CHAPTER XII

POWER IN HOLDING AN AUDIENCE

It may seem superfluous to say that a public speaker should be heard in order to successfully hold an audience, but it is nevertheless true that many speakers are not heard with ease and satisfaction. This is often due to the habit of speaking through half-closed teeth and mouth. A public speaker should train himself to naturally open his mouth wide enough to give the greatest freedom to his voice and articulation. The long sound of a in father and in similar words is frequently obscured. This long open position of the mouth is illustrated in the following sentence: Thou art thy father's child.

If the reader will pronounce these words before a looking-glass he will observe the long opening of the mouth necessary to their correct pronunciation. If the correct mouth position in these or any other sounds is modified in the least degree, the pronunciation will be correspondingly incorrect.

In practising distinct enunciation avoid the two extremes of slovenliness and pedantry. Pronunciation and articulation should never attract the attention of the listener. They should be simply and unobtrusively correct. Some one said of a certain preacher: "He speaks so distinctly I do not understand anything he says." The listener's

attention was so completely attracted to the manner of speaking that he lost sight of the subject.

For most occasions the speaker will require his chest tones for his public speaking work. This gives fulness, resonance, and depth to utterance; it is less taxing upon the speaker, if combined, as it should be, with abdominal breathing; and it is more agreeable to the listening ear. Head tones are responsible for much of the nasal twang heard on every side, and are largely the cause of weak and sore throats and "Monday-morning prostrations."

A public speaker should cultivate a conversational style of address. The day of stilted and bombastic oratory is passed. Audiences like and demand the most direct kind of speaking possible, and in words at once simple and idiomatic. Flowery speech, overwrought perorations, and oratorical flights are not now tolerated. This does not imply that intensity, progress, climax, and even a peroration have not their proper place and use, but it does mean that modern taste demands a colloquial style of utterance, adapted to the practical needs of men. Public speaking is merely heightened conversation, and the closer a man keeps to lines of naturalness and simplicity the greater will be his chances of success.

The preacher should be particularly careful not to fall into a certain uniform "tone," or as some one has called it, "a sanctimonious whine," but as a man talking to other men he should always employ a man's voice, use it in a manly style, and project it with manly force and vigor. Intoning, drawling, chanting, monotony and other unnatural tricks of delivery should be studiously avoided. This applies equally to "ministerial tone," singsong, wail

ing, clipping of consonants, undue prolongation of vowels, and other vocal eccentricities.

A speaker of real power must learn to emphasize his important thoughts, not by mere loudness of voice, nodding: of the head, or slapping the hands loudly together, but rather by inflection, change of pitch, judicious pausing, and by other intellectual means. Here, again, the public speaker might take a lesson from the actor who spends hours in careful and painstaking study of the emphasis of a single speech. Intelligent emphasis will do much toward guiding one away from meaningless declamation. It is the best evidence that the speaker knows "what he is talking about."

The beginning of an address or sermon calls for no particular action or gesture. The commencement should be a gradual unfoldment of the speaker's powers, vocal, physical and mental. As he enters more deeply into his thought, some slight gesture may be appropriately used, and changes made in his attitude and standing position. Gesture and action of the body should be used sparingly, however, it being better to use too little than too much. The extremes of standing stock-still or restlessly moving about are to be avoided. No better advice on this subject has ever been given than to "suit the action to the word, the word to the action.'

When the speaker stands to address his audience, he should assume a modest and easy attitude, and look his hearers straight in the eyes. The weight of the body should be on the forward part of the foot-not on the heels-the entire foot touching the floor. The knees should be straight. In turning from side to side the movements should be made at the waist, not at the neck. The latter

give a jerky effect, and impair the freedom of the throat. It is advisable at the outset to direct the voice to some one sitting at the back of the room.

When special effects are demanded by the thought, care should be taken not to employ too loud nor too high-keyed a voice, but rather to depend upon increased intensity, roundness, and depth of tone. The voice should be adapted to the size of the room in which one is speaking. When possible it is well to test the voice there beforehand. This is particularly desirable when one is to speak in an unusually large auditorium, or in one with which he is not familiar. If there is an echo, or should the audience be unusually scattered, there is special necessity for deliberate and distinct utterance.

In reading from a manuscript or book it should be so held, or placed upon a reading-stand, as to give an unobstructed view of the speaker's face. Anything that is to be read before an audience, be it sermon, speech, Bible, report, or announcement, should be thoroughly practised aloud in advance.

Once the speaker secures a hold upon his audience this advantage should not be relaxed until the end of his address. The voice may be softened and shaded, as the thought subsides and varies, but the nervous and concentrated energy of the speaker should continue to exercise its powerful control over the audience.

A public speaker will find it advantageous to cultivate a discriminating musical ear. There is the music of speech as there is of song. Symmetrical flow and rhythm and melody play an important part in fascinating the listener, and give added ease and fluency to the spoken word. Effects of onomatopoeia-words that partly disclose their

meaning in their sound-should be studied and intelligently used as elements of effective speech.

Varied thought calls for appropriate and natural variety in speech. A "wriggling" voice is not to be encouraged, nor should the same variety be too often repeated lest it, too, by its very repetition, become monotonous. A just sense of vocal values, of perspective, of modulation adapted to the thought, will best guide the speaker. He will also cultivate lightness of touch. Sounds that come down like a heavy foot soon become burdensome to the ear. The greatest skill and judgment are needed in varying the voice in force, color, key, and flexibility, to properly meet the demands of diversified thought.

The successful speaker should have force in his style. Not merely the force of loudness, but the force of earnestness and sincerity. It is the power behind the man that makes for effective oratory, the power "speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward to his object," this is truly the kind of eloquence to which every worthy public speaker should aspire.

Shrieking emphasis, vehement declamation, startling explosives, stamping the foot, pounding the desk or pulpit, are not evidences of self-possession nor of eloquence, and fail to inspire confidence on the part of the hearer. The cart-tail orator may harangue and scold his audience, but it is out of place in dignified address.

A deliberate style of speaking is desirable for most occasions. This prevents the crowding of words and obscuring of the thought. Frequent and varied pausing gives dignity and self-possession to the speaker, while at the same time the hearer has the opportunity of securing clear-cut