if the audience once gets the impression that the speaker is slow and does not move along more quickly because he cannot1 the effect is disastrous4 ,deliberation is closely akin to seriousness and the lecturer who has no great and serious question to present should retire from the platform and try vaudeville4 ,it is just here that the ,socialist has a great advantage1 for his theme is the most serious and tremendous that ever occupied the mind of man4 ,,chapter ,v ,,peroration ,the close of a lecture is called the peroration--the word oration prefixed by the ,latin preposition per4 ,per has several meanings1 one of them being to the utmost extent as in peroxide--a substance oxidized to the utmost degree4 ,this is probably the sense in which it is used in peroration1 for the close of a lecture should be oratory at its utmost4 ,the speaker who has failed to observe the previous rules about beginning easy1 and speaking deliberately will pay the penalty here4 ,if he has spoken rapidly1 he will be unable to increase the pace--at least1 sufficiently to get the best results4 ,if he has spoken too loudly and kept nothing in reserve1 his voice will refuse to rise to the occasion4 ,the manner of the peroration has two essentials1 an increase of speed1 and a raising of the voice4 ,these two things go naturally together2 as the words come more quickly the voice tends to rise apparently automatically1 and this is as it should be4 ,the peroration has the nature of a triumph4 ,the question has been fought out in the main body of the lecture1 the opposing positions have been overthrown1 and now the main conclusion is victoriously proclaimed and driven home4 ,even if an element of pathos enters into the peroration1 it is a mistake to allow the voice to weaken4 ,if it takes a lower note1 it must make up in strength and intensity what it loses in height4 ,anything else is sure to prove an anticlimax4 ,the matter of the peroration should consist of the main conclusion of the lecture1 and should begin by gathering together the principal threads of the discourse which should lead to that conclusion4 ,the necessity for a peroration1 or strong finish1 is recognized in music1 the drama1 and everything presented before an audience4 ,most band selections end in a crash1 the majority of instruments working at full capacity4 ,every musical comedy concludes with its full cast on the stage singing the most effective air4 ,every vaudeville performer strives to reach a climax and1 where talent breaks down1 refuge is sought in some such miserable subterfuge as waving the flag or presenting a picture of the bulldog countenance of ,theodore ,roosevelt4 ,the entertainer1 however1 appeals to prevailing opinions and prejudices2 he gives the audience what they want4 ,the lecturer should be an instructor and his theme may be a new and1 as yet1 unpopular truth1 and it is his duty to give the audience what they should have4 ,therefore the peroration should be full of that persuasive eloquence which will lead the audience to a favorable consideration of the positions which have been carefully and judiciously presented in the body of the lecture4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,read ,,widely ,i had just concluded a lecture in ,grand ,junction1 ,colo41 over a year ago1 when a burly railroad man stepped forward and introduced himself4 ,i forget his name1 but remember well what he said4 ,here it is1 about word for word3 ,i was an engineer years ago1 as ,i am today1 but in those days ,debs was my fireman4 ,having a little better job than he1 ,i naturally thought ,i was the smarter man4 ,we used to sleep in the same room4 ,we would both turn in all tired from a long trip and ,i would be asleep before you could count ten4 ,after ,i had slept three or four hours ,i would wake up about two in the morning and there would be ,debs with a candle1 shaded so as not to disturb me1 reading away at a book as if everything depended on his understanding all there was in it4 ,many a time he only got one or two hours' rest before going to work again4 ,i told him he was a d--d fool1 and ,i thought he was4 ,i still believe there was a d--d fool in that room1 but ,i know now that it wasn't ,debs4 ,every man who ever did anything really worth while on the lecture platform has something like that in his life story1 and it is usually connected with his earlier years4 ,the biography of every great speaker or writer has usually this passage or one equal to it in the early pages3 ,he was an omnivorous reader4 ,professor ,huxley in his brief1 but charming autobiography in the first essay of the first volume of his collected essays1 speaking of his early youth1 says1 ,i read everything ,i could lay my hands upon4 ,the speaker who has learned to sneer at book learning is foredoomed to failure and will spare himself many humiliations by retiring at once4 ,a conversation between four or five men came to my notice in which the subject was the translation into ,english of the second volume of ,marx's ,capital4 ,one man said3 ,i don't care if it is never translated4 ,then a ,socialist speaker1 who was present1 stepped forward and said3 ,shake hands on that4 ,this same speaker was at that time engaged for nearly a year's work4 ,the trip proved a failure and he went back into the shops and probably blamed everything and everybody except the real cause--his own attitude on the question of knowledge4 ,neglecting to read1 in a lecturer1 is something more than a mistake--it is a vice4 ,its real name is laziness4 ,as well expect good bricklaying from a man too lazy to lift a brick4 ,the idea of a man teaching something he himself does not know is grotesque1 and yet1 ,i have known at least three-score who felt divinely appointed to perform that very task4 ,these remarks have no application in the case of those who1 wishing to become lecturers1 are determined to do everything in their power to acquire the proper qualifications1 but only to those who think that because they have once persuaded an audience to listen to them1 they now know everything necessary to be known4 ,a self-satisfied1 ignorant man on a lecture platform is an anomaly that1 fortunately1 is never long continued1 for the process of natural selection weeds him out4 ,i met a boy of eighteen the other day with a thumb-worn copy of ,dietzgen's ,positive ,outcome of ,philosophy under his arm4 ,this is the material from which lecturers are made4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,read ,,the ,,best ,i met him at ,napa1 ,cal41 after the meeting4 ,his name was ,mueller2 a tall1 fine old ,german4 ,he had been through the ,bismarck exception law persecution and was well informed in all that related to that period4 ,i asked him how it came about that the ,german movement was so well posted and unified4 ,he answered1 ,well1 ,bismarck did that for us4 ,you see1 before ,bismarck interfered1 we were all split up into little inside factions1 as it is here1 to some extent1 now4 ,that was because we had scores of papers1 each teaching its own particular brand of ,socialism4 ,every little business man who became a ,socialist and had a little money in the bank started a paper and gave the world his notion of ,socialism4 ,bismarck changed all that2 he put them all out of business in a single day4 ,then the ,socialists had only one paper1 published outside ,germany1 on very thin paper1 and mailed in sealed envelopes4 ,this paper was edited by ,bernstein1 one of the ablest ,marxian scholars1 and this uniform reading of sound literature was a very powerful factor in clarifying the ,german ,socialist movement4 ,a lecturer must get his data from the very best authorities4 ,he must get his knowledge of natural selection1 not from the pages of some ill-informed pamphleteer1 but from ,the ,origin of ,species4 ,his statements as to what constitutes the ,socialist philosophy should be based on a careful study of ,marx1 ,engels and the other writers who have produced ,socialism's classic literature1 and not on some ten-cent pamphlet by a new convert1 published1 not on its merits1 but because the author had money enough to get it printed4 ,the ,japanese in this country show their superiority in this respect4 ,i had a friend in ,san ,francisco who was a bookseller1 who told me it was quite impossible to sell a ,jap a book on any subject unless it was by the greatest authority on that particular question4 ,i had charge of the ,socialist literature of ,local ,san ,francisco nearly a year1 and during that period the only books bought by the ,japs were works by ,marx1 ,engels and ,labriola4 ,this is why the ,jews play so tremendous a part in the ,socialist movement of the world4 ,the ,jew is almost always a student and often a fine scholar4 ,the wide experience of the ,jewish people has taught them 7and they have always been quick to learn7 the value of that something called scholarship1 which many of their duller ,gentile brethren affect to despise4 ,sound scholarship should be one of the watchwords of the lecturer1 and as he will never find time to read everything of the best that has been written1 it is safe to conclude that1 except for special reasons1 he cannot spare time or energy for books of second or third rate4 ,of course1 in the beginning it is usually better to approach the great masters through some well informed1 popularizing disciple4 ,a beginner in biological evolution would do well to approach ,darwin through ,huxley's essays and ,john ,spargo has been kind enough to say that ,marx should be approached through the various volumes of my published lectures4 ,the lecturer must be familiar with the very best2 he must plunge to the greatest depths and rise to the topmost heights4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,subject ,a great lecture must have a great theme4 ,one of the supreme tests of a lecturer's judgment presents itself when he is called upon to choose his subject4 ,look over the list of subjects on the syllabus of any speaker and the man stands revealed4 ,his previous intellectual training1 or lack of it1 what he considers important1 his general mental attitude1 the extent of his information and many other things can be predicated from his selection of topics4 ,early in his career the lecturer is obliged to face this question1 and his future success hinges very largely on his decision4 ,not only is the selection determined by his past reading1 but it in turn largely determines his future study4 ,not long ago a promising young speaker loomed up1 but he made a fatal mistake at the very outset4 ,he selected as his special subject a question in which few are interested1 except corporation lawyers--the ,american constitution4 ,the greatest intellectual achievements of the last fifty years center around the progress of the natural sciences4 ,those greatest of all problems for the human race1 whence1 whither1 wherefore1 have found all that we really know of their solution in the discoveries of physics and biology during recent times4 ,what ,charles ,darwin said about ,the ,origin of ,species is ten thousand times more important than what some pettifogging lawyer said about ,states' ,rights4 ,the revelations of the cellular composition of animals by ,schwan and plants by ,schleiden mark greater steps in human progress than any or all of the decisions of the supreme court4 ,lavoisier1 the discoverer of the permanence of matter and the founder of modern chemistry1 will be remembered when everybody has forgotten that ,judge ,marshall and ,daniel ,webster ever lived4 ,from these and other epoch-making discoveries in the domain of science1 modern ,socialism gets its point of departure from ,utopianism1 and without those advances would have been impossible4 ,here is a new and glorious world from which the working class has been carefully shut out4 ,here we find armor that cannot be dented and weapons whose points cannot be turned aside in the struggle of the ,proletariat for its own emancipation4 ,any lecturer who will acquaint himself with the names of ,lamarck1 ,darwin1 ,lyell1 ,lavoisier1 ,huxley1 ,haeckel1 ,virchow1 ,tyndall1 ,fiske1 ,wallace1 ,romanes1 ,helmholtz1 ,leibnitz1 ,humboldt1 ,weismann1 etc41 in science1 and ,marx1 ,engels1 ,lafargue1 ,labriola1 ,ferri1 ,vandervelde1 ,kautsky1 ,morgan1 ,ward1 ,dietzgen1 etc41 in sociology1 and learn what those names stand for1 such a lecturer1 other things being equal1 has a great and useful field before him4 ,it was well enough in the middle ages for great conclaves of clericals to discuss sagely what language will be spoken in heaven1 and how many angels could dance a saraband on the point of a needle1 but the twentieth century is face to face with tremendous problems and the public mind clamors for a solution4 ,it will listen eagerly to the man who knows and has something to say4 ,but it insists that the man who knows no more than it knows itself1 shall hold his peace4 ,this is why the ,socialist and the ,scientist are the only men who command real audiences--they are the only men with great and vital truths to proclaim4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,learn ,,to ,,stop ,the platform has no greater nuisance than that interminable bore--the speaker who cannot stop4 ,of all platform vices this is about the worst4 ,the speaker who acquires a reputation for it becomes a terror instead of an attraction to an audience4 ,as a rule there is no audience when his name is the only item on the card2 he gets his chance speaking with some one else whom the listeners have really come to hear4 ,and this is just when his performance is least desirable4 ,either he gets in before the real attraction and taxes everybody's patience1 or he follows and addresses his remarks to retreating shoulders4 ,i met a man recently who had made quite a name in his own town as a speaker1 and his townsmen visiting other cities proudly declared him a coming ,bebel4 ,i took the first opportunity to hear him4 ,he had a good voice and was a ready speaker1 but ,i soon found he carried a burden that more than balanced all his merits--he simply could not stop4 ,i heard him again when the committee managing the program had especially warned him not to speak more than thirty minutes4 ,at the end of forty he was sailing along as though eternity was at his disposal4 ,three different times1 at intervals of about ten minutes1 they passed him notes asking him to stop4 ,he read them in plain view of an audience which knew what they meant1 and then tried to close1 and finally did so1 not by finishing his speech1 but by shutting his mouth and walking off the platform4 ,the next item was something which the audience had paid money to enjoy1 but many had to leave to catch a last car home4 ,as they passed me near the door1 the men swore and the women came as near to it as they dared4 ,and yet the speaker complained afterward of his treatment by the committee4 ,when he began he received a fine ovation2 had he finished at the end of thirty minutes he would have covered himself with glory2 he spoke an hour and a quarter and most of those present hoped they would never be obliged to listen to him again4 ,i thought somebody ought to play the part of candid friend1 and ,i told him next day how it looked to me4 ,he said3 ,i guess you are right2 ,i believe ,i'll get a watch4 ,but this malady is usually much deeper than the question of having a watch4 ,this speaker acquired it while addressing street meetings4 ,a street audience is always changing in some degree4 ,a hall lecture is not required and would be out of place4 ,the auditors decide when they have had enough and leave the meeting unnoticed and the speaker launches out again on another question with fifty per cent of his audience new and his hopping from question to question1 and ending with good-night for a peroration is quite proper on a street corner4 ,not only is it proper1 but it is very successful1 and good street speakers cultivate that method4 ,this is why men who are excellent street speakers and who get their training out doors are usually such flat failures in a hall4 ,even when all is going well1 an audience or some part of it will grow uneasy toward the close1 not because they cannot stay ten or fifteen minutes longer1 but because they do not know whether the lecturer is going to close in ten minutes or thirty4 ,an experienced lecturer will always detect that uneasiness in moving feet or rustling clothes1 and at the first appropriate period will look at his watch and say1 in a quiet but decided tone1 ,i shall conclude in ten minutes1 or whatever time he requires4 ,then those who cannot wait so long will at once withdraw1 the rest will settle down to listen and harmony will be restored4 ,but woe to the speaker who forgets his pledge and thinks he may take advantage of that restored quiet to go beyond the time he stated4 ,next time he speaks before that audience and they become restless he will have no remedy4 ,it is better to have your hearers say1 ,i could have listened another hour1 than ,it would have been better if he had finished by ten o'clock4 ,,chapter ,x ,,chairman ,lecturers learn by experience that the chairman question may become at times a very trying problem4 ,many a meeting has been spoiled by an impossible chairman1 and the lecturer who wishes to have his work produce the best result will always keep a keen eye on the chair1 though1 of course1 he should not appear to do so4 ,the functions of the chairman are mainly two3 ,to introduce the speaker1 and to decide points of procedure4 ,the latter function is only necessary in delegate gatherings where all present have the right to participate4 ,the former applies where a speaker is visiting a town and is a stranger to many in his audience4 ,in this case1 when the chairman has told the audience who the speaker is1 where he comes from1 what his subject will be1 the occasion and auspices of the meeting1 his work is done1 and the chairman who at this point leaves the platform and takes a seat in the front row1 should be presented with a medal of unalloyed gold and his name should be recorded in the municipal archives as an example to the lecture chairmen of future generations4 ,how often has one seen a chairman during the lecture1 conscious that he is in full view of the audience1 crossing his legs1 first one way1 then the other1 trying a dozen different ways of disposing of his hands with becoming grace1 fumbling with his watch chain1 looking at his watch as if the speaker had already overstepped his time1 looking nervously at his program as if something of enormous importance had been forgotten1 and doing a dozen similar things1 most of them unconsciously1 but none the less continuously diverting the attention of the audience from the speaker and his speech4 ,how pleasantly do ,i recall the chairman who came to my hotel and asked me to write him a two-minute speech1 which he committed to memory1 but promptly forgot before a crowded opera house and substituted for it1 ,mr4 ,lewis of ,san ,francisco will now address you1 and disappeared in the wings4 ,the fates be kind to him6 ,he was the prince of chairmen4 ,i spoke on one occasion in a large city to a good audience at a well advertised meeting on the ,moyer-,haywood-,pettibone question4 ,i had for chairman a local speaker1 who1 fascinated by so fine an audience1 spoke over thirty minutes in this style3 ,mr4 ,lewis will tell you how these men were kidnapped in ,denver2 he will tell you how the railroads provided a special train free of charge2 he will tell you1 etc41 until he had mentioned about all that was known of the case at that time4 ,the fact that we had a good meeting and took up a big collection for the defense fund was no fault of his4 ,another chairman ,i shall ever remember is the one who closed a rambling speech with the following terse remarks3 ,you have all heard of the speaker1 you have seen his name in our papers2 he has a national reputation4 ,i will now call upon him to make good4 ,fortunately1 most inexperienced chairmen seek the speaker's advice and follow it4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,mannerisms ,speaking mannerisms are of two kinds1 those of manner1 of course1 and those which by a metaphorical use of the term may be called mannerisms of matter4 ,the memory1 said the quaint old ,fuller1 must be located in the back of the head1 because there men dig for it4 ,some speakers appear to imagine it can be found in the links of a watch chain1 or observed in the chinks in the ceiling4 ,most mannerisms are undesirable and very few have any value4 ,as they are usually formed early1 one should look out for them at the outset and nip them in the bud1 before they have a chance to become fixed habits4 ,i often notice myself running my fingers through my hair about the opening sentence1 as though ,i could thereby loosen up my brain4 ,debs speaks a good deal doubled up like the corner of a square--a mannerism that probably has its origin1 partly in a body weary from overwork1 and partly from a desire to get closer to the auditors on the main floor4 ,mannerisms of matter are very common and many speakers seem to take no trouble to avoid them4 ,many speakers become so addicted to certain hackneyed phrases that those used to hearing them speak can see them coming sentences away4 ,one of the hardest ridden of these is1 along those lines4 ,i have heard speakers overwork that sentence until ,i never hear it without a shudder and if ,i used it myself it would be to refer to car lines1 and even then ,i should prefer those tracks4 ,g4 ,w4 ,woodbey1 our colored speaker of what to do and how to do it fame1 never speaks an hour without asking at least thirty times1 ,do you understand8 but the inimitable manner in which he pokes his chin forward as he does so usually convulses his audience and makes a virtue of what would otherwise be a defect4 ,the veteran speaker ,barney ,berlyn says1 every little while1 you understand1 but he is so terribly in earnest1 and so forceful in his style1 that no one but a cold blooded critic would ever notice it4 ,another speaker ,i know in the west1 asks his audience about every ten minutes1 ,do you get my point8 ,this is very irritating1 as it is really a constant questioning of the audience's ability to see what he is driving at4 ,it would be much better to say1 ,do ,i make myself understood8 and put the blame for possible failure where it usually belongs4 ,if an audience fails to get the point it is because the speaker failed to put it clearly4 ,a terribly overworked word is proposition4 ,it is a good word1 but that is no reason why it should be treated like a pack mule4 ,hackneyed words and phrases are due to laziness in construction and a limited vocabulary4 ,the remedy is to take pains in forming sentences1 practice different ways of stating the same thing1 increase your stock of words by looking up every new one4 ,the lecturer should always have a good dictionary within reach1 especially when reading1 if he has to borrow the money to buy it4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,course ,,lecturing--,,no ,,chairman ,the very first essential to successful course lecturing is--no chairman4 ,on three different occasions ,i have tried to deliver a long course of lectures with a chairman1 as a concession to comrades who disagreed with me4 ,one learns by experience1 however1 and ,i shall never repeat the experiment4 ,anyone who suggested that university course lectures should have a presiding chairman would get no serious hearing4 ,all the course lecturers now before the public dispense with chairmen4 ,it is a case of survival of the fittest2 the course lecturers who had chairmen didn't know their business and they disappeared4 ,this does not apply to a series of three or four lectures1 for in that case when the speaker has become familiar with his audience1 and the chairman should be dispensed with1 his work is done and a new speaker appears who needs to be introduced4 ,course lecturing is by far the most difficult of all forms of lecturing4 ,the beginner will not1 of course1 attempt it4 ,there are shoals of speakers of over five years' experience who are not capable of more than two lectures2 many of the best are exhausted by half a dozen4 ,a course of thirty to fifty is a gigantic task1 and no one who realizes how great it is will throw a straw in the lecturer's way4 ,to insist on his having a chairman could hardly be called a straw2 it would more nearly approach a stick of dynamite4 ,i take up this question because it is certain that this method of lecturing will increase among ,socialists in the future and we should learn to avoid sources of disaster4 ,now1 ,i will give reasons4 ,first1 in course lectures the chairman has no functions2 he is entirely superfluous4 ,there are no points of order or procedure to be decided1 and the speaker does not need to be introduced4 ,there are notices to be announced1 but these are better left with the lecturer for many reasons4 ,they give him a chance to clear his throat1 find the proper pitch of his voice1 and get into communication with his audience2 then1 when he begins his lecture he can do his best from the very first word4 ,if the lecturer knows that the entire program is in his own hands he is saved a great deal of irritation and nervousness4 ,how well ,i remember those little disputes with the chair when ,i knew the meeting was lagging late and the chairman insisted we should wait until a few more came4 ,the speaker's request for a good collection will usually bring from twenty to forty per cent better results than if it came from a chairman4 ,in announcing the next lecture the speaker is usually able1 by telling what ground he will cover1 etc41 to arouse the interest of the audience so that they make up their minds to attend4 ,poor chairmen blunder along and make bad breaks which irritate both audience and speaker1 while good chairmen feel they are doing nothing that could not be better done by the speaker and1 that they are really only in his way4 ,i have only met two kinds of men who insist that the course lecturer should be handicapped with a chairman2 those who say it gives him too much power--an argument that belongs to the sucking bottle stage of our movement--and those who enjoy acting as chairman4 ,i should be slow to mention the latter1 but alas6 my own experience so conclusively proves it1 and the peculiarity of human nature1 in or out of our movement is1 that it is wonderfully human4 ,there are very few of us who do not enjoy sitting in plain view of a large audience and1 when any good purpose is to be served1 it is a very laudable ambition4 ,but if we have no better end to gain than standing between a speaker and his audience and1 though with the best intentions in the world1 adding to the difficulties of a task that is already greater than most of us would care to face1 for the sake of our great cause1 and that it may be the more ably defended1 let us refrain4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,course ,,lecturing--,,learn ,,to ,,classify ,the definition of science as knowledge classified1 while leaving much to be said1 is perhaps1 as satisfactory as any that could be condensed into two words4 ,a trained capacity for classification is wholly indispensable in a course lecturer4 ,we all know the speaker who announces his subject and then rambles off all over the universe4 ,with this speaker1 everybody knows that1 no matter what the subject or the occasion of the meeting1 it is going to be the same old talk that has done duty1 how long nobody can remember4 ,if1 under the head of surplus value you talk twenty minutes about prohibition1 how will you avoid repetition when you come to speak on the temperance question8 ,the surest way to acquire this qualification is to study the sciences4 ,the dazzling array of facts which science has accumulated1 owe half their value to the systematization they have received at the hands of her greatest savants4 ,it is impossible to take a step in scientific study without coming face to face with her grand classifications4 ,at the very beginning science divides the universe into two parts1 the inorganic and the organic4 ,the inorganic is studied under the head of physics2 the organic1 under biology4 ,physics 7not the kind one throws to the dogs1 of course7 is then subdivided into ,astronomy1 ,chemistry1 and ,geology1 while ,biology has its two great divisions1 ,zoology 7animals7 and ,botany 7plants71 all these having subdivisions reaching into every ramification of the material universe1 which is the real subject matter of science1 being as it is the only thing about which we possess any knowledge4 ,another way of learning to classify is to select a subject and then read it up4 ,here is a good method3 ,take a ten-cent copy book1 the usual size about eight by six inches and begin on the first inside page4 ,write on the top of the page1 left side1 a good subject1 leaving that page and the one opposite to be used for that question4 ,turn over and do the same again on the next page with some other subject4 ,this practice of selecting subjects1 in itself1 will be valuable training4 ,in the search for subjects take any good lecture syllabus and select those about which you have a fair general idea4 ,you will soon learn to frame some of your own4 ,good examples of standard questions are ,free ,will1 ,natural ,selection1 ,natural ,rights1 ,economic ,determinism1 ,mutation1 ,individualism1 and a host of others1 all of which have a distinct position in thought1 and about which there is a standard literature4 ,then1 in your general reading1 whenever you come across anything of value in any book1 on any of your listed subjects1 turn to the page in your copy book and enter it up1 author1 volume1 chapter and page4 ,when you come to lecture on that question1 there it will be1 or1 at least1 you will know just where it is4 ,of course1 the two pages devoted to ,natural ,rights would mention1 among other references1 ,prof4 ,david ,g4 ,ritchie's book on ,natural ,rights2 and the eighth essay of ,huxley's ,first ,volume of ,collected ,essays1 in which he annihilates ,henry ,george4 ,all this means an immense quantity of reading1 but unless you have carefully read and weighed about all the best that has been said on any question1 your own opinions will have no value1 and it is simply presumption to waste the time of an audience doling out a conception that1 for aught you know1 may have been knocked in the head half a century ago4 ,what can be more tiresome than the prattle about absolute justice1 eternal truth1 inalienable rights1 the identity of the ethics of ,christianity with those of ,socialism1 and a lot of other theories1 which lost their footing in scientific literature and transmigrated to begin a new career among the uninformed1 sixty years ago4 ,of course1 some of these positions look all right to you now1 but when you learn what has been revealed about them by the science and philosophy of the last six decades1 they will seem about as rational as the doctrine of a personal devil or the theory of a flat earth4 ,and until your reading is wide enough to give you this view of them1 you had better not attempt course lecturing in the twentieth century4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,preparation ,said ,francis ,bacon1 the author of ,novum ,organum1 ,reading maketh a full man1 writing an exact man1 and conversation a ready man4 ,the first in importance of these is to be a full man4 ,the lecturer should not deliver himself on any subject unless he has read about all there is of value on that question4 ,if1 when you read1 the words all run together in the first few minutes1 or1 you invariably get a headache about the third page1 let lecturing alone4 ,remember that there must be listeners as well as lecturers1 and you may make a good listener1 a quality none too common1 but1 as for lecturing1 you have about as much chance of success as a man who could not climb ten rungs of a ladder without going dizzy1 would have as a steeplejack4 ,the speaker who writes out his speech and commits it to memory and then recites it1 has at least1 this in his favor3 his performance represents great labor4 ,an audience usually is1 and should be1 very lenient with anyone who has obviously labored hard for its benefit4 ,writing out a speech has many advantages1 and beginners especially should practice it extensively4 ,it gives one precision or1 as ,bacon puts it1 makes an exact man4 ,it gives one experience in finding the correct word4 ,if you have not learned to find the right word at your desk where you have time to reflect1 how do you suppose you will find it on the platform where you must go on8 ,in trying a passage in your study it is well to stand about as you would on a platform4 ,my friend ,jack ,london assured me that when he took to the platform his chief difficulty arose from never having learned to think on his feet4 ,writing is also a great test of the value of a point4 ,many a point that looks brilliant when you first conceive it turns out badly when you try to write it out4 ,on the other hand1 an unpromising idea may prove quite fertile when tried out with a pen4 ,it is better to make these discoveries in your study than before your audience4 ,as to conversation and its making a ready man1 a better method perhaps1 is to argue the matter out with a mirror1 or the wall1 in about the same manner and style as you expect to use on the platform4 ,to practice before one or two persons in the style you expect to adopt before an audience is so inherently incompatible with the different circumstances1 that ,i don't believe anybody ever made it succeed4 ,it is far better to be alone1 especially when working out your most important points1 and building your opening and closing sentences4 ,probably the best form of lecturing is to speak from a few pages of notes4 ,a clearly defined skeleton1 in a lecture1 as in an animal1 is the sure sign of high organization1 while it is desirable to fill in the flesh and clothes with a pen beforehand1 it will be well to learn to deliver it to the public with nothing but the skeleton before you4 ,in course lectures1 quotations must be read1 as a rule1 as there is not time enough between lectures to commit them to memory4 ,but where the same lecture is given repeatedly before different audiences1 this condition does not exist1 and the quotations should be memorized4 ,frequent quotations1 from the best authorities1 is one of the marks of a good lecture1 as of a good book4 ,a good plan is to write out the skeleton of the lecture fully at first1 say fifteen or twenty note book pages1 then think it carefully over and condense to about ten4 ,a really good1 well organized lecture where the lecturer has had ample time1 or when he has already delivered it a few times1 should be reducible to one or two pages of notes4 ,this skeletonizing is a good test of a lecture4 ,a mere collection of words has no skeleton4 ,instead of comparing with a mammal at the top of the organic scale1 it is like a formless1 undifferentiated protozoon at the bottom4 ,as an example of a skeleton1 here are the notes of the lecture with which ,i closed the season at the ,garrick in ,may1 #aijg3 ,,socialism ,,and ,,modern ,,ethical ,,science 7#a7 ,the general confusion on this question4 7#b7 ,the inroads of positive science into this field4 7#c7 ,the historical schools of ,ethics3 7#a7 ,the ,theological4 7#b7 ,the intuitional4 7#c7 ,the utilitarian4 7#a7 ,define these2 7#b7 explain2 7#c7 criticise4 7#d7 ,modern science endorses utilitarianism4 7#e7 ,this still leaves unsettled the problem of who shall determine what is of utility to society8 7#f7 ,marx gave the answer--,the ruling class4 7#g7 ,they rule because they control society's foundation1 its mode of production4 7#h7 ,the working class1 in order to enforce its own ethics must control society at its base2 it must take possession of the means of production4 ,when ,i first delivered this lecture ,i had about twenty pages of notes nearly twice the size of this book page1 the three items1 define1 explain1 criticize1 taking half a dozen4 ,,chapter ,,xv ,,debating ,really great debaters1 like the animal reconstructed1 as ,bret ,harte relates1 before ,the ,society on the ,stanislaw1 are extremely rare4 ,this is because the great debater must have a number of accomplishments any one of which requires something very closely approaching genius4 ,the great debater must first of all be a brilliant speaker2 but he must also be a speaker of a certain kind4 ,many brilliant speakers are utterly helpless in debate4 ,the most helpless of these is the speaker who is bound closely to his fully written manuscript or who departs from it only by memorizing the sentences4 ,a certain preacher in a double walled brick church found a chink in the inner wall just back of the pulpit4 ,he found this crevice a convenient pigeon hole for his carefully written and always excellent sermon during the preliminary parts of the service4 ,while the congregation sang the last verse of the hymn preceding the sermon he would draw it from its hiding place and lay it on the pulpit4 ,one fatal ,sunday he pushed it too far in and it fell between the two walls hopelessly beyond immediate recovery4 ,his anguish during the last verse as the novelists say1 beggared description4 ,he read a chapter from the ,bible and dismissed his flock4 ,one cannot imagine such a speaker1 brilliant as he was with his pages before him1 achieving any success in debate4 ,the qualities of a great debater may be ranged under two heads3 7#a7 general1 7#b7 technical4 ,the general qualifications must be those of a ready speaker1 fully master of his subject and able to think quickly and clearly and to clothe an idea in forceful1 suitable language on very short notice4 ,the ability to detect a flaw in an opponent's case does not consist merely in cleverness1 but will depend upon the thoroughness of your studies before going on the platform4 ,the great debater must go to the bottom of things4 ,it is all very well to take an opponent's speech and reply to it point by point1 even to the last detail4 ,it is vastly better1 however1 if you can lay your hands on the fundamental fallacy that underlies the whole case and explode that4 ,i well remember my debate with ,bolton ,hall4 ,mr4 ,hall's whole case rested on the theory of the existence of certain ,nature-given and ,god-given rights of man4 ,the apostles of the ,single ,tax from ,george down never knew and probably never will know how completely all this has been swept into the dust-bin by modern science4 ,it was only necessary for me to demonstrate the hopelessness of ,mr4 ,hall's main thesis to leave him standing before the audience without so much as the possibility of a real answer4 ,we shall consider at some length the technical methods that make for effective debating4 ,in my opinion1 formed from my own experience1 this question of methods is of the greatest importance4 ,the most important thing in this connection is how to make the best use of the time allowed and always know1 while speaking1 how much you still have left4 ,you may look at your watch at the beginning of your speech1 but once started1 the brain1 working at full capacity1 refuses to remember1 and you turn to the chairman and ask ,how much time have ,i8 ,this not only wastes your time1 but distracts the attention of the audience from your attack or reply4 ,again1 the relief is only temporary1 for in a few minutes you are again in the same dilemma4 ,then1 worst of all1 right in the middle of an argument1 down comes the gavel1 and with a lame ,i thank you1 you sit down4 ,there are men who can carry the time in their heads1 but as a rule they are not good debaters1 as they do so because only a part of their energies are thrown into the debate itself4 ,this difficulty hampered me terribly in many debates and the only consolation ,i could find was that it seemed to hamper my opponents about as much4 ,but it never troubles me now owing to the following simple1 but invaluable device3 ,see that your watch is wound1 take half a postage stamp1 and1 as the chairman calls you forth1 stick the stamp across the face of your watch in such a position that when the large hand goes into eclipse your time is up4 ,then place it on the desk where it will be always visible1 and the space between the hand and the line of eclipse always shows your remaining time4 ,on the occasion of my debate with ,mr4 ,chafin1 the last presidential candidate of the ,prohibition party1 on ,socialism versus ,prohibition as a ,solution of the ,social ,problem1 ,mr4 ,louis ,post1 the well-known editor of ,the ,public1 was chairman4 ,he courteously asked us how much warning we needed before the close of our several speeches4 ,mr4 ,post is no novice in debate and he looked much surprised when ,i told him not to warn me at all and that he would have no need of closing me with the gavel4 ,he probably thought ,i had decided to use only part of the time allowed me4 ,when1 at the close of my longest speech ,i finished a somewhat difficult and elaborate peroration squarely on the last quarter of the last second1 ,mr4 ,post's astonishment was so great that he burst out with it to the audience4 ,he said3 ,mr4 ,lewis does not require a chairman2 without any help from me in any way he closed that speech right to the moment4 ,i don't know how he does it2 it is a mystery to me2 ,i couldn't do it to save my life6 ,in my debate with ,clarence ,darrow on ,non-resistance1 at the close of my long speech1 when our excellent chairman1 ,mr4 ,herbert ,c4 ,duce1 thought ,i had lost all track of time and was going to need the gavel1 to his surprise1 just as my last second expired ,i turned to ,darrow and asked a minute's grace to quote from ,tennyson1 which ,darrow gave with a promptness that scored heavily with the audience4 ,for some days before a debate ,i take care that my pocketbook is well supplied with postage stamps4 ,another matter of the very first importance is the taking of notes of your opponent's speech and preparing to reply when your turn comes4 ,during the last few years ,i have met in debate1 ,henry ,george1 ,jr41 ,clarence ,darrow1 ,m4 ,m4 ,mangasarian1 ,professor ,john ,curtis ,kennedy1 ,eugene ,chafin1 ,john ,z4 ,white1 ,w4 ,f4 ,barnard1 ,bolton ,hall1 ,h4 ,h4 ,hardinge1 ,chas4 ,a4 ,windle1 editor of ,the ,iconoclast1 and others1 all men with a national and many with an international reputation as platform masters4 ,but ,i have never been able to understand why almost all of them1 except ,barnard and ,kennedy1 made almost no real use of their time while ,i was speaking4 ,the probable reason is that debating has not been cultivated as an art in this country4 ,they sit quietly in a chair without table or note paper and are satisfied to scribble an occasional note on some scrap of paper they seem to have picked up by accident4 ,clarence ,darrow got more out of this easy going method than any man ,i ever met4 ,with all deference to the names ,i have given ,i must insist that this is no way to debate4 ,it should be done thoroughly and systematically4 ,for my own purposes ,i have reduced this part of debating to an exact science4 ,i do not dread a debate now as ,i once did4 ,my only care is to see that ,i am master of the subject4 ,i will now give my latest method of note taking--the product of years of experience and many long hours of careful planning4 ,it works so simply and perfectly that ,i do not see how it can be further improved4 ,this confidence in the perfection of my methods is not usual with me4 ,i have tried every method ,i could hear of or scheme out1 and this is the only one that ever gave satisfaction4 ,now for the method4 ,have a table on the platform4 ,never allow the chairman to open the debate until your table and chair have been provided4 ,next1 a good supply of loose pages of blank white paper of reasonably good quality and fairly smooth surface4 ,a good size is nine inches long and six wide4 ,any wholesale paper house will cut them for you4 ,remember1 they must be loose2 do not try to use a note book4 ,next1 a good lead pencil1 writing blue at one end and red at the other4 ,when your opponent makes his first point make a note of it in blue at the top of one of your loose pages4 ,there is no need of numbering any of the pages4 ,keep that page exclusively for that one point4 ,leave the upper half of the page for the note of his point4 ,if you have your answer ready1 make a note of it half way down the page in red4 ,this will leave a space under both the blue note of your opponent's point and the red note of your reply4 ,in the upper space you may enter fuller detail of his point if you think best4 ,in the bottom space you may amplify your reply or strike out your first idea of reply and enter one that seems stronger4 ,the immense advantage of this one-point-one-page system is that in arranging the order of reply you need only arrange the pages4 ,the position of any point may be changed by moving the page dealing with it4 ,when you have completed a page by entering the blue note and the red reply and you feel that you have that item well in hand1 lay that page aside and work on the completion of others4 ,when your opponent is about half through his speech you should have about half a dozen pages completed and you should begin to put them in the order in which they are to be used4 ,a good strong point should be selected to open4 ,lay this page face downward on your table1 away from the rest of your papers1 where it will stand forth clearly and not cause you to hunt around the table when the chairman calls you4 ,lay the second point page on top of it1 face down1 of course4 ,when you have a pile like this1 by turning it over and laying it before you face up1 you are ready to begin4 ,you can rearrange the order of these pages from time to time during the latter part of your opponent's speech4 ,whenever you find your opponent developing a point you have already grasped and noted1 you may take time to go over the pile of completed pages4 ,in this overhauling process you will find some faulty pages4 ,if you have noted a weak point of your opponent's and it does not admit of a strong1 clear reply1 take it out of your pile and place it separately so that it may be returned if you can improve it sufficiently1 or finally rejected and left unused if you cannot4 ,by the time your opponent is about to close you should have about twice as many pages as you can use in the time allowed you and they should be rapidly but carefully sifted4 ,anything that looks vague or weak should be thrust aside4 ,if need be1 it is better to spend extra time on some strong position which is fundamental to the debate4 ,to make a good debate you must meet your opponent most fully on his strongest ground4 ,any tricky evasion of his strong points and enlarging of minor issues is disgraceful to you and insulting to the audience4 ,it is this latter kind of debating which has prejudiced the public against debates4 ,a real debate should be a clear presentment of two opposing schools of thought by men who understand both1 but basically disagree as to their truth4 ,such a debate has an educational value of the very highest order4 ,every speech1 as in lecturing1 should have a strong close4 ,the last point can usually be selected before the debate begins1 as it will probably deal with the valuable results flowing from your position4 ,this method enables you to prepare the closing sentence or sentences--which is of great importance4 ,it is one of the great disadvantages of debate that your speeches are liable to end lame and if you can avoid this1 one of your knottiest problems is solved4 ,a strong point also should be selected to open with2 a point that will put the audience in good humor by its wit is especially valuable4 ,but remember wit is only valuable when it bears on the question and strengthens or illustrates an argument4 ,any indulgence in wit merely to turn a laugh against your opponent will disgust the intelligent members of the audience and the pity is that there are always block-heads to applaud such deplorable methods4 ,the platform suffers an irreparable loss whenever it is used by debaters whom nature intended for shyster lawyers4 ,as an example of a good point for opening a reply1 take the following from my debate in the ,garrick1 ,october1 #aijg3 ,my opponent1 ,mr4 ,hardinge1 said1 ,as an ,individualist ,mr4 ,spencer was an extremist in one direction1 and the ,socialist is an extremist in the other4 ,i take a middle ground2 you will always find the truth about half way4 ,my note of this 7in blue7 was1 extremist1 middle ground4 ,my note of answer 7in red7 was revolving earth4 ,this was the answer as ,i made it from these two notes3 ,mr4 ,hardinge said we should not be ,socialists because we should then be as great extremists in one direction as was ,mr4 ,spencer in the other4 ,we should follow ,mr4 ,hardinge's example and take the middle ground for1 says he1 truth is always to be found half way4 ,therefore1 if anyone should ask you1 does the earth revolve from east to west1 or from west to east1 you should answer1 'a little of both4' ,it would have been small consolation to ,mr4 ,hardinge to know that this reply was taken from the individualist ,spencer1 who should have been his mainstay in the debate4 ,but such things are common property and ,i had just as much right to take it from ,spencer as he had to take it from ,george ,eliot4 ,,chapter ,,xvi ,,tricks ,,of ,,debate ,there are a great number of tricks that may be practiced in debate4 ,they should be avoided by the serious man who is debating to defend a great cause4 ,it is well to know the best methods but anything like a trick should never be practiced4 ,some debaters ,i have met actually consider it smart to fill an opening speech with empty words so as to handicap their opponent by giving him nothing to reply to4 ,this is precisely what ,mr4 ,mangasarian did in his debate with me1 but although many disagree with me1 ,i take the view that he did so1 not as a trick1 but because of his ignorance of the question and his want of experience in debate4 ,to have done this deliberately as a clever trick1 after allowing an audience of #c1jjj to pay over #a1ajj for their seats would have been criminal1 and ,i refuse to believe that any public man of ,mr4 ,mangasarian's status would stoop to any such performance as a matter of deliberate strategy4 ,on one occasion1 when the subject of discussion was not of any such serious import as ,socialism1 but more a question of who could win a debate on a subject of small merit1 ,i defeated my opponent by a trick that ,i am heartily ashamed of1 even under those mitigating circumstances4 ,i record it here1 not as an example to be followed1 but as a warning not to let anyone else use it against you4 ,unskilled debaters usually reply to their opponent's points in the order in which they were presented--seriatim4 ,this is easy but not most effective4 ,this opponent1 whom ,i heard debate with someone else before ,i was engaged to try conclusions with him1 was limited1 as ,i saw1 to the seriatim method of reply4 ,when we met1 ,i completely destroyed his influence on the audience by the following trick3 ,having the affirmative1 ,i had to open and close1 which gave me three speeches to his two4 ,in my first speech instead of taking five to ten good points only1 ,i added a good number of other points1 stating them briefly and just giving him time to get them down4 ,these extra points cost me about one minute each to state1 and ,i knew they would cost him at least four or five to reply4 ,then just before closing ,i very seriously advanced the heaviest objection to my opponent's position4 ,i especially called the attention of my audience to this point and declared it to be unanswerable and hoped my opponent would not forget to make a note of it4 ,then ,i paused long enough for the audience to see that ,i gave him full opportunity to get it down--as he did4 ,then ,i gathered my threads together and entered on my peroration4 ,it worked out precisely as ,i had anticipated4 ,my opponent began at the beginning1 as he saw it1 and all his time went over those decoy points and the chairman rapped him down long before he reached that special point4 ,i then repeated the same tactics only ,i loaded him more heavily with decoys than before4 ,i called upon the audience to witness that in spite of my begging him to do so1 he had never so much as mentioned the main difficulty in his position4 ,in his second and last speech1 he saw the necessity of getting to that point but1 alas1 although he hustled through the column of stumbling blocks so rapidly that the audience hardly knew what he was talking about1 just as he was about to reply to this much-paraded difficulty of mine--and it really was the main weakness of his position--down came the chairman's gavel4 ,then ,i lashed him unmercifully4 ,i called the attention of the audience to the fact that twice ,i had especially begged him to answer this question and he had repeatedly failed to do so4 ,the audience1 of course1 drew the inference that he was unable to answer1 and he was considered to be hopelessly defeated4 ,he should1 by all means1 have given that point his first consideration before dealing with the rest of my speech4 ,this gentleman had humiliated quite a number of young aspirants in the local debating class1 and openly boasted of the clever tricks by which he had done so4 ,for once1 however1 he was hoist on his own petard4 ,,chapter ,,xvii ,,rhetoric ,it is the function of language to convey ideas4 ,ideas are the real foundation of good lecturing and words must always be subordinate4 ,the ,english ,parliamentarian1 ,gladstone1 had the reputation of being able to say less in more time than any man who ever lived4 ,the difference between a good and a bad use of words is well illustrated in the discussion between ,gladstone and ,huxley on ,genesis and ,science4 ,of course everybody knows now that ,gladstone was annihilated1 in spite of the cleverness with which1 when beaten1 he would1 in ,huxley's phrase1 retreat under a cloud of words4 ,grandiloquence will produce1 in the more intelligent of your audience1 an amused smile1 and while it is well to have your hearers smile with you1 they should never have reason to smile at you4 ,here again1 a great deal depends on what you have been reading4 ,in the use of good1 clear1 powerful ,english1 ,prof4 ,huxley is without a peer1 and his collected essays will always remain a precious heritage in ,english literature4 ,for an example of the exact opposite1 take the magazines and pamphlets of the so-called new thought1 which at bottom is neither new nor thought4 ,in reality it is made up of words1 words1 and then--more words4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i read a fifteen hundred word article1 in a new thought magazine1 by one of its foremost prophets1 and nowhere from beginning to end1 was there a single tangible idea1 nothing but a long drawn out mass of meaningless jargon4 99 99 99 99 99 ,thus spake ,zarathustra is the same thing at its best4 ,as an example of a style to be carefully avoided the following is in point4 ,it is also a rara avis2 a gem of purest ray4 ,it is taken from the local ,socialist platform of an ,arizona town3 ,therefore1 it matters not1 though the ,creator decked the earth with prolific soil1 and deposited within great stores of wealth for man's enjoyment1 for1 if ,economic ,equality is ostracised1 man is enslaved and the world surges through space around the sun1 a gilded prison4 ,it matters not1 though the infinite blue vast be sown with innumerable stars and the earth be adorned with countless beauties1 teeming with the multiplicity of living forms for man's edification1 for if ,liberty is exiled1 the intellect is robbed and man knows not himself4 ,it matters not1 though nature opens her generous purse and pours forth melodies of her myriad-tongued voices for man's delectation1 for1 if the shackles of wage slavery are not loosed1 the mind is stultified and ambition destroyed by the long hours of toil's monotony in the factory1 the machine shop1 in the mines1 at the desk1 and on the farm4 ,it matters not1 though the fireside of the home sheds forth a radiance in which is blended paternal love1 health and happiness1 for1 if woman is denied equal suffrage1 then this queen of the household1 perforce1 becomes a moral slave4 ,man1 therefore1 is not the sovereign citizen as pictured by the flashing phrases of the orator and soothsayer4 ,liberty exiled1 we have heard of before1 but economic equality ostracised1 is new4 ,the idea that the multiplicity of living forms exist for man's edification1 is ancient to the point of being moldy1 but we must concede originality to myriad tongued voices issuing from a purse4 ,the concluding remarks about the flashing phrases of the orator are peculiarly well taken--unless that gentleman should be mean enough to say1 you're another4 99 99 99 99 99 ,of course there is no objection to real eloquence and one's sentences should always be smooth and rhythmical4 ,one great source of smoothness and rhythm is alliteration4 ,tennyson says3 ,the distant dearness of the hill ,the sacred sweetness of the stream4 ,here the smooth movement comes from the alliteration on d in the first line and the tripling of the initial s in the second4 ,with his back to the field1 and his feet to the foe4 gets its music from the alliteration on f4 ,in revising the ,,ms4 of my lecture on ,weismann's ,theory of ,heredity for publication1 ,i found the following sentence1 referring to ,johannes ,mueller4 ,he failed to fill the gap his destructive criticism had created4 ,this sentence gives to the ear a sense of rhythm that is somewhere interrupted and disturbed4 ,examination shows that the rhythm comes from the alliterations failed to fill and criticism had created1 and the disturbance arises from the interjection between them of the word destructive4 ,destructive is a good word here1 but not essential to the sense and not worth the interruption it makes in the smoothness of the sentence4 ,so it had to go4 ,avoid long words wherever possible1 and never use a word you do not understand4 ,as an example of the vast picture which half a dozen short words of ,saxon ,english will conjure up1 take these lines from ,the ,ancient ,mariner3 ,alone1 alone1 all1 all alone1 ,alone on a wide1 wide sea4 ,the power of expression in a single word1 appears in ,keats' description of ,ruth1 in his ,ode to the ,nightingale4 ,the voice ,i hear this passing night was heard ,in ancient days by emperor and clown2 ,perhaps the selfsame song that found a path ,through the sad heart of ,ruth1 when sick for home1 ,she stood in tears amid the alien corn4 ,what a master-stroke is the use of alien1 this time a ,latin derivative1 in the last line quoted4 ,what a picture of that old time drama1 with its theme of love and sorrow co-eval with the human race4 ,first get your idea1 then express it in words that give it forth clearly4 ,no verbiage1 no fog or clouds1 no jargon1 but simplicity1 lucidity1 vividness1 and power4 ,,chapter ,,xviii ,,the ,,audience ,a lecturer should realize his grave responsibility to his audience4 ,nothing but absolute physical impossibility is a sufficient excuse for disappointing an assembly4 ,have it thoroughly understood that when your name appears on a program1 you will be at your post4 ,never allow1 if you can possibly prevent1 anybody to announce you to speak without consulting you and getting your consent4 ,in some cities the method of announcing a speaker1 when it is not known whether or not he can be present and1 in some cases1 even when it is known he cannot1 has prevailed in the ,socialist party4 ,the temptation to do this consists in the possibility of using a prominent name to attract a large audience and then1 with some lame excuse1 put forward somebody else4 ,this succeeds for a time2 then comes disaster4 ,in such a city a good meeting becomes almost impossible4 ,with the public it is1 once bit1 twice shy4 ,for myself1 if when ,i am announced to speak and ,i am not there and there is no message in the hands of the chairman reporting my death or some other almost equally good reason1 it is almost safe to say my name has been used without my consent4 ,any lecturer who treats his audience lightly has no reason to expect it will take him seriously4 ,there is no lecturing future ahead of the man who says to some disappointed auditor he meets afterward on the street3 ,well1 the weather was so bad ,i didn't think anybody would turn out4 ,suppose only ten people turned out1 is not their combined inconvenience ten times as great as that of the speaker8 ,at least you could go and thank those who did come1 as they surely deserved1 and feel that you did your duty in the matter4 ,i well remember one night in ,san ,francisco1 about the twenty-first lecture of a course in the ,academy of ,sciences1 when it rained as only ,californians ever see it rain2 it seemed to fall in a solid mass4 ,from #f to #g3cj it continued with no sign of let-up1 and the streets began to look like rivers4 ,no meeting tonight1 that's sure1 ,i concluded as ,i ruefully pocketed the notes of my lecture4 ,but my rule compelled me to turn out and see4 ,to my very great astonishment the ,academy was full and the admission receipts were equal to the average4 ,never again1 if ,i can help it1 will weather alone keep me from appearing at a meeting4 ,another matter in which speakers should consider the feelings of their hearers is--don't make excuses4 ,the audience wants to know what you have to say about the subject1 and not1 why you are not better prepared4 ,the audience will know whether you have a cold without you taking up time telling about it4 ,if you allow yourself to drift into the habit of making excuses1 you will never be able to speak without doing so1 and even your best prepared effort will be unable to get by without a stupid preamble of meaningless apologies4 ,it is safe to conclude that the good impression a lecture should make is not increased by the lecturer condemning it in advance2 this is usually done to disarm criticism1 secure indulgence1 and give the audience a great notion of what you could do if you had a fair chance4 ,but the audience wants to see what you can do now1 and not what you might possibly have done1 under other circumstances4 ,if your lecture cannot bear open criticism and really needs to be apologized for1 then it ought not to be delivered1 and you should be sitting in the audience listening to somebody else4 ,boasting is1 of course1 very irritating to an audience and should be avoided1 but want of courage and self-confidence is almost as deplorable4 ,of course there is no merit in self-confidence that is not well founded in sterling ability4 ,somebody said1 ,the man who knows not1 and knows not that he knows not1 is ignorant1 avoid him2 the man who knows not1 and knows that he knows not1 is simple1 teach him2 the man who knows1 and knows not that he knows1 is timid1 encourage him2 the man who knows1 and knows that he knows1 is wise1 follow him4 ,,chapter ,,xix ,,street ,,speaking ,,the ,,place ,in traveling through the country on a street-speaking tour about the first thing a speaker observes is the poor judgement shown by the local comrades in the selection of street corners for their meetings4 ,the chosen corner is usually where the down-and-outs and drunks congregate and is hemmed about by cheap noisy saloons4 ,if a speaker is to be in a town one or two nights he can hardly show the local comrades their error4 ,if ,i am to be in a town any longer ,i look through the town during the day and early evening and pick out a down-town corner where there is a steady flow of average citizens and nobody will stop unless they stop to listen4 ,then the night after making the announcement at the old stand ,i begin a revolution in the method of running street meetings4 ,i have no hard feelings against drunks but they are useless and worse in a street meeting4 ,there are two reasons for the present bad selection of corners in so many cities4 ,first1 it is easier for a poor speaker to get an audience where there are hangers-out waiting to be entertained4 ,second1 the city authorities like to have ,socialist speaking done where it will not reach the live members of the community4 ,a change of corners sometimes means a hard fight with the police but if the proper methods are used victory is sure and the result is always worth the labor spent4 ,,the ,,style ,street speaking is widely different from hall lecturing and this the reason so many speakers succeed at one and fail at the other4 ,the hall lecturer opens easily and paves the way for the treatment of his theme1 but the street speaker would get no crowd or a small one by such a method4 ,he must plunge at once into the heart of his talk and put as much energy into addressing the first dozen as when his crowd grows larger4 ,as soon as he adapts his voice and manner to the size of his crowd the crowd will stop growing4 ,the only way to add another hundred is to talk as if they were already there4 ,a hall lecture should have one subject and stick to it because the audience is the same in its composition throughout4 ,at a street meeting about half the audience is constantly changing1 and hopping from one question to another has many advantages4 ,a street speaker must be interesting or he will lose his crowd1 and the better his crowd the sooner he will lose it4 ,if he is talking to bums they will stay whether he talks or not1 but if he has an audience of people who have other things awaiting their attention they will pass on the moment the speaker loses his grip4 ,this is why telling stories at street meetings is not so good a thing as some unobserving speakers suppose4 ,no matter how good a story is1 it has a tendency to break up a crowd4 ,i noticed it often before ,i caught the reason4 ,a story always carries its own conclusion and it thereby makes a sort of a breaking off place in a speech like the end of a chapter in a book4 ,at the end of a good story the audience will laugh and take a moments rest4 ,for about a minute your spell is broken and men whom you might of held the rest of the evening remember during that minute that they have stayed too long already4 ,of course this does not apply to a story of two or three sentences thrust into the middle of an argument without breaking or closing it4 ,longer stories may be used to advantage but they are not very useful to a speaker who has much to say and knows how to say it4 ,of course wit is a valuable factor but wit shows itself in a lightning dart1 not in a long story4 ,the street speaker should use short sentences of simple words4 ,he should avoid oratory and talk as if he were telling something to another man and in dead earnest about it4 ,i have watched a man talk to another man on the street forgetting the outside world completely and using forceful language and eloquent gestures4 ,if such a man could only talk like that to an audience he would be surprised at his own success4 ,put him before an audience and his natural manner disappears1 he shuffles his feet1 does not know what to do with his hands1 and brings forth a voice nobody ever heard him use before4 ,,disturbers ,as to people who disturb your meeting1 if you are speaking in hobo-dom you may well despair4 ,there are so many drunks1 that interruptions are constant and irrepressible1 and every interruption breaks your grip on the audience4 ,moral3 ,don't speak there4 ,on a corner where you get an audience of typical working men disturbances are rare and in a majority of cases if they are not easily suppressed it is lack of tact on the part of the speaker4 ,a speaker should never try to be smart at the expense of a man in the audience1 even when he speaks out of his turn4 ,a courteous explanation of why you wish him to keep his questions until after your speech is much better4 ,if he persists after that1 he is either an ignoramus or drunk4 ,if drunk ask two or three of your supporters in the audience to lead him off down the street4 ,if he is a natural fool the problem is not so easy4 ,but if you keep unbroken courtesy and he keeps up his unprovoked interruptions some indignant person standing near will abate the nuisance with a punch in the eye--which is the most effectual method in such cases4 ,,police ,,interference ,there is no easier task in the world than to defeat the police authorities in a free speech fight4 ,in the few cases where we lose it is our own fault4 ,the police are usually acting under orders when making arrests and nothing is gained by making bitter enemies of them unless they treat you brutally4 ,a cool head1 a disposition to reason the matter out with the district attorney1 the chief of police1 the mayor1 or in the courts1 without ever offering to compromise your speaking rights1 will always triumph4 ,the realization by the authorities that they are in a dirty and tyrannical business is one of your strongest weapons4 ,courtesy and persuasive but firm and unflinching reasoning makes them more conscious of their humiliating part in the matter4 ,if you do or say foolish or offensive things they will forget their conscience in their anger1 and give you a fight for which you alone are to blame4 ,there are a few exceptions to this rule2 cases where the authorities are bent on victory2 even then there is no excuse for losing your head4 ,but you must give them all the fight they want and never under any circumstances show the white feather or accept anything less than all you need to make your meeting successful4 ,in handling the police and their relations to street meetings the ,new ,york comrades have set other cities an example to go by4 ,the comrades select any corners they please and during the day notify the police by telephone that ,socialist meetings will be held that evening on such and such corners and a policeman is instructed to protect each meeting4 ,the ,new ,york comrades have had many hard battles with the police to keep this system1 and they have reason to be proud of the result4 ,the permit system is all right if it does not keep you from the corners you wish to use4 ,if it does1 the best thing is to fight it out for a new arrangement or the right to hold your meetings without arrangements4 ,if you conduct your case properly the public will be overwhelmingly on your side4 ,it is good at such times to view with alarm the introduction of ,russian methods into free ,america4 ,if there is real intelligence on the other side your opponents will soon conclude that you are getting more publicity for your ideas out of the police fight than you could ever get at peaceful street meetings4 ,after this light has dawned you will proceed undisturbed4 ,,book-,,selling ,,and ,,professionalism ,a man who does a day's work in a shop and speaks on a street corner in the evening has about as much chance of becoming an effective speaker as he would have of becoming an effective musician1 physician or lawyer by the same method4 ,it is necessary1 however1 to train before going wholly into the work just as a man studies law evenings1 before starting out as a lawyer4 ,in ,new ,york1 ,socialist street meetings are a force and count for a great deal1 because the committee keeps a staff of capable speakers on salary to do nothing else4 ,in ,chicago street1 speaking is a failure and many have concluded we should be better without it4 ,this is because ,chicago lacks the enterprise to follow the example of ,new ,york and depends on voluntary1 haphazard1 untrained1 inefficient speaking4 ,new ,york1 ,i believe1 spends a good deal of money on its street meetings1 and for some reason ,chicago does not seem to be able to do that4 ,but this barrier is not insurmountable4 ,street meetings with efficient speakers may be made self-supporting1 but professional speakers are the only ones who have any chance to become efficient to the point of making their meetings pay a salary and other expenses4 ,i hardly think it can be done by collections but ,i know by experience that it can be done by book-selling4 ,i worked several weeks in ,new ,york one summer at the highest rate they pay and instead of sending a bill for wages ,i sent a paper dollar which represented the surplus from book sales after ,i had paid myself all that was due to me1 and no collections were taken4 ,my best book-sale at one meeting was #cd but it would just as easily have gone over #dj if the supply had held out4 #bj to #cj worth of literature can be sold easily enough on any one of half a dozen corners in ,new ,york4 ,chicago is not as good as ,new ,york but it is at least half as good and a good speaker could work for #be a week and make three or four meetings foot the bill4 ,i did this very easily in ,chicago last summer4 ,the beginner should sell #aj;c booklets or pamphlets1 and elsewhere in this volume he will find two speeches that will show him how to do it4 ,at a street meeting he need not make these speeches in detail1 but just give the pith of them4 ,after a while #be;c books may be sold1 and with practice and hard study #ej;c books will sell readily4 ,this question is more fully dealt with in the next chapter4 ,about two different books may be sold effectively at the meeting2 one early in the meeting and the other about the close4 ,the closing book talk however1 should be begun while the meeting is at its full strength4 ,one street meeting that puts ten to twenty dollars worth of good books into circulation is worth a dozen where the only result is the remembrance of what the speaker said4 ,,chapter ,,xx ,,book-,,selling ,,at ,,meetings ,the tones of the speaker's voice fade away and are forever lost4 ,too often the ideas which the voice proclaimed drift into the background and presently disappear4 ,this is the crowning limitation of public speaking4 ,the lecturer should be1 first of all1 an educator1 and his work should not be writ in water4 ,the lazy lecturer who imagines that his duties to his audience end with his peroration is unfaithful to his great calling4 ,lazy lecturers are not very numerous as they are certain of a career curtailed from lack of an audience4 ,there are some lecturers1 however1 who see nothing of importance in their work except the delivering of their lectures4 ,and the educational value of such workers is only a fraction of what it might be4 ,life is not so long for the strongest of us1 nor are the results that can be achieved by the most gifted such that we can afford to waste the best of our opportunities4 ,this article is not intended as a sermon1 but if as lecturers we are to be educators we must not neglect to use the greatest weapons against ignorance in the educational armory--books4 ,the books here referred to are not the volumes in the lecturer's own library4 ,they1 of course1 are indispensable4 ,there have been men who felt destined to be lecturers without the use of mere book learning1 but they never lived long enough to find out why the public did not take them at their own estimate4 ,the man who undertakes to deal with a subject without first reading1 and as far as possible1 mastering1 the best books on that subject1 would no more be a lecturer than a man who tried to cut a field of wheat with a pocket-knife would be a farmer4 ,any good lecture of an hour and a quarter has meant ten to fifty hours' hard reading4 ,there is much in the reading that cannot possibly appear in the lecture4 ,another lecture on a related theme or one widely different1 has probably suggested itself4 ,i remember while rummaging in history to find proofs and illustrations of ,the ,materialistic ,conception of ,history1 which conception ,i was to defend presently in a public debate1 gathering the scheme of a course of four lectures on the significance of the great voyages of the middle ages--a course which proved very successful when delivered about a month later4 ,again1 the reading furnishes a great deal of material on the question of the lecture itself which cannot be put into it for sheer lack of time4 ,this is why a lecture always educates the lecturer much more than it does the hearer4 ,the hearer therefore labors under two great disadvantages4 ,first1 he forgets much that he hears1 and1 second1 there is so much that he does not hear at all4 ,the first handicap can be removed by the printing of the lectures4 ,the second is not so easily disposed of4 ,a lecturer may state in three minutes an idea which has cost many days' reading4 ,the idea has great importance to the speaker and1 if he is a master of his art1 he will impress its importance on his hearers4 ,that is what his art is for4 ,but that idea will never illume the hearer's brain as the lecturer's until the hearer knows as does the lecturer what there is back of it4 ,there is only one way in which this can be done--the hearer must have access to the same sources of knowledge as the lecturer4 ,this does not necessarily mean that every hearer should have a lecturer's library4 ,it does mean1 however1 that there are some books which should be read by both4 ,the lecturer himself is the best judge as to which books belong to this category4 ,in number they range anywhere from a dozen up1 according to the ambitions of the reader4 ,my method of dealing with this problem has been to take one book at a time1 tell the audience about it and see that the ushers were ready to supply all demands4 ,in this way ,i have sold more than two whole editions of ,boelsche's book ,the ,evolution of ,man4 ,in one week speaking in half a dozen different cities ,i sold an entire edition of my first book ,evolution1 ,social and ,organic4 ,one ,sunday morning this spring at the ,garrick meeting at the close of a five-minute talk about ,paul ,lafargue's ,social and ,philosophic ,studies the audience1 in three minutes1 bought #bej copies1 and more than a hundred would-be purchasers had to wait until the following ,sunday for a new supply4 ,a few ,sundays later ,blatchford's ,god and ,my ,neighbor1 a dollar volume1 had a sale of #bjd copies--the total book sale for that morning reaching what ,i believe is the record for a ,socialist meeting--#bbj4jj4 ,the last lecture of this season 7,april1 #aiaj17 had a book sale of #aij4jj1 which included #chj paper back copies of ,sinclair's ,prince ,hagen4 ,these figures are given to show that this work can be done1 and if it is not done the lecturer alone is to blame4 ,anyone who can lecture at all can do this with some measure of success4 ,there can be no sane doubt of its value4 ,about #ejj young men in the ,garrick audience have built up small but fine libraries of their own through this advice given in this way1 and there is no part of my work which gives me so great satisfaction4 ,i never allow my audience to imagine for a moment that my book talk is a mere matter of selling something4 ,there will always be one or two in the audience who will take that view--natural selection always overlooks a few chuckle-heads4 ,now let us tabulate some of the results that may be obtained in this way3 7#a7 ,by getting these books into the hands of our hearers we give our teachings from the platform a greater permanence in their minds4 ,we not only help them to knowledge1 but put them in the way of helping themselves directly4 ,this alone is1 justification enough1 but it is not all4 7#b7 ,we encourage the publication of just those books which in our estimation contain the principles which we regard as destined to promote the happiness of mankind4 7#c7 ,the difference between the wholesale and retail prices is often enough to make successful a lecture course which would have otherwise died prematurely of bankruptcy4 ,where a meeting cannot live on the collection1 the book sales may mean financial salvation4 ,the morning we sold #bbj of books at the ,garrick we also took a collection of #hj4 ,without the book sales #hj would have been the total receipts1 and this collection was normal4 ,yet the ,garrick meetings cost #adj each4 ,after we had paid the publisher's bill we had a balance from book sales of #abj1 which made the total receipts not #hj but #bjj4 ,and this is among the least important results of book selling4 ,everything1 of course1 depends on the book talk4 ,i will now give sample book talks which any speaker may commit to memory and use1 probably with results that will be a surprise and an encouragement4 ,,chapter ,,xxi ,,example ,,book ,,talks ,we are by this time agreed that the sale of the proper books at lecture meetings is greatly to be desired4 ,in this article we shall consider the chief instrument by which this is attained--the book talk4 ,we might treat this theme by laying down general rules as to the elements which enter into the make-up of a successful book talk1 but while this is necessary it is not enough--so many speakers seem to find it very difficult to apply rules4 ,this part of the question will be treated in a few sentences4 ,a book talk1 to be successful1 must answer the following questions3 7#a7 ,who wrote the book8 ,it is not1 of course1 simply a question as to the author's name1 but his position and his competence to write on the subject1 etc4 7#b7 ,what object had the author in view8 7#c7 ,what is the main thesis of the book8 7#d7 ,why is it necessary that the hearer should read the book8 ,above all1 a book talk should be interesting4 ,how often have we seen a speaker begin a book talk at a meeting by destroying all interest and making sales almost impossible6 ,the speaker holds up a book in view of the audience and says3 ,here is a book ,i want you to buy and read4 ,that settles it4 ,the public has been taught to regard all efforts to sell things as attacks upon their pocketbooks1 and the speaker who begins by announcing his intention to sell1 at once makes himself an object of suspicion4 ,in the commercial world it is held and admitted that a seller is seeking his own benefit and the advantages to the buyer are only incidental4 ,in our case this is largely reversed1 but that does not justify the speaker in rousing all the prejudices lying dormant in the hearer's mind4 ,a good book talk thoroughly captures the interest of the audience before they know the book is on hand and is going to be offered for sale4 ,about the middle of the talk the listener should be wondering if you are going to tell where the book can be obtained and getting ready to take down the publisher's address when you give it4 ,his interest increases1 and toward the close he learns to his great delight that you have anticipated his desires and he can take the volume with him when he leaves the meeting4 ,this is a good method1 but where one is to make many book talks to much the same audience there are a great many ways in which it can be varied4 ,i will now submit a book talk which has enabled me to sell thousands of copies of the book it deals with4 ,this is a ten-cent book1 and this price is high enough for the speaker's experiments4 ,the speaker will later find it surprisingly easy1 when he has mastered the art to sell fifty-cent and dollar books4 ,the speaker may use the substance of this talk in his own language1 or1 commit it to memory and reproduce it verbatim4 ,any one who finds the memorizing beyond his powers should abandon public speaking and devote his energies to something easy4 ,,book ,,talk ,,no4 #a4 ,,engels' ,,socialism1 ,,utopian ,,and ,,scientific4 ,for some time previous to the year #ahge the ,german ,socialist party had been divided into two camps--the ,eisenachers and the ,lassallians4 ,about that time they closed their ranks and presented to the common enemy a united front4 ,so great was their increase of strength from that union that they were determined never to divide again4 ,they would preserve their newly won unity at all costs4 ,no sooner was this decision made than it seemed as if it was destined to be overthrown4 ,professor ,eugene ,dhring1 ,privat ,docent of ,berlin ,university1 loudly proclaimed himself a convert to ,socialism4 ,when this great figure from the bourgeois intellectual world stepped boldly and somewhat noisily into the arena1 there was not wanting a considerable group of young and uninitiated members in the party who flocked to his standard and found in him a new oracle4 ,this would have been well enough if ,dhring had been content to take ,socialism as he found it or if he had been well enough informed to make an intelligent criticism of it and reveal any mistakes in its positions4 ,but he was neither the one or the other4 ,he undertook1 without the slightest qualification for the task1 to overthrow ,marx and establish a new ,socialism which should be free from the lamentable blunders of the ,marxian school4 ,marx was a mere bungler and the whole matter must be set right without delay4 ,this was rather a large task1 but the ,professor went at it in a large way4 ,he did it in the approved ,german manner4 ,germany would be forever disgraced if any philosopher took up a new position about anything without going back to the first beginnings of the orderly universe in nebulous matter1 and showing that from that time on to the discovery of the latest design in tin kettles everything that happened simply went to prove his new theory4 ,dhring presented a long suffering world with three volumes that were at least large enough to fill the supposed aching void4 ,these were3 ,a ,course of ,philosophy1 ,a ,course of ,political and ,social ,science and ,a ,critical ,history of ,political ,economy and ,socialism4 ,these large volumes gave ,dhring quite a standing among ill-informed ,socialists1 who took long words for learning1 and obscurity for profundity4 ,his followers became so numerous that a new division of the ranks threatened and it became clear that ,dhring's large literary output must be answered4 ,there was a man in the ,socialist movement at that time who was pre-eminently fitted for that task1 who for over thirty years had proven himself a master of discussion and an accomplished scholar--,frederick ,engels4 ,engels' friends urged him to rid the movement of this new intellectual incubus4 ,engels pleaded he was already over busy with those tasks1 which show him to have been so patient and prolific a worker4 ,finally1 realizing the importance of the case1 he yielded4 ,dhring had wandered all over the universe to establish his philosophy1 and in his reply ,engels would have to follow him4 ,so far from this deterring ,engels1 it was just this which made his task attractive4 ,he says in his preface of #ahib3 ,i had to treat of all and every possible subject1 from the concepts of time and space to ,bimetalism2 from the eternity of matter and motion to the perishable nature of moral ideas2 from ,darwin's natural selection to the education of youth in a future society4 ,anyhow1 the systematic comprehensiveness of my opponent gave me the opportunity of developing1 in opposition to him1 and in a more connected form than had previously been done1 the views held by ,marx and myself of this great variety of subjects4 ,and that was the principal reason which made me undertake this otherwise ungrateful task4 ,dealing with the same point1 in his biographical essay on ,engels1 ,kautsky says3 ,dhring was a many-sided man4 ,he wrote on ,mathematics and ,mechanics1 as well as on ,philosophy and ,political ,economy1 ,jurisprudence1 ,ancient ,history1 etc4 ,into all these spheres he was followed by ,engels1 who was as many-sided as ,dhring but in another way4 ,engels' many-sidedness was united with a fundamental thoroughness which in these days of specialization is only found in a few cases and was rare even at that time4 99 99 99 ,it is to the superficial many-sidedness of ,dhring that we owe the fact1 that the ',anti-,dhring' became a book which treated the whole of modern science from the ,marx-,engels materialistic point of view4 ,next to ',capital' the ',anti-,dhring' has become the fundamental work of modern ,socialism4 ,engels' reply was published in the ,leipsic ,vorwrts1 in a series of articles beginning early in #ahgg1 and afterwards in a volume entitled1 ,mr4 ,dhring's ,revolution in ,science4 ,this book came to be known by its universal and popular title3 ,anti-,dhring4 ,after the appearance of this book ,dhring's influence disappeared4 ,instead of a great leader in ,socialism1 ,dhring found himself regarded as a museum curiosity1 so much so that ,kautsky1 writing in #ahhg1 said3 ,the occasion for the ',anti-,dhring' has been long forgotten4 ,not only is ,dhring a thing of the past for the ,social ,democracy1 but the whole throng of academic and platonic ,socialists have been frightened away by the anti-,socialist legislation1 which at least had the one good effect to show where the reliable supports of our movement are to be found4 ,out of ,anti-,dhring came the most important ,socialist pamphlet ever published1 unless1 perhaps1 we should except ,the ,communist ,manifesto1 though even this is by no means certain4 ,in #ahib ,engels related the story of its birth3 ,at the request of my friend1 ,paul ,lafargue1 now representative of ,lille in the ,french ,chamber of ,deputies1 ,i arranged three chapters of this book as a pamphlet1 which he translated and published in #ahhj1 under the title3 ,socialism1 ,utopian and ,scientific4 ,from this ,french text a ,polish and a ,spanish edition was prepared4 ,in #ahhc1 our ,german friends brought out the pamphlet in the original language4 ,italian1 ,russian1 ,danish1 ,dutch and ,roumanian translations1 based upon the ,german text1 have since been published4 ,thus1 with the present ,english edition1 this little book circulates in ten languages4 ,i am not aware that any other ,socialist work1 not even our ,communist ,manifesto of #ahdh or ,marx's ,capital1 has been so often translated4 ,in ,germany it has had four editions of about #bj1jjj copies in all4 ,the man who has the good fortune to become familiar with the contents of this pamphlet in early life will never1 in after life1 be able to estimate its full value as a factor in his intellectual development4 ,i have persuaded many people to buy it and have invariably given them this advice3 ,keep it in your coat pocket by day and under your pillow by night1 and read it again and again until you know it almost by heart4 ,at this point you may hold up the pamphlet and announce its price4 ,if this is done before the lecture1 have the ushers pass through the audience1 each with a good supply1 and beginning at the front row and working rapidly so as not to unnecessarily delay the meeting4 ,if the sale is at the close of the meeting announce that copies may be had while leaving and have your ushers in the rear so as to meet the audience4 ,a good deal depends on having live and capable ushers4 ,our big sales at the ,garrick are due to ushers being past masters in their art4 ,,book ,,talk ,,no #b4 ,,the ,,communist ,,manifesto4 ,in the year #ahdh--over sixty years ago--,scientific ,socialism was born4 ,almost every objection we now hear against ,socialism holds only against the utopian ,socialism which died and was discarded by ,socialists more than half a century ago4 ,the birth of ,scientific ,socialism came as the result of the discovery of a great new truth4 ,this truth revolutionized all our ideas about society just as ,darwin's discovery1 eleven years later1 revolutionized our notions of organic life4 ,from #ahdh forward there was no need for speculations and guesses as to how the world will be in the future or how it might be now if it were not as it is4 ,from that time we knew that the present was carried in the womb of the past and the future is already here in embryo4 ,if you think you know the main outlines of the future society yet cannot find those outlines already developing in the society about you1 you are nursing a delusion4 ,you belong to the ,socialism of ,utopia--if your future society is not already here in part1 it is nowhere1 as ,utopia means4 ,we know today that science does not consist of a mere collection of facts4 ,the facts of course are necessary1 but science comes only when we push through the facts and find the laws behind them4 ,the discovery that gave birth to ,scientific ,socialism had to do with history4 ,this discovery changed our ideas as to what constitutes history4 ,the rise and fall of kings1 tales of bloody wars1 the news of camp and courts2 these were supposed to be all that was important in history4 ,this has been well called3 ,drum and trumpet history4 ,since #ahdh history is the story of the development of human society4 ,the introduction of machinery overshadows all kings and courts in history1 as we now know it1 because it played a greater part in social development than ten thousand kings4 ,history itself is not a science but it is one of the chief parts of the science of society--sociology4 ,historical movement like all movement proceeds by law4 ,when ,karl ,marx discovered the central law of history he became the real founder of modern sociology4 ,his discovery of this law of history ranks with ,newton's discovery of gravity or the ,copernican revolution in astronomy4 ,it ranks ,marx as one of the men whose genius created a new epoch in human thinking4 ,marx made the discovery before #ahdh1 but that date is immortal because in that year it was published to the world4 ,that date ranks with #ahei when the undying ,darwin gave us ,the ,origin of ,species4 ,the book was not intended for a book and became a book only by reason of its great importance4 ,it was published as a political manifesto--the manifesto of ,the ,communist ,league4 ,hence its name--,the ,communist ,manifesto4 ,this book is the foundation and starting point of ,scientific ,socialism and is indispensable to all students of social science or social questions4 ,the book itself explains why it is not ,the ,socialist ,manifesto as we might have expected4 ,at that time the various groups using ,socialist as a title were ,utopian and some of them positively reactionary4 ,there is a description and analysis of these groups in the third chapter which shows why ,marx had no part in them4 ,their advocates know nothing of the new historical principle which now stands at the center of ,socialist thought and which has successfully withstood half a century of searching criticism4 ,this great new principle is called3 ,the ,materialistic ,conception of ,history4 ,it is not mentioned by name in the manifesto1 but it is there like a living presence spreading light in dark places of history which had never been penetrated by previous thinkers4 ,the key to all history is found in methods of producing and distributing material wealth4 ,out of the changes in this field all other social changes come4 ,forty years later ,frederick ,engels gave completeness to the ,manifesto by adding a preface which defines the main theory1 gives an estimate of its value1 and explains his part as co-author with ,marx4 ,no other book can ever take the place of the ,communist ,manifesto4 ,its value grows with the passing years4 ,it was the first trumpet blast to announce the coming of the triumphant proletariat4 ,the ,manifesto's first two chapters and its closing paragraph are beyond all price4 ,they are without parallel in the literature of the world4 ,they sparkle like jewels on the stretched forefinger of all time4 ,here the speaker may show the book and state its price1 and proceed with the selling4 ,if the sale is made while the audience is leaving1 nothing further need be said1 and if the sale is the last thing in the meeting it is useless to ask the audience to remain seated during the sale4 ,they get irritated and the meeting breaks up in confusion4 ,see that your salesmen are posted at the exits where they will face the audience as it leaves4 ,at one big meeting in ,pittsburg where the sales of a fifty cent book reached over sixty dollars they would have been double but some of the sellers came to the front1 and while the audience was clamoring for books which could not be had at the doors1 these sellers were following the audience in the rear with armfuls which they had no chance to sell4 ,if the sale is made before the lecture while the sellers are passing through the audience the speaker should continue speaking of the book so as to sustain interest4 ,there will be no loss of time making change if the right priced books are sold4 #aj;c1 #be;c1 #ej;c or #a are right prices4 ,at a public meeting it is a mistake to try to sell a book at an odd price as #ae;c or #ce;c or #fj;c4 ,the demand dies and the audience gets impatient while the sellers are trying to make change4 ,the speaker who endeavors to make a success of book-selling at his meetings will find his labors doubled4 ,the larger his sales the greater his labors4 ,on my last western trip ,i sold on an average half a trunk full of books at each meeting and ,i had no spare moment from the work of ordering by telegram and rushing around to express offices and getting the books to the meetings4 ,but the rewards are great4 ,my trips are always a financial success and the books ,i leave scattered on my trail do far more good than the lectures ,i delivered4 ,,chapter ,,xxii ,,conclusion ,in concluding this series ,i will group several items of importance which did not suggest themselves under any previous head4 ,gestures should be carefully watched1 especially at the beginning1 when future habits are in the process of formation4 ,they should not be affected or mechanical like those of the child reciting something of which it does not understand the sense4 ,a good story is told of the old preacher who could weep at will and marked his manuscript weep here2 but1 on one unfortunate occasion1 to the great consternation of his congregation1 got his signals mixed1 and wept profusely during a reference to the recent marriage of two of his parishioners4 ,never allow your thumb and fingers1 especially the thumb1 to stick out from the palm at right angles like pens stuck in a potato4 ,never work the forearm from the elbow pump-handle fashion1 but always move the arms from the shoulders4 ,do not move the palms of your hands toward yourself as if you were trying to gather something in1 mesmerist fashion1 but always outward as is natural in giving something forth4 ,cultivate a narrative style4 ,history1 poetry1 and all forms of literature take their origin in the story-teller who once discharged all their functions4 ,the so-called dry facts of science1 well told1 make a story of surpassing interest4 ,if young1 let no man despise thy youth4 ,plunge boldly in1 blunder if needs be1 but do something2 experiment with your theories4 ,let the veteran who has no sympathy with your crude efforts go to pot4 ,the lapse of years has made his early inflictions look to him like the masterpieces of ,burke and ,chatham4 ,never slight a small audience4 ,do your best as though you had a crowded theater4 ,if you speak listlessly to a small gathering in a town1 depend on it next time you go there it will be still smaller4 ,preserve your health and take especial care of your throat4 ,the speaker who doesn't smoke has a great advantage1 and when the throat is at all relaxed smoking should be eschewed4 ,the most dangerous time to smoke is immediately after the close of a lecture4 ,then the cells are all exposed from recent exercise1 and it is positively wicked to so abuse them with tobacco fumes when they have served you so well4 ,it is equally wicked to scald them with straight liquor4 ,any speaker who persists in either of these habits will pay a heavy penalty4 ,if these things must be done1 at least wait an hour or two after speaking4 ,all this is just so much more true of street speaking as the throat is more exhausted by the louder tone4 ,when you have worked out your lecture1 and are waiting for the hour to strike1 test its merit by this question3 ,does it contain enough valuable information to make a distinct addition to the education of an average listener8 ,if you cannot affirm this1 whatever merits otherwise it may have1 fundamentally1 it fails4 ,when the enthusiasm has worn off1 your audience should be able to decide that1 in its acquaintance with modern knowledge1 a distinct step forward has been made4 ,anything else is building on sand4 ,always be firm1 positive1 courageous4 ,first get a mastery of the question1 and then let your audience realize that you know what you are talking about4 ,the great merit of a certain speaker of long ago1 seems to have been that he spake with authority4 ,remember truth is not decided by counting heads1 and if you are correct1 even though the majority1 in some cases in your own audience1 may be against you1 they will be obliged eventually to come to your position4 ,true1 in the meantime you may be obliged to suffer a temporary eclipse1 but this is one of the permanent possibilities of the career of the real teacher4 ,weigh carefully1 investigate thoroughly1 consult the authorities1 be sure of your ground and prepared to defend it against all comers1 and then-- ,plunge deep the rowels of thy speech1 ,hold back no syllable of fire4