Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/83

64 In the analysis of Bryan, the leader, we may anticipate ByranBryan [sic], the orator. The orator voices the inarticulate thought of the people. Inspired with a passion for righteousness he calls a nation to repentance. Thus the orator becomes the living embodiment of a great truth—the Voice that seeks to penetrate the wilderness of respectable wrong and intrenched injustice. He who has something to say that ought to be said, and who knows how to give this message with impelling power, has perfected the finest of all the arts, the art of eloquence.

Mr. Bryan has taken his place among the great orators. He has studied this nation, its history and its problems, and out of this study has grown his supreme theme—the future greatness of the nation. In the accomplishment of his purpose he has been generously aided by nature. Of commanding physique, with a face that frankly expresses every shade of emotion, he looks the part of the orator. His carefully trained voice can be heard with distinctness in the largest auditorium, and carries to the farthermost sections when he speaks from chautauqua platforms.

His oratory has the essential sincerity of all effective speech. In hearing him address an audience one realizes that oratory is conversation raised to its highest power. He illustrates the definition of an orator given by George William Curtis who described Wendell Phillips on the platform as "a gentleman conversing." Mr. Bryan voices what he believes to be true and clothes his thought in language that cannot be misunderstood. His vocabulary, though of wide range, is simple. He never uses a classical derivative when a homely Saxon word will suffice. He finds his illustrations in the commonplace experiences of life rather than in the exceptional events of history. From the Bible, which in its essence all men understand, he draws a wealth of illustration, quotation, and incident. Like Mark Antony he speaks "right on" in the straightforward prose of every day.

Measured by the extent of his influence upon the thought and ideals of his time, Mr. Bryan's preeminence is undisputed. As a political speaker he has raised stump speaking