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diff --git a/30565.txt b/30565.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7d122d --- /dev/null +++ b/30565.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2769 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Art of Lecturing, by Arthur M. (Arthur +Morrow) Lewis + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Art of Lecturing + Revised Edition + + +Author: Arthur M. (Arthur Morrow) Lewis + + + +Release Date: November 29, 2009 [eBook #30565] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ART OF LECTURING*** + + +E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THE ART OF LECTURING + +by + +ARTHUR M. LEWIS + +Revised Edition + + + + + + + +Chicago +Charles H. Kerr & Company +Co-operative + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + I. INTRODUCTORY + II. EXORDIUM + III. BEGIN WELL + IV. SPEAK DELIBERATELY + V. PERORATION + VI. READ WIDELY + VII. READ THE BEST + VIII. SUBJECT + IX. LEARN TO STOP + X. CHAIRMAN + XI. MANNERISMS + XII. COURSE LECTURING--NO CHAIRMAN + XIII. COURSE LECTURING--LEARN TO CLASSIFY + XIV. PREPARATION + XV. DEBATING + XVI. TRICKS OF DEBATE + XVII. RHETORIC + XVIII. THE AUDIENCE + XIX. STREET SPEAKING: + THE PLACE + THE STYLE + DISTURBERS + POLICE INTERFERENCE + BOOK-SELLING AND PROFESSIONALISM + XX. BOOK-SELLING AT MEETINGS + XXI. EXAMPLE BOOK TALKS + XXII. 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 Oratory," or, as one ingenious correspondent puts +it, a "Forensic Club." With these requests it is impossible to comply +for sheer lack of time. + +I have decided, however, to embody in these pages the results of my own +experience, and the best I have learned from the experience of others. + +There are some things required in a good lecturer which cannot be +imparted to a pupil by any teacher, and we may as well dispose of these. + +One is a good voice. Modern methods, however, have done much to make the +improvement of the voice possible. While it is probably impossible in +the great majority of cases to make a very fine voice out of a very poor +one, no one, with an average voice, need be afraid of the platform, for +time and training will greatly increase its range and resonance. It is +said that the great Greek orator, Demosthenes, developed his magnificent +voice by shouting above the roar of the sea near which he lived, but it +is probable that he had a better voice to begin with than the tradition +represents. In the absence of sea waves, one's voice may be tested and +strengthened by trying to drown the noise of the electric cars at a +street meeting. Most poor voices are produced in the upper part of the +throat or, still worse, in the roof of the mouth, while deep and +thrilling tones can only be obtained from further down. The transition +from the upper throat or palate to the deeper tones is not nearly so +difficult as might be supposed. Placing the hand across the chest during +practice will help to locate the origin of the sounds produced. + +The one thing, however, which no training seems to create, but which is +wholly indispensable in a good speaker, is that elusive, but potential +something which has been named personal magnetism. This is probably only +another way of saying that the great orator must also be a great man. +His imagination and sympathy must be great enough to take possession of +him and make him the mere instrument of their outpouring. + +If nature has omitted these great qualities, no amount of training will +create them. This is why, among the great number who wish to be +speakers, only a few scale the heights. + +But men with small personal magnetism and good training have done quite +well, while others with large personal magnetism and no methods, have +made a complete failure, and herein lies the justification for this +volume. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +EXORDIUM + + +The part of a lecture which consumes the first ten or fifteen minutes is +called the exordium, from the Latin word exordiri--to begin a web. + +The invariable rule as to the manner of this part of a lecture is--begin +easy. Any speaker who breaks this rule invites almost certain disaster. +This rule has the universal endorsement of experienced speakers. +Sometimes a green speaker, bent on making a hit at once, will begin with +a burst, and in a high voice. Once begun, he feels that the pace must be +maintained or increased. + +Listeners who have the misfortune to be present at such a commencement +and who do not wish to have their pity excited, had better retire at +once, for when such a speaker has been at work fifteen minutes and +should be gradually gathering strength like a broadening river, he is +really beginning to decline. From then on the lecture dies a lingering +death and the audience welcomes its demise with a sigh of relief. Such +performances are not common, as no one can make that blunder twice +before the same audience. He may try it, but if the people who heard him +before see his name on the program they will be absent. + +At the beginning, the voice should be pitched barely high enough for +everybody to hear. This will bring that "hush" which should mark the +commencement of every speech. When all are quiet and settled, raise the +voice so as to be clearly heard by everybody, but no higher. Hold your +energies in reserve; if you really have a lecture, you will need them +later. + +As to the matter of the exordium, it should be preparatory to the +lecture. Here the lecturer "clears the ground" or "paves the way" for +the main question. + +If the lecture is biographical and deals with the life and work of some +great man, the exordium naturally tells about his parents, birthplace +and early surroundings, etc. If some theory in science or philosophy is +the subject, 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 discussed. + +Here the way is cleared of popular misunderstandings of the question +and, if the theory is to be defended, all those criticisms that do not +really touch the question are easily and gracefully annihilated. + +Here, if Darwin is to be defended, it may be shown that those +witticisms, aimed at him, about the giraffe getting its long neck by +continually stretching it, or the whale getting its tail by holding its +hind legs too close in swimming, do not apply to Darwinism, but to the +exploded theory of his great predecessor, Lamarck. + +If Scientific Socialism is the question, 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 ago. + +In short, the lecturer usually does in the exordium what a family party +does when, having decided to waltz a little in the parlor, they push the +table into a corner and set back the chairs--he clears a space. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BEGIN WELL + + +The Shakespearian saying that "all's well that ends well" is only a half +truth. A good lecture must not only end well; it must begin well. + +The value of first impressions is universally recognized, and an +audience will be much more lenient with flaws that may come later if its +appreciation and confidence have been aroused at the commencement. + +It is almost impossible to drive a nail properly if it was started +wrong, and the skillful workman will draw it out and start it over +again. But such a blunder in lecturing cannot be remedied--at least for +that occasion. A stale or confused beginning haunts and depresses the +mind of the speaker and makes his best work impossible. It also destroys +the confidence of the audience, so that what comes later is likely to be +underestimated. + +This necessity is recognized not only by lecturers, but by all the great +masters of poetry, fiction and music. 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 Trovatore." + +The genius of Dickens shines most clearly in his opening pages, and his +right to be ranked with Juvenal as a satirist could be easily +established by the first chapter of "Martin Chuzzlewit." Sir Walter +Scott would rank as one of the world's greatest wits if he had never +written anything but the exploits of "Dick Pinto," which serve as an +introduction to "The Bride of Lammermoor." + +The opening lines of Keats' first long poem, "Endymion," are immortal, +and the first line of that passage has become an integral part of the +English language: + + "A thing of beauty is a joy forever; + Its loveliness increases; it will never + Pass into nothingness, but still will keep + A bower quiet for us, and a sleep + Full of deep peace and health and quiet breathing." + +The first stanza of the first canto of Scott's "Marmion" gives a picture +of Norham castle that never leaves the memory. Milton's greatest poem, +"Paradise Lost," a poem which fascinated the imagination of the great +utopian, Robert Owen, at the age of seven, has nothing in all its +sonorous music that lingers in the mind like its magnificent opening +lines, and one searches in vain through the interminable length of +Wordsworth's "Excursion" for a passage equal to the first. + +No lecturer who aims high should go upon a platform and confront an +audience, except in cases of great emergency, without having worked out +his opening sentences. + +Floundering is fatal, but many an otherwise capable speaker "flounders +around" and "hems" and "haws" for the first ten or fifteen minutes, as a +matter of course. + +If his auditors are strange, they get restless and disgusted, and some +of them go out. If they know him, they smile at one another and the +ceiling and wait with more or less patience until he "gets started." If +it is a meeting where others are to speak, 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 done." + +A lecturer should remember that an audience resents having its time +wasted by a long, floundering, meaningless preamble, and it is sure to +get even. Next time it will come late to avoid that preliminary "catch +as catch can" performance or--it will stay away. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SPEAK DELIBERATELY + + +William Ewart Gladstone, one of the most generally admired orators the +English house of commons ever listened to, spoke at an average of 100 +words a minute. Phillips Brooks, the brilliant American preacher, +maintained a rate of 215 words a minute and was a terror to the +stenographers engaged to report him. + +He succeeded as a speaker, not because of his speed, but in spite of it; +because his enunciation was perfect and every word was cut off clear and +distinct. But very few men succeed with such a handicap, and Brooks +would have done much better if he could have reduced his speed 40 per +cent. + +The average person in an audience thinks slowly, and the lecturer should +aim to meet the requirements of at least a large majority of those +present, and not merely those in the assembly who happen to be as well +informed as the lecturer, and could therefore keep pace with him, no +matter how rapidly he proceeds. New ideas need to be weighed as well as +heard, and the power of weighing is less rapid than the sense of +hearing. This is why a pause at the proper place is so helpful. + +A young lecturer had in his audience on one occasion a veteran of the +platform, and was on that account anxious to do his best. This +situation, as all new speakers know, is very disconcerting, and after +the young aspirant had rushed through his opening argument pretty well, +as he thought, lo, his memory slipped a cog and he waited in silence, +what seemed to him an age, until it caught again. Then he continued to +the end without a stop. After the meeting the veteran came forward to +shake hands. "Have you any advice for me?" said the young man, that +awful breakdown looming large in his mind. + +"Yes," said the senior, "cultivate the pause." + +One of the lecturer's most valuable assets is variety of pace, and this +is almost entirely lost by the speaker whose speed is always high. +Observe two men arguing in conversation where there is no thought of art +or oratory. Where the remarks are of an explanatory nature the words +come slowly and carefully. When persuasion becomes the object, +deliberation is thrown aside and words begin to flow like a mountain +freshet, and if the speaker has natural capacity he concludes his point +with a grand rush that carries everything before it. + +When a speaker carefully selects his words and it is clear to the +audience that he is deliberately weighing and measuring his sentences, +his listeners are unconsciously impressed with a sense of their +importance. + +Of course, deliberation may be overdone, and if the audience once gets +the impression that the speaker is slow and does not move along more +quickly because he cannot, the effect is disastrous. + +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 vaudeville. + +It is just here that the Socialist has a great advantage, for his theme +is the most serious and tremendous that ever occupied the mind of man. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +PERORATION + + +The close of a lecture is called the peroration--the word oration +prefixed by the Latin preposition "per." "Per" has several meanings, one +of them being "to the utmost extent" as in peroxide--a substance +oxidized to the utmost degree. + +This is probably the sense in which it is used in peroration, for the +close of a lecture should be oratory at its utmost. + +The speaker who has failed to observe the previous rules about +"beginning easy," and "speaking deliberately" will pay the penalty here. +If he has spoken rapidly, he will be unable to increase the pace--at +least, sufficiently to get the best results. + +If he has spoken too loudly and kept nothing in reserve, his voice will +refuse to "rise to the occasion." + +The manner of the peroration has two essentials, an increase of speed, +and a raising of the voice. These two things go naturally together; as +the words come more quickly the voice tends to rise apparently +automatically, and this is as it should be. + +The peroration has the nature of a triumph. The question has been fought +out in the main body of the lecture, the opposing positions have been +overthrown, and now the main conclusion is victoriously proclaimed and +driven home. + +Even if an element of pathos enters into the peroration, it is a mistake +to allow the voice to weaken. If it takes a lower note, it must make up +in strength and intensity what it loses in height. Anything else is sure +to prove an anticlimax. + +The matter of the peroration should consist of the main conclusion of +the lecture, and should begin by gathering together the principal +threads of the discourse which should lead to that conclusion. + +The necessity for a peroration, or strong finish, is recognized in +music, the drama, and everything presented before an audience. Most band +selections end in a crash, the majority of instruments working at full +capacity. Every musical comedy concludes with its full cast on the stage +singing the most effective air. Every vaudeville performer strives to +reach a climax and, where talent breaks down, refuge is sought in some +such miserable subterfuge as waving the flag or presenting a picture of +the bulldog countenance of Theodore Roosevelt. + +The entertainer, however, appeals to prevailing opinions and prejudices; +he gives the audience what they want. The lecturer should be an +instructor and his theme may be a new and, as yet, unpopular truth, and +it is his duty to give the audience what they should have. + +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 lecture. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +READ WIDELY + + +I had just concluded a lecture in Grand Junction, Colo., over a year +ago, when a burly railroad man stepped forward and introduced himself. I +forget his name, but remember well what he said. Here it is, about word +for word: + +"I was an engineer years ago, as I am today, but in those days Debs was +my fireman. Having a little better job than he, I naturally thought I +was the smarter man. We used to sleep in the same room. We would both +turn in all tired from a long trip and I would be asleep before you +could count ten. After I had slept three or four hours I would wake up +about two in the morning and there would be Debs with a candle, shaded +so as not to disturb me, reading away at a book as if everything +depended on his understanding all there was in it. Many a time he only +got one or two hours' rest before going to work again. + +"I told him he was a d--d fool, and I thought he was. I still believe +there was a d--d fool in that room, but I know now that it wasn't Debs." + +Every man who ever did anything really worth while on the lecture +platform has something like that in his life story, and it is usually +connected with his earlier years. + +The biography of every great speaker or writer has usually this passage +or one equal to it in the early pages: "He was an omnivorous reader." +Professor Huxley in his brief, but charming autobiography in the first +essay of the first volume of his "collected essays," speaking of his +early youth, says, "I read everything I could lay my hands upon." + +The speaker who has learned to sneer at "book learning" is foredoomed to +failure and will spare himself many humiliations by retiring at once. + +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 +"Capital." One man said: "I don't care if it is never translated." Then +a Socialist speaker, who was present, stepped forward and said: "Shake +hands on that." This same speaker was at that time engaged for nearly a +year's work. 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 knowledge. + +Neglecting to read, in a lecturer, is something more than a mistake--it +is a vice. Its real name is laziness. As well expect good bricklaying +from a man too lazy to lift a brick. + +The idea of a man teaching something he himself does not know is +grotesque, and yet, I have known at least three-score who felt divinely +appointed to perform that very task. + +These remarks have no application in the case of those who, wishing to +become lecturers, are determined to do everything in their power to +acquire the proper qualifications, but only to those who think that +because they have once persuaded an audience to listen to them, they now +know everything necessary to be known. + +A self-satisfied, ignorant man on a lecture platform is an anomaly that, +fortunately, is never long continued, for the process of "natural +selection" weeds him out. + +I met a boy of eighteen the other day with a thumb-worn copy of +Dietzgen's "Positive Outcome of Philosophy" under his arm. This is the +material from which lecturers are made. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +READ THE BEST + + +I met him at Napa, Cal., after the meeting. His name was Mueller; a +tall, fine old German. He had been through the Bismarck "exception law" +persecution and was well informed in all that related to that period. I +asked him how it came about that the German movement was so well posted +and unified. + +He answered, "Well, Bismarck did that for us. You see, before Bismarck +interfered, we were all split up into little inside factions, as it is +here, to some extent, now. That was because we had scores of papers, +each teaching its own particular brand of Socialism. 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 Socialism. Bismarck +changed all that; he put them all out of business in a single day. Then +the Socialists had only one paper, published outside Germany, on very +thin paper, and mailed in sealed envelopes. This paper was edited by +Bernstein, one of the ablest Marxian scholars, and this uniform reading +of sound literature was a very powerful factor in clarifying the German +Socialist movement." + +A lecturer must get his data from the very best authorities. He must get +his knowledge of "natural selection," not from the pages of some +ill-informed pamphleteer, but from "The Origin of Species." His +statements as to what constitutes the Socialist philosophy should be +based on a careful study of Marx, Engels and the other writers who have +produced Socialism's classic literature, and not on some ten-cent +pamphlet by a new convert, published, not on its merits, but because the +author had money enough to get it printed. + +The Japanese in this country show their superiority in this respect. I +had a friend in San Francisco who was a bookseller, 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 question. I had charge of the +Socialist literature of Local San Francisco nearly a year, and during +that period the only books bought by the Japs were works by Marx, Engels +and Labriola. + +This is why the Jews play so tremendous a part in the Socialist movement +of the world. The Jew is almost always a student and often a fine +scholar. The wide experience of the Jewish people has taught them (and +they have always been quick to learn) the value of that something called +"scholarship," which many of their duller Gentile brethren affect to +despise. "Sound scholarship" should be one of the watchwords of the +lecturer, and as he will never find time to read everything of the best +that has been written, it is safe to conclude that, except for special +reasons, he cannot spare time or energy for books of second or third +rate. + +Of course, in the beginning it is usually better to approach the great +masters through some well informed, popularizing disciple. 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 lectures. + +The lecturer must be familiar with the very best; he must plunge to the +greatest depths and rise to the topmost heights. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SUBJECT + + +A great lecture must have a great theme. One of the supreme tests of a +lecturer's judgment presents itself when he is called upon to choose his +subject. Look over the list of subjects on the syllabus of any speaker +and the man stands revealed. His previous intellectual training, or lack +of it, what he considers important, his general mental attitude, the +extent of his information and many other things can be predicated from +his selection of topics. + +Early in his career the lecturer is obliged to face this question, and +his future success hinges very largely on his decision. Not only is the +selection determined by his past reading, but it in turn largely +determines his future study. + +Not long ago a promising young speaker loomed up, but he made a fatal +mistake at the very outset. He selected as his special subject a +question in which few are interested, except corporation lawyers--the +American constitution. + +The greatest intellectual achievements of the last fifty years center +around the progress of the natural sciences. Those greatest of all +problems for the human race, "whence, whither, wherefore," have found +all that we really know of their solution in the discoveries of physics +and biology during recent times. What Charles Darwin said about "The +Origin of Species" is ten thousand times more important than what some +pettifogging lawyer said about "States' Rights." 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 court. Lavoisier, the discoverer of the permanence of matter and +the founder of modern chemistry, will be remembered when everybody has +forgotten that Judge Marshall and Daniel Webster ever lived. From these +and other epoch-making discoveries in the domain of science, modern +Socialism gets its point of departure from Utopianism, and without those +advances would have been impossible. + +Here is a new and glorious world from which the working class has been +carefully shut out. 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 emancipation. + +Any lecturer who will acquaint himself with the names of Lamarck, +Darwin, Lyell, Lavoisier, Huxley, Haeckel, Virchow, Tyndall, Fiske, +Wallace, Romanes, Helmholtz, Leibnitz, Humboldt, Weismann, etc., in +science, and Marx, Engels, Lafargue, Labriola, Ferri, Vandervelde, +Kautsky, Morgan, Ward, Dietzgen, etc., in sociology, and learn what +those names stand for, such a lecturer, other things being equal, has a +great and useful field before him. + +It was well enough in the middle ages for great conclaves of clericals +to discuss sagely what language will be spoken in heaven, and how many +angels could dance a saraband on the point of a needle, but the +twentieth century is face to face with tremendous problems and the +public mind clamors for a solution. It will listen eagerly to the man +who knows and has something to say. But it insists that the man who +knows no more than it knows itself, shall hold his peace. + +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 +proclaim. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LEARN TO STOP + + +The platform has no greater nuisance than that interminable bore--the +speaker who cannot stop. Of all platform vices this is about the worst. +The speaker who acquires a reputation for it becomes a terror instead of +an attraction to an audience. + +As a rule there is no audience when his name is the only item on the +card; he gets his chance speaking with some one else whom the listeners +have really come to hear. And this is just when his performance is least +desirable. Either he gets in before the real attraction and taxes +everybody's patience, or he follows and addresses his remarks to +retreating shoulders. + +I met a man recently who had made quite a name in his own town as a +speaker, and his townsmen visiting other cities proudly declared him a +coming Bebel. I took the first opportunity to hear him. He had a good +voice and was a ready speaker, but I soon found he carried a burden that +more than balanced all his merits--he simply could not stop. + +I heard him again when the committee managing the program had especially +warned him not to speak more than thirty minutes. At the end of forty he +was sailing along as though eternity was at his disposal. Three +different times, at intervals of about ten minutes, they passed him +notes asking him to stop. He read them in plain view of an audience +which knew what they meant, and then tried to close, and finally did so, +not by finishing his speech, but by shutting his mouth and walking off +the platform. The next item was something which the audience had paid +money to enjoy, but many had to leave to catch a last car home. As they +passed me near the door, the men swore and the women came as near to it +as they dared. And yet the speaker complained afterward of his treatment +by the committee. When he began he received a fine ovation; had he +finished at the end of thirty minutes he would have covered himself with +glory; he spoke an hour and a quarter and most of those present hoped +they would never be obliged to listen to him again. + +I thought somebody ought to play the part of candid friend, and I told +him next day how it looked to me. + +He said: "I guess you are right; I believe I'll get a watch." + +But this malady is usually much deeper than the question of having a +watch. This speaker acquired it while addressing street meetings. A +street audience is always changing in some degree. A hall lecture is not +required and would be out of place. 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 question, and ending with good-night for a +peroration is quite proper on a street corner. Not only is it proper, +but it is very successful, and good street speakers cultivate that +method. This is why men who are excellent street speakers and who get +their training out doors are usually such flat failures in a hall. + +Even when all is going well, an audience or some part of it will grow +uneasy toward the close, not because they cannot stay ten or fifteen +minutes longer, but because they do not know whether the lecturer is +going to close in ten minutes or thirty. + +An experienced lecturer will always detect that uneasiness in moving +feet or rustling clothes, and at the first appropriate period will look +at his watch and say, in a quiet but decided tone, "I shall conclude in +ten minutes," or whatever time he requires. Then those who cannot wait +so long will at once withdraw, the rest will settle down to listen and +harmony will be restored. + +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 stated. Next +time he speaks before that audience and they become restless he will +have no remedy. + +It is better to have your hearers say, "I could have listened another +hour," than "It would have been better if he had finished by ten +o'clock." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +CHAIRMAN + + +Lecturers learn by experience that the chairman question may become at +times a very trying problem. + +Many a meeting has been spoiled by an impossible chairman, and the +lecturer who wishes to have his work produce the best result will always +keep a keen eye on the chair, though, of course, he should not appear to +do so. + +The functions of the chairman are mainly two: To introduce the speaker, +and to decide points of procedure. The latter function is only necessary +in delegate gatherings where all present have the right to participate. +The former applies where a speaker is visiting a town and is a stranger +to many in his audience. + +In this case, when the chairman has told the audience who the speaker +is, where he comes from, what his subject will be, the occasion and +auspices of the meeting, his work is done, and the chairman who at this +point leaves the platform and takes a seat in the front row, 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 generations. + +How often has one seen a chairman during the lecture, conscious that he +is in full view of the audience, crossing his legs, first one way, then +the other, trying a dozen different ways of disposing of his hands with +becoming grace, fumbling with his watch chain, looking at his watch as +if the speaker had already overstepped his time, looking nervously at +his program as if something of enormous importance had been forgotten, +and doing a dozen similar things, most of them unconsciously, but none +the less continuously diverting the attention of the audience from the +speaker and his speech. + +How pleasantly do I recall the chairman who came to my hotel and asked +me to write him a two-minute speech, which he committed to memory, but +promptly forgot before a crowded opera house and substituted for it, +"Mr. Lewis of San Francisco will now address you," and disappeared in +the wings. The fates be kind to him! He was the prince of chairmen. + +I spoke on one occasion in a large city to a good audience at a well +advertised meeting on the Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone question. I had for +chairman a local speaker, who, fascinated by so fine an audience, spoke +over thirty minutes in this style: "Mr. Lewis will tell you how these +men were kidnapped in Denver; he will tell you how the railroads +provided a special train free of charge; he will tell you," etc., until +he had mentioned about all that was known of the case at that time. The +fact that we had a good meeting and took up a big collection for the +defense fund was no fault of his. + +Another chairman I shall ever remember is the one who closed a rambling +speech with the following terse remarks: "You have all heard of the +speaker, you have seen his name in our papers; he has a national +reputation. I will now call upon him to make good." + +Fortunately, most inexperienced chairmen seek the speaker's advice and +follow it. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +MANNERISMS + + +Speaking mannerisms are of two kinds, those of manner, of course, and +those which by a metaphorical use of the term may be called mannerisms +of matter. + +"The memory," said the quaint old Fuller, "must be located in the back +of the head, because there men dig for it." Some speakers appear to +imagine it can be found in the links of a watch chain, or observed in +the chinks in the ceiling. + +Most mannerisms are undesirable and very few have any value. As they are +usually formed early, one should look out for them at the outset and nip +them in the bud, before they have a chance to become fixed habits. + +I often notice myself running my fingers through my hair about the +opening sentence, as though I could thereby loosen up my brain. + +Debs speaks a good deal doubled up like the corner of a square--a +mannerism that probably has its origin, partly in a body weary from +overwork, and partly from a desire to get closer to the auditors on the +main floor. + +Mannerisms of matter are very common and many speakers seem to take no +trouble to avoid them. + +Many speakers become so addicted to certain hackneyed phrases that those +used to hearing them speak can see them coming sentences away. One of +the hardest ridden of these is, "along those lines." 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 lines, and even then +I should prefer "those tracks." + +G. W. Woodbey, our colored speaker of "what to do and how to do it" +fame, never speaks an hour without asking at least thirty times, "Do you +understand?" 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 defect. The veteran speaker Barney Berlyn +says, every little while, "you understand," but he is so terribly in +earnest, and so forceful in his style, that no one but a cold blooded +critic would ever notice it. + +Another speaker I know in the west, asks his audience about every ten +minutes, "Do you get my point?" This is very irritating, as it is really +a constant questioning of the audience's ability to see what he is +driving at. It would be much better to say, "Do I make myself +understood?" and put the blame for possible failure where it usually +belongs. If an audience fails to "get the point" it is because the +speaker failed to put it clearly. + +A terribly overworked word is "proposition." It is a good word, but that +is no reason why it should be treated like a pack mule. + +Hackneyed words and phrases are due to laziness in construction and a +limited vocabulary. + +The remedy is to take pains in forming sentences, practice different +ways of stating the same thing, increase your stock of words by "looking +up" every new one. + +The lecturer should always have a good dictionary within reach, +especially when reading, if he has to borrow the money to buy it. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +COURSE LECTURING--NO CHAIRMAN + + +The very first essential to successful course lecturing is--no chairman. +On three different occasions I have tried to deliver a long course of +lectures with a chairman, as a concession to comrades who disagreed with +me. One learns by experience, however, and I shall never repeat the +experiment. + +Anyone who suggested that university course lectures should have a +presiding chairman would get no serious hearing. All the course +lecturers now before the public dispense with chairmen. It is a case of +survival of the fittest; the course lecturers who had chairmen didn't +know their business and they disappeared. This does not apply to a +series of three or four lectures, for in that case when the speaker has +become familiar with his audience, and the chairman should be dispensed +with, his work is done and a new speaker appears who needs to be +introduced. + +Course lecturing is by far the most difficult of all forms of lecturing. +The beginner will not, of course, attempt it. There are shoals of +speakers of over five years' experience who are not capable of more than +two lectures; many of the best are exhausted by half a dozen. A course +of thirty to fifty is a gigantic task, and no one who realizes how great +it is will throw a straw in the lecturer's way. To insist on his having +a chairman could hardly be called a straw; it would more nearly approach +a stick of dynamite. + +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 disaster. + +Now, I will give reasons. First, in course lectures the chairman has no +functions; he is entirely superfluous. There are no points of order or +procedure to be decided, and the speaker does not need to be introduced. + +There are notices to be announced, but these are better left with the +lecturer for many reasons. They give him a chance to clear his throat, +find the proper pitch of his voice, and get into communication with his +audience; then, when he begins his lecture he can do his best from the +very first word. + +If the lecturer knows that the entire program is in his own hands he is +saved a great deal of irritation and nervousness. 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 came. + +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 chairman. + +In announcing the next lecture the speaker is usually able, by telling +what ground he will cover, etc., to arouse the interest of the audience +so that they make up their minds to attend. + +Poor chairmen blunder along and make bad "breaks" which irritate both +audience and speaker, while good chairmen feel they are doing nothing +that could not be better done by the speaker and, that they are really +only in his way. + +I have only met two kinds of men who insist that the course lecturer +should be handicapped with a chairman; 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 chairman. + +I should be slow to mention the latter, but alas! my own experience so +conclusively proves it, and the peculiarity of human nature, in or out +of our movement is, that it is wonderfully human. + +There are very few of us who do not enjoy sitting in plain view of a +large audience and, when any good purpose is to be served, it is a very +laudable ambition. + +But if we have no better end to gain than standing between a speaker and +his audience and, though with the best intentions in the world, adding +to the difficulties of a task that is already greater than most of us +would care to face, for the sake of our great cause, and that it may be +the more ably defended, let us refrain. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +COURSE LECTURING--LEARN TO CLASSIFY + + +The definition of science as "knowledge classified," while leaving much +to be said, is perhaps, as satisfactory as any that could be condensed +into two words. + +A trained capacity for classification is wholly indispensable in a +course lecturer. We all know the speaker who announces his subject and +then rambles off all over the universe. With this speaker, everybody +knows that, no matter what the subject or the occasion of the meeting, +it is going to be the same old talk that has done duty, how long nobody +can remember. + +If, under the head of "surplus value" you talk twenty minutes about +prohibition, how will you avoid repetition when you come to speak on the +temperance question? + +The surest way to acquire this qualification is to study the sciences. +The dazzling array of facts which science has accumulated, owe half +their value to the systematization they have received at the hands of +her greatest savants. + +It is impossible to take a step in scientific study without coming face +to face with her grand classifications. At the very beginning science +divides the universe into two parts, the inorganic and the organic. The +inorganic is studied under the head of "physics"; the organic, under +"biology." + +Physics (not the kind one throws to the dogs, of course) is then +subdivided into Astronomy, Chemistry, and Geology, while Biology has its +two great divisions, Zoology (animals) and Botany (plants), all these +having subdivisions reaching into every ramification of the material +universe, which is the real subject matter of science, being as it is +the only thing about which we possess any "knowledge." + +Another way of learning to classify is to select a subject and then +"read it up." Here is a good method: + +Take a ten-cent copy book, the usual size about eight by six inches and +begin on the first inside page. Write on the top of the page, left side, +a good subject, leaving that page and the one opposite to be used for +that question. Turn over and do the same again on the next page with +some other subject. This practice of selecting subjects, in itself, will +be valuable training. + +In the search for subjects take any good lecture syllabus and select +those about which you have a fair general idea. You will soon learn to +frame some of your own. Good examples of standard questions are "Free +Will," "Natural Selection," "Natural Rights," "Economic Determinism," +"Mutation," "Individualism," and a host of others, all of which have a +distinct position in thought, and about which there is a standard +literature. + +Then, in your general reading, whenever you come across anything of +value in any book, on any of your listed subjects, turn to the page in +your copy book and enter it up, author, volume, chapter and page. When +you come to lecture on that question, there it will be, or, at least, +you will know just where it is. + +Of course, the two pages devoted to "Natural Rights" would mention, +among other references, Prof. David G. Ritchie's book on "Natural +Rights"; and the eighth essay of Huxley's First Volume of "Collected +Essays," in which he annihilates Henry George. + +All this means an immense quantity of reading, but unless you have +carefully read and weighed about all the best that has been said on any +question, your own opinions will have no value, and it is simply +presumption to waste the time of an audience doling out a conception +that, for aught you know, may have been knocked in the head half a +century ago. + +What can be more tiresome than the prattle about "absolute justice," +"eternal truth," "inalienable rights," "the identity of the ethics of +Christianity with those of Socialism," and a lot of other theories, +which lost their footing in scientific literature and transmigrated to +begin a new career among the uninformed, sixty years ago. + +Of course, some of these positions look all right to you now, but when +you learn what has been revealed about them by the science and +philosophy of the last six decades, they will seem about as rational as +the doctrine of a personal devil or the theory of a flat earth. + +And until your reading is wide enough to give you this view of them, you +had better not attempt course lecturing in the twentieth century. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +PREPARATION + + +Said Francis Bacon, the author of "Novum Organum," "Reading maketh a +full man, writing an exact man, and conversation a ready man." + +The first in importance of these is to be "a full man." The lecturer +should not deliver himself on any subject unless he has read about all +there is of value on that question. + +If, when you read, the words all run together in the first few minutes, +or, you invariably get a headache about the third page, let lecturing +alone. Remember that there must be listeners as well as lecturers, and +you may make a good listener, a quality none too common, but, as for +lecturing, you have about as much chance of success as a man who could +not climb ten rungs of a ladder without going dizzy, would have as a +steeplejack. + +The speaker who writes out his speech and commits it to memory and then +recites it, has at least, this in his favor: his performance represents +great labor. An audience usually is, and should be, very lenient with +anyone who has obviously labored hard for its benefit. + +Writing out a speech has many advantages, and beginners especially +should practice it extensively. It gives one precision or, as Bacon puts +it, makes an "exact" man. It gives one experience in finding the correct +word. + +If you have not learned to find the right word at your desk where you +have time to reflect, how do you suppose you will find it on the +platform where you must go on? + +In trying a passage in your study it is well to stand about as you would +on a platform. 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 feet. + +Writing is also a great test of the value of a point. Many a point that +looks brilliant when you first conceive it turns out badly when you try +to write it out. On the other hand, an unpromising idea may prove quite +fertile when tried out with a pen. It is better to make these +discoveries in your study than before your audience. + +As to conversation and its making a "ready" man, a better method +perhaps, is to argue the matter out with a mirror, or the wall, in about +the same manner and style as you expect to use on the platform. + +To practice before one or two persons in the style you expect to adopt +before an audience is so inherently incompatible with the different +circumstances, that I don't believe anybody ever made it succeed. It is +far better to be alone, especially when working out your most important +points, and building your opening and closing sentences. + +Probably the best form of lecturing is to speak from a few pages of +notes. A clearly defined skeleton, in a lecture, as in an animal, is the +sure sign of high organization, while it is desirable to fill in the +flesh and clothes with a pen beforehand, it will be well to learn to +deliver it to the public with nothing but the skeleton before you. + +In course lectures, quotations must be read, as a rule, as there is not +time enough between lectures to commit them to memory. But where the +same lecture is given repeatedly before different audiences, this +condition does not exist, and the quotations should be memorized. +Frequent quotations, from the best authorities, is one of the marks of a +good lecture, as of a good book. + +A good plan is to write out the skeleton of the lecture fully at first, +say fifteen or twenty note book pages, then think it carefully over and +condense to about ten. A really good, well organized lecture where the +lecturer has had ample time, or when he has already delivered it a few +times, should be reducible to one or two pages of notes. + +This skeletonizing is a good test of a lecture. A mere collection of +words has no skeleton. Instead of comparing with a mammal at the top of +the organic scale, it is like a formless, undifferentiated protozoon at +the bottom. + +As an example of a skeleton, here are the notes of the lecture with +which I closed the season at the Garrick in May, 1907: + + SOCIALISM AND MODERN ETHICAL SCIENCE + + (1) The general confusion on this question. + (2) The inroads of positive science into this field. + (3) The historical schools of Ethics: + (1) The Theological. + (2) The intuitional. + (3) The utilitarian. + (1) Define these; + (2) explain; + (3) criticise. + (4) Modern science endorses utilitarianism. + (5) This still leaves unsettled the problem of who + shall determine what is of utility to society? + (6) Marx gave the answer--The ruling class. + (7) They rule because they control society's foundation, + its mode of production. + (8) The working class, in order to enforce its own + ethics must control society at its base; it must take + possession of the means of production. + +When I first delivered this lecture I had about twenty pages of notes +nearly twice the size of this book page, the three items, "define," +"explain," "criticize," taking half a dozen. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +DEBATING + + +Really great debaters, like the animal reconstructed, as Bret Harte +relates, before "The Society on the Stanislaw," are "extremely rare." +This is because the great debater must have a number of accomplishments +any one of which requires something very closely approaching genius. + +The great debater must first of all be a brilliant speaker; but he must +also be a speaker of a certain kind. Many brilliant speakers are utterly +helpless in debate. 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 sentences. + +A certain preacher in a double walled brick church found a chink in the +inner wall just back of the pulpit. He found this crevice a convenient +pigeon hole for his carefully written and always excellent sermon during +the preliminary parts of the service. 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 pulpit. One fatal Sunday he pushed it too +far in and it fell between the two walls hopelessly beyond immediate +recovery. His anguish during the last verse as the novelists say, +"beggared description." He read a chapter from the Bible and dismissed +his flock. One cannot imagine such a speaker, brilliant as he was with +his pages before him, achieving any success in debate. + +The qualities of a great debater may be ranged under two heads: (1) +general, (2) technical. The general qualifications must be those of a +ready speaker, fully master of his subject and able to think quickly and +clearly and to clothe an idea in forceful, suitable language on very +short notice. The ability to detect a flaw in an opponent's case does +not consist merely in cleverness, but will depend upon the thoroughness +of your studies before going on the platform. + +The great debater must go to the bottom of things. It is all very well +to take an opponent's speech and reply to it point by point, even to the +last detail. It is vastly better, however, if you can lay your hands on +the fundamental fallacy that underlies the whole case and explode that. + +I well remember my debate with Bolton Hall. Mr. Hall's whole case rested +on the theory of the existence of certain Nature-given and God-given +rights of man. 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 science. It was only necessary for me to +demonstrate the hopelessness of Mr. Hall's main thesis to leave him +standing before the audience without so much as the possibility of a +real answer. + +We shall consider at some length the technical methods that make for +effective debating. In my opinion, formed from my own experience, this +question of methods is of the greatest importance. + +The most important thing in this connection is how to make the best use +of the time allowed and always know, while speaking, how much you still +have left. You may look at your watch at the beginning of your speech, +but once started, the brain, working at full capacity, refuses to +remember, and you turn to the chairman and ask "How much time have I?" +This not only wastes your time, but distracts the attention of the +audience from your attack or reply. Again, the relief is only temporary, +for in a few minutes you are again in the same dilemma. Then, worst of +all, right in the middle of an argument, down comes the gavel, and with +a lame "I thank you," you sit down. There are men who can carry the time +in their heads, but as a rule they are not good debaters, as they do so +because only a part of their energies are thrown into the debate itself. + +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 much. But it never troubles me now owing to the following simple, but +invaluable device: See that your watch is wound, take half a postage +stamp, and, as the chairman calls you forth, stick the stamp across the +face of your watch in such a position that when the large hand goes into +eclipse your time is up. Then place it on the desk where it will be +always visible, and the space between the hand and the line of eclipse +always shows your remaining time. + +On the occasion of my debate with Mr. Chafin, the last presidential +candidate of the Prohibition party, on "Socialism versus Prohibition as +a Solution of the Social Problem," Mr. Louis Post, the well-known editor +of "The Public," was chairman. He courteously asked us how much warning +we needed before the close of our several speeches. Mr. 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 +gavel. He probably thought I had decided to use only part of the time +allowed me. When, at the close of my longest speech I finished a +somewhat difficult and elaborate peroration squarely on the last quarter +of the last second, Mr. Post's astonishment was so great that he burst +out with it to the audience. He said: "Mr. Lewis does not require a +chairman; without any help from me in any way he closed that speech +right to the moment. I don't know how he does it; it is a mystery to me; +I couldn't do it to save my life!" + +In my debate with Clarence Darrow on "Non-resistance," at the close of +my long speech, when our excellent chairman, Mr. Herbert C. Duce, +thought I had lost all track of time and was going to need the gavel, to +his surprise, just as my last second expired I turned to Darrow and +asked a minute's grace to quote from Tennyson, which Darrow gave with a +promptness that scored heavily with the audience. + +For some days before a debate I take care that my pocketbook is well +supplied with postage stamps. + +Another matter of the very first importance is the taking of notes of +your opponent's speech and preparing to reply when your turn comes. +During the last few years I have met in debate, Henry George, Jr., +Clarence Darrow, M. M. Mangasarian, Professor John Curtis Kennedy, +Eugene Chafin, John Z. White, W. F. Barnard, Bolton Hall, H. H. +Hardinge, Chas. A. Windle, editor of "The Iconoclast," and others, all +men with a national and many with an international reputation as +platform masters. But I have never been able to understand why almost +all of them, except Barnard and Kennedy, made almost no real use of +their time while I was speaking. The probable reason is that debating +has not been cultivated as an art in this country. + +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 accident. Clarence Darrow got more out of this +easy going method than any man I ever met. + +With all deference to the names I have given I must insist that this is +no way to debate. It should be done thoroughly and systematically. For +my own purposes I have reduced this part of debating to an exact +science. I do not dread a debate now as I once did. My only care is to +see that I am master of the subject. + +I will now give my latest method of note taking--the product of years of +experience and many long hours of careful planning. It works so simply +and perfectly that I do not see how it can be further improved. This +confidence in the perfection of my methods is not usual with me. I have +tried every method I could hear of or scheme out, and this is the only +one that ever gave satisfaction. Now for the method. + +Have a table on the platform. Never allow the chairman to open the +debate until your table and chair have been provided. Next, a good +supply of loose pages of blank white paper of reasonably good quality +and fairly smooth surface. A good size is nine inches long and six wide. +Any wholesale paper house will cut them for you. Remember, they must be +loose; do not try to use a note book. Next, a good lead pencil, writing +blue at one end and red at the other. + +When your opponent makes his first point make a note of it in blue at +the top of one of your loose pages. There is no need of numbering any of +the pages. Keep that page exclusively for that one point. Leave the +upper half of the page for the note of his point. If you have your +answer ready, make a note of it half way down the page in red. + +This will leave a space under both the blue note of your opponent's +point and the red note of your reply. In the upper space you may enter +fuller detail of his point if you think best. In the bottom space you +may amplify your reply or strike out your first idea of reply and enter +one that seems stronger. + +The immense advantage of this one-point-one-page system is that in +arranging the order of reply you need only arrange the pages. The +position of any point may be changed by moving the page dealing with it. + +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 hand, lay that page +aside and work on the completion of others. 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 used. + +A good strong point should be selected to open. Lay this page face +downward on your table, away from the rest of your papers, where it will +stand forth clearly and not cause you to hunt around the table when the +chairman calls you. Lay the second point page on top of it, face down, +of course. When you have a pile like this, by turning it over and laying +it before you face up, you are ready to begin. You can rearrange the +order of these pages from time to time during the latter part of your +opponent's speech. + +Whenever you find your opponent developing a point you have already +grasped and noted, you may take time to go over the pile of completed +pages. In this overhauling process you will find some faulty pages. If +you have noted a weak point of your opponent's and it does not admit of +a strong, clear reply, take it out of your pile and place it separately +so that it may be returned if you can improve it sufficiently, or +finally rejected and left unused if you cannot. + +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 sifted. Anything that looks vague or weak should +be thrust aside. If need be, it is better to spend extra time on some +strong position which is fundamental to the debate. + +To make a good debate you must meet your opponent most fully on his +strongest ground. Any tricky evasion of his strong points and enlarging +of minor issues is disgraceful to you and insulting to the audience. It +is this latter kind of debating which has prejudiced the public against +debates. + +A real debate should be a clear presentment of two opposing schools of +thought by men who understand both, but basically disagree as to their +truth. Such a debate has an educational value of the very highest order. + +Every speech, as in lecturing, should have a strong close. The last +point can usually be selected before the debate begins, as it will +probably deal with the valuable results flowing from your position. This +method enables you to prepare the closing sentence or sentences--which +is of great importance. It is one of the great disadvantages of debate +that your speeches are liable to end lame and if you can avoid this, one +of your knottiest problems is solved. + +A strong point also should be selected to open with; a point that will +put the audience in good humor by its wit is especially valuable. But +remember wit is only valuable when it bears on the question and +strengthens or illustrates an argument. 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 methods. The platform suffers an irreparable +loss whenever it is used by debaters whom nature intended for "shyster" +lawyers. + +As an example of a good point for opening a reply, take the following +from my debate in the Garrick, October, 1907: + +My opponent, Mr. Hardinge, said, "As an Individualist Mr. Spencer was an +extremist in one direction, and the Socialist is an extremist in the +other. I take a middle ground; you will always find the truth about half +way." + +My note of this (in blue) was, "extremist, middle ground." My note of +answer (in red) was "revolving earth." + +This was the answer as I made it from these two notes: + +"Mr. Hardinge said we should not be Socialists because we should then be +as great extremists in one direction as was Mr. Spencer in the other. We +should follow Mr. Hardinge's example and take the middle ground for, +says he, truth is always to be found half way. Therefore, if anyone +should ask you, does the earth revolve from east to west, or from west +to east, you should answer, 'a little of both.'" + +It would have been small consolation to Mr. Hardinge to know that this +reply was taken from the individualist Spencer, who should have been his +mainstay in the debate. 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 Eliot. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +TRICKS OF DEBATE + + +There are a great number of tricks that may be practiced in debate. They +should be avoided by the serious man who is debating to defend a great +cause. It is well to know the best methods but anything like a trick +should never be practiced. + +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 to. This is precisely what Mr. Mangasarian did in his +debate with me, but although many disagree with me, I take the view that +he did so, not as a trick, but because of his ignorance of the question +and his want of experience in debate. To have done this deliberately as +a clever trick, after allowing an audience of 3,000 to pay over $1,100 +for their seats would have been criminal, and I refuse to believe that +any public man of Mr. Mangasarian's status would stoop to any such +performance as a matter of deliberate strategy. + +On one occasion, when the subject of discussion was not of any such +serious import as Socialism, but more a question of who could win a +debate on a subject of small merit, I defeated my opponent by a trick +that I am heartily ashamed of, even under those mitigating +circumstances. I record it here, not as an example to be followed, but +as a warning not to let anyone else use it against you. + +Unskilled debaters usually reply to their opponent's points in the order +in which they were presented--seriatim. This is easy but not most +effective. + +This opponent, whom I heard debate with someone else before I was +engaged to try conclusions with him, was limited, as I saw, to the +seriatim method of reply. When we met, I completely destroyed his +influence on the audience by the following trick: + +Having the affirmative, I had to open and close, which gave me three +speeches to his two. In my first speech instead of taking five to ten +good points only, I added a good number of other points, stating them +briefly and just giving him time to get them down. These extra points +cost me about one minute each to state, and I knew they would cost him +at least four or five to reply. Then just before closing I very +seriously advanced the heaviest objection to my opponent's position. 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 it. Then I paused long enough for the audience to see +that I gave him full opportunity to get it down--as he did. Then I +gathered my threads together and entered on my peroration. + +It worked out precisely as I had anticipated. My opponent began at the +beginning, as he saw it, and all his time went over those decoy points +and the chairman rapped him down long before he reached that special +point. + +I then repeated the same tactics only I loaded him more heavily with +decoys than before. I called upon the audience to witness that in spite +of my begging him to do so, he had never so much as mentioned the main +difficulty in his position. + +In his second and last speech, he saw the necessity of getting to that +point but, alas, although he hustled through the column of stumbling +blocks so rapidly that the audience hardly knew what he was talking +about, 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 gavel. + +Then I lashed him unmercifully. 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 so. The audience, of course, +drew the inference that he was unable to answer, and he was considered +to be hopelessly defeated. + +He should, by all means, have given that point his first consideration +before dealing with the rest of my speech. + +This gentleman had humiliated quite a number of young aspirants in the +local debating class, and openly boasted of the clever tricks by which +he had done so. For once, however, he was "hoist on his own petard." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +RHETORIC + + +It is the function of language to convey ideas. Ideas are the real +foundation of good lecturing and words must always be subordinate. + +The English Parliamentarian, Gladstone, had the reputation of being able +to say less in more time than any man who ever lived. The difference +between a good and a bad use of words is well illustrated in the +discussion between Gladstone and Huxley on Genesis and Science. Of +course everybody knows now that Gladstone was annihilated, in spite of +the cleverness with which, when beaten, he would, in Huxley's phrase, +"retreat under a cloud of words." + +Grandiloquence will produce, in the more intelligent of your audience, +an amused smile, and while it is well to have your hearers smile with +you, they should never have reason to smile at you. + +Here again, a great deal depends on what you have been reading. In the +use of good, clear, powerful English, Prof. Huxley is without a peer, +and his "collected essays" will always remain a precious heritage in +English literature. For an example of the exact opposite, take the +magazines and pamphlets of the so-called new thought, which at bottom is +neither "new" nor "thought." In reality it is made up of words, words, +and then--more words. + + * * * * * + +I read a fifteen hundred word article, in a new thought magazine, by one +of its foremost prophets, and nowhere from beginning to end, was there a +single tangible idea, nothing but a long drawn out mass of meaningless +jargon. + + * * * * * + +"Thus spake Zarathustra" is the same thing at its best. As an example of +a style to be carefully avoided the following is in point. It is also a +rara avis; a gem of purest ray. It is taken from the local Socialist +platform of an Arizona town: + + Therefore, it matters not, though the Creator decked the earth + with prolific soil, and deposited within great stores of wealth + for man's enjoyment, for, if Economic Equality is ostracised, + man is enslaved and the world surges through space around the + sun, a gilded prison. It matters not, though the infinite blue + vast be sown with innumerable stars and the earth be adorned + with countless beauties, teeming with the multiplicity of living + forms for man's edification, for if Liberty is exiled, the + intellect is robbed and man knows not himself. It matters not, + though nature opens her generous purse and pours forth melodies + of her myriad-tongued voices for man's delectation, for, if the + shackles of wage slavery are not loosed, the mind is stultified + and ambition destroyed by the long hours of toil's monotony in + the factory, the machine shop, in the mines, at the desk, and on + the farm. It matters not, though the fireside of the home sheds + forth a radiance in which is blended paternal love, health and + happiness, for, if woman is denied equal suffrage, then this + queen of the household, perforce, becomes a moral slave. + + Man, therefore, is not the sovereign citizen as pictured by the + flashing phrases of the orator and soothsayer. + +Liberty exiled, we have heard of before, but economic equality +ostracised, is new. The idea that the multiplicity of living forms exist +for man's edification, is ancient to the point of being moldy, but we +must concede originality to "myriad tongued voices" issuing from a +"purse." The concluding remarks about the "flashing phrases of the +orator" are peculiarly well taken--unless that gentleman should be mean +enough to say, "you're another." + + * * * * * + +Of course there is no objection to real eloquence and one's sentences +should always be smooth and rhythmical. One great source of smoothness +and rhythm is alliteration. Tennyson says: + + "The distant dearness of the hill + The sacred sweetness of the stream." + +Here the smooth movement comes from the alliteration on d in the first +line and the tripling of the initial s in the second. + + "With his back to the field, and his feet to the foe." + +gets its music from the alliteration on f. In revising the MS. of my +lecture on "Weismann's Theory of Heredity" for publication, I found the +following sentence, referring to Johannes Mueller. + + "He failed to fill the gap his destructive criticism had + created." + +This sentence gives to the ear a sense of rhythm that is somewhere +interrupted and disturbed. Examination shows that the rhythm comes from +the alliterations "failed to fill" and "criticism had created," and the +disturbance arises from the interjection between them of the word +"destructive." Destructive is a good word here, but not essential to the +sense and not worth the interruption it makes in the smoothness of the +sentence. So it had to go. + +Avoid long words wherever possible, and never use a word you do not +understand. As an example of the vast picture which half a dozen short +words of Saxon English will conjure up, take these lines from "The +Ancient Mariner": + + "Alone, alone, all, all alone, + Alone on a wide, wide sea." + +The power of expression in a single word, appears in Keats' description +of Ruth, in his "Ode to the Nightingale." + + "The voice I hear this passing night was heard + In ancient days by emperor and clown; + Perhaps the selfsame song that found a path + Through the sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home, + She stood in tears amid the alien corn." + +What a master-stroke is the use of "alien," this time a Latin +derivative, in the last line quoted. What a picture of that old time +drama, with its theme of love and sorrow co-eval with the human race. + +First get your idea, then express it in words that give it forth +clearly. No verbiage, no fog or clouds, no jargon, but simplicity, +lucidity, vividness, and power. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE AUDIENCE + + +A lecturer should realize his grave responsibility to his audience. +Nothing but absolute physical impossibility is a sufficient excuse for +disappointing an assembly. Have it thoroughly understood that when your +name appears on a program, you will be at your post. + +Never allow, if you can possibly prevent, anybody to announce you to +speak without consulting you and getting your consent. In some cities +the method of announcing a speaker, when it is not known whether or not +he can be present and, in some cases, even when it is known he cannot, +has prevailed in the Socialist party. The temptation to do this consists +in the possibility of using a prominent name to attract a large audience +and then, with some lame excuse, put forward somebody else. + +This succeeds for a time; then comes disaster. In such a city a good +meeting becomes almost impossible. With the public it is, once bit, +twice shy. For myself, 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 reason, it is almost safe to say +my name has been used without my consent. + +Any lecturer who treats his audience lightly has no reason to expect it +will take him seriously. There is no lecturing future ahead of the man +who says to some disappointed auditor he meets afterward on the street: +"Well, the weather was so bad I didn't think anybody would turn out." +Suppose only ten people turned out, is not their combined inconvenience +ten times as great as that of the speaker? At least you could go and +thank those who did come, as they surely deserved, and feel that you did +your duty in the matter. + +I well remember one night in San Francisco, about the twenty-first +lecture of a course in the Academy of Sciences, when it rained as only +Californians ever see it rain; it seemed to fall in a solid mass. From 6 +to 7:30 it continued with no sign of let-up, and the streets began to +look like rivers. + +"No meeting tonight, that's sure," I concluded as I ruefully pocketed +the notes of my lecture. But my rule compelled me to turn out and see. +To my very great astonishment the Academy was full and the admission +receipts were equal to the average. Never again, if I can help it, will +weather alone keep me from appearing at a meeting. + +Another matter in which speakers should consider the feelings of their +hearers is--"don't make excuses." The audience wants to know what you +have to say about the subject, and not, why you are not better prepared. +The audience will know whether you have a cold without you taking up +time telling about it. + +If you allow yourself to drift into the habit of making excuses, you +will never be able to speak without doing so, and even your best +prepared effort will be unable to get by without a stupid preamble of +meaningless apologies. + +It is safe to conclude that the good impression a lecture should make is +not increased by the lecturer condemning it in advance; this is usually +done to disarm criticism, secure indulgence, and give the audience a +great notion of what you could do if you had a fair chance. But the +audience wants to see what you can do now, and not what you might +possibly have done, under other circumstances. If your lecture cannot +bear open criticism and really needs to be apologized for, then it ought +not to be delivered, and you should be sitting in the audience listening +to somebody else. + +Boasting is, of course, very irritating to an audience and should be +avoided, but want of courage and self-confidence is almost as +deplorable. Of course there is no merit in self-confidence that is not +well founded in sterling ability. + +Somebody said, "The man who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, +is ignorant, avoid him; the man who knows not, and knows that he knows +not, is simple, teach him; the man who knows, and knows not that he +knows, is timid, encourage him; the man who knows, and knows that he +knows, is wise, follow him." + + + + +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 meetings. The +chosen corner is usually where the down-and-outs and drunks congregate +and is hemmed about by cheap noisy saloons. If a speaker is to be in a +town one or two nights he can hardly show the local comrades their +error. 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 listen. Then the night after making the announcement at the old stand +I begin a revolution in the method of running street meetings. I have no +hard feelings against drunks but they are useless and worse in a street +meeting. There are two reasons for the present bad selection of corners +in so many cities. First, it is easier for a poor speaker to get an +audience where there are hangers-out waiting to be entertained. Second, +the city authorities like to have Socialist speaking done where it will +not reach the live members of the community. 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 spent. + + +THE STYLE + +Street speaking is widely different from hall lecturing and this the +reason so many speakers succeed at one and fail at the other. The hall +lecturer opens easily and paves the way for the treatment of his theme, +but the street speaker would get no crowd or a small one by such a +method. + +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 larger. As soon +as he adapts his voice and manner to the size of his crowd the crowd +will stop growing. The only way to add another hundred is to talk as if +they were already there. + +A hall lecture should have one subject and stick to it because the +audience is the same in its composition throughout. At a street meeting +about half the audience is constantly changing, and hopping from one +question to another has many advantages. A street speaker must be +interesting or he will lose his crowd, and the better his crowd the +sooner he will lose it. If he is talking to "bums" they will stay +whether he talks or not, 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 grip. + +This is why telling stories at street meetings is not so good a thing as +some unobserving speakers suppose. No matter how good a story is, it has +a tendency to break up a crowd. I noticed it often before I caught the +reason. 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 +book. At the end of a good story the audience will laugh and take a +moments rest. 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 already. 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 it. 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 it. Of course wit is a valuable factor but wit shows itself +in a lightning dart, not in a long story. + +The street speaker should use short sentences of simple words. He should +avoid oratory and talk as if he were telling something to another man +and in dead earnest about it. I have watched a man talk to another man +on the street forgetting the outside world completely and using forceful +language and eloquent gestures. If such a man could only talk like that +to an audience he would be surprised at his own success. Put him before +an audience and his natural manner disappears, he shuffles his feet, +does not know what to do with his hands, and brings forth a voice nobody +ever heard him use before. + + +DISTURBERS + +As to people who disturb your meeting, if you are speaking in hobo-dom +you may well despair. There are so many drunks, that interruptions are +constant and irrepressible, and every interruption breaks your grip on +the audience. Moral: Don't speak there. + +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 speaker. A speaker +should never try to be smart at the expense of a man in the audience, +even when he speaks out of his turn. A courteous explanation of why you +wish him to keep his questions until after your speech is much better. +If he persists after that, he is either an ignoramus or drunk. If drunk +ask two or three of your supporters in the audience to lead him off down +the street. If he is a natural fool the problem is not so easy. 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 cases. + + +POLICE INTERFERENCE + +There is no easier task in the world than to defeat the police +authorities in a free speech fight. In the few cases where we lose it is +our own fault. The police are usually acting under orders when making +arrests and nothing is gained by making bitter enemies of them unless +they treat you brutally. + +A cool head, a disposition to reason the matter out with the district +attorney, the chief of police, the mayor, or in the courts, without ever +offering to compromise your speaking rights, will always triumph. The +realization by the authorities that they are in a dirty and tyrannical +business is one of your strongest weapons. Courtesy and persuasive but +firm and unflinching reasoning makes them more conscious of their +humiliating part in the matter. If you do or say foolish or offensive +things they will forget their conscience in their anger, and give you a +fight for which you alone are to blame. + +There are a few exceptions to this rule; cases where the authorities are +bent on victory; even then there is no excuse for losing your head. 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 successful. In handling the police and +their relations to street meetings the New York comrades have set other +cities an example to go by. 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 meeting. The New York comrades +have had many hard battles with the police to keep this system, and they +have reason to be proud of the result. + +The permit system is all right if it does not keep you from the corners +you wish to use. If it does, the best thing is to fight it out for a new +arrangement or the right to hold your meetings without arrangements. If +you conduct your case properly the public will be overwhelmingly on your +side. It is good at such times to "view with alarm" the introduction of +Russian methods into "free" America. 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 meetings. After this light has dawned you +will proceed undisturbed. + + +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 musician, physician or lawyer by +the same method. It is necessary, however, to train before going wholly +into the work just as a man studies law evenings, before starting out as +a lawyer. + +In New York, Socialist street meetings are a force and count for a great +deal, because the committee keeps a staff of capable speakers on salary +to do nothing else. In Chicago street, speaking is a failure and many +have concluded we should be better without it. This is because Chicago +lacks the enterprise to follow the example of New York and depends on +voluntary, haphazard, untrained, inefficient speaking. + +New York, I believe, spends a good deal of money on its street meetings, +and for some reason Chicago does not seem to be able to do that. But +this barrier is not insurmountable. Street meetings with efficient +speakers may be made self-supporting, 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 expenses. + +I hardly think it can be done by collections but I know by experience +that it can be done by book-selling. + +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 me, and no collections were taken. My best book-sale at one +meeting was $34 but it would just as easily have gone over $40 if the +supply had held out. $20 to $30 worth of literature can be sold easily +enough on any one of half a dozen corners in New York. + +Chicago is not as good as New York but it is at least half as good and a +good speaker could work for $25 a week and make three or four meetings +foot the bill. I did this very easily in Chicago last summer. The +beginner should sell 10c booklets or pamphlets, and elsewhere in this +volume he will find two speeches that will show him how to do it. At a +street meeting he need not make these speeches in detail, but just give +the pith of them. + +After a while 25c books may be sold, and with practice and hard study +50c books will sell readily. This question is more fully dealt with in +the next chapter. + +About two different books may be sold effectively at the meeting; one +early in the meeting and the other about the close. The closing book +talk however, should be begun while the meeting is at its full strength. + +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 said. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +BOOK-SELLING AT MEETINGS + + +The tones of the speaker's voice fade away and are forever lost. Too +often the ideas which the voice proclaimed drift into the background and +presently disappear. This is the crowning limitation of public speaking. +The lecturer should be, first of all, an educator, and his work should +not be "writ in water." The lazy lecturer who imagines that his duties +to his audience end with his peroration is unfaithful to his great +calling. Lazy lecturers are not very numerous as they are certain of a +career curtailed from lack of an audience. + +There are some lecturers, however, who see nothing of importance in +their work except the delivering of their lectures. And the educational +value of such workers is only a fraction of what it might be. Life is +not so long for the strongest of us, nor are the results that can be +achieved by the most gifted such that we can afford to waste the best of +our opportunities. This article is not intended as a sermon, but if as +lecturers we are to be educators we must not neglect to use the greatest +weapons against ignorance in the educational armory--books. + +The books here referred to are not the volumes in the lecturer's own +library. They, of course, are indispensable. There have been men who +felt destined to be lecturers without the use of mere "book learning," +but they never lived long enough to find out why the public did not take +them at their own estimate. + +The man who undertakes to deal with a subject without first reading, and +as far as possible, mastering, the best books on that subject, would no +more be a lecturer than a man who tried to cut a field of wheat with a +pocket-knife would be a farmer. + +Any good lecture of an hour and a quarter has meant ten to fifty hours' +hard reading. There is much in the reading that cannot possibly appear +in the lecture. Another lecture on a related theme or one widely +different, has probably suggested itself. I remember while rummaging in +history to find proofs and illustrations of "The Materialistic +Conception of History," which conception I was to defend presently in a +public debate, 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 later. + +Again, 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 time. +This is why a lecture always educates the lecturer much more than it +does the hearer. The hearer therefore labors under two great +disadvantages. First, he forgets much that he hears, and, second, there +is so much that he does not hear at all. + +The first handicap can be removed by the printing of the lectures. The +second is not so easily disposed of. + +A lecturer may state in three minutes an idea which has cost many days' +reading. The idea has great importance to the speaker and, if he is a +master of his art, he will impress its importance on his hearers. That +is what his art is for. 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 it. + +There is only one way in which this can be done--the hearer must have +access to the same sources of knowledge as the lecturer. This does not +necessarily mean that every hearer should have a lecturer's library. It +does mean, however, that there are some books which should be read by +both. + +The lecturer himself is the best judge as to which books belong to this +category. In number they range anywhere from a dozen up, according to +the ambitions of the reader. + +My method of dealing with this problem has been to take one book at a +time, tell the audience about it and see that the ushers were ready to +supply all demands. In this way I have sold more than two whole editions +of Boelsche's book "The Evolution of Man." In one week speaking in half +a dozen different cities I sold an entire edition of my first book +"Evolution, Social and Organic." 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 audience, in three minutes, bought +250 copies, and more than a hundred would-be purchasers had to wait +until the following Sunday for a new supply. A few Sundays later +Blatchford's "God and My Neighbor," a dollar volume, had a sale of 204 +copies--the total book sale for that morning reaching what I believe is +the record for a Socialist meeting--$220.00. The last lecture of this +season (April, 1910,) had a book sale of $190.00, which included 380 +paper back copies of Sinclair's "Prince Hagen." + +These figures are given to show that this work can be done, and if it is +not done the lecturer alone is to blame. Anyone who can lecture at all +can do this with some measure of success. There can be no sane doubt of +its value. About 500 young men in the Garrick audience have built up +small but fine libraries of their own through this advice given in this +way, and there is no part of my work which gives me so great +satisfaction. + +I never allow my audience to imagine for a moment that my book talk is a +mere matter of selling something. There will always be one or two in the +audience who will take that view--natural selection always overlooks a +few chuckle-heads. + +Now let us tabulate some of the results that may be obtained in this +way: + +(1) By getting these books into the hands of our hearers we give our +teachings from the platform a greater permanence in their minds. We not +only help them to knowledge, but put them in the way of helping +themselves directly. This alone is, justification enough, but it is not +all. + +(2) 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 mankind. + +(3) The difference between the wholesale and retail prices is often +enough to make successful a lecture course which would have otherwise +died prematurely of bankruptcy. Where a meeting cannot live on the +collection, the book sales may mean financial salvation. The morning we +sold $220 of books at the Garrick we also took a collection of $80. +Without the book sales $80 would have been the total receipts, and this +collection was normal. Yet the Garrick meetings cost $140 each. After we +had paid the publisher's bill we had a balance from book sales of $120, +which made the total receipts not $80 but $200. And this is among the +least important results of book selling. + +Everything, of course, depends on the book talk. I will now give sample +book talks which any speaker may commit to memory and use, probably with +results that will be a surprise and an encouragement. + + + + +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 desired. In this article we shall consider the +chief instrument by which this is attained--the book talk. + +We might treat this theme by laying down general rules as to the +elements which enter into the make-up of a successful book talk, but +while this is necessary it is not enough--so many speakers seem to find +it very difficult to apply rules. This part of the question will be +treated in a few sentences. + +A book talk, to be successful, must answer the following questions: + +(1) Who wrote the book? It is not, of course, simply a question as to +the author's name, but his position and his competence to write on the +subject, etc. + +(2) What object had the author in view? + +(3) What is the main thesis of the book? + +(4) Why is it necessary that the hearer should read the book? + +Above all, a book talk should be interesting. How often have we seen a +speaker begin a book talk at a meeting by destroying all interest and +making sales almost impossible! The speaker holds up a book in view of +the audience and says: "Here is a book I want you to buy and read." That +settles it. The public has been taught to regard all efforts to sell +things as attacks upon their pocketbooks, and the speaker who begins by +announcing his intention to sell, at once makes himself an object of +suspicion. 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 +incidental. In our case this is largely reversed, but that does not +justify the speaker in rousing all the prejudices lying dormant in the +hearer's mind. + +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 sale. 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 it. + +His interest increases, 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 meeting. + +This is a good method, 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 varied. + +I will now submit a book talk which has enabled me to sell thousands of +copies of the book it deals with. This is a ten-cent book, and this +price is high enough for the speaker's experiments. The speaker will +later find it surprisingly easy, when he has mastered the art _to sell +fifty-cent and dollar books_. + +The speaker may use the substance of this talk in his own language, or, +commit it to memory and reproduce it verbatim. Any one who finds the +memorizing beyond his powers should abandon public speaking and devote +his energies to something easy. + + +BOOK TALK NO. 1. + +ENGELS' SOCIALISM, UTOPIAN AND SCIENTIFIC. + + For some time previous to the year 1875 the German Socialist + party had been divided into two camps--the Eisenachers and the + Lassallians. About that time they closed their ranks and + presented to the common enemy a united front. So great was their + increase of strength from that union that they were determined + never to divide again. They would preserve their newly won unity + at all costs. + + No sooner was this decision made than it seemed as if it was + destined to be overthrown. Professor Eugene Duehring, Privat + Docent of Berlin University, loudly proclaimed himself a convert + to Socialism. When this great figure from the bourgeois + intellectual world stepped boldly and somewhat noisily into the + arena, 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 oracle. + + This would have been well enough if Duehring 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 positions. But he was neither the one or the + other. He undertook, without the slightest qualification for the + task, to overthrow Marx and establish a new Socialism which + should be free from the lamentable blunders of the Marxian + school. + + Marx was a mere bungler and the whole matter must be set right + without delay. This was rather a large task, but the Professor + went at it in a large way. He did it in the approved German + manner. 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 matter, 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 theory. + + Duehring presented a long suffering world with three volumes + that were at least large enough to fill the supposed aching + void. These were: "A Course of Philosophy," "A Course of + Political and Social Science" and "A Critical History of + Political Economy and Socialism." + + These large volumes gave Duehring quite a standing among + ill-informed Socialists, who took long words for learning, and + obscurity for profundity. His followers became so numerous that + a new division of the ranks threatened and it became clear that + Duehring's large literary output must be answered. + + There was a man in the Socialist movement at that time who was + pre-eminently fitted for that task, who for over thirty years + had proven himself a master of discussion and an accomplished + scholar--Frederick Engels. + + Engels' friends urged him to rid the movement of this new + intellectual incubus. Engels pleaded he was already over busy + with those tasks, which show him to have been so patient and + prolific a worker. Finally, realizing the importance of the + case, he yielded. + + Duehring had wandered all over the universe to establish his + philosophy, and in his reply Engels would have to follow him. So + far from this deterring Engels, it was just this which made his + task attractive. He says in his preface of 1892: + + "I had to treat of all and every possible subject, from the + concepts of time and space to Bimetalism; from the eternity of + matter and motion to the perishable nature of moral ideas; from + Darwin's natural selection to the education of youth in a future + society. Anyhow, the systematic comprehensiveness of my opponent + gave me the opportunity of developing, in opposition to him, and + in a more connected form than had previously been done, the + views held by Marx and myself of this great variety of subjects. + And that was the principal reason which made me undertake this + otherwise ungrateful task." + + Dealing with the same point, in his biographical essay on + Engels, Kautsky says: + + "Duehring was a many-sided man. He wrote on Mathematics and + Mechanics, as well as on Philosophy and Political Economy, + Jurisprudence, Ancient History, etc. Into all these spheres he + was followed by Engels, who was as many-sided as Duehring but in + another way. 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 time. * * * + It is to the superficial many-sidedness of Duehring that we + owe the fact, that the 'Anti-Duehring' became a book which + treated the whole of modern science from the Marx-Engels + materialistic point of view. Next to 'Capital' the + 'Anti-Duehring' has become the fundamental work of modern + Socialism." + + Engels' reply was published in the Leipsic "Vorwaerts," in a + series of articles beginning early in 1877, and afterwards in a + volume entitled, "Mr. Duehring's Revolution in Science." This + book came to be known by its universal and popular title: + "Anti-Duehring." + + After the appearance of this book Duehring's influence + disappeared. Instead of a great leader in Socialism, Duehring + found himself regarded as a museum curiosity, so much so that + Kautsky, writing in 1887, said: + + "The occasion for the 'Anti-Duehring' has been long forgotten. + Not only is Duehring a thing of the past for the Social + Democracy, but the whole throng of academic and platonic + Socialists have been frightened away by the anti-Socialist + legislation, which at least had the one good effect to show + where the reliable supports of our movement are to be found." + + Out of Anti-Duehring came the most important Socialist pamphlet + ever published, unless, perhaps, we should except "The Communist + Manifesto," though even this is by no means certain. In 1892 + Engels related the story of its birth: + + "At the request of my friend, Paul Lafargue, now representative + of Lille in the French Chamber of Deputies, I arranged three + chapters of this book as a pamphlet, which he translated and + published in 1880, under the title: "Socialism, Utopian and + Scientific." From this French text a Polish and a Spanish + edition was prepared. In 1883, our German friends brought out + the pamphlet in the original language. Italian, Russian, Danish, + Dutch and Roumanian translations, based upon the German text, + have since been published. Thus, with the present English + edition, this little book circulates in ten languages. I am not + aware that any other Socialist work, not even our "Communist + Manifesto" of 1848 or Marx's "Capital," has been so often + translated. In Germany it has had four editions of about 20,000 + copies in all." + + The man who has the good fortune to become familiar with the + contents of this pamphlet in early life will never, in after + life, be able to estimate its full value as a factor in his + intellectual development. I have persuaded many people to buy it + and have invariably given them this advice: "Keep it in your + coat pocket by day and under your pillow by night, and read it + again and again until you know it almost by heart." + +At this point you may hold up the pamphlet and announce its price. If +this is done before the lecture, have the ushers pass through the +audience, each with a good supply, and beginning at the front row and +working rapidly so as not to unnecessarily delay the meeting. 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 +audience. A good deal depends on having live and capable ushers. Our big +sales at the Garrick are due to ushers being past masters in their art. + + +BOOK TALK NO 2. + +THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO. + + In the year 1848--over sixty years ago--Scientific Socialism was + born. 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 ago. + + The birth of Scientific Socialism came as the result of the + discovery of a great new truth. This truth revolutionized all + our ideas about society just as Darwin's discovery, eleven years + later, revolutionized our notions of organic life. + + From 1848 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 is. From that time we knew that the present + was carried in the womb of the past and the future is already + here in embryo. + + If you think you know the main outlines of the future society + yet cannot find those outlines already developing in the society + about you, you are nursing a delusion. You belong to the + Socialism of Utopia--if your future society is not already here + in part, it is "nowhere," as Utopia means. + + We know today that science does not consist of a mere collection + of facts. The facts of course are necessary, but science comes + only when we push through the facts and find the laws behind + them. + + The discovery that gave birth to Scientific Socialism had to do + with history. This discovery changed our ideas as to what + constitutes history. The rise and fall of kings, tales of bloody + wars, the news of camp and courts; these were supposed to be all + that was important in history. This has been well called: "Drum + and trumpet history." + + Since 1848 history is the story of the development of human + society. The introduction of machinery overshadows all kings and + courts in history, as we now know it, because it played a + greater part in social development than ten thousand kings. + + History itself is not a science but it is one of the chief parts + of "the science of society"--sociology. + + Historical movement like all movement proceeds by law. When Karl + Marx discovered the central law of history he became the real + founder of modern sociology. His discovery of this law of + history ranks with Newton's discovery of gravity or the + Copernican revolution in astronomy. It ranks Marx as one of the + men whose genius created a new epoch in human thinking. + + Marx made the discovery before 1848, but that date is immortal + because in that year it was published to the world. That date + ranks with 1859 when the "undying Darwin" gave us "The Origin of + Species." + + The book was not intended for a book and became a book only by + reason of its great importance. It was published as a political + manifesto--the manifesto of "The Communist League." Hence its + name--"The Communist Manifesto." This book is the foundation and + starting point of Scientific Socialism and is indispensable to + all students of social science or social questions. + + The book itself explains why it is not "The Socialist Manifesto" + as we might have expected. At that time the various groups using + Socialist as a title were Utopian and some of them positively + reactionary. There is a description and analysis of these groups + in the third chapter which shows why Marx had no part in them. + 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 + criticism. + + This great new principle is called: "The Materialistic + Conception of History." It is not mentioned by name in the + manifesto, but it is there like a living presence spreading + light in dark places of history which had never been penetrated + by previous thinkers. The key to all history is found in methods + of producing and distributing material wealth. Out of the + changes in this field all other social changes come. + + Forty years later Frederick Engels gave completeness to the + Manifesto by adding a preface which defines the main theory, + gives an estimate of its value, and explains his part as + co-author with Marx. + + No other book can ever take the place of the Communist + Manifesto. Its value grows with the passing years. It was the + first trumpet blast to announce the coming of the triumphant + proletariat. + + The Manifesto's first two chapters and its closing paragraph are + beyond all price. They are without parallel in the literature of + the world. They sparkle like "jewels on the stretched forefinger + of all time." + +Here the speaker may show the book and state its price, and proceed with +the selling. If the sale is made while the audience is leaving, nothing +further need be said, and if the sale is the last thing in the meeting +it is useless to ask the audience to remain seated during the sale. They +get irritated and the meeting breaks up in confusion. See that your +salesmen are posted at the exits where they will face the audience as it +leaves. 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 front, and while the audience was clamoring for +books which could not be had at the doors, these sellers were following +the audience in the rear with armfuls which they had no chance to sell. + +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 interest. There will be no loss of time making change if +the right priced books are sold. 10c, 25c, 50c or $1 are right prices. +At a public meeting it is a mistake to try to sell a book at an odd +price as 15c or 35c or 60c. The demand dies and the audience gets +impatient while the sellers are trying to make change. + +The speaker who endeavors to make a success of book-selling at his +meetings will find his labors doubled. The larger his sales the greater +his labors. 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 meetings. But the rewards are great. My trips are +always a financial success and the books I leave scattered on my trail +do far more good than the lectures I delivered. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +CONCLUSION + + +In concluding this series I will group several items of importance which +did not suggest themselves under any previous head. + +Gestures should be carefully watched, especially at the beginning, when +future habits are in the process of formation. They should not be +affected or mechanical like those of the child reciting something of +which it does not understand the sense. + +A good story is told of the old preacher who could weep at will and +marked his manuscript "weep here;" but, on one unfortunate occasion, to +the great consternation of his congregation, got his signals mixed, and +wept profusely during a reference to the recent marriage of two of his +parishioners. + +Never allow your thumb and fingers, especially the thumb, to stick out +from the palm at right angles like pens stuck in a potato. + +Never work the forearm from the elbow "pump-handle" fashion, but always +move the arms from the shoulders. Do not move the palms of your hands +toward yourself as if you were trying to gather something in, mesmerist +fashion, but always outward as is natural in giving something forth. + +Cultivate a narrative style. History, poetry, and all forms of +literature take their origin in the story-teller who once discharged all +their functions. The so-called dry facts of science, well told, make a +"story" of surpassing interest. + +If young, let no man despise thy youth. Plunge boldly in, blunder if +needs be, but do something; experiment with your theories. Let the +veteran who has no sympathy with your crude efforts "go to pot." The +lapse of years has made his early inflictions look to him like the +masterpieces of Burke and Chatham. + +Never slight a small audience. Do your best as though you had a crowded +theater. If you speak listlessly to a small gathering in a town, depend +on it next time you go there it will be still smaller. + +Preserve your health and take especial care of your throat. The speaker +who doesn't smoke has a great advantage, and when the throat is at all +relaxed smoking should be eschewed. The most dangerous time to smoke is +immediately after the close of a lecture. Then the cells are all exposed +from recent exercise, and it is positively wicked to so abuse them with +tobacco fumes when they have served you so well. It is equally wicked to +scald them with "straight" liquor. Any speaker who persists in either of +these habits will pay a heavy penalty. If these things must be done, at +least wait an hour or two after speaking. + +All this is just so much more true of street speaking as the throat is +more exhausted by the louder tone. + +When you have worked out your lecture, and are waiting for the hour to +strike, test its merit by this question: Does it contain enough valuable +information to make a distinct addition to the education of an average +listener? If you cannot affirm this, whatever merits otherwise it may +have, fundamentally, it fails. When the enthusiasm has worn off, your +audience should be able to decide that, in its acquaintance with modern +knowledge, a distinct step forward has been made. Anything else is +building on sand. + +Always be firm, positive, courageous. First get a mastery of the +question, and then let your audience realize that you know what you are +talking about. The great merit of a certain speaker of long ago, seems +to have been that "he spake with authority." Remember truth is not +decided by counting heads, and if you are correct, even though the +majority, in some cases in your own audience, may be against you, they +will be obliged eventually to come to your position. True, in the +meantime you may be obliged to suffer a temporary eclipse, but this is +one of the permanent possibilities of the career of the real teacher. + +Weigh carefully, investigate thoroughly, consult the authorities, be +sure of your ground and prepared to defend it against all comers, and +then-- + + "Plunge deep the rowels of thy speech, + Hold back no syllable of fire." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ART OF LECTURING*** + + +******* This file should be named 30565.txt or 30565.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/5/6/30565 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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