Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/34

 SUGGESTIONS ON BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES 15 far as they are alike, however, public speech is private speech magnified many-fold. This enlargement is dne to the fact that primarily pubUc speech employs so ex- 3. Public Speech tensively hint, suggestion. If in some UKs PRIVATE rather insignificant way the speaker is SPEECH ENiABGED timid, he may seem to the andience not snre of the truth, or possibly he may seem deceitful. Again, if in manner he seems even a little defiant, he may suggest bombast, egotism, possibly he may give out the hint that he is '^bluffing." And so a repel- lent voice is likely to arouse opposition to the speaker and to his cause: on the other hand, an attractive voice, a per- suasive one, tends toward a receptive and favorable attitude on the part of the hearer. And so a ** slouching** or a precise enunciation, grotesque or graceful gestures, intense feeling or colorless mumbling — every quality in serious public speaking is thrown, as it were, before the audience as a hint or sugges- tion to be enlarged many-fold. Now like every other art. Public Speaking is made up of many seemingly unimportant details. It is thought best to call attention to the most important of 4. Made UP OF these so-called '* small matters** of DETAILS which effective public speech is made. The mastery (always, of course, the relative mastery) of these ' ' small matters * * is the road to ef- fective speaking. Now there is no other way to effective delivery known to the serious men who are teaching Public Speaking in our universities and coUeges to-day than this: to direct the student in the development and most effective use of his own powers in Voice, Word-making or Enunciation, Physical Expression, and Intensity or Feeling. These are the qualities in deUvery. It seems well, therefore, to treat briefly of each of these fundamentals, these * ^ small matters, * * upon which the presen- tation of the speech depends. No other 5. The Voice element in the delivery is more deserv- ing of the attention of the student than the voice. The qualities of the voice are (a) Purity, (b) Strength, and (c) Flexibility.