^Ii^4 MwiroagB ii inw ii iwo Hi ^^ I ■ ^ M s/ 9ii -%. STATE IvORMAL SCHOOL < h» iMfc***" i^'**" ORAL ENGLISH FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON ■ CHICAGO ■ DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO \ ORAL ENGLISH FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS By WILLIAM PALMER SMITH, B. S. BTUTVESANT HIGH SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY, N. Y. Nrw fork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1915 All rights reserved Copyright, 1913, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published December, 1913. Reprinted March, 1914; January, May, 1915. Nortoool) iPresa : Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. '-% DEDICATED TO THE BOYS OF STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL WHOSE NEED OF PRACTICAL HELPS IN ATTAINING BETTER SPOKEN ENGLISH HAS BEEN EVER IN MY MIND WHILE PREPARING THIS BOOK PREFACE The importance of good training in oral English receives more ready recognition by educators to-day than ever it did before. With the revolt against mechanical and stilted elocution has come the realization that without skilful in- struction and well directed practice, pupils cannot develop that "correctness and precision in the use of the mother tongue" which is one of the most apparent marks of an educated man. The effectiveness of instruction in oral English, as in most other subjects, is greatly increased by the use of a practical text-book. It is the purpose of this volume to emphasize the value of training in oral English, that pupils may know from the outset for what they are working; to outline graded lessons in enunciation and pronunciation with illustrations enough for definite assignments without resorting to other sources; to indicate how the speaking voice may be improved by appropriate exercises and proper use; to explain and illus- trate the most important principles of expression in a man- ner likely to impress High School pupils; to point out the relation of oral reading to conversation and public speaking; and to furnish appropriate selections which are unhackneyed, interesting and of literary merit. The arrangement and scope of the lessons in enunciation and pronunciation will be of great assistance to teachers in helping pupils to overcome foreign accents, for the diagrams indicate the position of the vocal organs in producing each vii viii PREFACE consonant sound, the sentences for drill give every consonant sound with all (or approximately all) its possible combina- tions with other consonants, the vowel sounds are described, copiously illustrated, and reviewed by lists of words to test the pupils' ability to recognize them, and words commonly mispronounced are classified according to the errors usually made in speaking them. A special effort has been made to include good selections from the works of modern authors, and to secure variety by culling extracts from history, biography, science, essays, fiction, verse and the drama. The purpose has not been to compile a collection of "pieces to speak," but, as many of the selections are well adapted to that purpose, the book will be useful to those desiring something new for public recitation. As short stories have a prominent place, the book will prove of service in literature classes when the short story and its treatment are discussed. In preparing this volume I have been conscious of the great debt of gratitude I owe to my former instructors, and to specialists whose works have been helpful. It is impossible to give credit to whom credit is due in all cases, but I wish to acknowledge my especial indebtedness to Dr. Charles W. Emerson and Professor Charles W. Kidder of the Emerson College of Oratory, Boston, Mass., to Pro- fessor S. H. Clark of Chicago University, to Dr. Guy Carleton Lee of Johns Hopkins University, to Dr. Naomi Norsworthy and Professor Herbert Vaughn Abbott of Columbia Univer- sity, to Emily M. Bishop, Arthur Edward Phillips and Samuel Arthur King. Having chosen selections for this book from many sources, I desire to express my deep sense of obligation to the authors (or their representatives) and publishers for their generous and courteous permission to reprint selections protected by PREFACE ix thoir copyrights. Acknowledgement of permission is made in connection with every such selection. My sincere thanks are extended to Frederick H. Law, chairman of the department of English at Stuyvesant High School, for his kindness in criticising the manuscript. William Palmer Smith. New York City, N. Y. June, 1913 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I PAGE The Value of Oral English 3 J The Divisions of Oral English 6 Formal Elements in Oral English 10 Position 10 Breathing 12 Enunciation 15 Pronunciation 46, Intellectual Elements in Oral English 78 The Study of Models 78 The Selection of a Topic 85 Practice 93 Vocabulary 95 Grasp of the Subject 98 Emotional Elements in Oral English 99 Emotional Expression 99 Feeling the Pulse of the Audience 101 Ability to Hold the Audience 102 Perception of Vocal Effects 103 A Flexible and Responsive Voice 107 Technical Elements in Oral English 112 Vocal Expression 112 Physical Response 144 The Preparation of Oral English Assignments 148 How to Prepare a Reading Lesson 148 How to Prepare a Selection for Public Presentation 149 How to Prepare an Original Speech 150 How to Prepare a Debate 151 xi xii TABLE OF CONTENTS PART II Selections for Practice Vitality p^^^ The Breaking of Pommers A. Conan Doyle 159 The Finish of Patsy Barnes Paul Laurence Dunbar 164 The Story of the Breeze Miguel Zamacois 169 Escape from Prison S. Weir Mitchell 171 The Race of Life Oliver Wendell Holmes 176 Song of the Chattahoochee Sidney Lanier 177 Log Driving Stewart Edward White 179 When Tulips Bloom Henry van Dijke 183 May Flowers Theodosia Garrison 184 The Eagle's Song Richard Alansfield 185 Falstaff's Valor .■ William Shakespeare 186 A Silly Old Man George R. Sims 190 Under the Sign of the Golden Shoe Alfred Noyes 191 The Electric Tram Alfred Noyes 193 When I Go Out on my Wheel Alfred James Waterhouse 194 Relative Values How Wendell Phillips Became an Anti-slavery Reformer, Mary A. Livermore 197 America, The Crucible of God Israel Zangwill 200 Hymn to the North Star Yi'illiam Cidlen Bryant 202 The Swan Creek Church Opened Ralph Connor 203 The Sea Bryan Waller Proctor 206 Scene From "Little Women" (Louisa M. Alcott), Dramatized by Marion Deforest 208 The Case of Fatty Simon Jesse Lynch Williams 211 Griggsby's Station James Whitcomb Riley 213 A Lodging for the Night Robert Louis Stevenson 215 The Man with his Hat in his Hand Clark Howell 219 A Court Lady Elizabeth Barrett Browning 221 Self-assertion in Speech Benjamin Franklin 223 Second Fiddle Richard Burton 224 Lincoln, the Man of the People Edwin Markhum 225 TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii PAGE The Story of Philip Nolan Edxoard Everett Hale 227 The Path to Peace William Howard Taft 231 Loyalty Newell Dwight Hillis 232 Said Abdallah Homer Davenport 234 Pictures Sergeant Vaughan as a Fireman Jacob A. Riis 239 The Death of the Dauphin Alphonse Daudet 241 A Vision of American History Henry Walter son 243 Marguerite John Greenleaf Whittier 245 A Passion in the Desert Honorc de Balzac 246 A Night among the Pines Robert Louis Stevenson 250 Tall-stoy George Ade 253 A Royal Marauder Charles G. D. Roberts 256 The Passing of Captain Jewctt George W. Cable 259 Burial of Dundee William Edmondstoune Aytoun 262 Rescued from the Stadthouse Tower Charles Reade 266 The Miracle of the Peach-Tree Maurice Hewlett 270 Antelope the Sioux Scout C. Alexander Eastman 274 Pirates Alfred Noyes 277 Nandi Lion Hunting Theodore Roosevelt 278 The King's Tragedy Dante Gabriel Rossetti 282 Directness At Abbotsford with Scott Washington Irving 291 A Morning in a Village of Central Africa Herbert Ward 293 Sea Ice and Icebergs John Tyndall 296 Struggling for an Education Booker T. Washington 298 Standards of Success Brander Matthews 300 The Premiere of "She Stoops to Conquer" . . .F. Frankfort Moore 302 The Italian in England Robert Browning 305 Getting Started as a Lawyer Paul Leicester Ford 310 Where Edible Birds' Nests are Gathered H. Wilfred Walker 313 John Brown's Last Speech James Redpath 316 Consecration to Country Abraham Lincoln 318 Henry Hudson's Last Voyage Henry van Dyke 319 Sidney Carton's Sacrifice (Charles Dickens), Dramatized by Freeman Wills 324 xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE The Discovery of the North Pole Robert E. Peary 326 As Men Should Leonard B. Kendall 329 American Integrity Charles Evans Hughes 331 Climbing to a Steeple-top Cleveland Moffett 333 Extract from Inaugural Address Woodrow Wilson 336 PART I ORAL ENGLISH tOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS THE VALUE OF ORAL ENGLISH Good Oral English an Element of Success. — Every high school pupil should take as much interest in improving his oral English as he does in developing his body, for both are closely related to success in life. The man with little physical endurance, sees his stronger neighbors outdo him in efficient work and length of service. In a similar way, the man with a poor command of oral English, is compelled to see his rivals of better address win friends, secure positions, and gain promotions that he cannot attain. Skill in the use of the mother tongue is, therefore, a valuable asset to a man as well as a mark of his education. This being true, boys and girls cannot afford to persist in habits of speech that continually place them at a disadvantage. The Value of a Good Oral Use of English Advantages at School. — The advantages that result from a good command of oral English begin to manifest them- selves very early. At school there is frequently recurring evidence that it pays to cultivate good habits of speech. In the mathematics class a boy may be able to work out a certain problem; but if his slovenly speech hinders him from making a satisfactory explanation, he cannot be credited with understanding it. A declension in German may be spoiled by faulty articulation, an answer to a question in English, by mispronunciation, and a statement of how to 3 4 ORAL ENGLISH ( care for a plane in joinery maj'- be made incomprehensible b}^ awkward sentences. Other things being equal, the stu- dent with a fair command of spoken English will always outrank his classmate who has careless habits of speech. Advantages in Social Relations. — Then, too, in meeting people in a social way a boy or girl finds it a great advan- tage to be able to talk well. Wherever one goes, he will make some kind of impression upon the people he meets. Whether this impression be favorable or not, will depend upon his general appearance, manners and conversation. Through his conversation he will reveal himself most, as it is easy to tell by the way he talks whether a boy is gentle- manly or ungentlemanly, modest or conceited, painstaking or careless, intelligent or ignorant. The boy who carefully brushes his coat and combs his hair, but never tries to polish his speech, uses poor judgment; so does the girl who is fastidious regarding the colors of her dress, but makes no effort to soften the strident tones of her voice. Among people of real refinement slovenly speech and harsh voices are as unwelcome as slovenliness or lack of harmony in dress. Advantages in Business. — Desirable as it is to be able to use oral English well in social relations, it is many times more so in business. Correct written English for business purposes has been much emphasized by textbooks and teachers; and its importance has not been exaggerated. But it is time that oral English, anticipating business needs, should receive more attention. As soon as a candidate applies in person for a position, lie is judged by his spoken English. No matter how excellent 1 letter of application he may have written, if he makes a poor impression in a personal interview with his prospective employer, his chances of securing the position are small. THE VALUE OF ORAL ENGLISH 5 No employer wishes a secretary with a high pitched, irritat- ing voice; a mumbhng clerk whose spoken words are seldom understood; a hesitating, stammering assistant who cannot answer inquiries promptly and briefly; a diffident salesman who cannot explain the superiority of goods and persuade a deliberating customer to buy; or a superintendent, dis- courteous in speech, who offends patrons and drives them away. We are obliged to admit that business people are more often judged by their spoken words than they are by their written ones; and that awkward conversation, slovenly utterance, incorrect pronunciation and disagreeable voices all count against them. Knowing this, all farseeing boys and girls will use much care in forming their habits of speech, in order that their spoken English may always be a help and never a hindrance to them in business. Essential for Public Speaking. — Besides these every day advantages that come from a good command of oral English — advantages that should be more often pointed out to the youth of our country than they are — there also results a better equipment for public speaking. To speak in public one must have confidence in himself, and confidence comes from the realization that one has something to say and can say it well. In a country such as ours, where demo- cratic institutions impose many responsibilities upon the individual citizen, men are expected to participate in many public gatherings by voicing their convictions. We have political assemblies, business organizations, religious meet- ings, social clubs, athletic associations, leagues, circles and societies without number. In all of these, mutual interests must be discussed, and plans for new activities advocated; so there is always a demand for the person who can think upon his feet and state his ideas definitely and clearly. Such 6 ORAL ENGLISH a man, if he is upright and' sincere, will become influential among his associates — a leader among men. Permanency of Attainments in Spoken English. — The ability to use oral English effectively, cannot be attained suddenly, neither can it be assumed and cast aside like a garment. It must be developed gradually in the individual. A boy never becomes a good baseball player unless he is faithful in practice and heeds the advice of his coach; similarly without repeated efforts to read and speak well, and atten- tion to the criticisms of his instructor, no pupil can hope to improve his vocal expression. There must be rightly di- rected and persistent effort if one wishes to improve his spoken EngHsh; but whatever proficiency is attained in this direction becomes a part of a man's stock in trade for life. The retention of the art of speaking, unlike vocal and instrumental music, does not depend upon practice. It is always at command — a permanent accomplishment. THE DIVISIONS OF ORAL ENGLISH How the Divisions are Related. Oral English includes (1) conversation, (2) reading aloud and (3) public speaking. In all of these the same organs of speech, the same words, and similar varieties of tone and physical response, are em- ployed. Conversation and public address are most alike. Indeed, no distinct line of demarcation can be drawn be- tween them, because formal conversation with a score or more of listeners has the semblance of public address, and a public address delivered in an intimate manner to a small audience has the semblance of conversation. Generally speaking, however, conversation is intimate and informal, as contrasted with the dignity of public address. Ability to converse well results partly from one's individual attain- THE DIVISIONS OF ORAL EXGLISH 7 ments, and partty from the stimulus of the occasion or of those who hstcn. We all know that we talk better with certain people than with others, for some seem to call forth our best. We may be sure, then, that ease and skill in con- versation come not only from a well rounded development, but also from the cultivation of worthy associates. Reading aloud is distinctly interpretive. The reader tries to impress his audience with what the author's sentences mean to him. Sometimes conversationalists and public speakers really do a very similar thing, for they quote, paraphrase, or sum- marize what they have read or heard. There are plenty of people who would like to become skillful in conversation or public speaking, but they scorn reading aloud. They do not appreciate that reading aloud is the very best kind of train- ing for the other forms of oral English. Poor Spoken English Results from Little Reading Aloud. — We are called a harsh voiced, slovenly-spoken gen- eration, that depreciates the proud oral traditions of the past. The reason often assigned for this decay in our manner of speech, is that we so generally neglect reading aloud. Read- ing aloud does not have the place it once had in the curricu- lum of our schools; and the family is no longer a reading circle, as in the days of our grandfathers. We snatch books and magazines and devour them in sohtude, as a dog grabs a bone and retires to a corner for a solitary feast. We pay a dear price for our silent reading, because we miss much of the beauty and form of literature and language. The Cause Suggests a Remedy. — By considering the cause of our deficiency in spoken English, we have found a remedy for it. Some one has said, "Set almost any one to reading a book aloud, and mark the degraded wretched- ness of his utterance. Keep him at it, and mark the inevi- table improvement in his speech." 8 ORAL ENGLISH The Complexity of Oral Reading. — Audible reading is one of the most complex subjects we study. In the reading of a single sentence, various physical and mental states may be manifested, while enunciation, pronunciation, accuracy, time, pitch, force, quality and other elements are wonderfully com- bined. To improve in oral reading, then, we must know what elements contribute to good reading aloud, and find out in which of these elen^ents we are weak. The weak points being known, efforts should be directed to strengthen them. The following table indicates the most important elements of good reading aloud, and compares these items with the most important elements of good spoken English. It is readily seen that both call forth the same physical control, the same vocal powers, the same attention to expression, the same effort to hold the audience and similar mental activities. For this reason, cultivating one's power in oral reading will at the same time cultivate his English in conversation or in public speaking. ELEMENTS OF GOOD ORAL ELEMENTS OF GOOD READING SPOKEN ENGLISH (Interpreting the thought of another) (Expressing one's own thought) I. The Formal Elements 1. A good position 1. A good position 2. Proper control of breath 2. Proper control of breath 3. Distinct enunciation 3. Distinct enunciation 4. Approved pronunciation of 4. Approved pronunciation of words words n. Intellectual Elements 1. Accuracy — not omitting or 1, Facility in oral composition changing words 2. Appreciation of grammatical 2. Application of grammatical relations rules THE DIVISIONS OF ORAL ENGLISH 9 3. A vivid imagination to pic- ture scen(^s described 4. Mental grasp of the author's thought 5. Familiarity with many words 5. Vivid mental pictures with ability to describe them Vital, original thought di- rected to serve the au- dience, the occasion and the speaker's purpose Ability to use many words correctly III. Emotional Elements 1 to the 1 Emotional response author's thought 2. Emotional sensitiveness which feels the pulse of the audience 3. Ability to impress the hearers with the author's thought and hold their attention 4. An acute ear — keen percep- tion (natural or acquired) of vocal effects to the Emotional response speaker's thought 2. Emotional sensitiveness which feels the pulse of t4ie audience 3. Ability to impress the hearers with the speaker's o'svn thought and hold their attention 4. An acute ear — keen percep- tion (natural or acquired) of vocal effects IV. Technical Elements Vocal expression — a man- agement of the voice by time, pitch, force and qual- ity which will make the vocal effects harmonize with the author's thought Physical response to the author's thought in facial expression, bearing and gesture 1. Vocal expression — a man- agement of the voice by time, pitch, force and qual- ity which will make the vocal effects harmonize with the speaker's thought 2. Physical response to the speaker's thought in facial expression, bearing and gesture. / / FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH Having analyzed good oral reading into its component elements, and compared them with the elements of good speech, the next step is to consider each of the elements in turn, that we may find out how it contributes to excellence in reading aloud and efficiency in speech, an^ow one may improve his reading and speech by strengthening that par- ticular element. ^ POSITION Effect of Position upon Voice. — The position assumed in reading or speaking should always be considered, because it affects the voice, the speaker himself and his audience. The voice is a quick reporter of physical conditions: for a lifeless tone of voice results from taking a lazy position, a squeezed tone from cramping the chest and throat, and an animated tone from standing alert. By the poise of the head the tone is given general direction. Bow the head, and you aim the tone at the floor; raise the chin, and you send it toward the ceiling. A marksman aims his rifle in the direction he wishes the charge to travel. We should aim the voice where we wish it to go. Effect of Position upon the Reader or Speaker.— In a good position a reader (or speaker) is less likely to be self- conscious and ill at ease. He forgets that he has hands and feet, and feels stronger and more confident. With broadened chest, he gives his lungs an opportunity to breathe freely and easily, so that he can swing through a long sentence 10 FORMAL ELEMENTS L\ ORAL ENGLISH 11 with no nervous gaspings for fresh suppKes of air. From such a position, the speaker can easily make a transition to an- other position, or enforce his thought by gesture. If then reading or speaking is prolonged, he will be less fatigued at the close, than he would have been had he persisted in bad positions throughout his reading or discourse. Effect of Speaker's Position upon the Audience. — As soon as a speaker steps upon a platform, the auditors an- ticipate the character of his address from his walk, and his position in sitting or standing. If he slouches across the stage and slumps into a seat, they are likely to be more or less prejudiced against him from the first. A bad, early impression of this kind may be overcome, but only with great difficulty. If a speaker persists all through his lec- ture in certain mannerisms, such as leaning over a table or running his fingers through his hair, the audience cannot help thinking more about his actions, than they do about what he says. Self control on the part of the speaker in manner and bearing tends to concentrate the minds of the audience upon what is being read or discussed; and any ec- centricities that detract from this poise are always reflected in the character of the attention given by the listeners. Directions for a Good Standing Position in Reading or Speaking. — Exercises given in gymnasia for securing a correct standing position are familiar to all teachers and most pupils, and can be introduced in the oral English class at the discretion of the teacher. The following directions suggest the most important points to be observed. 1. Stand in a wide awake manner. ^ 2. Place the weight of the body upon one foot. 3. Rest the other foot lightly upon the floor. 4. See that the weight of the body is directly over the ball of the supporting foot. \^ 12 ORAL ENGLISH 5. Hold the head erect, but avoid making the muscles of the neck rigid. 6. Keep the shoulders even, and move them upward and back- ward enough to broaden the chest, but not far enough to narrow the back. 7. Raise the chest, as when taking a deep breath. 8. Hold the book in the left hand, if reading. 9. Let the right hand and arm hang passively at the side, except when needed to turn the pages. 10. When without a book, allow both arms to remain passively at the sides that they may be ready any instant to reinforce the thought by gesture. Can you give a good reason for complying with each of the above directions? BREATHING Methods of Breathing. — The control of the breath has an important effect upon reading or speaking. Breathing properly makes the voice stronger and more agreeable in quality, diminishes the amount of effort on the part of the reader (or speaker), and promotes the health of the throat and vocal organs. There are three methods of breathing: 1. Thoracic or chest breathing when the air is drawn into and forced from the lungs by the raising and lowering of the chest, accompanied usually by a similar movement of the shoulders. 2. Costal or rib breathing when breathing is accomplished by the movement of the lower ribs, and the action of the muscles between them. 3. Abdominal breathing when the muscles of the abdomen perform the work of emptying and fdling the lungs. Correct Breathing. — To ])reathe correctly, one should combine the costal and abdominal methods: inhaling and FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 13 exhaling the air through the nose and not through the moirth. By combining the costal and abdominal methods of breath- ing, a large volume of air can be stored in the lung cavity, and as a result a full, round tone can be produced. ''^ Control of Breath. — To control the breath well is the next consideration. \.Only sufficient breath to produce the words should be allowed to pass the lips. If too much breath is allowed to escape while speaking, the tones become breathy, the vocalization seems labored, the sentences are chopped by too frequent breathing and in extreme cases there may be audible gasping for breath. EXERCISES FOR DEEP BREATHING In all breathing exercises inhale and exliale through the nostrils, and not through the mouth. 1. Take a good standing position with the weight on both feet. Rise on the toes an instant to see that the weight is directly over the balls of the feet. While inhaling, raise the arms slowly to a horizon- tal position; then move them upward till you can lock the thumbs above the head. Exhaling slowly, lower the arms reversing the movement, till they are in position at the sides. 2. Place the base of the hands upon the lower ribs with the fingers pointing directly forward and the palms parallel. Inhaling slowly, force tlie hands as far apart as possible, by the outward movement of the lower ribs and the muscular wall of the cliest. Keeping the hands in the same position, push against the lower ribs during ex- piration, until the hands are as near to each other as extreme con- traction of the chest wall will bring them. Repeat the exercise. 3. Without the aid of the hands on the floating ribs, breathe deeply and deliberately, and endeavor to secure as free a movement of the lower ribs as was attained in exercise number two. 4. Inhaling deliberately, at the same time lower the head directly backward. Exhaling in a like manner, raise the head to its usual position. Repeat the exercise. 14 ORAL ENGLISH 5. Take a full, deep breath. Holding the air in the lungs, percuss the chest lightly with clenched fists. This will force the air into all the cells of the lungs to the very apexes. EXERCISES FOR CONTROL OF BREATH 1. Fill the lungs well with air; then hum with the lips closed, using only enough breath to produce the tone. Stop when obliged to breathe again. 2. After a full inflation of the lungs, give the sound of s, economiz- ing the breath in order to continue the soimd as long as convenient with one breath. 3. Having filled the lungs to their capacity, see how far you can count without taking another breath. 4. Vary the previous exercise by endeavoring to repeat the alpha- bet several times, without taking more air into the lungs. 5. Pack the lungs with air, then purse the lips as in whistling. Exhale very gradually, producing a faint whistling tone, until the supply of air is exliausted. Repeat, timing yourself with a watch, to see for how many seconds you can give the whistling tone. 6. Practice reading the following paragraph, striving to use as few breaths as possible. But when eloquence is something more than a trick of art, or a juggle with words; when it has a higher aim than to tickle the ear, or to charm the imagination as the sparkling eye and dazzling scales of the serpent enchant the hovering bird; when it has a higher in- spiration than that which produces "the sounding brass and tinkling cymbal" of merely fascinating speech; when it is armed with a thunderbolt of powerful thought, and winged with lofty feeling; when the electric current of sympathy is established, and the orator sends upon it thrill after thrill of sentiment and emotion, vibrating and pulsating to the sensibilities of his hearers, as if their very heart strings were held in the grasp of his trembling fingers; when it strips those to whom it is addressed of their independence, invests them with its own life, and makes them obedient to a strange nature, as the mighty ocean tides follow the path of the moon ; when it divests men of their peculiar qualities and affections, and turns a vast multitude into one man, giving to them but one heart, one pulse, and one voice, and that an echo of the speaker's, — then, FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 15 indeed, it becomes not only a delight, but a power, and a power greater than kings or military chieftains can command^. c William Matthews. ^ ENUNCIATION It is impossible to deal with the topics of enunciation and pronunciation without first considering the vocal apparatus and the elements of our English speech. I ^ The Vocal Apparatus f^The Human Voice like a Musical Instrument. — The human voice is like a wind instrument. - The lungs corre- spond to the bellows, the vocal cords to the strings, and the resonant chambers (the nares, pharynx, mouth, and trachea) to a sounding board or box. The column of air rising from the lungs during expiration causes the vocal cords to vibrate. Their vibrations produce a tone, high or low, according to their taut or lax condition, and the tone is enlarged or re- echoed by the resonant chambers. If the vocal apparatus in- cluded nothing else, we could give only humming tones on the various pitches of the scale. ^But the tone can be molded by the organs of articulation; namely, the lips, teeth, tongue, and palate. This enables us to produce a great variety of sounds simply by changing the adjustment of these organs, and making the mold through which the tone passes into different shapes. The Number of Vowel and Consonant Elements in Eng- lish. — In speaking English, we adjust the organs of artic- ulation into enough different positions to produce twenty- five distinct vowel sounds (including diphthongs, but omitting obscure sounds) and twenty-six distinct consonant sounds. Other languages have some sounds that do not ^ Reprinted by permission of Scott, Foresman & Co. 16 ORAL ENGLISH occur in ours, so the human vocal instrument is capable of making more sounds than are found in our language. ^ Elements of Language The most common division of the elements of English speech is into vowels and consonants. Vowels are produced by the tone passing freely through the open mouth. Con- sonants are formed by the tone passing through the mouth when it is obstructed by some adjustment of the lips, teeth, tongue or palate. Compare the formation of A with that oi B, D and hard G. The elements of language according to sound, are divided into tan.Lcs,_subtonics and atonies. The tonics are clear, open, unobstructed tones. All vowels and diphthongs belong to this class. The subtonics are undertones, or modified tones in which the voice is modified by the organs of articulation, instead of passing freely through the open mouth.. The atonies are sounds without tone or voice. They are breath- ings modified by the organs of articulation. Consonant sounds, when considered according to formation, are divided into labials, Unguals and palatals. Labials are the consonant sounds formed chiefly with the lips. lAnguals are the consonant sounds formed chiefly by the action of the tongue. Palatals are the consonant sounds formed chiefly by the aid of the palate. Cognates are two consonant sounds formed by similar positions of the organs of articulation, one of which is a subtonic and the other an atonic. B and P are cognates. The following table of English elements will assist the pupil in learning to distinguish English vowel and consonant sounds according to sound, and the consonants according to formation. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 17 TONICS SUBTONICS ATONICS [ A Bbib Ppipc E Labials M mum Labials ■ I V vivid Ffife O Wwild WH when Vowels • u W (some- ' Rrice R press times) L hkely L flame Y (some- Ddid T tight times') N nun LiNGUALS ■ J judge Z zone TH then LiNGUALS 1 CH child S son TH thin ou ZH azure SH :;hun ow 01 Diphthongs Ggag [ K kick OY Palatals NG ring Palatals I Yyet Ytune Hhow A third sound of R known as Glide R is the sound of R as it occurs immediately after a vowel, as in dare, garnet, fear, hurl, etc. Y itself never is an atonic sound, but as the initial sound of long U is Y, we get the effect of atonic Y in the word tune just as we have atonic R in press and atonic L inflame. Notice that H has no cognate. ^ Good Enunciation Essential to Good Oral English. — One of the prime essentials of good oral English is distinct enunciation. The entire purpose of conversation, reading or public speaking is defeated, if the speaker does not make himself clearly heard. Such a speaker or reader might better remain silent; for people cannot feel otherwise than im- patient, insulted and bored when compelled to strain their 18 ORAL ENGLISH ears trying to understand a speaker's half articulated sen- tences. ^ Good Enunciation Defined. — Good enunciation is the utterance of elementary sounds by precise and accurate movements of the organs of articulation, so that the sounds are clear cut in form and distinctly audible. \ Aids to Good Enunciation As aids to good enunciation, one should aim to 1. control the breath well, that breathy utterance may be avoided 2. secure a free movement of the lower jaw, that the tone may escape through a well opened mouth 3. gain mobility of the lips 4. retain the tongue in the mouth, that lisping may not mar speech 5. focus the tone in front of the face, not in the mouth or throat 6. develop resonance of voice, that there may be no nasality 7. utter words with such a degree of promptness, that there may be no suggestion of drawling them 8. shun the habit of rapid utterance, and the running of words together 9. pronounce beginning and final consonants with es- pecial care 10. give subtonic consonants their full value, that they may not become atonies 11. train the organs of articulation to take an accurate position for each consonant eknncnt. Enunciation Allied with the Utterance of Consonants. — It is evident that enunciation dcpcuids largely upon the Place the Fingers Upon the Throat FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 19 manner in which consonant sounds are uttered; while pro- nunciation is more intimately related to the production of vowel sounds. For this reason, some knowledge of the formation of the various consonant sounds, with drill upon those sounds taken alone and in various combinations, proves helpful in gaining better habits of enunciation. ^ GRADED LESSONS IN ENUNCIATION LESSON I B smdP Recall the difference in formation between vowels and consonants. Give an illustration of each. How are consonants divided according to formation? Illustrate each class. To which class do B and P belong? With the fingers upon the throat near the voice box (see illustration), pronounce the words hook and pound, and compare the production of B and P. Watch one of your classmates while he pronounces the same two words, and note the action of his lips for B and P. In what way are B and P alike? In what respect are they different? Practice reading the following sentences, taking care to enunciate the consonants B and P accurately. Whisper the sentences with exaggerated lip action, and then speak them in the clearest possible conversational tone. B "The brute bullet broke through the brain that could think for the rest." B Bettie Botta bought a bit of butter. "But," she said, "this butter's bitter; if I put it in my batter, it will make 20 ORAL ENGLISH my batter bitter; but a bit of better butter will mak« my bitter batter better." Position for B 1. Nares 2. Palate 3. Roof of Mouth 4. Upper Gum 5. Upper Lip 6. Lower Lip 7. Point of Tongue 8. Top of Tongue 9. Back of Tongue 10. Epiglottis 11. Esophagus 12. Vocal chords vibrating BD The robed scribe scrubbed and rubbed the ribbed board. BL Cable blamed the bleak blast for his blighted blooms. BR Brayton brought his bride brown brocades and bright, brazen brackets. V" BZ Gibbs broke two ribs when caught between the hubs of the cabs. BLD He was so humbled, because he had gambled and lost, that he trembled and stumbled on the pebbled walk and was disabled. BLZ Mr. Bumble's footman stumbles about the stables, quib- bles and squabbles over baubles, and doubles his trou- bles. P Pittsburgh's portly pitcher practiced putting parabolas past the plate, and promptly paralyzed Painesville's opposing players. PL good planter! Please pluck a platter of plump plums from the plentiful plot on the plateau. PN Sharpen your ax, deepen the groove in the misshapen aspen branch, and then tie it with a hempen rope. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 21 PS PT PR Tlio prosaic priest's pronounced reproof of imprudent pranks, provoked the i)rofiigate and profane to protest. He strips the shops, ships over the deeps heaps of grapes, scollops, caps, tops, and whips and hopes while he sleeps to escape the cops. Accepting the adei)t's advice, I leapt from the gi'ound, crept to the knoll, whipt my field glass from its case and swept with rapt gaze the cloud- capped mountains. X PTH Who knows the depth of the sea? PLD As the current rippled along, the men grappled and toppled into the tide. PLZ Mr. Popple's apples are worth many opals. PXD When the new market opened, the rivalry sharpened and prices cheap- ened. X \ Position for P PNZ If nothing happens, the pod opens when it ripens. PST Much time has elapsed, but still thou dipp'st thy spoon daintily and sipp'st thj' tea leisurely. LESSON n M Pronounce the word aim, observing how the sound of M is made. According to formation, w^hat kind of a consonant is Mf With the fingers on the throat, pronounce the word again. To which division according to sound, does it belong? Compare the way M is made with the way you make the sounds of B and P. Pronounce cah, cap and am, noticing how you finish the three consonant sounds ending those words. You will ob- 22 ORAL ENGLISH serve that the lips are separated in finishing the sounds of B and P, but remain together for M. Try to prolong these three sounds. How does M differ from the two other sounds in this exercise? Prolong the sound of M again, ob- serving its peculiar resonance. Where does the resonance seem to come from? M is sometimes called a nasal ele- ment. Can you tell why it is so ' /|>^\ j called? ' / / Use the following sentences for prac- Position for M tice, until you can make M in any combination, with accurate lip action, good resonance and distinctness. M Milwaukee's museum manager mustered mammoth mam- mals, mischievous monkeys, embalmed mummies, mounted . mink, minute mollusks, a mysterious mermaid and many more amazing marvels. MD The plumed knight, famed for unnamed deeds, was ashamed that he had roamed about unarmed. MF Doctor Humphrey's experiment on the lymph was a great triumph. )/ MP From the camp, we saw the humpbacked tramp limp toward ^ the swamp and slump down in the hemp near a stump. MZ In his dreams, he seems to leave his rooms and roams among the tombs. MPS Under the crimson lamps, the imp thumps the table; and trumps the chump's card. MPT The unkempt man, when promptly told by llic judge that he was not exempt from the law, jumped forward and stamped. / MTH No warmth could warm him. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLLSH 23 LESSON III V and F Pronounce the word van. Describe the position of the lips while producing the sound of V. Pronounce the word fame. Compare the position of the lips in making F with the position required for V. What are V and F according to formation? Position for V Position for F With the fingers on the throat, give the sound of V and then the sound of F. What are V and F according to sound? Can these two sounds be prolonged? What other con- sonant sound have we considered that can be prolonged? V and F occur in a variety of combinations. Master them all by a correct position of the lower lip against the upper teeth, and by plenty of practice. V A vagrant and voluble ventriloquist visited five velvet- vested vergers, and vouchsafing imitative ventures on the veranda, he raved like a violent votary vilifying vicious vixens, Aailgar vagabonds and vile vandals. VD When the depraved and unnerved man revived, he heaved a sigh and said he believed he had been deceived. 24 ORAL ENGLISH VL The frivolous group of cavalry reveled as they traveled along the level, graveled road, and were uncivil to the naval cadet at the hovel. VN Stephen had driven eleven miles to New Haven with seven witnesses, but even then the sloven was proven a craven. VZ We, ourselves, read how the elves from the caves having seized the loaves from the shelves, made dives into the waves; while the wives following them with gyves lost their lives, VW It was near the reservoir that the knight did his devoir. VLD We marveled at the patient sister deviled by the dishevelled idiot, who only driveled and sniveled as he unraveled her knitting. VST Believ'st thou that if thou leav'st home and liv'st among strangers, thou reliev'st thyself of responsibility? F The French frigates facing the foreign foe and fearing to fight the famous fleet, fired frequent, futile fusilades and fled over the flood. FL The flag floats and flutters on the staff, the tent flap flops flauntingly, and a flock of flickers fleck and flit in their flight, as Floyd muffles liis flute and flatters flaxen haired Florence. FN Stiffen your fingers, and place a hyphen in the word between roughen and orphan. You will deafen me, if you do not soften your voice more often. FR French's freak friend frequented the fraternity on Fridays, until Fred freezingly frowned at his freshness and frankly called him a fraud. FS From the roofs of the town, we saw the bailiff's skiff laden with heavy stuff's flounder on the reefs near the cliffs. FT Bereft of the gift and cut adrift to shift alone, the daft and crafty fellow oft committed deft thefts and forged drafts. FLD Our guide shuffled through the corridor, and led us to a close room where men scuffled and we nearly stifled; but we re- mained until the rifled loot was raffled oft'. FLZ The hag muffles herself in a dress of ruffles that baffles descrip- tion, shuffles along the street, and snuffles at trifles. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 25 FST He that snuff 'st, scoff 'st and laugh 'st at the unfortunate, is worse than he that rebuff'st a friend. FTH The fifth of the month was Richard's twelfth birthday. FTS He commits no thefts and accepts no gifts; but sleeps in lofts where the snow often sifts in forming drifts, and the wind when it shifts chills him with drafts. LESSON IV W and WH Name the labials studied in the last three lessons. Pronouncing the word war, observe the movement neces- sary to produce the sound of W. To what class does W be- long according to formation? Apply the usual test (placing the fingers on the throat) and tell what W is according to sound. Position for W Position for WH Pronounce what, noting how WH is formed. Here we have two consonants standing for the sound that we make and hear. Pronounce ivhey, whelp and whmyard. With what sound does WH begin? Notice that the combination is really HW instead of WH in all such words. 26 ORAL ENGLISH To what class does WH belong according to form? To what class according to sound? Can W and WH be prolonged? Do W and WH illustrate cognates? Name all the cognates that are labials. Note. W is never immediately followed by any con.sonant sound; because WH is really pronounced HW, and words like wrong, wrought and wrestle have the W silent. W Will Willie win Wilmington's wingmanship wallet? Willie will. Worn and wan with worry, wayward Walter wakened, washed wearily, welcomed the waiter with warm waffles, went wan- dering widely wishing for work; but while walking, wended his way to widows William's waxworks, where wags and wit- less women waste their wages. Note. .People familiar with certain foreign languages, have difficulty with the English W, substituting for it the sound of V. In such cases, the following paragraph with both W and V occurring frequently, gives good practice for differentiating the two sounds. W and V On Wednesday we took a vender's wagon, and ventured on our way w^est from Vanwert. We voted to wire ahead for warm viands at Waverley. When we arrived at Waverley, we viewed a vacant looking hotel with a wide veranda. There a vulgar w'oman wondered wiiy we vexed her with extra work; and later a vivacious wench, as a waitress, served us with warm veal, wilted vegetables, vanilla wafers, very vile wine and vermicious walnuts. Note. Frequently we hear WH pronounced exactly like W, as wither for whither, warf for wharf, etc. Practice on the following sen- tences, till you are positive you do not make this error. WH (HW) What wliim led White Whitney to whittle, whistle and whimper near the wharf where the floundering whale did wheel and whirl? While wheeling wheat to the wharf, Whijiple Whitmore whetted with whiffs of whiskey, whijiped and whacked his white mare until she wheezed and whinnied. He did not say bad ivig, care ivhelher, long ircal and proud whale; but mad whig, fair weather, strong wheel and loud wail. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 27 LESSON V L Observe the action of the vocal organs in producing L, as in the word land. Notice the position of the point of the tongue, and how the voice passes at the sides. Compare L in land with L in fled. What other consonants are made with the point of the tongue in a similar position? Position for L as in Flour Classify L in the word land according to formation and sound. Classify L in the word fled according to formation and sound. Can the sound of L be prolonged? Drilling on the sound of L in its various combinations, will aid in securing muscular control of the tongue. L A lively, little linnet lives in our leafy locust, and lilts love lyrics at my lattice. LB The priest wearing an alb, used a simile about a bulb. 28 ORAL ENGLISH LD When the bold child spoiled the gold and jeweled shield and was scolded, he wailed and howled wildly and sprawled about the field. LF The elf, sylph and wolf met at the gulf to divide their pelf. LK Skulk near the pen, and touch the young elk's silk-like fur. LM If the elm tree fall, it will overwhelm the settler's shanty. LN Helen had stolen to the pier and fallen into the sullen and swollen tide. LP Before help came, the Indian whelp took the scalp and rushed away over the kelp. LS Do nothing to convulse the patient, or else the report of his pulse will be false. LT It was not my fault that the dolt of a colt made a halt when I dealt him a blow that he felt. LV Even if the problem involve twelve hours of work, he Tvill delve away and solve it. LZ The donkey toils over the hills carrying the mails for miles, then fools with his driver and soils his coat as he rolls in the sandy holes. LCH See the water belch forth into the gulch. LDZ He builds air castles, folds his arms and holds that all the world's hopes are his. LFT The city of Delft has never been in danger of being engulfed. LKS The bulks of the hulks were above water. LKT Has the cow been milked? LMD His grief overwhelmed him. LMZ Where did the helmsman lose his films? LPS In the Alps we heard the yelps of Colp's dog. LPT He gulped down a big drink, and then sculped his initials in the limestone. LST " Then if thou fall'st, Cromwell ! Thou fall'st a blessed martyr." LTH It was inexcusable for a man of wealth to live in such filth and lose his health. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 29 LTS Most adults see the results of petty faults. LVD James evolved a new method by which the problem could be solved. LVZ The wolves knocked down the ax helves from the shelves. LESSON VI R R really has three sounds. First, the regular consonant R, a subtonic characterized by a burring or rolling sound in the throat, as in rowdy, brown and reel. Second, the atonic R, Position for 72 as in Rowdy Position for 72 as in Pride much softer than the first R, occurring when R follows an atonic consonant and precedes a vowel, as in pride, trip and free. Third, glide R, following a vowel in the same syllable, as in arm, affirm and answer. Note. When the consonant R is followed by H, as in rhetoric, rhubarb and rhyme, the H is silent. Consonant R is never immediately followed by any other consonant. Classify R according to formation. Drill on the following sentences as exercises for attaining perfect command of R 30 ORAL ENGLISH in its various forms and combinations. Trilling 72 is a good exercise for securing control of the tongue. R (subtonic) Reviewing the rippling river and rough rocks, the rambling ruin rises, redolent of- romance, with ranging recesses now a retreat for rabbits, and ramparts a roost for ravens and rooks. R (atonic) Throughout the spring, the shrewd French trapper fre- quently proved his prowess to the treacherous tribes by thrilling the crafty creatures with his crack shooting. R (glide) Wiring at the pier for a touring car, the chauffeur whirled us northward until, near the Singer tower, a sharp report made us aware of a punctured tire. RB While walking and conjugating a verb, Clara tore her dress on a barb. RD On the third day, we crossed a ford to the laird's yard, where we sat on a hard board and heard a long-haired bard. RF The dwarf with the bright scarf left the turf for the wharf to watch the surf. RG Then we saw our first iceberg. RK Lurk in the dark and mark if the clerk shirk his work. RM Before the alarm of the storm on that warm day at the farm, the swarm was out of harm. RN Mr. Horn from the tavern scorned the corn at the northern side of the barn. RP The birds of the thorp usurp the shade trees, and chirp with sharp notes. RS DeMars gathers numbers of barbers, grocers, traders, loungers and idlers; and tells them his fears about la- borer's hours. RT On the alert, Robert darted after the runaway horse and cart with a smart spurt, but tripped and was hurt. RV You deserve to starve, if you lose your nerve and swerve from your ideal. RBD The horse was not disturbed when tightly curbed. RBS With her orbs dilated, she absorbs the beauty of the suburbs. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 31 RDS Edward's story of the birds and leopards accords with that of tlic guards. RKD He marked the way the dog barked, jerked his head back and smirked. RK8 Old Dierks works in the parks, and smirks when he harks to a lark's song. RMD Julian termed himself a poet, charmed a few society people and wormed himself into favor. RXD Although Henry was warned that he had not earned his wages and would be turned away, yet he was unconcerned. RNS Orphan Mary churns the butter, turns the griddle-cakes, adorns the room with ferns, darns socks, draws patterns, learns to sew and earns her board and keep. RTH It was worth the earth to see the mirth of our friend from the North on the Fourth. RVD The inscription was preserved where it was carved on the curved surface. RVS The chief deserves credit as long as he preserves order on the wharves. LESSON VII D and T Observing yourself in a mirror, pronounce the word did slowly, noting how the organs of articulation produce the sound of D. To what class of consonants according to formation, does D belong? Apply the usual test, and then tell what it is according to sound. Pronounce the word tight. Compare the production of the consonant T with the way you produced D. Classify T according to formation and according to sound. Can the sounds of D and T be prolonged? How do you ena the sounds of D and Tf 32 ORAL ENGLISH What are cognates? What is the cognate of D? The consonants D and T are often slighted; and, some- times, even omitted in speech. Practice on the following Position for D Position for T j sentences, until you give D and T their full value in the various combinations, especially at the end of syllables or words. D The determined Doctor, doubting the duke's daring de- fense, demanded that Dean Dorchester discuss the deed in debate; but the Dean declined, deciding that the dis- charge of his duties admitted no digression. DL You addle-brained, idle baby just out of the cradle, don't twiddle your thumbs; but tighten that girdle, and hold this horse by the bridle while I straddle the saddle. DN When the warden laden with a wooden box and emboldened by the leaden sky, widened the garden gate, the maiden hidden by a tree suddenly screamed, causing him to drop his burden. DR The droll druggist, dead drunk and drenched by the driving drizzle, dropped into a drawing room chair to drowse and dreamed of dreadful dragons. DZ Tell the maids that the brown stain made on the goods by strange liquids, needs only suds to remove it. DW Dwight, the dwindling dwarf, dwells in Dwightville. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 33 DLD He has bcon so dandled and coddled since he first toddled, that he has dawdled his time away, and dwindled and spindled into naught. DLZ Carrying his toy fiddles in two bundles, he fondles his pet poodles, carelessly paddles through puddles, and peddles candles, handles, needles and medals. DST When thou said'st amidst the officers that thou feared'st no enemy, thou did'st Ue. DTH For the hundredth time he told her the width of a breadth of carpet. DTHS The widths of the breadths varied from one and seven eighths to one and eleven hundredths yards. T A tutor who tooted the flute. Tried to teach two young tooters to toot: Said the two to the tutor, "Is it harder to toot, or To tutor two tooters to toot? " To-day the tactless and taciturn lecturer tabulated tedious technical terms about tadpoles; till ten tantalized at- tendants lost their tempers and left the tent. TL The only sounds in the kitchen were the prattle of the chil- dren on the settle, the hum of the kettle, the drone of a beetle, the subtle song of the gentle, little woman at the loom, and the rattle of the shuttle. TN The instructor remarked, "I do not wish to dishearten you; but if you will shorten j^our theme, brighten it by figures, lighten it by omitting heavy words, and sweeten it with an optimistic point of view, you will improve what you have written on The Observance of the Lenten Season." TR True to traditional traits, the tribe treated the trapper with tributes of truce, and tramped triumphantly through a treeless tract, tooting trumpets. TS He writes of his mates' treats, the cool nights, his feats on different dates, aeroplane flights and seats at the theatre. TW Tell the twaddling twins that the tweezers wiU twitch the twisted twine in twain in a twinkling. TLD Nettled at the intrusion, the officer battled with the stranger and throttled him. 34 ORAL ENGLISH TLZ He startles nobody, when he prattles of titles and battles. TST If thou fight'st thy brother and put'st him to shame, thou surely hat'st him. LESSON vni N Pronounce the word sun, giving attention to the action of the organs of articulation in producing the sound of N. To what class of consonants accord- ing to formation, does N belong? To what class according to sound? Compare the production of the sound of A^ with that of D. In what par- ticulars are they alike? Compare N with T. In what respect are they similar? In what are they different? Compare N with M. What is the similarity between the two? Position for N N Nobody knew my noble neighbor's name till November ninth, when Nicholas North, a native of Natchez, nomi- nated him for naval inspector. ND In a second, my friend kindly attended the blind man round the winding path to the grand stand, where he could hear the blending notes of the band. NJ Without a cringe, the conjurer lunged and caught the orange, singed it in a flame, and plunged it in water. NS In the presence of the audience, the singer's diffidence changed to assurance; and his entrancing cadences won hitense silence. NT The president is pleasant and gallant with acquaintances, l)atient and lenient witli servants, l^luiit and pointed with verdant agents, and dauntless and valiant as a hunter. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 35 NZ Along the lanes, through tangled vines and over stones and dunes, they hurried with j^runes, buns, beans, and wines for the men in the mines. NCH The Frenchman flinching not an inch, clenched his fists and punched the blenching leader of the bunch, then munched his lunch undisturbed on a bench. NDZ The doctor bends over the man on the sands, pounds his chest, sounds his lungs and winds thin bands around the wounds on his hands. NST He never winced while the arm was lanced and the wound rinsed, but afterward he bounced from his chair against the surgeon and denounced him.' NTH At Corinth, the jacinth blooms in the seventh month. NTS The jaunty count sent us quaint prints of giants, saints, merchants, tenants, agents, infants, knight errants and servants. LESSON IX J and CH Pronounce very slowly the words joy, gem and cage. Pro- nounce slowly the sound of J alone. To what class of consonants according to formation, does J belong? Can you describe the action of the tongue in pro- ducing it? J is the most difficult consonant sound yet considered, be- cause it is really the combination of D and ZH, the tongue taking the position for D and quickly changing to the posi- tion for ZH to complete the sound. Applying the usual test, state to what class of consonants according to sound, J belongs. CH, the cognate of J, is, of course, a combination of two consonant elements with the same tongue positions as those used to produce J; but as the vocal cords do not vibrate in 36 ORAL ENGLISH forming CH, we conclude that the component sounds must be T and SH. Note. J is never followed by a consonant sound, so it does not pre- sent difficulties of combinations with other consonant sounds. CH fol- lowed by L, as in the word chlorine, or CH followed by R, as in the word chronic, is pronounced like K, so difficulties of combining CH with other consonant sounds are, also, eliminated. Practice the following exercises for clean-cut enunciation. J The jocund judge and jolly jurists joined in the general jubilee, jeering and joking like jesters. G like J The General's son studied geography, geometry and Ger- man at Geneva, and proved to be a genuine genius. CH When the Chancellor with his chariot and charger appeared, the crowd cheered, the church chimes played and the children in the chapel chanted. LESSON X Z and S As a review, name three labial sounds. Tell what each is according to sound. Mention the cognate of each. Give a list of the lingual sounds already studied, and clas- sify them. Pronounce the word say. Classify the sound of S accord- ing to formation and sound. Describe the position of the tongue in forming the sound. Can the sound be prolonged? Pronounce the word zone. In what two ways is the sound of Z like the sound of Sf Contrast the sound of Z with the sound of S. Note. Control the breath W(>11 in jiroducing these two elements to avoid a strong hissing sound which is very objectionable. Be sure to take the correct position of the tongue to avoid lisping. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 37 Position for Z Position for S S Stephen Sharp, the Sergeant, sought the six sailors, and saluting said: "Stop spending seconds senselessly, secure sufficient supplies, swing the stern from shore and speedily straighten sails; for this ship sails soon." SF While traveMng to see the sphinx on the other side of the sphere, he fell and injured his sphenoid bone. SK Scorning the risk, Scott skated past the obelisk on the scal- ing ice, then screamed to scare his comrades. SL The slaves hustling from the castle, slipped and slid on the slightly sloping slippery slabs. SM The smoldering fire smoked, till everything in the room was smeared with smudge and smelled smutty. SN When the dog sniffing the air, snarled and snapped, the snob snatched his hat and sneaked away. SP Spaulding's spouse speaks splendid Spanish, and spends many specimens of specie for sparkling spangles. ST The organist from the western coast and the chemist dressed in his best vest, joined the guests at whist. SW The swarthy swain, sweating and swearing, swiftly switched the swine for swallowing swiped swill. SKS Their tasks were to clean up the husks, and move the flasks and casks. -<\ V -JL. V *=?> 38 ORAL ENGLISH SKT The boys basked in the sun till the farmer asked them to load the husked corn, then they whisked off their hats and frisked about. SKW In the squalor of the square, the squinting squaws squealed and squabbled, but were squelched by the squad. SLD At first the strange dog bristled with importance, but after he had tussled and wrestled with Prince, he hustled away. SND The nurse hastened to the prostrate man, unfastened his coat, loosened his collar and listened to his heart. SNZ The masons saw the bison feeding in the basins, where the dew moistens the air and glistens in the sunlight. SPL It was splendid fun to see the splenetic splint-maker splash and splurge and splutter in the waves, when the spliced rope broke. SPR In spring, every sprinkle helps the spruce to spread its sprightly sprays and sprawling sprouts. SPS Cleopatra lisps a prayer, as she grasps the asps and clasps them to her breast. STS At their annual feasts, the dentists and their guests enjoy the roasts, quench their thirsts, and laugh at jests and toasts. Z With noisy zithers, the zealous zouaves easily teased the zebra in the zoo. ZD The old soldier raised his head and gazed in a pleased, dazed way, as the bullets whizzed by, then closed his eyes and reposed. ZL The drizzle made Hazel Teazle's party a fizzle. ZM In a spasm of sarcasm, the coach of the debating team stated that the leader's definitions of Americanism, despotism and imperialism were open to criticism. ZN Minus his reason, the sailor climbed the mizzen-mast, shout- ing "treason, treason." ZLD He bamboozled his friends, embezzled their money, puzzled the police, dazzled the loafers and guzzled the funds away. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 39 ZLZ Without his muzzle's restraint, the puppy tousles the coat and tears it to frazzles. ZNZ At all seasons, poisons are kept from the denizens of prisons. LESSON XI 'PH and TH TH varies in sound according to the vowel and consonant elements with which it is combined. Compare the sound of TH in the word thin with the sound of TH in the word then. How does the first TH differ from the second TH? Position for ?¥? Subtonic Position for TH Atonic Classify TH in then according to formation and sound. Classify TH in thin according to formation and sound. Can these sounds be prolonged? Note. In producing these two sounds the tip of the tongue should touch both the upper and lower teeth, but it should not protrude between them. 40 ORAL ENGLISH Compare the position of the tongue for TH with the position necessary to produce the sounds of S and Z. TH (subtonic) Hither and thither in the heather, the hthe brothers bothered their father and mother. THM With the rhythm of the music in his ears, he could not work the logarithm problem. TH (atonic) The author's thoughtful thesis on the theory of theosophy, thrilled the thousands that thronged the theatre. THR The thrifty three threaded through the throng threatening to throttle the thrilling thrusters. THS Whatever you grasp of earth's mirths and wealths, death's hand snatches away. THW Thwart him, before he thwacks you. LESSON XII ZH and SH What is the cognate of Bf of V? of Wf of Df of CHf of Sf of TH in then? Position for ZH Position for SH Observe your own articulation, as you pronounce slowly the word shell. What is SH according to formation? Com- FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 41 pare the way you make the sound of SH in shell with the way you make the sound of S in sail. Can you describe the difference in the position of the tongue for the two elements? (Compare the diagrams of the tongue positions for the two sounds.) Classify SH according to formation. Can the sound be prolonged? What is the cognate of SH? Give the sound of the cognate. The words azure and treasure are examples of words contain- ing this sound. Can you give other illustrations? ZH The detective said, "Now I am at leisure, it gives me pleasure to inform you that the disclosure of the embrasure was what led to the seizure of the usurer's treasure." SH The shepherd washed his sheep in the shallows, and sheared them in the shadows of the shanty. SHR Dressed in shreds, she shrugged her shoulders and shrank back by the shrine, as the blast shrilled and shrieked. SHT Edward gnashed his teeth, lashed his horse and dashed up the street; because he wished to be first. LESSON xin G and K The deaf and dumb learn to understand what other people are saying, by watching the muscular action accompanying speech. What class of consonant elements do you think would be easiest for them to distinguish in this way? What class do you think would be most difficult for them to dis- tinguish? Pronounce the word gay deliberately. Classify hard G according to formation and sound. Describe the action of the tongue and soft palate in pro- ducing the sound. Can you prolong the sound? 42 ORAL ENGLISH Pronounce the word keij slowly. Classify K according tc formation and sound. Compare it with hard G regarding prolongation. What other consonants end with an explo- sion of breath like Kf What other consonant sometimes has the same sound as K? Position for Hard G Position for K G (hard) From the gallery, the guests gazed at the garden, gaudy and fragrant with green grass, gay geraniums, great morn- ing glories, glaring foxgloves, gleaming grapes and all the gorgeousness of a gardener's art. GD During the forenoon, we lugged boards, rigged a raft, nagged the gardener, begged mother for cookies and jigged on the piazza. GL Gliding to the window, the Globe reporter glossed the glazed glass with his glove, and glared out at the giggling glutton. GR The grandee gradually grew greedy and gruff, grudging the grant of his green grove to grouse hunters, and greeting all groups with graceless grumbles. GZ Coggswell hates prigs, brags that he wears rags, and tramps his legs off in bogs to lug home slugs, frogs and bugs. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 43 Note. X has no sound of its own, but is either a combination of GZ or KS. X (like GZ) Reoxamining the example, Da\ad grasped its exact meaning, and was exasperated to think he had exhausted so much time in useless exertion. GW That Guelph spoke his native language most languidly. GLD The traveller haggled with the officer over the smuggled goods, till he boggled the whole affair and struggled in vain. GLZ O'er the tangles of the dingles the eagles soar, And bugles' notes in melody pour. K "Cupid and my Campaspe played At cards for kisses; Cupid paid." KL The clown clad in a clumsy cloak and clinging to a club, clutched the clamoring clerk and clapped him into a clothes closet. KN If you darken the room and beckon the children away, I reckon he will not waken. KR Crippled by crowding creditors and crazed by the crisis, the critic crept across Crj^stal creek to the crag and cried. KS Without tricks or jokes, I tell you these tracks lead past the stacks and over the rocks to the home of Mike's folks. X (like KS) Roxanna, the little vixen, coaxed the tutor to excuse her from the exercise; because she had unwittingly ex- changed her lexicon for a treatise on expansion. KT The gang knocked at the door, attacked the watchman, sacked the house, packed up the booty and streaked away; but were tracked, checked and locked up for their rash act. KLZ My uncle's pleasure over the new buckles, was e\'idenced by chuckles, the wrinkles about his mouth and the way he struck his knuckles together. KND He reckoned if he quickened his pace, he could reach the hotel before the clouds thickened. KNZ The fever victim weakens and sickens every time he wakens. KST "When the manager coaxed her to remain another week, she mixed the candies and boxed them. 44 ORAL ENGLISH Note. Q is always followed by U, and is sounded like K or KW. Q (like K) The critique and coquette by oblique methods, piqued the unique clique on their ability to play the antique games of croquet and piquet. QU (like KW) Quoting a quaint quotation, the queer quaker quickly quelled the quarrel, and requested the quibblers to quit that quarter quietly. LESSON XIV NG Pronounce deliberately the word ring. What two conso- nants in the word seem to unite in one sound? Classify NG according to formation and sound. In what two respects is NG like hard Gf How does it differ from Kf How does it differ from both hard G and Kf What other consonant elements have marked nasal resonance like NGf Give the sound of each with careful atten- tion to accurate position of the vocal organs in producing it. N sometimes is sounded like NG, as Position for NG • • ■ ? ? j ni anxious, ink, anchor and conquer. NG The livelong day, the strong young hireling, feeling no pang swung along with the throng and sang the king's song. NGD The wronged prisoner sentenced to be hanged, banged the door of his cell and longed to be in the thronged street. NGK The cranky monk did not think to thank the banker for his drink and bunk. NGST skylark! thou spring'st from the earth, but wing'st and sing'st in the air as if thou belong'st amongst the clouds. NGTH The length of their time of service will be according to their strength. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 45 LESSON XV Y and H Give a complete list of the labial subtonics mentioning the cognate of each. Give a complete list of the lingual atonies naming the cog- nate of each. Mention a pair of cognates that are palatals. Pronounce the word yet. Look at the diagram, and de- scribe the position of the vocal organs in producing the sound of Y. Classify the consonant Y according to formation and sound. Note. Y is classed as a palatal, because the top of the tongue articu- lates with the hard palate. 7 is a consonant only at the beginning of a word or syllable. Position for Y Position for H Give an example of F as a vowel. Pronounce the word how. Notice that H seems to be only an expulsion of breath with the throat open. Compare the diagram of the position of the vocal organs for // with that for Y. 46 ORAL ENGLISH When Y is followed by a consonant as in ypsiliform, it be- comes a vowel; so we have no consonant oombinations with Y. H is never followed by a consonant, therefore no drills in consonant combinations can be given for that element. Y Yesterday, under the yew in yonder yard, your Yankee young- sters yelled that they yearned for a yacht. H The hermit's hut had a hearth heaped with hewn hickory, a ham- mock hitched to high hooks, a hinged hutch holding ham, hash, haddock and wild hare, a huge hamper heavy with hammers, helmets, harpoons, horns and a harp, hides hanging by holes, and two heaving hounds on heaps of hay. ^ PRONUNCIATION GRADED LESSONS IN ENGLISH VOWEL SOUNDS OR TONICS LESSON I \'' Diacritical Marks are the symbols used to designate the various sounds of vowels and consonants. The following is a list of the diacritical marks with the name of each. - macron A caret '-' breve ^ tilde or wave ■ ■ dieresis _l suspended bar semi-dieresis , cedilla Note. In this book the diacritical markings of Webster's New Inter- national T)ictionary are employed; because they are more generally used than those of other dictionaries for indicating the pronunciation of words, they are pei-tinent in most cases without rewriting the word, they are somewhat less confusing, and, therefore, more easily learned. Long Vowel Sounds The vowels in English are A, E, I, 0, U, and sometimes W and Y. The long sound of vowels is indicated by a dash above the vowel, called a macron. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 47 / "0- Rule for Pronunciation. — Long vowel sounds in English are pronounced exactly as they are spoken in the alphabet, except Y wliich is pronounced like long /. LONG A fatj( maker dative blam/lcsjj snak^ saint LONG O CO^ft foi/r gros^ over uphold forjdnost LONG E schem^ field preach dre^m che^k seiz^ LONG u dispute music tun^ duty student excuse Note. W never has a long or short vowel sound. LONG / lif^ slimy umplr^ subscribe llkewlsj^ advis^ LONG Y styl^ typ^ defy hyphen python spy Some of the long vowel sounds in the following words are often mispronounced. Can you pronounce each of them as indicated by the diacritical marks? gra' tis il lume' bron chi' tis al ly' Tu^s' day ye^r' ling yolk Dan' ish pa' tron cho' rus grim' y ap pa ra' tus car' bine awry' a' pri cot LESSON II Short Vowel Sounds No rule can be given for pronouncing short vowel sounds in English. They are learned most easily by taking a key 48 ORAL ENGLISH word for each vowel. The following are suggested as key- words: for short A, catch; short E, ten; short I, kids; short 0, from; short U and short Y, gulhj. The five words make a nonsense phrase, Catch ten kids from gully, that may help in remembering them. The short sound of vowels is indicated by a curved line above the vowel called a breve. SHORT A ca,mp fabric candy radish back magnet SHORT E tent velvet wretch boldness dSad cent SHORT I rich civil Latin visit ermine mint SHORT dallar h6nest fOssil bSnnet c6mbat cSttage SHORT u hiimble stiggest mtltton tincle triink ptiblic SHORT Y myth gaudy city gypsy hymn gymnast Pronounce the short vowel sounds correctly in the follow- ing words: rep' til^ pas' sage h6v' el gran' a ry bade sup' pie po' em bi' cy cle kef tie G6d syr' up en' gin^ pal' mis try sem' i-cir cle oint' ment Review the long and short sounds of vowels, by telling how the following words should be pronounced, and how every vowel should be marked to indicate its sound. What vowels are silent? FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 49 smoke uproar duchess postpone unroll pavement insult cactus beauty gadfly colleague octave raiment ^mbuscEde rally campaign disease lollipop erase anecdote complain franchise comply mutiny mTsdeed dentist dairy peevish py€ldne captive sport apply satisfy banjo quail cascade hump-back condole dynasty rabbi LESSON III Italian and Broad A The sound of Italian A is ah, and it is indicated by two dots above the vowel called a dieresis. The sound of broad A is aw. It is indicated by a dieresis below the vowel. ITALIAN A target half calm harvest gargle harbor BROAD A haU salt war pauper taught awning Note. In certain localities, people erroneously substitute Italian A for broad A in such words as taught, water, caught, daughter, etc. Avoid common errors, and less preferred pronunciations by giving to the vowels in the following words the sounds indicated. hearth cal' dron lai/gh' ter al' der fi na' le f aijl' cet lai/n' dry pal' frey gaunt' let be cai/se aim' ond sai/' cer jat/n' dice pal' try ai/nt 50 ORAL ENGLISH The following words illustrate long and short vowel sounds, Italian A, and broad A. As a review, mark each vowel with the proper diacritical mark, and cancel silent vowels and silent consonants. artist invest pupil sentry scrawny consult charcoal stealing grain multiply psalm appear daylight hawk wahiut expel ivy parchment harness pansy sneak comic tunic sadness although census climax cheese embargo chart LESSON IV always dyestuff embalm jolly costume inspire pause sarcasm grindstone supreme Short Italian and Short Broad A As the name indicates, short Italian A is similar to the full Italian A, except that it is less prolonged. It occurs when the vowel A constitutes or ends an unaccented syllable; and is preferred in syllables ending in sk^ ff, ft, th, ss, sp, st, nee, nt, and nd. It is marked with a semi-dieresis above the vowel. Short broad A has the same sound as short 0. It is marked wuth a semi-dieresis below the vowel. SHORT ITALIAN A short BRO.'UJ a i de' a what . vag' a bond watch A mer' i ca squash fast wan der bath quan ti ty danc^ squ9,d ron FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 51 Practice pronouncing the words in the following Hst as they are marked, to accustom yourself to these preferred pronunciations : um brel la squal' or last ing waf fle ad vance quad rat ic al ge bra wal rus glass y swamp sar sa pa ril' la w^s (not wuz) mas ter yacht craft y Review the sounds taken in this and the previous lessons, by marking the vowel sounds in the list of words given below. Cancel all silent letters. bombard confuse fulcrum fastest squander exit cabinet asleep laurel cartridge autumn grandsire cadet panic invade caustic admire logic wasp sparkling carnation eddy canteen channel swan niece auction lurid augment briny larceny unseen basket garlic landscape ignite priest yuletide wallet tulip LESSON V Circumflex A L AND E Circumflex A always precedes the consonant R, and passes to that element with what is known as a glide. The sound of circumflex A, as nearly as it can be pro- nounced by itself, is air. It is marked with a caret above the vowel. Circumflex E is identical with circumflex A in sound, and is marked in the same way. 52 ORAL ENGLISH CIRCUMFLEX A squar^ scarcely dar^ sw^ar stai'r glar^ CIRCUMFLEX E therj^ their heir port-cocher^ ther^for^ Note. There are very few words containing the sound of circum- flex E. Practice the pronunciation of the words given below. par' ent gar' ish mo' hair hekr' ess sol i taire' deb o nai'r' ap par' ent fair' y laird scare crow Mark the vowel sounds in the review list below, canceling all silent letters. compare wand applause nickname gazette impair mastiff garnet data maudlin squalid gaudy milkm'aid discard warden comma thyself promise whalebone welfare garnish bugbear thaws wallow hardware ignore insnare cautious escape adult nowhere patella naughty tarnish larboard collapse sycamore incline justify disgrace LESSON VI E LIKE LONG A AND I LIKE LONG E When E has the sound of long A, it is marked with a ma- cron below the vowel. When / has the sound of long E, it is marked with a dieresis above the vowel. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 53 E LIKE LONG A they de/^n mS,tine^ I LIKE LONG E intrigi/^ polic^ sardinj( capric^ benzin^ physiqi/^ Apply these two sounds in the pronunciation of the worda in the next list. (zha') cliqi/^ bla se' vis a vi^' neg li ge^ has ti\^.' pi' brSe)^ me le^' gab er dine' ca f e' s6m bre' ro tetj^ a tet^' de bri^' e clart' hei*' n^tis pas se' Mark the vowel sounds in this review list, and cancel silent letters. transparent unload vein install weigh audit antique holy rhjTne concave insnare reindeer obscure daunt fuel convex machine reign bauble valise alas sublime farce ajar centaur victim wigwam campus heart neigh skein silent caucus marine malt convey cashier calf earache justice LESSON VII E, I AND Y MARKED WITH A TILDE E, I and Y marked with a tilde or wave, are identical in sound. This is another vowel sound gliding to R, and is best pronounced by the syllable er. 54 ORAL ENGLISH TILDE E germ clerk prefer de§(rth fertil^^ he§(rs^ TILDE I firm flirt whirl virgin circus dirg^ TILDE Y martyr myrrh zephyr myrtle satyr myrmidon Ap- NoTE. There are but few words containing Y with this sound, ply this sound in pronouncing the following words. ker' nel ster' ling squir' rel third cir'cu lat^ sub mergj!' bird ser' pent first girl Hyr' can skir' mish sher' bet her' mit con vers^' Note. Sometimes A and have this particular sound as in the words liar and factor. In such cases the A or is marked with a tilde. Words for Review of Vowel Sounds tumult disarm numerate gunner swarm gaberdine lumber wadding advertise artery hyena, archer ravine washboard safety cocoa pigmy elite sacrifice carpenter impulse appall adore slaughter cypher eighteen magnify mystic hygiene judgment cucumber circus aghast czarina alter intrigue water-fall birthplace dynamic greasy LESSON VIII Long and Short 00 The sound of long 00 is like the in the word who, and it is marked with a macron above the double vowel. The sound of short 00 is like the in the word wolf, and it is marked with a breve above the double vowel. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 55 LONG 00 moon soon roof hoof harpoon Waterloo SHORT 00 wood foot hook look book woolen Note. A common error is to substitute short 00 for long 00, as in the word roof. Apply these sounds in the following words: coop' er buf f oon' pa poose' schoon' er lam poon' car toon' ty phoon' school' book dra goon' ooze foot' stool 6o' long sham poo' la goon' CO coon' Words for Review OF VoW'EL Sounds stair haughty foresight scallop toadstool bureau chair air-tight prey farthing submerge forestall ulster quassia inveigli Argentine salute wardrobe dwarf cultivate cruller quarantine arctic birch saliva smuggler woodbine ugly rookery squirm neuter feint verdigris syntax opera quadrangle express faculty indict portrait LESSON IX Diphthongs The diphthongs in English are 01, OY, OC/ and OW. The diphthongs 01 and OY are combinations of the sounds )f broad .4 and short /. 56 ORAL ENGLISH The diphthongs OU and OW are combinations of the sounds of Itahan A and long 00. 01 coil rejoice loiter OY oyster employ- coyly OU cloud devour abound OW clown dowry shower Note. TF is a vowel only when it is a part of a diphthong. F is a vowel when it is a part of a diphthong, and when it has a sound of /. All the vowels in English except E are really diphthongs, for they start with one soimd and end with another. By saying A very slowly, you will notice that it begins with the sound of A and ends with the sound of E. Pronounce the diphthongs accurately in the following words. r(ou)t g/^ (ou)r p(oi)^ii' ant se' p(oy) s(ou)r ch(ow) ch(ow) al l(oy)' vic^' r(oy) gr(oi)n v(ou)ch saf^' h(oi)st l(ow)' er y ty' ph(oi)d sur' l(oi)n b(oi)s' ter ous Words for Review of Vowel Sounds lair annoy insnare gawky clover coin antique convoy magazine soda import food counter icebergs lobster harness trousers wander gargoyle bounty garnet footnote prayer mistook naught invoice drought adroit boycott channel fete cleanly carcass grej^hound cargo numerous raccoon jurist suite warehouse FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 57 LESSON X Circumflex and U Circumflex is like broad A in sound. It is marked with a caret above the vowel. Circumflex U is similar in sound to E, I and Y when marked with a wave. The circumflex U is marked with a caret. CIRCUMFLEX CIRCUMFLEX U stormy blAr perform htirdle fortress ctirse tornado ptlrse h6rse sM endorse tHrmoil LIKE SHORT U When is sounded like short U, it is marked with a semi- dieresis above the vowel. mother blo^d hover sponge month weapon Apply these three somids in the pronunciation of the fol- lowing words. pAr' port corpse bAr' sar mon' grel pAr su^' noth' ing de mur' cor' nice plov' er j^ilr' n^y pom' mel stir' g^on tongi/^ lor gnettc' gor' mand 58 ORAL ENGLISH Words for Review of Vowel Sounds welcome chenille hartshorn pardon hawthorn distort cauliflower casino hornet * melon auburn concord visit fraud torpedo ransom turquois hyacinth victim augment transparent wanton purloin dynamo critique catarrh forbear wabble spicy croquet tontine cavalier furlough smother indict aware artery deign surprise exploit LESSON XI AND U LIKE 00 When or U is sounded like long 00, it is indicated by a dieresis below the vowel. When or U is sounded like short 00, it is indicated by a semi-dieresis below the vowel. LIKE LONG 00 mQv^ tomb shoj^ r\i*n fruit intrudj^ LIKE SHORT 00 wolf woman bosom pi^sh ballet butcher Apply these sounds in the pronunciation of the following words. VQ\l tin^' cryp' per ca noj(' hQ\l quet' wp/st' ed Jvine CQijl' ri er sil hQ\l etf^' dru' id ruth' less mirth' fijl ru by c^uld bru netjf^' g^^ul FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 59 Words for Review of Vowel Sounds coup^ canary thralldom • litre pear tree pulpit bijou mirthful Pisa carouse turnpike scornful bloodhound embroil satire soup garlic postmark surv^ey martingale cowslip urchin crucify vanilla soubrctte mastoid hajTnow disjoint improve incline ransom doughnut barter ratify adroit geyser abhor glare troupe squaw LESSON xn Long Vowel Sounds in Unaccented Syllables Any long vowel sound occurring in an unaccented syllable, is less prominent in pronunciation than a long vowel sound in an accented syllable. To indicate this distinction, long vowel sounds in unaccented syllables are marked with a suspended bar above the vowel. Contrast the long vowel sounds in unaccented syllables below, with the long vowel sounds in accented syllables. long vowel sounds unaccented syllables Mon' day vir lag^ de mand' e vent' di am' e ter 1 de'a obey' bir lows u nite' grad' u ate hy e' na ty phoon' long vowel sounds accented syllables pro f an^' in san^' up he^fv^' be li^v^' sub llm^' a liv^' en clos^' con dol^' f u' ry re fus^' defy' July' 60 ORAL ENGLISH Pronounce long vowel sounds in unaccented syllables accurately in the following words: morf gag^ voy' agj^ ig no ra' mus re morsj^' re cur' Fri' day u surp' a e' ri al bro ( 3ad^' lit' er a tur^ de plor^' ma' gi his' to ry gar' bag^ na' turj( Words for Review OF Vowel Sounds aldermen beware adieu salute would ravage cistern review coinage martyr gondolier risky hortative skeleton garner turpentine gangrene resume mushroom harum-scarum irksome heirloom destroy ounce macaroon ruse oily hardihood coyote neighbor mustache prima donna quadrant accomplice austere dagger catamount audience enormous deltoid answer random stirrup tintype gurgle silo encounter wan tambourine castle crude effigy awful churn dowry biceps affront cinnamon stupid bulrush lament forsook cleaver savage society myrrh devise traffic commerce precise cobbler cartilage potentate naive protege decoy prowess declare elsewhere hoodlum FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 61 GRADED LESSONS IN ENGLISH CONSONANT SOUNDS Note. Only consonants that havo more than one sound are consid- ered in this series of lessons. LESSON I Hard and Soft C There are but two sounds of C: ^ namely; the hard sound like K, and the soft sound like *S. The former is marked with a macron across the consonant, and the latter with a cedilla below the consonant. HARD C SOFT C €old givil are Qj'press ethics glange picture forge accord agid action gertain Hard and Soft G G has two sounds. Palatal G, as in the word gig, is called the hard sound; and lingual G, as in the word rage, is known as the soft sound. The first is marked with a macron over the consonant, and the second with a semi-dieresis above the consonant. hard g soft g gay gem glad stingy argue large muggy ginger iceberg judge eg^ midget ^ In a few words C has the sound of Z or SH, as in discern and ocean. 62 ORAL ENGLISH Mark the two sounds of C, and the two sounds of G cor- rectly in the following words : frigate 'guild catalog oblige -eook coil cinders gorgeous margin gauntlet barge entrance grudge cayenne dungeon coupon discard once George gymnast ground city comrade cigar -eonceal cleanly silence gaunt frigid geyser colleague saucer clog success delicate cellar critical receive centre cork LESSON II Sounds OF CH CH has three sounds: like K, SH and TCH. When it sounds like K, it is indicated with a macron across the C. The other two sounds have no diacritical markings. 'H LIKE K CH LIKF, SH CH LIKE TCH chorus chaise chin epoch chagrin church echo machine much character mustache arch chlorine chivalry choice chaos chaperon SOT.TNDS OF N birch N has two sounds: its common sound as in nine, and like NG as in ink. The common sound is never marked. N like FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 63 NG is indicated by a macron below the consonant, or by prolonging the final stroke of the n, thus, 17. COMMON A^ tent annul change night pronounce penny A^ LIKE NG anchor dingle uncle thank congress anger Review the consonant sounds already studied by means of the following list of words : cravat fireplace beseech accept wages chronic pilgrim magic stern tragic number sanguine croup advice chirp cipher glove dangle lodging vender chemist monster cholera cheroot cordial monk cheap conduct deceit Charlotte charges charlatan charade gore gigantic anxious rogue chiropodist chass6 achieve LESSON III SuBTONic, Atonic and Glide R There are three different sounds of R, none of which is indicated by diacritical marking. Regular consonant R occurs at the l)eginning of a word or syllable, or after a sub- tonic. Aspirate R occurs immediately after an atonic. Glide R occurs immediately after a vowel or diphthong. 64 ORAL ENGLISH SUBTONIC R ATONIC R GLIDE R room frame fern race crag heart borrow trust bird brain prove hurt derail cream roar groan froze Sounds of S war S has four sounds; like S, like Z, like SH, and like ZH. When S sounds like Z it is marked with a suspended bar below the consonant. The other sounds have no markings. S NATURAL S LIKE Z S LIKE SH S LIKE ZH smile rib§ sure vision swim hag sugar confusion curse accu§e censure usury best di§mal sensual visual message regolve passion leisure silent hugband issue pleasure Words for Review of Consonant Sounds physic release govern concern array convulsion orchard grease think immerse perch ease impress sausage occasion mansion please crease cheese courage geese grieve broker reproof fraud chyme mission delusion ink derision sink barouche translate entreat tease credit invasion written noise stranger FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 65 LESSON IV SUBTONIC AND AtONIC TH TH has two sounds, one vocal and the other aspirate. Vocal TH is marked with a macron across the consonants. VOCAL TH aspirate : TH wreathe thin bathe thing then thrive father breath those length thy birth Vocal AND Aspirate X Vocal X sounds like GZ, and aspirate X like KS. Vocal X is marked with a suspended bar below the consonant. VOCAL X ASPIRATE X exist wax exah } execute exhort exit example exclaim exult excel exhaust exhaust Words for Review OF Consonant Sounds carouse fathom insurance pierce exempt wrench throne cloud dearth examine cube execute musing reverse exactly pause weather picnic merchant purge presume worth illusion ready witch cynic vex cambric hoax pink corrupt reflex choose pressure mink smuggle phrase relax treasure grudge 66 ORAL ENGLISH Accent What is Accent? — It is necessary to consider accent in connection witli pronunciation. In accenting a syllable of a word, one gives greater force and a different pitch to that syllable, than he does to the other syllables of the word. For all practical purposes, however, it is merely a matter of speak- ing the syllable on a higher pitch. If a pupil has difficulty in placing an accent, and is told to strike a liigher note with the syllable, he will generally get it correct at the first trial. The melody of certain sentences may lower accented syllables in pitch, but in single words the accented syllables are always raised in pitch. Primary and Secondary Accents. — In words of three or more syllables, two accents are employed, the stronger being called the primary accent, and the weaker the second- ary accent. The secondary accent is distinguished from the primary by a lighter mark of accent; e. g., as' pi ra' tion: or, as in some dictionaries, by two Hghter lines; e. g., con" tra diet'. Certain dictionaries mention tertiary accent, but it is very difficult to estimate the degree of accent beyond the sec- ondary. There are many pairs of words in English spelled the same, but accented differently to distinguish the noun from the verb; as an' nex, annex'; the noun from the adjective; as com' pact, compact'; or the adjective from the verb; as per' feet, per feet'. Can you accent each of the following words as indicated, tell what part of speech it is, and use it correctly in a sentence? ab' sent, ab sent' ^' dV gest, di gost' ab' struct, ab stract' dis' count, dis count' ac' cent, ac cent' y ex' tract, ex tract' af fix, af fix' fer' ment, for ment' FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 67 al' ter nate, al tor' iiute - at' tri bute, at trib' ute ^^ aug' ment, aug nient' Au' gust, au gust' cem' ent, ce ment' col' lect, col lect' com' i^ound, com pound' con' Crete, con crete' con' fine, con fine' con' flict, con flict' con' sort, con sort' con' test, con test'^/""^ con' tract, con tract' con' trast, con trast' con' verse, con verse' con' vert, con vert' con' vict, con vict' con' voy, con voy' des' cant, des cant' de' tail, de tail' re' tail, re tail' so' journ, so journ' sub' ject, sub jcct' su' pine, su pine' fre' quent, fre qucnt' ^ in' cense, in cense' iir' crease, in crease' in' suit, in suit' ob' ject, ob ject' per' fume, per fume' per' mit, per mit' prec' e dent, pre ced' ent pre' fix, pre fix' prem' ise, pre mise' pres' ent, pre sent' prod' uce, pro duce' prog' rcss, pro gress' proj' ect, pro ject' pro' test, pro test' quar' an tine, quar an tine' rec' ord, re cord' ref use, re fuse' re' gress, re gress' rep' ri mand, rep ri mand' sur' vey, sur vey' tor' ment, tor ment' trans' fer, trans fer' trans' port, trans port' Mispronunciation What Good Pronunciation Includes. — Good pronuncia- tion includes dividing a word into its proper syllables, plac- ing the accent on the right syllable, and giving to vowels and consonants their correct sounds. Dictionaries are Records of Language Development. — The dictionaries are our standards for pronunciation. Yearly editions are necessary, because our language undergoes certain changes from year to year. New words come into current use, and some words with the growth of the language, 68 ORAL ENGLISH develop a different meaning, spelling or pronunciation. In a word, the dictionaries are records of the usage of well educated people — the best use of English. English is our language and is intimately associated with our country. Let us respect both of them. Results from the Study of Phonetics. — The graded les- sons in vowel and consonant sounds, if well mastered, will acquaint the pupil with many of his owti errors in pronuncia- tion, cultivate his ear to distinguish shades of vowel and consonant sounds, and train his organs of speech to greater accuracy in articulation. The purpose of the following lists of words is to call atten- tion to the correct pronunciation of some words that are frequently mispronounced. At the same time the various kinds of mispronunciation to which we are liable, may be noted. I. Words that are mispronounced by a wrong division of the syllables. Pronounce each one carefully. an tip' o des eq' ui ta ble ar tif' i cer gla di' o lus be nef i cent ho me op' a thy bo' na fi' de hy per' bo le cam pa ni' le ir rep' a ra ble clem' a tis joe' und com' pro mise lam' en ta ble dec' ade mu nic' i pal de co' rous mol' e cule de mon' stra tive pho tog' ra phy dep' ri va tion pre!' ate des' pi ca ble qui e' tus def ' i cit rev' o ca ble di as' to le si' ne cure di shev' cl te leg' ra phy ep i zo 6t' ic FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 69 II. Words that are mispronounced by inserting extra syllables or letters, such as elum for elm, and sawr for saw. Drill on the list. alpaca down law soda athlete draw method straw attacked drowned now umbrella brethren elm overalls woman blind hydrangea helm gulp chimney innocent saw film comma jaw Gibraltar prairie realm III. Words that are mispronounced by omitting syllables or letters. This is a very common error; for we often hear gometry for geometry, intrest for interest and many careless omissions of the same kind. Are you sure you can pronounce each of the following words correctly? accept eleven machinery artistically every magnolia battery favorite memory boisterous general miniature botany geography miserable bravery geometry mystery calculate govern natural cardinal idea neuralgia cemetery incendiary original certificate incidentally parenthesis clarinet insidious participle crept interest personal delivery ivory poem depths judiciary poetry diamond kept pumpkin different laboratory reasonal)le discovery lineament recognize 70 ORAL ENGLISH regular restaurant reverend reverie rheumatism sarsaparilla sentinel several similar singing singular slept temperance tedious tract usual veterinary IV. Words frequently mispronounced by placing the accent on the wrong syllable. Pronounce each of the folloAv- ing taking pains to place the accent where it should be in each word. ab do' men ab' ject ac cli' mate a cu' men ad dress' a dept' ad' mir a ble a dult' al bu' men a' li as al lop' a thy au to mo' bile bra va' do brig' and bi fur' ca ted car' i ca ture cer' e bral chas' tise ment chauf feur' CO ad ju' tor com' bat ant com man dant' con' tu me ly CO te rie' dem o ni' a cal dis course' di van' ep' och ex' qui site j& nance' gar' ru lous gon' do la gri mace' her cu' le an ho ri' zon im' pi ous im' po tent in com' pa ra ble in dis' pu ta ble in' dus try in ex' pli ca ble in ter' po late in qui' ry jo cose' ly ce' um mau so le' um mis' chie vous mu se' um ob' li ga to ry or' de al or' tho e py py ram' i dal re search' re source' re fut' a ble ro bust' su per' flu ous ti rade' trav' erse trib' une va ga' ry ve' he ment ve' hi cle vi ra' go ver bose' V. Words that are often pronounced with wrong or FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 71 unpreferred list. a,c qui es^^' a' er 5 planj^ a me' na bl^ 3,p pend i ci' tis a quat' Ic Ar' ab as' phait at' ti tud^ ay (yes) Q,^J! (forever) bad^ broach broom bi 6g' ra phy €a da' ver caout chouc (koo' chook) cl'iqi/^ c6cli' i ne^l con' jur er c6n sti tu' tion (shun) crej^k c6r' al cu' li na ry cu' p6 la da' is de^f vowel sounds. Try to master the entire dis ere' tion (shun) or' 6 tund dis' trict pan o ra' ma doth dOc' il^ draught (draft) drom' e da ry en core (an' kor) ex t6l' f ai' €^n get gen' u in^ gen 6 al' 6 gy ha' rem hom^' ly hos' til^ hur raj^' hy p6c' ri sy im pla' ca bl^ ju' gu lar j(^ust lei' sure (zhur) li' chen mar' i tlm^ me di o' cr^ 6f ' ficj^ pan 6 gyr' ic pa' thbs par' a s6l ped' al (noun) pe' dal (adj.) pe' 6 ny pret ty (prif t5^) proc' ess (noun) pr6g' ress (noun) r(oi)l roof ric 6 9he)!' sac ri le' gi-^iis si' mill ta' ne ^us sle^k sough ing (siif ' ing) sta' ttis strych' nin^ tab' er na cl^ tas' sel vaude ville (vod' vili /r6s' j!l^ . VI. Words that are often pronounced with wrong or un- preferred consonant sounds. Accustom yourself to the con- sonant sounds indicated. as so' ci ate (shi at) an' ch6 vy arch' an gel ar' clii tect as Qet' i 9i§m aux il' ia ry (t\g xil' ya ry) 72 ORAL ENGLISH black guard (bl5g' ard) bian' ket eel lo (chel' lo) ehasm chaise (shaz) chi me' ra c6n' quer des' ig na\4 des' ul to ry douche (doosh) fa 9ad^' g)/{er' kin gib' ber gib' ber ish gib' bet gy' rat^ gyv^s h6r' 6 log^ length lie' 6 rig^ l6n gev' i ty me§' mer i§m mi rage (razh') l6g' a rithm nich^ pan' to mim^ pla' gi'a ri§m re gime (zhem') sSc' ri fice (fiz) s^)ft§m sphere (sfer) spin' ag^ sub p^e' na suf fice (fiz') trSn' qi/il u surp' vie ar (vik' er) vis or (viz' er) VII. Words of this list are sometimes mispronounced by sounding silent letters. Do you make errors of this kind in pronouncing the following words? again Edinburgh nuisance almond extraordinary often been falcon quay breeches glisten raspberry business height salmon chestnut herb soften corps hostler subtle debris gunwale sword debut Iro(iuois viscount Delhi imbroglio celat kihi FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 73 EXERCISES IN PRONUNCIATION A sacrilegious son of Belial who suffered from bronchitis, hav- ing exhausted his finances, in order to make good the deficit, resolved to ally liimsclf to a comely, lenient, and docile young lady of the Malay or Caucasian race. He accordingly purchased a calliope and a coral necklace of a chameleon hue, and securing a suite of rooms at a principal hotel, he engaged the head waiter as his coadjutor. He then dispatched a letter of the most unexcep- tional caligraphy cxlant, inviting the young lady to a matinee. She revolted at the idea, refused to consider herself sacrificable to his desires, and sent a polite note of refusal, on receiving which he procured a carbine and a bowie knife, said that he would now forge letters hymeneal with the queen, went to an isolated spot, severed his jugular vein and discharged the contents of his carbine into his abdomen. The debris was removed by the coroner. A Visit to the Deering High School A member of the executive board started out in blithe spirits to visit the Deering High School. He heard the soughing of the wind through the trees. Glancing backward he saw a boy on the side- walk vigorously working the pedals of his bicycle and evidently enjoying the pedal exercise. Stepping aside, he gave him the pre- cedence, though thinking it might be establishing a bad precedent to allow cycling on the sidewalk. The boy touched the visor of his cap in polite salute and rode on. He soon met a doctor who in- formed him that he had patients ill with bronchitis, appendicitis, and a case of diphtheria with the parotid gland badly affected. He said his horse seemed verj'^ docile, but he was overworked as his other had an attack of epizootic. He would buy another but the status of his finances was such that it would leave a deficit in his cash account. A canine pet of huge size met him as he passed along. He soon observed in the distance an object approaching that resembled a calliope escorting the pageantry of a circus. It proved to be an automobile with a party in jocund spirits on their way to attend a vaudeville performance. He reached the school before recess and met the principal in the recess of the building. In the library he saw one young lady read- ing the poems of Felicia Hcinans; another was deeply absorbed in a romance. One was writing an essay on the Resources of Maine, and her companion was looking up Palestine on the map. A young 74 ORAL ENGLISH man of robust physique was preparing an address on orthoepy and orthoepical subjects. He had reached the finale of his writing. He was asked to read his address but he rephed with a grimace that he was not ready to do that. The chemical laboratory seemed well supplied with needed ap- paratus. One of the boys drew water from a faucet and colored it with cochineal. Another went to the pharmacist for benzine, strychnine, iodine, cocaine, iodide of potassium, calcined plaster, shellac, peroxide of hydrogen, carmine ink, fulminic powder, and arseniureted powder. The glittering facets of an amethyst gem, worn by one of the young ladies, caught the eye of the committee. In the Greek class the teacher was discoursing on the indirect dis- course and on the errors often made in pronunciation. The class in algebra was comparing the similarity of algebra to arithmetic and also solving complex, simultaneous equations. The teacher of ex- pression was discussing accent and drilling her class to accent the proper syllable. They were reading the following: "I contemplate often a plethoric, peremptory, sacrilegious, invalid inmate, who seems acclimated though enen'ated. He, according to the legend, is an aspirant for the fame of a conjurer. He holds in his hand a vase illustrated by a distich from a Latin satire." The teacher of the physical geography class had made a collection of caoutchouc, cochineal, apricots, syrup strained through a colander ready for culinary use, spinach, and bananas. In the geometry class he heard the two sides alternate in demonstrating -the equality of alternate angles. The class in civil government seemed much interested in municipal problems. They were planning to perfect an organization to conduct a town meeting in accordance with the usages of our modern civilization. The students were courteous in their manners and observant of the etiquette of the school. The N. E. A. Alphabet Many educators and philologists have felt the need of more scientific symbols for the accurate denotation of the sounds heard in English speech. To meet this need a com- mittee of experts worked for several years formulating such an alphabet, and reported the results of their labors to the National Education Association in 1911. The alphabet was adopted l)y the association, and is known as the N. E. A. FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 75 Alphabet. As yet it lias not been much tested, is not well understood, and is waiting adoption l)y text-books and dic- tionaries. However, as tliis alphabet, or a modification of it, is likely to receive some recognition, the following com- parative table is submitted for the use of those that are interested. Roman Script Names Key-words Webster Markings a a OL a^ art a a a (-^ cu artistic a in unaccented Qi oi CCo CL^ aisle, find syllables T Qu an LLuy cuu/ out, thou (ou) (ow) A a d a. air A a A a ^y ^ at S, B b ^ I bi be b Ch dli LJ^ cJt/ dii chew ch D d jy J. di day d E e C^ -e/ prey e E e (i -ey men e a = a, as in ask. a 1 = w. , as in habit, senate (indicating a weakening toward i in pi7?/). a = —, as in final, atom (indicating a weakening toward u in hxd). 76 ORAL ENGLISH Roman Script Names ef gl (noi Key-words fee ^ ji) go Webster Markings f g H h ^z hi he h i r J^ marine i I i J ^ tm \ lu iu yJ^U^^it^t^ mute u J K h ::fC A ji (or j ki (or e) jaw ke) kin j org k or € L > ^ ^ el let 1 M N em en met net m n U' r) 77 /?2x eiD sing t] oxn 5 ^ 6^_ ^ note poetic 6 s ^. nor 6 « 6^ > not 6 ' This denotes the guttural nasal heard in sing, singer. It is a simple sound, not a compound of u and g. The ng o{ finger is com- posed of ij + g (fin'gor), the nk of bank of g + k (bai]k). FORMAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 77 Roman 0i ei Script Names Key-words oil Webster Markings (oi) (oy) P R P r pi pit er (or ar) rat P r S 6 J^ ^ es set s or 9 Sh ^ ,.ny.jJiy e^ ship sh T t Jj> tl ten t Th fll J^My eth thin th •Hi th o/^^ ^^t>yu eth that til U U a u mood push do, o or u 00, Q or u urge ams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee." 19. "Sing as we float along; Sing as the tide grows strong." 20. "Kentish Sir Bjaig stood for his king." 21. "My soul to-day is far away, SaiUng the Vesuvian Bay." 22. "Melancholy! Melancholy! I've no use for you, by Golly!" 23. "Marching along, fifty score strong, Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song." 24. " The cattle are grazing. Their heads never raising. There are forty feeding Uke one." 25. "The one worth, while. Is the one who will smile When everything goes dead wrong." 26. "My castles are the king's alone From turret to foundation stone, The hand of Douglas is his own." 27. "Is there nothing winging, Nothing, nothing, flinging Its warm, wild heart away?" 28. "Saddle! saddle! saddle! Redden spur and thong. Ride like the mad tornado. The track is lonely and long." 29. "Time is very long Without a song; Year long is the day With love away." TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH VOCAL EXPRESSION Vocal Expression Defined. — Vocal expression is the rev- elation of thought and feeling by modulations of the voice. Wonderful as the human voice is in the production of vowel and consonant sounds, it is still more wonderful in its range of expression resulting from various combinations of the elements of force, time, pitch and quality. The next step is to consider each of these four criteria. Force Force is easily recognized in speaking and reading, even by untrained ears. However, it should not be confused with mere loudness for a big empty voice is not a forceful one. Force manifests the "degree of mental energy," and forceful reading is that in which clear thought predominates and compels attention. Emphasis Emphasis Defined. — We emphasize thoughts when we use a different degree of force, a different pitch, a change of time (especially by pauses), or by a contrasting quality. Emphasis may be defined then, as the prominence given to a word, phrase or clause in reading or speaking to make the meaning clear. The following rules are not exhaustive, but ma3' serve as aids to pupils in analyzing thought and relating it to utterance. 112 TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 113 RULES FOR EMPHASIS I. The subject and predicate of a sentence are generally emphatic. 1. Two firemen appeared and ascended the ladder. 2. Three hours later, the Spanish fleet was completely destroyed. XL Words expressing new ideas are emphatic. 1.' "I will buy with 3'ou, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you." III. Words expressing a contrast of ideas are emphatic. 1. "The former target was now removed and a Jresh one of the same size placed in its room." 2. "I may neither choose whom I would, nor refuse whom I dislike." 3. "The cynic puts all human actions into only two classes — openly bad and secretly bad." IV. Words repeated to enforce a statement are emphatic. "The matter with him? What, indeed, could invest human flesh with such terrors — what but this? He was — he is — let me shriek it in your ear — a bore — a Bore! of the most mahgnant type; an intolerable, terrible, unmitigated BORE!" V. Any part of speech may sometimes be emphatic, but articles, conjunctions and prepositions are least likely to require emphasis. 1. I agree with the honorable gentleman. 2. Without praise, he is discouraged; with it, he becomes over confident. 3. This is the place for jolly campers. 4. "Not Liberty first, and Union afterward: but Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" Carefully analyze the following sentences for their con- 114 ORAL ENGLISH tent, and try to express it by reading each sentence aloud What rule for emphasis does each sentence illustrate? Every Woman: Now, Youth, behold! Here's Poverty. Let's question her, and see If Wealth or Poverty the kindher be. (To Truth disguised as a beggar) Old woman, of thy wisdom, prithee, tell us What is true happiness? Where can it be found? Truth: A mj'th — a mocking mirage. A poet's dream. The fleeting substance of a maniac's scheme. A will-o'-the-wisp is happiness. When sought, 'Tis ever out of reach; 'tis never caught. A timid, hunted hare — in its pursuit Woman becomes a wanton, man a brute. Yet happiness shall surely come apace To those who take no i^leasure in the chase. I tell thee — warn thee, Everywoman, Youth, If happiness thou seekest, follow Truth. Walter Browne: Everywoman. Reprinted by permission of Mrs. Walter Browne and Henry W. Savage. That is the doctrine you've inherited from our forefathers, and go on heedlessly proclaiming far and wide — the doctrine that the nml- titude, the vulgar herd, the masses, are the pith of the people — that they are the people — that the common man, the ignorant, unde- veloped member of society has the same right to condemn and to sanction, to counsel and to govern, as the intellectually distinguished few. Henrik Ibsen: An Enemy of the People. Reprinted by permission of Walter H. Baker and Co. "These are bitter words, sir Knight," said Prince Edward with an angry frown. "And they come from a bitter heart," answered the unknown knight. "A true Frenchman's words may well be bitter, for bitter is his lot and l)itter his thoughts as he rides through his thrice unhappy country." A. CoNAN Doyle: The White Company. It is easy to sit in the sunshine and preach to the man in the shadow. TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 115 Burr, at first, was agreeably attracted to Hamilton, whose radiant disposition wanned his colder nature; but when he was forced to accept the astounding fact that Hamilton had prepared himself for the bar in four months, digesting and remembering a mountain of knowledge that cost other men the labor of years, and had pre- pared a manual besides, he experienced the first convulsion of that jealousy which was to become his controlling passion in later years. Gertrude Atherton: The Conqueror. The same dualism underlies the nature and condition of man. Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess. Every sweet hath its sour; every evil its good. Every faculty which is a re- ceiver of pleasure has an equal penalty put on its abuse. It is to answer for its moderation with its life. For every grain of wit there is a grain of folly. For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose some- thing. If riches increase, they are increased that use them. If the gatherer gathers too much, nature takes out of the man what she puts into his chest; swells the estate, but kills the owner. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Co7npensation. You think if you lived in the olden days you'd be a Caesar or an Alexander. But you wouldn't. You'd be a Nero— a Nero! Sink my self-respect to the extent of marrying into your family! Never! I am going to Washington without your aid. I am going to save my father if I have to go on my knees to every United States Sena- tor. I'll go to the White House; I'll tell the president what you are! Marry your son? No, thank you! No! thank you! "~^ Charles Klein: The Lion and the Mouse. Reprinted by permission of G. W. Dillingham Co. In conquering races the men, they say, are superior to the women, in conquered races the women to the men. John Galsworthy. A mile behind is Gloucester town Where the fishing fleets put in, A mile ahead the land dips down And the woods and farms begin. Here, where the moors stretch free In the high blue afternoon. Are the marching sun and talking sea. And the racing winds that wheel and flee On the flying heels of June. 116 ORAL ENGLISH Over the shelf of the sandy cove Beach-peas blossom late. By copse and cliff the swallows rove Each calling to his mate. Seaward the sea-gulls go, And the land-birds all are here; That green-gold flash was a vireo, And yonder flame where the marsh-flags grow Was a scarlet tanager. William Vaughn Moody: Gloucester Moors. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co. The young man took out his handkerchief and wiped his brow. It was a good handkerchief, a good brow, and the young man was good to look at. O. Henry: His Courier. When Prue and I are most cheerful, and the world looks fair — we talk of our cousin the curate. When the world seems a little cloudy, and we remember that though we have hved and loved together we may not die together — we talk of our cousin the curate. When we plan little plans for the boys and dream dreams for the girls — we talk of our cousin the curate. When I tell Prue of Aurelia, whose character is every day lovelier — we talk of our cousin the curate. There is no subject which does not seem to lead naturally to our cousin the curate. George William Curtis: Prue and I. The noise and dust of the conflict may hide the real question at issue. Europe may think, some of us may, that we are fighting for forms and parchments, for sovereignty and a flag. But really the war is one of oi^inions; it is Civilization against Barbarism; it is Freedom against Slavery. The cannon shot against Fort Sumter was the yell of pirates against the Declaration of Independence; the war-cry of the North is the echo of that sublime pledge. The result is as sure as the throne of God. I believe in the possibility of jus- tice, in the certainty of union. Years hence, when the smoke of this conflict clears away, the world will see under our banner all tongues, all creeds, all races, — one brotherhood, — and on the bank of the Potomac, the genius of Liberty, robed in light, broken chains under feet, and an olive branch in her hand. Wen'dell Phillips: The War of Liberty. It was through the Declaration of Indcpendencethat we Americans acknowledged the eternal inequality of man. For by it we abolished TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 117 a cut-and-dricd aristocracy. We had seen little men artificially held up in high i)laces, antl great men artificially held down in low places, and our own justice-loving hearts abhorred this violence to human nature. Therefore, we decree that every man should thence- forth have equal liberty to find his own level. Owen Wister: The Virginian. To learn to speak off-hand m public, speak in your own room, privately, ten minutes every day, on some subject, to yourself. Don't experiment in public. It is an awful infliction. Newman Hall. Suffice it to say, he stayed— he stayed—he STAYED! — five mortal weeks; refusing to take hints when they almost became kicks; driv- ing our friends from us, antl ourselves almost to distraction. John T. Trowbridge : Fred Trover's Little Iron-Clad. Reprinted by permission of the author. Time Significance of Time in Oral Reading or in Speech.— A reader or speaker indicates his mental estimate of words, phrases and clauses by the time he gives them in utterance. An instructor, explaining a difficult lesson, does it deliberately, indicating by his manner of speech that he considers the lesson important; but in talking with an acquaintance about the weather, he uses a much more rapid rate of utterance, indicating that he considers it relatively unimportant. Time in Reading or Speech Similar to Time in Music. — Time in reacUng or speech is similar in significance to time in music, and may be designated in the same way as fast, moderate or slow. Fast time is an appropriate expression of lively, joyous and excited moods, or sometimes of unimportant ideas. Slow time is an appropriate expression of sentiments that are characterized by calnmess, sympathy, pathos, reverence, awe and admiration, or of ideas that are important. Moderate time is an appropriate expression of our more common thoughts and feelings. 118 ORAL ENGLISH Read the following quotations aloud, noticing what kinds of time give the best expression of the thought. The two teams came together in a mass and for an instant there seemed to be no movement either way. Then the mass began turn- ing and revolving about itself, and in another moment it went down. There were jjlayers on both sides of the goal line; the referee, blowing his whistle, began pulling fellows off the pile, and both sides were already claiming that it was or that it was not a touch-dowTi, when as a matter of fact no one knew. But when the bottom was reached, Skilton was found lying there with the ball six inches across the line. Ward and Banks hauled him to his feet, while Brewster and Mc- Neal turned somersaults, and the others of the team pranced round shaking hands and pounding one another on the back. And on the side lines the first deafening yell and cheer had been supplanted by the regular, snappy shout, "Skil-ton, Skil-ton, Skil-ton!" over and over again. Arthur Stanwood Pier: The Game with St. John's. Reprinted by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons. Let me use an illustration. We infer from the flint implements recently found in such profusion all over England and in other countries, that they were produced by men, and also that the Pyra- mids of Egypt were built by men, because, as far as our experience goes, nothing but men could form such implements or build such Pyramids. In like manner, we infer from the phenomena of light the agency of waves, because, as far as our experience goes, no other agency could produce the phenomena. John Tyndall. Reprinted by permission of D. Appleton & Co. Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books. But love from love, toward school with heavy looks. Shakespeare. "From the west there sounded the harsh gong of a fire engine which was pounding rapidly down the car tracks. It came, rocking in a whirlwind of galloping horses and swaying men. The crowd on the street broke into a run, streaming along the sidewalk in the wake of the engine. The architect woke from liis dead thoughts and ran with the crowd. Two, three, four blocks, they sped toward the lake, which curves eastward at this point, and as he ran the TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 119 street became stranf!;oly familiar to him. The crowd turned south along a broad avenue that led to the park. Some one cried: "There it is! It's the hotel!" Robert Herrick: The Common Lot. Let me plaj'- the fool : With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come; And let my liver rather heat with wine, Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. Why should a man, whose blood is warm within. Sit hke his grandsire cut in alabaster? Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice By being peevish? Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice. Away! away! o'er the sheeted ice, Awa}', away we go; On our steel bound feet we move as fleet As deer o'er the Lapland snow. What though the sharp north winds are out, The skater heeds them not — 'Midst the laugh and the shout of the jocund rout, Grey winter is forgot. Let others choose more gentle sports, By the side of the winter hearth; Or 'neath the lamps of the festal halls, Seek for their share of mirth; But as for me, away! awaj^! Where the merrjr skaters be — Where the fresh wind blows, and the smooth ice glows, There is the place for me. Ephraim Peabody: A Skati7ig Song. Oh the long and dreary Winter! Oh the cold and cruel Winter! Ever thicker, thicker, thicker Froze the ice on lake and river. Ever deeper, deeper, deeper Fell the snow o'er all the landscape. Fell the covering snow, and drifted Through the forest, round the village. Henry W. Longfellow: The Song of Hiawatha. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co. 120 ORAL ENGLISH The common street climbed up against the sky, Gray meeting gray; and wearily to and fro I saw the patient, common people go, Each with his sordid burden trudging by. And the rain droj^t; there was not any sigh Or stir of a live wind; dull, dull, and slow All motion ; as a tale told long ago The faded world; and creeping night drew nigh. Then burst the sunset, flooding far and fleet, Leavening the whole of hfe with magic leaven. Suddenly down the long, wet glistening hill Pure splendor poured — and lo! the common street A golden highway into golden heaven. With the dark shapes of men ascending still. Helen Gray Cone: The Common Street. Reprinted by permission of the author. Subordination Subordination in Reading or Speaking Explained.— Subordination in reading or speaking is gliding over a word, phrase or clause to give little prominence to unimportant and minor ideas. One may observe that a speaker often subordinates a clause by using a milder form of force, a lower pitch and a more rapid rate than he employs for the rest of a sentence. Generally, parenthetical and explanatory ex- pressions, and ideas that are already known to the audience should be subordinated. Analyze the thought of the following excerpts to discover what is relatively unimportant; then read them aloud, mak- ing sure that your voice reports your estimate of both the important and the unimportant ideas. "Then come, if you will, and listen — stand close beside my knee — To a tale of a Southern city, proud Charleston by the sea." What does he find? — let me ask you who went to your homes eager to find, in the welcome you had justly earned, fidl payment for four years' sacrifice — what does he find when, having followed TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 121 the battle-stained cross against ovenvh(>lmiiig odds, dreading death not half so much as surrender, he reaches the home he left so pros- perous and beautiful? Henry W. Grady. Reprinted by permission of E. D. Shurter. The plain house in which he lived — severely plain, because the welfare of the suffering and the slave were preferred to book, and picture, and oxovy fair device of art; the house to which the north star led the trembling fugitive, and which the unfortunate and the friend- less knew — the radiant figure passing swiftly through these streets, plain as the house from which it came, regal with a roj'alty beyond that of kings — the ceaseless charity untold — the strong, sustaining heart — the sacred domestic affection that must not here be named — the eloquence which, like the song of Orpheus, will fade from living memory into a doubtful tale— the surrender of ambition, the con- secration of a life hidden with God in sympathy with man — these, all these, will live among your immortal traditions, heroic even in your heroic story. George William Curtis: Eulogy on Wendell Phillips. But we listened, as all boys in their better moods will listen (aj^e, and men too, for the matter of that), to a man whom we felt to be, with all his heart, and soul, and strength, striving against whatever was mean, and unmanly, and unrighteous in our little world. Thomas Hughes. On the noon of the fourteenth of November, 1743 or 1744, I forget which it was, just as the clock had struck one, Barbara S , with her accustomed punctuality, ascended the long, rambling stair- case, with awkward interposed landing-places, which led to the office, or rather a sort of box with a desk in it, whereat sat the then treasurer of (what few of our readers may remember) the old Bath Theatre. All over the island it was the custom, and remains so I believe to this day, for the players to receive their weekly stipend on the Saturday. It was not much that Barbara had to claim. Charles Lamb: The Essays of Elia. On May mornings her slender figure, which looked as if it miglit suddenly snap off at the waist, might be seen in the garden, hang- ing clothes out to dry, or stooping above the vegetables; while ]\Iac- Creedy watched her in a possessive manner from the cottage door- way. When he was out it was she who would pull the ferry-boat over, and, after landing the passengers, remain motionless, bowed over her sculls, staring at them, as though loth to lose the sound of 122 ORAL ENGLISH their footsteps; then she would pull slowly back across the swirl ol silver-brown water, and, tying up the boat, stand with her hand shading her ej^es. John Galsworthy: A Miller of Dee. Reprinted by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons. "Why do you lead such a solitary life?" asked a friend of Michael Angelo. "Art is a jealous mistress," rephed the artist; "she re- quires the whole man." During his labors at the Sistine Chapel, according to Disraeli, he refused to meet anyone, even at his own house. Orison Swett Marden: One Unwavering Aim. Philip look'd. And in their eyes and faces read his doom; Then, as their faces drew together, groan'd, And slipt aside, and like a wounded life Crept down into the hollows of the wood ; There, while the rest were loud in merrjanaking. Had his dark hour unseen, and rose and past Bearing a lifelong hunger in his heart. Alfred Tennyson: Enoch Arden. There is scarce any thoughtful man or woman, I suppose, but can look back upon his course of past life, and remember some point, trifling as it may have seemed at the time of the occurrence, which has nevertheless turned and altered his whole career. William M. Thackeray: Henry Esjnond. I have been sometimes thinking, if a man had the art of second sight for seeing lies, as they have in Scotland for seeing spirits, how admirably he miglit entertain himself in this town by observing the different shapes, sizes and colors of those swarms of lies which buzz about the heads of some people, like flies about a horse's ears in summer. Jonathan Swift: The Art of Political Lying. For my part, as soon as I had left the foresail run, I threw my- self flat on the deck, with my feet against the narrow gunwale of the bow, and my hands grasping a ring-bolt near the foot of the foremast. It was mere instinct that ]3rom])t(Hl me to do this — which was undoubUMlly the very best thing I could have done — for I was too much flurried to think. For some moments we were completely deluged, I say, and all TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 123 this time I held my breath and ehm^ to the bolt. When I could stand it no longer 1 raised nwself ujion my knees, still keeping hold with my hands, and thus got my head clear. Presently our little boat gave herself a shake, just as a dog does in coming out of the water, and thus rid herself, in some measure, of the seas. Edgar Allan Poe : A Descent into the Maelstrom. Grouping Good Grouping Contributes to Clearness of Thought. — When reading or speaking there is alwaj^s a tendency to divide the words into groups. Taking breath, giving atten- tion to the punctuation, or considering the thouglit, will re- sult in grouping. It is true that the thought or sense group and the pvmctuation group often coincide; but as this is not ahvays true, grouping according to the thought should be given the preference. Breathing can be so controlled that breath is always taken before or after a thought group; punctuation marks can be ignored when so doing makes the thought clearer; and for the same reason, pauses can be made where there is no punctuation at all. Difficulty in Grouping Words Well when Reading Poetry. ^Many pupils exi)erience difficulty in reading poetry. They group the words according to the metrical feet, or make a group of each line. These habits can be overcome by giv- ing more attention to the meaning, and trying to make it so clear that others cannot help understanding it. Use the following excerpts for practice in analysis of thought, and practice in reading aloud to express the thought by appropriate grouping. Ah, ancient mill, still do I picture o'er Thy cobwebhed stairs and loft and grain-strewoi floor; Thy door, — like some brown, honest hand of toil, And honorable with service of the soil, — Forever open; to which, on his back The prosperous farmer bears his bursting sack, 124 ORAL ENGLISH And while the miller measures out his toll, Again I hear, above the cogs' loud roll, — That makes stout joist and rafter groan and sway, — The harmless gossip of the passing day: Good country talk, that says how so-and-so Lived, died, or wedded: how curculio And codling-moth j^lay havoc with the fruit, Smut ruins the corn and blight the grapes to boot: Or what is news from town: next county fair: How well the crops are looking everywhere: — Now this, now that, on which their interests fix, Prospects for rain or frost, and politics. While, all around, the sweet smell of the meal Filters, warm-pouring from the rolling wheel Into the bin ; beside which, mealy white. The miller looms, dim in the dusty light. Madison Cawein: The Old Water-Mill. To give to the noblest thoughts the noblest expression, to pene- trate the souls of men, and make them feel as if they were new creatures, conscious of new powers and loftier purposes; to cause truth and justice, wisdom and virtue, patriotism and religion to appear holier and more majestic things than men had ever dreamed of before; to delight as well as to convince; to charm, to win, to arouse, to calm, to warn, to enlighten, to persuade — this is the func- tion of the orator. Brander Matthews. Upon the Forest-side in Grasmere Vale There dwelt a Shepherd, Michael was his name; An old man, stout of heart, and strong of limb. His bodily frame had been from j^outh to age Of an unusual strength: his mind was keen, Intense, and frugal, apt for all affairs, And in his Shepherd's calling he was prompt And watchful more than ordinary men. Hence had he learned the meaning of all winds, Of blasts of every tone; and, oftentimes, When others heeded not, He heard the South Make subterraneous music, like the noise Of Bagpipers on distant Highland hills. William Wordsworth: Michael. As ho pressed on the plain turned to woods once more in the region of Wilverley Walk, and a cloud swept up from the south, TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 125 with the sun shining through the chinks of it. A few great drops came pattering down, and then in a moment the steady swish of a brisk shower, with the dripping and the dropping of the leaves. A. CoNAN Doyle. 'Tis night upon the lake. Our bed of boughs Is built where, high above, the pine tree soughs. 'Tis still — and yet what woody noises loom Against the background of the silent gloom! One well might hear the opening of a flower If day were hushed as this. A mimic shower Just shaken from a branch, how large it sounded, As 'gainst our canvas roof its three drops bounded! Across the rumpling waves the hoot-owl's bark Tolls forth the midnight hour upon the dark. What mellow booming from the hills doth come? — The mountain quarry strikes its mighty drum. Richard Watson Gilder: The Voice of the Pine. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co. Last night I dreamed a dream of you. I thought you came And caught my hands in yours and said my name Over and over, till my soul was stirred With that fine ecstacy that some wild bird May know when first he feels the blossoming And the keen raj^ture of the glad new spring. Almost to-day I fear to meet your eyes Lest I should find them suddenly grown wise With knowledge of my heart; almost I fear To touch your hand lest you should come too near And startled, dazed by some fierce inner light, We both should cry, "I dreamed a dream last night!" Theodosia Garrison: Illumination. Reprinted by permission of Mitchell Kennerley. Oh, say, Jim Crow, Why is it you always go With a gloomy coat of black The year long on your back? Why don't you change its hue, At least for a day or two, To red or green or blue? And why do you always wear 126 ORAL ENGLISH Such a sober, sombre air, As glum as the face of Care? I wait for your reply, And into the peaceful pause There comes your curious, croaking cry, — "Oh, because! 'cause! 'cause!" Clinton Scollard: Jim Crow from "The Lyric Bough." Reprinted by permission of the author and Messrs. Sherman, French and Co. The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, Burn'd on the water; the poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumed that The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver Which to the tune of flutes kejDt stroke and made The water which they beat to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, It beggar'd all description: she did lie In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue, O'er-picturing that Venus where we see The fancy outwork nature: on each side her Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, With divers-colored fans, whose wind did seem To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, Aiid what they undid did. William Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra. Pauses How Pauses are Related to Time. — Pauses have a marked effect upon time in reading or speaking. Frequent and long pauses retard the time, while few and short pauses ac- celerate the time. Pauses are not mere silence, but are instants when the thought of one group of words is carried over to that of another group, showing the relation between them. No mechanical process of stopping at punctuation marks, or following the old rule of counting four at a period, two at a semi-colon and one at a comma, will fill pauses with meaning. Pauses should come naturally from a reader's or speaker's effort to express thought clearly and impressively. TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 127 Rhetorical Pauses. — Pauses are related to emphasis, be- caus(i a pause l)(>l'orc or after an idea, or in both places is frequently the best way of emphasizing it. Such pauses as are made for the sake of emphasis or clearness and do not coincide with any marks of punctuation, are called rhetorical pauses. Practice the following examples, giving the clearest pos- sible grouping of thought. Notice what use you make of the rhetorical pause. He finds his house in ruins, his farm devastated, his slaves free, his stock killed, his barn empty, his trade destroyed, his money worthless; his social system, feudal in its magnificence, swept away; his people without law or legal status; his comrades slain, and the burdens of others heavy upon his shoulders. Henry W. Grady: The New South. Reprinted by permission of E. D. Shurter. True hope is swnft, and flies with swallow's wings; Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings. Shakespeare. With no friend but his sword, and no fortune but his talents, he (Napoleon) rushed into the lists where rank, and wealth, and genius had arrayed themselves and competition fled from him as from the glance of destiny. He knew no motive but interest — he acknowl- edged no criterion but success — he worshipped no God but ambi- tion, and with an Eastern devotion he knelt at the shrine of his idolatry. Charles Phillips. One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break. Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep to wake. Robert Browning: Asolando. Great news this for that fierce old country, whose trade for a gencn-ation had been war, her exports archers and her imports prisoners. A. CoNAN Doyle. 128 ORAL ENGLISH His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles, His love sincere, liis thoughts immaculate. His tears pure messengers sent from his heart. His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth. WiLLiAii Shakespeare: 2'u-o Gentlemen of Verona. A fair and luminous mind creates a body after its own image. With health and a soul, nor man nor woman can be other than beautiful, whatever the features. The most potent charm is that of expression. As the moonlight clothes the rugged and jagged mountains so a noble mind transfigures its vesture. Bishop John L. Spalding: Opportunity. Reprinted by permission of A. C. McClurg and Company. He was a worshipper of libertj^, a friend of the oppressed. A thousand times I have heard him quote these words: "For Justice all place a temple, and all seasons, simimer." He believed that hap- piness was the only good, reason the only torch, justice the only worship, humanity the only religion, and love the only priest. He added to the sum of human joy; and were every one to whom he did some loving service to bring a blossom to his grave, he would sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of flowers. Robert G. Ixgersoll: At His Brother's Grave. Reprinted by permission of C. P. Farrell. On the following day the attack was made, but it was unsuc- cessful. The whole state was now alarmed, and all the frontier settlers left alive had flocked to the larger and more protected toTVTis, It had also developed during the daj' that there was a prettj'' large party of Sioux who were ready to surrender, thereby showing that they had not been party to the massacre nor indorsed the hasty action of the tribe. C. Alexander Eastman: Old Indian Days. Reprinted by permission of Doublcday Page & Co. To recreate in your own brain the imagery of a poem is to be- come in some degree a poet yourself. Bliss Perry. thou king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty: and because of the greatness that he gave him, all the ])coples, nations, and lan- guages trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew, TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 129 and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he raised up, and whom lie would he put down. Daniel, V 18-19. Be calm in arguing, for fierceness makes error a fault and truth discourtesy. George Herbert. Pitch Variety of Pitch in the Speaking Voice. — The average compass of the human voice in reading or speaking is more than an octave, yet we think little of pitches of the voice except in singing. We are more conscious of pitch when lis- tening to a voice that is abnormally high, low or monotonous, than when hearing a voice with good range. Saying a sen- tence and then humming it, will convince any one that won- derful changes in pitch are constantly used in reading and speaking. Notice the changes in pitch in these lines from Bro^\Tiing's Herve Riel. " Here's the English at our heels; would you have them take in tow All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern and bow, For prize to Plymouth Sound?" The Melody of Sentences. — The changes in pitch used in a sentence, make the melody of that sentence; and the melody varies with the thought that is conveyed. If John Doe meets two classmates who have attended a literary society meeting, and inquires, "Did you have a good de- bate to-day, boys?", one might say, "/ think so," indicating frankly that, in his opinion, it was a good debate, the other might say, "I think so," virtually saying, it was fair, but uninteresting and an awful bore. The words are the same in both instances, but the melody in each case tells the boy's real thought. So in reading, different people will give about the same melody to a sentence, if they apprehend the same 130 ORAL ENGLISH thought in it; but failure to grasp the meaning will give a wrong melody. Keys Occur in Cpeech as in Music. — Besides the melody of sentences, it may be observed that sometimes low pitches predominate in the voice, and we say the person is speaking in a low key; at other times, high pitches predominate, and we say he is speaking in a high key. Here, again, the changes in pitch are caused by mental states; for when one is reflec- tive or self-controlled, his condition of mind is manifested in low keys of voice, but if he becomes excited over some- thing or loses his self-control, this is evidenced in high keys. Awake, awake! — • Ring the alarum-bell. — Murther and treason! — Banquo and Donalbain! — Malcolm! awake! Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, And look on death itself! up, up, and see The great doom's image! — Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, To countenance this horror. Ring the bell. William Shakespeare: Macbeth. lad3\ twine no wreath for me, Or twine it of the cypress-tree ! Too lively glow the lilies light. The varnished holly's all too bright, The Maj^-flower and the eglantine May shade a brow less sad than mine; But, lady, weave no wreath for me, Or weave it of the cypress-tree. Sir Walter Scott: The Cypress Wreath. Hallo! — What? Where, what can it be That strikes up so dcliciously? 1 never in my life — what? no! That little tin box i)laying so? It really seemed as if a sprite Had struck among us swift and light, And come from some minuter star To treat us with his pearl guitar. TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 131 Hark ! It scarcely ends the strain, But it gives it o'er again, Lovely thing! and runs along Just as if it knew the song, Touching out, smooth, clear and small, Harmony, and shake, and all: Now upon the treble lingering, And at last upon the close Coming with serene repose. Leigh Hunt: On Hearing n Little Musical Box. Reprinted by permission of E. P. Dutton and Company. The weather, for many a day and night, has been so wet that the trees seem wet through, and the soft loppings and prunings of the woodman's ax can make no crash or crackle as they fall. The deer, looking soaked, leave quagmires, where they pass. The shot of a rifle loses its shaqmess in the moist air. The view from my Lady Ded- lock's own windows is alternately a lead-colored view, and a view in Indian ink. The vases on the stone terrace in the foreground catch the rain all day; and the heavy drops fall, drip, drip, drip, by day and night, upon the broad flagged pavement, called, from old time, the Ghost's Walk. Charles Dickens: Bleak House. Bury the Great Duke With an empire's lamentation. Let us bury the Great Duke To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation, Mourning when their leaders fall, Warriors carry the warrior's pall, And sorrow darkens hamlet and hall. Where shall we lay the man whom we deplore? Here, in the streaming London's central roar. Let the sound of those he wi'ought for, And the feet of those he fought for. Echo round his bones forevermore. Lead out the pageant: sad and slow. As fits a universal woe. Let the long, long procession go, And let the sorrowing crowd about it grow. And let the mournful martial music blow; The last great Englishman is low. A.LFRED Tennyson: Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. 132 ORAL ENGLISH Meanwhile the criers were calling the defendant at the four corners of the lists. "Oyes! Oyes! Oyes! Richard Drayton, duke of Nottingham, come to this combat in which ye be enterprised to discharge your sureties this day before our liege, the king, and to encounter in your defence Henry Mansfield, knight, the challenger. Oyes! Oyes! Oyes! Let the defendant come!" The portals are open, the white road leads Through thicket and garden, o'er stone and sod. On, up! Boot and saddle! Give spurs to your steeds! There's a city beleagured that cries for men's deeds. For the faith that is strength and the love that is God! On through the dawning! Humanity calls! Life's not a dream in the clover! On to the walls, on to the walls, On to the walls, and over! Hermann Hagedorn: A Troop of the Guard. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co. "The order I have ever given in war, I give now: we war against the leaders of evil, not against the hapless tools, — we war against our oppressors, not against our misguided brethren. Strike down every plumed crest, but when the strife is over spare every common man ! Hark ! while I speak, I hear the march of your foe ! Up stand- ards! — blow trumpets! — And now, as I brace my bassinet, may God grant us all a glorious victory, or a glorious grave. On, my merry men! show these London loons the stout hearts of Warwickshire and Yorkshire. On, my merry men ! A Warwick! A Warwick!" Edward Bulwer-Lytton : The Last of the Barons. Hardly had the Raven flown awa}'', when out from their habita- tion in the moss, the flowers and the grass, trooped a legion of fairies, — yes, right there before the old poet's ej'cs appeared, as if by magic, a mighty troop of the dearest little fays in all the world. Each of these fairies was about the height of a cambric needle. The lady fairies were, of course, not so tall as the gentlemen fairies, but all wore of quite as comely figure as you could expect to find among real folk. Tliey were ((uaintly dressed; the ladies wearing quilted silk gowns and broad brim liats with tiny feathers in them, and the gentlemen wearing curious little knickerbockers, with silk coats, white hose, ruffled shirts and dainty cocked hats. EiKJENE Field: The Fairies of Pesth. Reprinted by permission of Cliurles Scribner's Sons. TECHNICAL ELEMENTS LX ORAL ENGLISH 133 Inflection Inflections defined. — An inflection is a quick glide ot the voice over several successive notes of the scale. It occurs upon emphasized words, and if the word has more than one S3'llal)le, upon the accented syllable of that word. There are three inflections; the falling, rising and circumflex. Falling Inflection. — The falling inflection shows that a positive assertion is made, or that a thought is complete. 1. He has made a mistake, he is -ttTong, entirely wrong. 2. They drove the first line back upon the second, the second back upon the third and there they died. 3. "Speak, what trade art thou?" Note. Observe that an inteiTOgative sentence having the force of a command, is expressed with a falhng inflection. Rising Inflection. — ^The rising inflection indicates doubt, uncertainty or pleading or that a thought is incomplete. 1. I think it's true, but I'm not sure. 2. "0, speak to me no more; These words like daggers enter in mine ears: Xo more, sweet Hamlet." 3. When a fireman climbs a wall with his scaling ladder, and de- scends imdcr the weight of a fainting woman; when he makes a bridge of his back that those in peril may walk over him to safety; when he hangs by his legs from a roof and swings one man after another from a window below out of danger to his side ; when strapped to his seat on his engine, turning a corner at full speed, he over- turns the engine to save an old apple woman from being run down, wc cheer him, — we give him medals, we make much of him in the public prints. Jacob A. Riis: Heroes Who Fight Fire Reprinted by permission of the author. Circumflex Inflection. — The circumflex inflection com- bines a rising and a falling glide, or a falling and a rising, as 134 ORAL ENGLISH the case may be. It indicates sarcasm or a complex state o\ mind. 1. Oh, yes! he's a. fine ball player. 2. Good morning, are you up for all day? 3. "I am not bound to please thee with my answer." 4. "Look at his togs, Fagin!" said Charley, putting the light so close to his new jacket as nearly to set him on fire. "Look at his togs, — superfine cloth, and the heavy-swell cut! Oh, my eye, what a game! And his books, too; nothing but a gentleman, Fagin!" "Delighted to see you looking so well, my dear," said the Jew, bowing with mock humility. "The Artful shall give you another suit, my dear, for fear you should spoil that Sunday one. Why didn't you write, my dear, and say you were coming? We'd have got something warm for supper." Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist, Grasp the spirit of the following passages, then try to voice it as you read the lines. Read the lines a second time observing what use you make of inflections. I said in my heart, " I am sick of four walls and a ceiling. I have need of the sky. I have business with the grass. I will up and get me away where the hawk is wheeling, Lone and high, And the slow clouds go by. I will get me away to the woods. The dogwood calls me, and the sudden thrill That breaks in apple blooms down country roads Plucks me by the sleeve and nudges me away. The sap is in the boles to-day, And in my veins a pulse that yearns and goads." Richard Hovey: Spring. Reprinted by permission of Dufficld and Company. "'Why, where are you goin' to?' the appointee of the Crown asks after a while. "'Well, my home port's Gloucester.' ' Gloucester? That's in the States, isn't it? ' till TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 135 "'What!' I says. '"Yes, yes, I think I've heard of it, Captain. Oh, dear me, yes — a fisliin' village, but I don't remember seein' it on any map.' "Well, I could have hove him over where he stood— a fishin' village! Village! There, thinks I, is another of them that imagines that in Gloucester the fishermen live in little huts on the beach and every evenin' after putting out the cat, we takes a lantern and looks our little boats over, and, maybe with the wife and the chil- dren to help, hauls 'em a foot or two higher on the beach so the flood tide won't float 'em off durin' the night. Village! And not on the map! 'why, you pink-haired tea-drinker,' I came near savin' 'Gloucester's all over the map.' But I didn't. I did say, though, ' Gloucester's the greatest fishin' port in the world,' a bit warm may be." James Brendan Connolly: The Crested Seas. Reprinted by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons. Are we not then called upon by the highest duties to our country, to its free institutions, to posterity, and to the world, to rise above all local prejudices ancl j)artialities, to discard all collateral questions, to disregard every subordinate point, and in a general spirit of compromise and concession, uniting heart and hand to preserve for ourselves the blessings of a free government, wisely, honestly, and faithfully administered, and as we received them from our fathers, to transmit them to our children? Should we not justly submit ourselves to eternal reproach, if we permitted our indiffer- ences about mere men to bring defeat and disaster upon our cause? Our principles are imperishable, but men have but a fleeting exis- tence, and are themselves liable to change and corruption during its brief continuance. Henry Clay: Public Spirit in Politics. The landlord pointing to the new arrival, said: — " This is the driver I been expectin' ! He'll take you. This man " — he now pointed to me — "wants to go to the college at 7.30." "He'll have to get somebody else. I got to take Dick Sands over to Millwood Station; his mother's took bad again." "What Dick Sands?" came a voice from the other side of the stove. "Why, Dick Sands," replied the driver in a positive tone. "Not Dick Sandsf" The voice expressed not only surprise but incredulity. "Yes, DICK SANDS," shouted the driver in a tone that carried 136 ORAL ENGLISH with it his instant intention of breaking anybody's head who doubted the statement. "That so? When did he git out?" "Oh, a month back." F. HoPKiNSON Smith: Dick Sands Convict. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co. Brutus. What, Lucius! ho! — I cannot, by the progress of the stars, Give guess how near to day. — Lucius, I say! — I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly. — When, Lucius, when? Awake, I say! What, Lucius! Lucius, (entering) Call'd you, my lord? Brutus. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius; When it is lighted, come and call me here. Lucius. I will, my lord. William Shakespeare: Julius Coesar. From a certain point of view, you both may be in the right. "It seems to me, reverend father, that the small morsels which you eat, together with this holy but somewhat thin beverage, have thriven with you marvellously. You appear a man more fit to win the ram at a wrestling match, or the ring at a bout at quarter- staff, or the bucklers at a sword-play, than to linger out your time in this desolate wilderness, saying masses, and living upon parched pease and cold water." Sir Walter Scott: Ivanhoe. Solness — So that is it, is it? Halvard Solness is to see about re- tiring now! To make room for younger men ! For the very young- est, perhaps! He must make room. Room! Room! Brovik — Why, good heavens! there is surely room for more than one single man — Solness^Oh, there's not so very much room to spare either. But, be that as it may — I will never retire! I will never give way to any])ody! Never of my own free will. Never in this world will I do that! Henrik Ibsen: The Master Builder. Reprinted by permission of Walter H. Baker & Co. Well, Stover, como a little nearer. Tak(> the seat between Stone and Straus. Sinius will be better able to take his little morning nap. A little embarrassed, Stover? Dear me! I shouldn't have TECIIMCAL ELEMENTS IN DUAL ENGLISH 137 thought that of you. Sit down now and — trj^ to put a little gingci into the class, Stover. Now for a bcc-ootiful recitation. Splendid spring weather — yesterday was a cut; of course you all took tlie hour to study conscientiously — eager for knowledge. Fifth and Sixth rows go to the board. Owen Johnson; The Varmint. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday Page & Co. Copyright, 1910. "What!" said Mrs. Gamp, "you bage creetur, have I know'd Mrs. Harris five-and-thirty year, to be told at last that there ain't no sech a person livin'! But well mayn't you believe there's no sech a creetur, for she wouldn't demean herself to look at you, and often has she said, when I have made mention of your name, which, to my sinful sorrow, I have done, 'What, Sairey Gamp! debage yourself to her!' Go along with j^ou!" "I'm a goin', ma'am, ain't I?" said Mrs. Prig. "You had better, ma'am," said Mrs. Gamp. "Do you know who you're talking to, ma'am?" inquired her visitor. "Aperiently to Betsey Prig. Aperiently so, I know her. No one better. Go along with j'ou ! " "And you was a going to take me under you!" cried Mrs. Prig. "You was, was you? Oh how kind! Why deuce take your im- perence, what do you mean?" "Go along with you!" said Mrs. Gamp. "I blush for you." "You had better blush a little for yourself, while you are about it!" said Mrs. Prig. Charles Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit. Some morning when the roar of March winds is no more heard in the tossing woods, but along still brown boughs a faint, veil-like greenness runs; when every spring, welling out of the soaked earth, trickles through banks of sod unbarred by ice; before the red of api:)le- buds becomes a sign in the low orchards, or the high song of the thrush is pouring forth far away at wet pale-green sunsets, the sower, the earliest sower of the hemp, goes forth into the fields. James Lane Allen: The Reign of Law. "The books belong to the old gentleman," said Oliver, wringing his hands; "to the good, kind, old gentleman who took me into his house, and had me nursed, when I was near dying of fever. Oh, pray send them back; send him back the books and money. Keej) me here all my life long; but pray, pray send them back. He'll 138 • ORAL ENGLISH think I stole them; the old lady: all of them who were so kind to me: will think I stole them. Oh, do have mercy upon me, and send them back!" Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist. Some day I think he will know and I wonder what he will think of me then. Maurice Maeterlinck. She cried: "For the dear love of Him who gave His life for ours, my child from bondage save, My beautiful, brave first-born, chained with slaves In the Moor's galley, where the sun-smit waves Lap the white walls of Tunis!" "What I can I give," Tritemius said, — " my prayers." " man Of God!" she cried, for grief had made her bold, "]Mock me not so; I ask not prayers, but gold; Words cannot serve me, alms alone suffice; Even while I plead, perchance my first-born dies!" John G. Whittier: The Gift of Tritemius. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co. Quality What is Quality of Voice? — We refer to the quality of tone when we say of a voice, it is pure, clear, rich, sympa- thetic, harsh, full, metallic, nasal, or resonant. It is quality that gives individuality to voices; and it is control of the varieties of quality that enables an actor to simulate the voice of fear, awe, defiance, love and the whole gamut of feeling; and to play many difTerent roles. As the quality of tone from a violin string depends upon the size, shape and texture of its resonant chamber, the violin box, so the quality of a voice depends upon the shape and size of the resonant chambers of the voice — ^the nares, pharynx, mouth and trachea — and the condition of the walls and membraneous linings of these cavities. Control of Quality. — The shape and size of the nares and trachea are practically fixed, but the phar>Tix- and mouth may be changed by various adjustments of the tongue and TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 139 soft palate. The quality of voice in each individual is, there- fore, partly fixed and partly changeable. Because it is partly fixed, we recognize the voice of a friend, although he may utter a groan, or shout in an ecstacy of joy; and because it is partly changeable, his every emotion is manifested l)y subtle changes in quality, so that even when he reads aloud, the feelings aroused in him by the literature are expressed in tones. Some peopljS, of course, have command of a much greater variety in quality of tone than others, because the changes in the quality of the individual voice are always in direct proportion to the emotional temperament of the in- dividual and the responsiveness of his voice. Cultivation of Variety and Richness of Tone Quality. — The man of feeling is a man of imagination. A vivid imagina- tion causes emotions, and emotions result in variety of tone quality; thus the development of the expressive element known as quality depends, primarily, upon the cultivation of the imagination — an essential of good oral English already discussed. It depends, also, upon a second essential of the best oral English previously presented, namely, a flexible and responsive voice. In short, the end of all vocal culture should be to secure better quality of tone. As a prominent teacher has reiterated: "the first aim in the cultivation of the voice, is quality; the second aim in the cultivation of the voice, is quality, and the third aim in the cultivation of the voice, is QUALITY!" Quality as a Criterion of Reading or Speaking.^If a reader or speaker's voice is monotonous in quality during delivery, it indicates that he needs some kind of vocal train- ing, that he does not think his thoughts at the time of ut- terance, or that he has little imagination and feeling. A wrong quality in the voice indicates lack of vocal control, a wrong thought or a wrong feeling. 140 ORAL ENGLISH Yield to the imagination in reading the following ex- cerpts. Do not strive for any particular quality of voice, but note the vocal effects when the feeling is strong. Meantime, Mr. Brocklehurst, standing on the hearth with his hands behind his back, majestically sm-veyed the whole school. Suddenly his eye gave a blink, as if it had met something that either dazzled or shocked its pupil ; turning, he said in more rapid accents than he had hitherto used: "Miss Temple, Miss Temple, what — what is that girl with curled hair? Red hair, ma'am, curled all over?" And extending his cane he pointed to the awful object, his hand shaking as he did so. "It is Julia Severn," replied IVIiss Temple, very quietly. "Julia Severn, ma'am! And why has she, or any other, curled hair? Why, in defiance of every precept and principle of this house, does she conform to the world so openly — here in an evangelical, charitable establishment — as to wear her hair one mass of curls?" "Julia's hair curls naturally," returned Miss Temple, still more quietly. "Naturally! Yes, but we are not to conform to nature: I wish these girls to be the children of Grace: and why that abundance? I have again and again intimated that I desire the hair to be ar- ranged closely, modestly, plainly. Miss Temple, that girl's hair must be cut off entirely; I will send a barber to-morrow." Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre. Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie. Glad did I live and gladly die. And I laid me down with a will. This be the verse you grave for me: Here he lies where he longed to be; Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And the hunter home from the hill. Robert Louis Stevenson: Requiem,. When we hear Uncle Sidney tell About the long-ago An' old, old friends he loved so well When he was young — My-oh! — Us children all wish we'd 'a' bin A-livin' then with Uncle, — so We could a-kiiido' haijponed in On them old friends he used to know! — TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 141 The good, old-fashioned people — The hale, hard-working people — The kindly country people 'At Uncle used to know! James Whitcomb Riley: The Good Old-fashioned People. Reprinted by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons. How many a time have I Cloven, with arm still lustier, breast more daring, The wave all roughened; with a swimmer's stroke Flinging the billows back from my drenched hair, And laughing from my lip the audacious brine. Which kissed it like a wine cup, rising o'er The waves as they arose, and prouder still The loftier they uplifted me: and oft. In wantonness of spirit, plunging down Into their green and glassy gulfs, and making My way to shells and seaweed, all unseen By those above, till they waxed fearful; then Returning with my grasp full of such tokens As showed that I had searched the deep; exulting With a far dashing stroke, and drawing deep The long-suspended breath, again I spurned The foam which broke around me, and pursued My track like a sea-bird. — I was a boy then. Lord Byron: The Two Foscari. He gave us all a good-bye cheerily At the first dawn of day ; We dropped him down the side full drearily When the light died away. It's a dead, dark watch that he's a-keeping there. And a long, long night that lags a-creeping there, Where the trades and the tides roll over him And the great ships go by. He's there alone with the green seas rocking him For a thousand miles around ; He's there alone with dumb things mocking him, And we're homeward bound. It's a long, lone watch that he's a-keeping there, And a dead, cold night that lags a-creeping thei'e, While the months and the years roll over him And the great ships go by. 142 ORAL ENGLISH I wonder if the tramps come near enough — As they thrash to and fro, And the battleship's bells ring clear enough To be heard down below; If through all the lone watch that he's a-keeping there, And the long, cold night that lags a-creeping there The voices of the sailor-men shall comfort him When the great ships go by. Henry Newbolt: "Messmates" horn The Island Race. Reprinted by permission of the John Lane Company. Then, like a charge of ten thousand lancers, come the wind and the rain, their onset covered bj^ all the artillery of heaven. The lightnings leap, hiss, and blaze; the thunders crack and roar; the rain lashes; the waters writhe; the wind smites and howls. For five, for ten, for twenty minutes, — for an hour, for two hours, — the sky and the flood are never for an instant wholly dark, or the thunder for one moment silent; but while the universal roar sinks and swells, and the wide vibrant illumination shows all things in ghostly half- concealment, fresh floods of lightning everj' moment rend the dim curtain and leap forth; the glare of day falls upon the swaying wood, the reeling, bowing, tossing willows, the seething waters and the whirling rain; then all are dim ghosts again, while a peal, as if the heavens were rent, rolls off around the sky, comes back m shocks and throbs, and sinks in a long roar that before it can die is swal- lowed up in the next flash and peal. George W. Cable: Bonaventure. Reprinted by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons. Richard Talbot — Look j^ou, old Rickby; this is not the first time. Charm all the broomsticks in town, if you like; bewitch all the tables and saucepans and mirrors you please; but gull no more money out of young girls. Mind you! We're not so enterprising in this town as at Salem; but — it may come to it! So look you sharp! I'm not blind to what's going on here. Goodby Rickby — Not blind, Master Puritan? Oho! You can see through all my counterfeits, can ye? So! you would scrape all the wonder out'n the world, as I have scraped all the meat out'n my ])unkin-head yonder! Aha! wait and see! Afore sundown, I'll send ye a nut to crack, shall make j'our orthodox jaws ache. Your serv- ant, Master Deuteronomy! Percy W. Mackaye: The Scarecrow. Mateo Falcone felt the earth with the butt of his gun, and found it soft and easy to dig. The place seemed suitable to his purpose. TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 143 "Fortunato, go up to that big rock." The child did as he was told, and then knelt. "Say your prayers." "Father, my father, do not kill me." "Say your prayers!" rejjeated Mateo in a terrible voice. The child, stammering and sobbing, recited the Pater and the Credo. The father responded Amen in a loud voice at the end of each prayer. "Are those all the prayers you know?" "Father, I know the Ave Maria too, and the litany my aunt taught me." "It is very long, but never mind." The child finished the litany in a stifled voice. "Have you done?" "O father, have mercy! forgive me! I will not do it again! I will beg my cousin the Corporal ever so hard that Gianetto may be pardoned!" He was still speaking; Mateo had cocked his gun, and took aim, saying: "May God forgive you!" The child made a desperate effort to get up, and embrace his father's knees; but he had not the time. Mateo fired, and Fortunato fell stone-dead. Prosper MfeRiM^E: Mateo Falcone. While thus employed, Gerard was busy about the seated corpse, and, to his amazement, Denys saw a luminous glow spreading rapidly over the white face. Gerard blew out the candle. And on this the corpse's face shone still more like a glow-worm's head. Denj's shook in his shoes, and his teeth chattered. "What in Heaven's name is this?" he whispered. "Hush! 'tis but phosphorous. But 'twill serve." "Away! they will surprise thee." Charles Reade: The Cloister and the Hearth. " I am not delirious, nor have I been so at all. Don't you believe that if they say so. I am only in great misery at what I have done : and that, with the weakness, makes me seem mad. But it has not upset my reason. Do you think I should remember all about my mother's death if I were out of my mind? No such good luck. Two months and a half, the last of her life, did my poor mother live alone, distracted and mourning because of me ; yet she was un- visited by me, though I was living only five miles off. Two months and a half — seventy-five days did the sun rise and set upon her in that 144 ORAL ENGLISH deserted state which a dog didn't deserve! Poor people who had nothing in common with her would have cared for her, and visited her had they known her sickness, and loneliness; but I, who should have been all to her, stayed away like a cur." Thomas Hardy : The Return of the Native. Sez Corporal Madden to Private McFadden: "Bedad, yer a bad 'un! Now turn out yer toes ! Yer belt is unhooket, Yer cap is on crooket, Ye maj^ not be dhrunk, But, be jabers, ye look it! Wan — two ! Wan — two! Ye monkey-faced divil, I'll jolly ye through! Wan — two ! — Time! Mark! Ye march like the aigle in Cintheral Parrk!" Robert W. Chambers: The Recruit. Reprinted by permission of the author and D. Appleton and Company. PHYSICAL RESPONSE Physical Response Enforces Speech. — How often do we hear some one say, "I couldn't see the speaker's face, and that spoiled the address for me!" As auditors, we always like to see the reader or speaker because the face and bear- ing of an able speaker reinforce what he says. The Reverend John Watson had this in mind when he said, ''The voice of the competent speaker is not so much sound merely, but is so much music with sul)tle intonations and delicate modula- tions; his pronunciation of a word is a commentary upon it, his look as he speaks a translation of it." Physical Response to Thought is Natural. — In his work on psychology. Professor William James affirms that, "all mental states (no matter what their character as regards utility may be) are followed by bodily activity of some sort." It is true that the response is often inconspicuous, but it is, TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 145 nevertheless, natural that there sliould be some bodily change. So people that inhibit their phj^sical responses to their thoughts, not only make themselves appear like wooden Indians, but, also, defy nature. The Error of Making Elaborate Gestures. — On the other hand, readers and speakers who plan elaborate gestures, also defy nature; for they ignore her gentle promptings, and substitute spectacular movements that they mistake for manifestations of eloquence, but which the "judicious" know are abominable gyrations, usually born of a desire to "show off." These spectacular efforts may generally Ije classed under the head of descriptive gestures. A descrip- tive gesture is a bodily movement that pictures what the words describe. Descriptive Gestures Illustrated. — These descriptive ges- tures are the pitfall, not only of most amateur speakers and actors, but of many people who ought to know better. If the words tell of some personal action, like ringing a bell, whipping a horse, waving a handkerchief or even l)owing the head or advancing a step, inartistic speakers employ descrip- tive gestures to depict these actions. If the action of in- animate things, like floating clouds, arching trees, pelting rain or tossing waves is mentioned, they persist in accom- panying the words with an effort to point out the objects definitely or describe the actions in pantomime, and some would even attempt to tell about an aching heart or an an- guished soul by acting it out. The Widespread Teaching of Descriptive Gestures is Lamentable. — Incredible as it may seem, the teaching of these ridiculous descriptive gestures is widespread in our schools, both public and private. Pupils from the kinder- garten to the college are, in many cases, actually being taught to make such gestures. This is the most lament- 146 ORAL ENGLISH able thing about the whole matter; for when such instruc- tion is given, we cannot wonder that educators have doubts about the benefits of courses in elocution and public speaking. When it is Right to Use Descriptive Gestures. — It is true that descriptive gestures have their place in expression. They are often necessary to make clear and definite what is complicated or vague, and they are always legitimate in humor and burlesque, for that is their particular province. Self-Manifestive Gestures. — Another kind of gesture to be avoided, is the self-manifestive gesture. A self-mani- festive gesture is one which reveals some personal char- acteristic of the speaker and has no relation whatever to what is being quoted or spoken. The girl who finnbles with the lace on her gown evidences her own nervousness and not her feeling about the poem she is reciting. The preacher who rotates his right fist in his left palm during the first part of his sentence, and then raises the right hand and quickly extends it toward his audience with open palm later in his sentence, only betrays the fact that he was pitcher on the base-ball nine when he was at college, and does nothing that reinforces his spoken word. These are examples of self- manifestive gestures. Sympathetic Gestures Defined and Illustrated. — Sym- pathetic gestures are movements that show the reader or speaker's sympathy with what he is reading or saying. They often suggest actions, but do not imitate them. If I say, "the man grabbed the gold chain and broke it asunder," accompanying the words by a movement as if actually clutching a chain with clenched fists, and then suddenly parting them, I am using descriptive gesture; but if I only extend my hands forward in prone position and quickly sep- arate them, I am using a sympathetic gesture. Again, if I state, "I -saw the clouds rest on a lonely liill," and at the TECHNICAL ELEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH 147 same time point and look in a definite direction, I am using a descriptive gesture; but if I keep my eyes on my audience and sweep the arm out in a general way when uttering the clause, the gesture becomes sympathetic. Emotionally Manifestive Gestures Defined and Illus- trated. — Emotionally manifestive gestures are movements resulting from the speaker's emotions that have been aroused by the literature he is interpreting, or (in case of an original speech) by the stimulus of his own thoughts. For example, a person reading the lines, "McGrath's fellow fire- men yelled to him not to attempt the rescue, for it was too hazardous," might almost unconsciously clench his hands as he pictured to himself the tension of the situation. This would be an emotionally manifestive gesture. Hindrances and Helps to Expression by Gesture. — Henry Ward Beecher once defined oratory as, "The art of influenc- ing conduct with truth sent home by all the resources of a living man." Certainly gesture is one of man's most potent resources in public address, and because it is so, more at- tention should be given to its cultivation. The greatest hindrance to adequate expression by gesture, is self-con- sciousness. Some people who gesture easily and naturally in conversation, become like statues, or else are the personi- fication of awkwardness before an audience. The only way to make the body a truly expressive agent, and overcome self-consciousness, is to free the muscles by appropriate exercises, gain al^andon by means of pantomimes, imita- tions and scenes, practice before imaginary audiences and ap- pear before real audiences whenever there is an opportunity. Note. The classification of gestures presented in this chapter is used by special permission of Mrs. Emilj- AI. Bishop who has discussed the subject so well in her treatise entitled, "Interpretative Forms of Lit- erature." PREPARATION OF ORAL ENGLISH ASSIGNMENTS HOW TO PREPARE A READING LESSON 1. Read the selection through to get an impression of it as a whole. 2. Read the selection deliberately, looking up the meaning and pronunciation of unfamiliar words, and digging out the thought of difficult passages. 3. Decide for yourself what the author had in mind as the central idea or purpose of the selection. For instance, in Clark Howell's speech, "The Man With His Hat in His Hand," the central idea may be worded: The man with his hat in his hand is a type of American patriotism. 4. If possible, learn whether there are incidents in liis- tory or in the author's life that aid in understanding the selection. 5. Imagine the situations depicted, as if j-ou were to draw some illustrations for the selection. 6. Read all or at least parts of the selection aloud to ascertain if your o^\^l voice reveals what you see in the selection. 7. If the piece contains dialogue, imagine how real people would say the lines; if it contains fine description or argu- ment, imagine how a good speaker would deliver those passages. 8. Practice reading parts of the selection in different ways, until you attain a manner of delivery which your ear ap- proves as true to the purpose of the selection. 148 PREPARATION OF ASSIGNMENTS 149 HOW TO PREPARE A SELECTION FOR PUBLIC PRESENTATION I. Choosing a selection Select from a good author something that you consider suited to your ability, your puri)osc, your prospective audience, and the occasion. II. Studying the selection 1 . Read the selection carefully. 2. If you are in doubt about the meaning and pronunciation of any words in the selection, consult a dictionarj'. 3. If the selection is an excerpt, read the entire poem or book to become familiar with the setting. 4. Read any review, criticism or other work that may broaden your conception of the selection. 5. Formulate j^our opinion of the author's purpose, and write a statement of it in a single sentence. 6. Consider carefully to what form of literature the selection belongs, whether drama, essay, monologue, etc., and determine what latitude or restriction its form entails upon your delivery of it. 7. Imagine the situations, until the selection is made more real by your mental pictures. III. Memorizing the selection 1. The first steps toward memorizing the selection have been taken while studying it. 2. Read the whole selection aloud several times. 3. Think the selection through, grouping the minor incidents about the principal ones. 4. Recall as best you can, the words of the most important pas- sages. 5. If you are to give the selection without the book, memorize it verbatim by reading a passage and then testing your memory of that passage. When the various passages are learned, test your memory of the entire selection. IV. Rehearsing the selection 1. Make your studying and memorizing of the selection contrib- ute to the approi)riatc delivery of it. 2. Listen to your own vocal effects and work toward your ideal of how the selection should sound. 150 ORAL ENGLISH 3. By concentrating on the selection, and responding freely to your thought and emotions, gain some physical as well as vocal expression in your delivery. 4. Practice before a mirror that your eye may judge of your bearing and physical response. 5. Ask some competent friend or a coach to criticise your work. HOW TO PREPARE AN ORIGINAL SPEECH I. Choose a suitable topic by considering your: 1. purpose 2. prospective audience 3. occasion II. Gather material by making notes from: 1. reading 2. conversing with well-informed people 3. carefuU}^ reflecting upon the topic III. Plan an outline including: 1. an introduction to a. overcome prejudice, if there is any, of the audience b. state the purpose of the speech, or c. arouse the good will of the audience toward the speaker and their interest in his topic 2. the body of the speech to a. discuss the points essential for developing the topic b. present points in a systematic order c. emphasize points by forceful illustrations d. adapt the discussion of points to the prospective audience 3. a conclusion which may a. dispose of objections b. summarize points discussed c. emphasize the central idea, or d. take the form of an exhortation IV. Write out, or think out, the speech. Rome insist that they cannot do llieir Ix'st l)v writing out a speech. If you are positive that you are more successful without the writing PREPARATION OF ASSIGNMENTS 151 than with it, that, of course, is the best metliod for you. But for most people, and especially the inexperienced, writing out the speech insures the best results. V. Correct the speech by applying the following tests : 1. Is it adapted to the audience? 2. Is it suited to the occasion? 3. Is it likely to be tedious in length or matter? 4. Is it expressed in good English? 5. Is it clear? 6. Is it forceful? 7. Does it sound well when read? VI. Rewrite the speech, if necessary. VII. Rehearse the speech. To read a speech from the manuscript is likely to make a poor impression upon an audience, while to memorize it word for word is a laborious task, and may result in an awkward pause if there is a lapse of memory. In spite of these limitations, some well known speakers use one or the other of these two methods successfully. It is generally conceded, however, that speaking from a written or mental brief is much the best method to follow, for it makes the speaker more self-reliant and gives him confidence in his ability to think before an audience. 1. Prepare a brief of the speech. 2. Read the manuscript of the entire speech aloud several times. 3. With brief in hand, practice aloud until you can say approxi- mately what you have written in the manuscript. 4. Practice for the best effect in delivery, allowing your own ear to be your critic. 5. Practice before a mirror that you may criticise your own bearing and gesture. 6. Obtain the assistance of some competent critic or a coach. HOW TO PREPARE A DEBATE Debating is such a helpful and interesting means of at- taining better thinking, better composition and better spoken English, that a few hints regarding the preparation of debates v.-ill contribute to the purpose of this volume. Before advis- 152 ORAL ENGLISH ing how to prepare a debate, there are certain terms used in debating wliich need to be defined. Stating the Question is wording the topic for debate. The favorite form is that of a resolution, e. g. Resolved: That territorial expansion is detrimental to the United States. The question should always be stated by the first speaker in a debate. Clearing Ground is explaining the meaning and extent of the grounds for discussion, and showing that the discussion of other phases of the topic would be irrelevant to the ques- tion. The first speaker should clear the ground. Shifting Ground is to change one's attitude toward the question — to take up a line of argument inconsistent with one's former argument, the argument of one's colleague, or with the interpretation of the question accepted by the rival teams prior to the actual debate. Begging the Question is accepting some premise as though it had been proved to be true, when no proof has been pre- sented to establish it. Burden of Proof refers to the principle that he who makes an assertion must prove it. The burden of proof, therefore, is generally incumbent upon the affirmative speakers. They must select the particular evidence that will establish the truth of their assertions and make that their argument. A Premise is a proposition, the truth of which being es- tablished, leads to some other truth as a conclusion. A Syllogism is a logical form of argument consisting of two premises and a conclusion, e. g. The property of the city should be protected from vandals. Flowers and shrubs in our parks are city i^roperty. Therefore, the flowers and shrubs in our parks should be protected from vandals. PREPARATION OF ASSIGNMENTS 153 Kinds of Positive Argument 1. From Authority: the citation of expert evidence from specialists whose opinions are hkely to be accepted. For example: Some of the simpler forms recommended by the Simplified Spell- ing Board merit adoption. More than one half are preferred by Webster's dictionary, more than six tenths by the Century dic- tionary, and two thirds by the Standard dictionary. Nearly all the rest are allowed by all these dictionaries as alternative spehings in good usage. 2. Antecedent Probability: (a priori) suggesting a prob- able cause which led to known conditions as a result. For example: A man commits suicide, his books show a marked decrease in business, therefore, business depression drove him to his rash act. A cyclone overwhelms a western town, only one house remains standing, therefore, it was better built than any other in town. 3. Real Evidence: (a posteriori) examples of things ac- tually seen or done which appear to be the results of existing conditions operating as causes. For example : A man ill with indigestion takes a certain remedy, he then re- covers, therefore, the remedy is a good one. Under municipal control of street railways, the city of Cleveland is able to reduce the fare on street railways from five to three cents, therefore, municipal control of street railways should be adopted in other cities. 4. Pure Reason : process of reasoning from facts that are self evident or trutlis that seem proved, as premises, to cer- tain inferences, as logical conclusions. For example: The Gold Standard means dearer money; dearer money means cheaper property; cheaper property means harder times; harder 154 ORAL ENGLISH times means more people out of work; more people out of work means more people destitute; more people destitute means more people desperate; more people desperate means more crime. William J. Bryan. Refutation of the Four Kinds of Argument 1. When your opponents quote from authorities, question the ability or impartiality of those authorities. If possible, show that the opinion of the authority mentioned would be much respected in another field, but that it has little weight in reference to the subject under discussion. If they give exact quotations from some authority, endeavor to show that the quotation out of its context, does not represent the au- thority fairly. 2. If your opponents use arguments of antecedent proba- bility, emphasize the fact that their points are mere theory, and proceed to show how weak and incomplete they are. Suggest that some other cause might have produced the ef- fect, or helped to produce it. 3. Should your opponents resort to illustrations as real evidence, endeavor to prove that there is not necessarily a cause and effect relationship, and that the circumstances they mention might have come about without the condi- tions which they assume to be causes. 4. In case your opponents employ arguments of pure reason, question the premises. Actual Preparation of a Debate I. Choosing a question. 1. Choose a question that has some vital interest. 2. Choose a question that admits of fair arguments on both sides. PREPARATION OF ASSIGNMENTS 155 II. Gather materials by making notes from: 1. reading 2. conversing with well-informed people 3. carefully reflecting upon the topic III. Make a brief of your debate including : 1. an introduction to a. state the question b. define the question c. clear the ground d. indicate what constitutes the burden of proof e. arouse the good will of the audience toward the speaker and their interest in the question 2. the discussion to a. present three or four main points b. embody each point in the kind of argument best suited to it c. establish the truth of points by adequate proof d. relate each point to the main issue e. anticipate your opponents' arguments by deciding what kinds of refutation wiU be required f . deal with the points in the order of sequence and climax 3. a conclusion to a. refute points of opponents b. summarize the points discussed c. unify the whole discussion IV. Write out or think out the debate. See note on writing out speeches, under the preparation of an original speech. V. Correct the debate by applying the following tests : 1. Is it clear? 2. Is it logical? 3. Is it well organized? 4. Is it expressed in good English? 5. Is it exaggerated? 6. Is it fair both to your opponents and to yourself? 7. Does any part of it beg the question? 8. Is it tedious in length or matter? 9. Does it sound well when read? 156 ORAL ENGLISH VI. Rewrite the debate if necessary. VII. Rehearse the debate. 1 . Prepare notes from which to speak. 2. Read the manuscript of the entire speech aloud several times. 3. With notes in hand, practice aloud until you can say approxi- mately what you have written in the manuscript. 4. Practice for the best effect in delivery, allowing your own ear to be your critic. 5. Practice before a mirror that you may criticise your own bear- ing and gesture. 6. Obtain the assistance of some competent critic or coach. Cautions for Debaters To conform with parliamentary usage, do not refer to the participants in the debate by their names, but say, my opponent, my colleague, the first speaker on the affirmative, etc. Avoid extreme sarcasm, wit, smartness and flippancy in debate. They are not argument and will prejudice the judges and audience against you. Use an understatement rather than an exaggeration, it makes your argument seem more fair. PART II SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE VITALITY IN DELIVERY Well directed efforts to read expressively should accom- pany the mastering of the mechanics of speech and the cul- tivating of the voice. The first step towards expressive de- livery is learning to put life and vigor into one's reading. Let your hearers know Ijy the tones of your voice that you have a whole-hearted interest in the selection you are read- ing, and that you are eager to share with them what you enjoy. Strive especially to attain this element of expres- sion in reading the following selections. THE BREAKING OF POMMERS i Abridged from Sir Nigel. By A. Conan Doyle The monks of Waverley Abbey distrained a splendid Arabian horse from Franklin Aylward in discharge of a debt. The horse was turned loose in the meadow of the cloister where his wild behavior terrified all the good brothers. A group of the monks climbed the wall of the meadow, the better to see some of their servants try to bridle the animal. Fetlock deep in the lush grass there stood the magnificent horse, such a horse as a sculptor or a soldier might thrill to see. His color was a light chestnut, with mane and tail of a more tawny tint. Seventeen hands high, with a barrel and haunches which bespoke tremendous strength, he fined down to the most deUcate lines of breed in neck and crest and shoulder. He was indeed a glorious sight as he stood there, his head craned high, and his flashing eyes turning from side to side in haughty menace and defiance. Scattered round in a respectful circle, six of the Abbey servants and foresters, each holding a halter, were creeping toward him. The horse, having chased one of his enemies to the wall, remained so long snorting his contempt over the coping that the others were able to creep up from behind. Several ropes were flung, and one noose settled over the proud crest. In an instant the creature had turned and the men were flying for their lives; but he who had cast the rope lingered. The man saw the great creature rise above him. Then with a crash the fore feet fell upon him and dashed him to the ground. On the road which led to the old manor-house a youth had been riding. His mount was a sorry one, and his patched tunic presented no very smart appearance. Cracking his whip joyously, he cantered down the Tilford Lane, and thence observed the comedy in the field and the impotent efforts of the servants of Waverley. Suddenly, however, as the comedy turned swiftly to black tragedy, ^ Reprinted by permission of the author. 159 160 ORAL ENGLISH this passive spectator leaped off his pony, over the stone wall and flew across the field. Looking up from his victim, the great yellow horse saw his other enemy approach, and dashed at the newcomer. The little man flung up his metal-headed whip, and met the horse with a crashing blow upon the head, repeated again with every attack. The horse drew off, glared with wonder at this masterful man, and then trotted round in a circle, snorting in rage and pain. The man passed on to the wounded forester, raised him in his arms, and carried him to the wall, where a dozen hands were outstretched to help him over. Then the young man also climbed the wall, smiling back with cool contempt at the yellow horse. As' he sprang down, a dozen monks surrounded him to thank or to praise him. "Bear the wounded forester to the hospital," commanded the Father Abbot. "And now about this terrible beast who still gazes and snorts at us, what shall we do with him?" "Here is Franklin Aylward," said one of the brethren. "The horse was his, and doubtless he will take it back to his farm." But the red-faced farmer shook his head at the proposal. "Not I, in faith!" said he. "The beast hath chased me twice around the pad- dock; it has nigh slain my boy Samkin. He comes no more to Crooks- bury farm." "And he stays no more here," said the Abbot. "Brother sacrist, you have raised the Devil, and it is for you to lay it again." "That I will most readily," cried the sacrist. "Here is Wat with his arbalist and a bolt in his girdle. Let him drive it to the head through this cursed creature, for his hide and his hoofs are of more value than his wicked self." A brown old woodman stepped forward with a grin of pleasure. Fitting a bolt on the nut of his taut crossbow, he leveled it at the fierce, disheveled head. His finger was crooked on the spring, when a blow from a whip struck the bow upward and the bolt flew harmless over the Abbey orchard, while the woodman shrank abashed from Nigel Loring's eyes. "Keep your bolts for your weasels!" said he. "Would you slay .such a horse as a king might be proud to mount, and all because a country SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 161 franklin, or a monk, or a monk's varlet, has not the wit nor the hands to master him?" The sacrist turned swiftly on the Squire. "The Abbey owes you an offering for this day's work. If you think so much of the horse, you may desire to own it. With the holy Abbot's permission it is in my gift and I bestow it freely upon you." "I take your gift, monk," said Nigel, "though I know well why it is you give it. Yet I thank you, for I have ever yearned for a noble horse. How is the horse called?" "Its name," said the franklin, "is Pommers. I warn you that none may ride him, for many have tried, and the luckiest is he who has only a staved rib to show for it." "I thank you for your rede," said Nigel, "and now I see that this is indeed a horse which I would journey far to meet. I am your man Pommers, and you are my horse, and this night you shall own it or I will never need horse again." WTiile he spoke the young Squire had climbed on to the top of the wall, his bridle hanging from one hand and his whip grasped in the other. With a fierce snort, the horse made for him instantly; but again a heavy blow from the whip caused him to swerve, and even at the in- stant of the swerve, Nigel bounded into the air and fell with his legs astride the horse. For a minute, with neither saddle nor stirrups, and the beast ramping and rearing, he was hard pressed to hold his own. His legs were like two bands of steel welded on to the arches of the great horse's ribs, and his left hand was buried deep in the tawny mane. Pommers, amazed to find the rider still upon his back, swelled mto greater fury. In his untamed heart there rose the furious resolve to dash the life from this clinging rider, even if it meant destruction to beast and man. He looked round for death. On one side of the field was a building presenting a flank unbroken by door or window. The horse stretched into a gallop, and headed straight for that craggy wall. Would Nigel spring off? To do so would be to bend his will to that of the beast beneath him. Cool and quick the man slipped his short mantle from his shoulders and lying forward along the creature's back cast the cloth over the horse's eyes. 162 ORAL ENGLISH When those eyes were suddenly shrouded in unexpected darkness the amazed horse came to a dead stop. Its purpose all blurred in its mind, the horse wheeled round, tossing its head until the mantle slipped from its eyes. But what was this new outrage which had been inflicted upon it? WTiat was this defiling bar of iron which was locked hard against its mouth? Wliat were these straps which galled the tossing neck? In those instants of stillness ere the mantle had been plucked away Nigel had shpped the snaffle between the champing teeth, and deftly secured it. Pommers' heart rose high and menacing at the touch. He loathed this place, the people, all and everything which threatened his freedom. Let him away to the great plains where freedom is. He turned with a rush, and one deer-like bound carried him over the four-foot gate. They were in the water-meadow now, and the rippling stream twenty feet wide gleamed in front of them. The yellow hor.se gathered his haunches under him and flew over like an arrow. Under the hanging branch of the great oak-tree on the farther side the great horse passed. He had hoped to sweep off his rider, but Nigel sank low with his face buried in the flying mane. Do what he would, the man clung fast. Over Hankley Down, through Thm-sley Marsh, with the reeds up to his mud-splashed withers, down by the Nutcombe Gorge, slipping, blundering, bounding, on went the horse. No marsh-land could clog him, no hill could hold him back. Up the long ascent of Fernhurst he thundered as on the level, and it was not until he had flown down Henley Hill, and the castle tower of Midhurst rose over the coppice in front, that the eager outstretched neck sank a little on the breast, and the breath came quick and fast. Look where he would, his eyes could catch no sign of those plains of freedom which he sought. And yet another outrage! It was bad that this creature should still cling so tight upon his neck, but now he would even go to the intoler- able length of checking him and guiding him on the way that he would have him go. There was a sharp pluck at his mouth, and his head was turned north once more. As well go that way as another. He would soon .show this man that he was unconquered, if it strained his sinews aiid broke his heart to do so. Back then he flew up the long ascent. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 1G3 Would he ever get to the end of it? He was white with foam and caked with mud. His eyes were gorged with blood, his mouth open and gasping. On he flew down Sundaj^ Hill until he reached the deep Kings- ley Marsh at the bottom. No, it was too much! Flesh and blood could go no farther. As he struggled out from the reedy slime, he slowed the tumultuous gallop to a canter. Oh, crowning infamy! Was there no limit to these degradations? He was no longer even to choose his own pace. Since he had chosen to gallop so far at his own will he must now gallop farther still at the will of another. A spur struck home on either flank. A stinging whip-lash fell across his shoulder. He bounded his own height in the air at the pain and shame of it. On he flew and on. But again his limbs trembled beneath him, and yet again he strove to ease his pace, only to be driven onward bj' the falling lash. He saw no longer where he placed his feet, he cared no longer whither he went, but his one mad longing was to get away from this torture which clung to him and would not let him go. He had won his way to the crest of Thursley Down, when his spirit weakened, his giant strength ebbed out of him, and with one deep sob the yellow hor.se sank among the heather. So sudden was the fall that Nigel flew forward over his shoulder, and the beast and man lay prostrate and gasping. The young Squire was the first to recover, and kneeling by the over- wrought horse he passed his hand gently down the foam-flecked face. The red eye rolled up at him; but it was wonder not hatred, a prayer and not a threat, which he could read in it. As he stroked the reeking muzzle, the horse whinnied gently and thrust his nose into the hollow of his hand. It was enough. It was the end of the contest, the accept- ance of new conditions by a chivalrous foe from a chivalrous victor. "You are my horse, Pommers," whispered Nigel, and he laid his cheek against the craning head. "I know you, Pommers, and you know me, and with the help of Saint Paul we shall teach some other folks to know us both. Now let us walk together as far as this moorland pond, for indeed I wot not whether it is you or I who need the water most." 164 ORAL ENGLISH THE FINISH OF PATSY BARNES ^ Abridged from The Strength of Gideon. By Paul Laurence Dunbar His name was Patsy Barnes, and he was a denizen of Little Africa. By all the laws governing the relations between people and their names, he should have been Irish — but he was not. He was colored, and very much so. His mother, Eliza Barnes, had found her way to Little Africa when she had come North from Kentucky. She was a hard-working, honest woman, and day by day bent over her tub, scrubbing away to keep Patsy in shoes and jackets, that would wear out so much faster than they could be bought. She wanted him to go to school. She had the notion that he might become something better, something higher than she had been. But for him school had no charms; his school was the cool stalls in the big liverj^ stable near at hand; the arena of his pursuits its saw- dust floor; the height of his ambition to be a horseman. A man goes where he is apj^reciated; then could this slim black boy be blamed for doing the same thing? He was a great favorite with the horsemen, and picked up many a dime or nickel for dancing and singing, or even a quarter for warming up a horse for its owner. He was not to be blamed for this, for, first of all, he was born in Kentucky, and had spent the very days of his infancy about the paddocks near Lexington, where his father had sacrificed his life on account of his love for horses. The little fellow had shed no tears when he looked at his father's bleed- ing body, bruised and broken by the fiery young two-year-old he was trying to subdue. Patsy did not sob or whimper, though his heart ached, for over all the feeling of his grief was a mad, burning desire to ride that horse. His tears were shed, however, when, actuated by the idea that times would be easier up North, they moved to Dalesford. Then, when he learned that he must leave his old friends, the horses and their masters, whom he had known, he wept. They had been living in Dalesford for ^ Copyright, 1900, by Dodd, Mead & Company, and reprinted by per- mission of these publishers. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 165 a year nearly, when hard work and exposure brought the woman down to bod with pniMimoiiia. Thoy were very jjoor— too poor even to call in a doctor, so there was nothing to do but to call in the city physician. Now this medical man had too frequent calls to Little Africa, and he did not like to go there. So he was very gruff when any of its denizens called him, and it was even said that he was careless of his patients. Patsy's heart bled as he heard the Doctor talking to his mother: "Now, there can't be any foolishness about this," he said. "You've got to stay in bed and not get yourself damp." " How long you think 1 got to lay hyeah, doctah? " she asked. "I'm a doctor, and not a fortune-teller," was the reply. "You'll lie there as long as the disease holds you." "But I can't lay hyeah long, doctah, case I ain't got nuffin' to go on." "Well, take your choice; the bed or the boneyard." Eliza began to cry. "You needn't sniffle," said the doctor; "I don't see what you people want to come up here for anyhow. Why don't you stay down South whore you belong?" Patsy was angry. His eyes were full of tears that scorched him and would not fall. The memory of many beautiful and appiopriate oaths came to him; but he dared not let his mother hear him swear. Oh! to have a stone — to be across the road from that man ! When the physician walked out. Patsy went to the bed, took his mother's hand, and bent over shamefacedly to kiss her. The little mark of atfection comforted Eliza unspeakably. The mother-feeling overwhelmed her in one burst of tears. Then she dried her eyes and smiled at him. "Honey," she said; "mammy ain' gwine lay hyeah long. She be all right putty soon." "Nevah you min'," said Patsy with a choke in his voice. "I can do somep'n, an' we'll have anothah doctah." "La, listen at de chile; what kin you do?" "I'm goin' down to McCarthy's stable and see if I kin git some horses to exercise." A sad look came into Eliza's eyes as she said: "You bettah not go, Patsy; dem hosses'U kill you yit, des lak dey did yo' pappy." 166 ORAL ENGLISH But the boy was obdurate, and even while she was talking, put on his ragged jacket and left the room. Patsy did get horses to exercise, and it was with a king's pride that he brought home his first considerable earnings. They were small yet, and would go for food rather than a doctor, but EHza was inordi- nately proud, and it was this pride that gave her strength and the de- sire of life to carry her through the days approaching the crisis of her disease. As Patsy saw his mother growing worse, he became con- vinced that the doctor was not helping her. She must have another. But the money? That afternoon, after his work with McCarthy, found him at the Fair-grounds. The spring races were on, and he thought he might get a job warming up the horse of some independent jockey. He hung around the stables, listening to the talk of the men he knew and some he had never seen before. Among the latter was a tall, lanky man, holding forth to a group of men. "No, suh," he was saying to them generally, "I'm goin' to withdraw Black Boy, because thaih ain't nobody to ride him as he ought to be rode. I haven't brought a jockey along with me, so I've got to depend on pick-ups. If I could ride myself I'd show 'em!" A Uttle later Patsy was gazing into the stall at the horse. "^Vhat are you doing thaih?" called the owner to him. "Look hj^eah, mistah," said Patsy, "ain't that a bluegrass boss?" "Of co'se it is, an' one of the fastest that evah grazed." "I'll ride that boss, mistah." "What do you know 'bout ridin'?" " I used to gin'ally be' roun' Mistah Boone's paddock in Lexington, an' — "Aroun' Boone's paddock — what! Look here, little nigger, if you can ride that boss to a winnin' I'll give you more money than you ever seen before." "I'll ride him." Patsy's heart was beating very wildly beneath his jacket. That horse. He knew that glossy coat. He knew that raw-boned frame and those flashing nostrils. That black horse there owed something to the orphan he had made. Somehow out of odds and ends, his owner scraped together a suit SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 167 and colors for Patsy. The colors were maroon and green, a curious combination. But then it was a curious horse, a curious rider, and a more curious combination that had brought them together. Long before the time for the race Patsy went into the stall to become better acquainted with the horse. The animal turned his wild eyes upon him and neighed. He patted the long, slender head, and grinned as the horse stepped aside as gently as a lady. "He sholy is full o' ginger," he said to the owner, whose name he had found to be Brackett. "He'll show 'em a thing or two," laughed Brackett. When the bell sounded and Patsy went out to warm up, he felt as if he were riding on air. Some of the jockeys laughed at his get-up, but there was something in him — or under him, maybe— that made him scorn their derision. He saw a sea of faces about him, then he saw no more. Only a shining white track loomed ahead of him, and a restless steed was cantering with him around the curve., Then the bell called him back to the stand. They did not get away at first, and back they trooped. A second trial was a failure. But at the third they were off in a line as straight as a chalk mark. There were Essex and Firefly, Queen Bess and Mos- quito, galloping away side by side, and Black Boy a neck ahead. Patsy knew the family reputation of his horse for endurance as well as fire, and began riding the race from the first. Black Boy came of blood that would not be passed, and to this his rider trusted. At the eighth the line was hardly broken, but as the quarter was reached Black Boy forged a length ahead, and Mosquito was at his flank. Then, like a flash, Essex shot out ahead under whip and spur, his jockey standing straight in the stirrups. The crowd in the stand screamed; but Patsy smiled as he lay low over his horse's neck. He knew that Essex had made his best spurt. His only fear was for Mosquito, who hugged and hugged his flank. They were nearing the three-quarter post, and he was tightening his grip on the black. Essex fell back; his spurt was over. The whip fell unheeded on his sides. The spurs dug him in vain. Black Boy's breath touches the leader's ear. They are neck and neck — nose to nose. The black stalUon passes him. 168 ORAL ENGLISH Another cheer from the stand, and again Patsy smiles as they turn into the stretch. Mosquito has gained a head. The colored boy flashes one glance at the horse and rider who are so surely gaining upon him, and his lips close in a grim line. They are half-way down the stretch, and Mosquito's head is at the stallion's neck. For a single moment Patsy thinks of the sick woman at home and what this race will mean to her, and then his knees close against the horse's sides with a firmer dig. The spurs shoot deeper into the steaming flanks. Black Boy shall win; he must win. The horse that has taken away his father shall give him back his mother. The stalUon leaps away like a flash, and goes under the wire — a length ahead. Then the band thundered, and Patsy was off his horse, very warm and very happy, following his mount to the stable. There, a little later, Brackett found him. He rushed to him, and flung his arms around him. "You little imp," he cried, "you rode like you were kin to that hoss! We've won! We've won!" And he began sticking banknotes at the boy. At first Patsy's eyes bulged, and then he seized the money and got into his clothes. "Goin' out to spend it?" asked Brackett. "I'm goin' for a doctah fu' my mother," said Patsy, "she's sick." "Don't let me lose sight of you." "Oh, I'll see you again. So long," said the boy. An hour later he walked into his mother's room with a very big doctor, the greatest the druggist could direct him to. The doctor left his medicines and his orders, but, when Patsy told his story, it was Eliza's pride that started her on the road to recovery. Patsy did not tell his horse's name. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 169 THE STORY OF THE BREEZE » From The Jesters. By Miguel Zamacois A breeze one day, abroad on fun or mischief bent, Entered a castle grim, traversed the battlement. And on the terrace found, sitting and spinning there, A maiden of sixteen, blue eyed, with golden hair. Blue were her eyes, and soft as the young sky at dawn, Or the waves of the lake the breeze had crossed that morn. And as th' intruder loosed a strand of golden hair The maid looked up and laughed, so sweet, so chaste, so fair, That the breeze, who till then had kissed and whirred away Over the trees and far, fickle until to-day, Knew that this time his heart was bound and tethered there To that child of sixteen, blued-eyed, with golden hair, For the fair maid had won, won all unconsciously, A lover without a name and whom she could not see, While the breeze loved to love, and for no roj'al throne Would have exchanged his right to love her thus unknown. Then, as he could not bring her flowers all abloom, The butterflies he'd waft in shoals into her room From forest glades and fields, from near and far, and they Blue, yellow, red, and green, a quivering bouquet, He blew into hor hair, bejeweled it, and then. When he grew jealous, swiftlj' blew them out again. The scent of new-mowna hay he brought in from the fields. From ev'ry bush and flow'r what each of sweetest yields, Marjoram, meadow-sweet, and sage he carried there, For the maid of sixteen, blue-eyed, with golden hair. Sometimes he'd wander off, dowm into far Provence, And from the fairest lands of the fair land of France ^ Reprinted by permission of Brentano's. 170 - ORAL ENGLISH He would come laden back with orange blossoms' breath, Which he had stolen e'er men crushed the blooms to death. For all that ailed the maid he found a ready cure; Were the day stormy, he would fetch her air more pure From snowy mountain-tops, and if she were cold, why, His own love blew so warm he warmed her easily. When she was reading in works of old bard or sage, The breeze was waiting there to help her turn the page. And when at night she slept in her white-curtained bed. He'd venture till he touched his darling's golden head. And, drunken with the joy forbidden, dare to sip A kiss that maddened him from the child's smiling lip. One day, alas! there came a lord of Aquitaine To woo and win the maid. He came and came again, And the unhappy breeze howled in his mad despair. Gone the maid of sixteen, blue-eyed, with golden hair. Handsome the swain and rich, strong in his manhood's spring, Blushes, a whispered word, the chaplain, and a ring. What, when a wooer's young, rich, and has all to please. What, against such a man, can the most perfumed breeze? Off went the breeze, and rushed heart-broken, desire-torn, Into the desert, where, anguished, alone, forlorn. He gathered strength to rush back with unwonted might. Battle the castle walls, howl, the unhappy wight. As though his storm-tossed soul could in the noise find peace, Or, with a whirl of rage, could his poor heart release. And when the sexton old rang out the marriage bell So fiercely blew that he tolled a funeral knell. So that no flow'rs should deck the couple's bridal way, Every rose-bush he swept into sad disarray. Murdering all the blooms be had caressed of old. For the sixteen-year bride, blue-eyed, with hair of gold. Off and away the breeze, sweeping a weary world, Off and away he went, misery tossed and whirled, SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 171 Came back in two years' time, back to the castle old, Where dwelt the sweet young wife, blue-eyed, with hair of gold; Back to the castle grim, and in a cradle there Found a wee baby girl, bluo-eyod, with golden hair. Gently and softlj' blew, turning the child's toy mill. Eager to win a smile where he had come to kill; Turning the tiny mill as he had kissed of old The mother's sweet blue eyes and hair of burnished gold, Then sank to endless rest under the mother's chair. To dream of her blue eyes and of her golden hair. ESCAPE FROM PRISON i Abridged from Hugh Wynne. By Dr. S. Weir Mitchell Hugh Wynne is the son of an austere Quaker residing in Philadelphia at the time of the American Revolution. John Wynne, the father, is a Tory, but Hugh is influenced by his Aunt Gainor who makes a rebel and a patriot of him. Befor(\ joining the army Hugh becomes much enamored with a capricious young lady named Darthea Peniston. Arthur Wynne, his cousin, is an officer in the British army and his hated rival. During the battle of Germantown, Hugh is seriously wounded and taken prisoner. He and other disabled prisoners are driven to Walnut Street Prison, Philadelphia, called by the English the Provost. Of his experiences there, Hugh Wynne gives the following account. My heart fell within me as I looked up at the gray stone walls and grated windows. The door soon closed behind a hundred of us. With fifteen others, I was shut up in a room about twenty-two feet square. I was carried and laid down by two soldiers in a corner of the bare room. After an hour had gone by, I called a fellow prisoner, a Virginia captain named Richard Delancy, and asked him to lift and ease my hurt leg. He was quick to help and tender. In a few minutes we came to know each other, and thus began a friendly relation. A surgeon dressed my wounds for a month, and then I saw him no more. I set myself to seeing how I could keep my health. I talked with my unlucky fellow i)ri.soners, and ate the vile food dealt out to us, ^ Reprinted by permission of The Century Company. 172 ORAL ENGLISH I felt sure that before long some one would hear of me and bring relief. None came. The scoundrel in charge of the prison was a Captain Cun- ningham, a great, florid, burly, drunken brute. He no doubt sold our rations, for in December we once passed three days on rye bread and water, and one day we had no food. But for the Virginian, Richard Delaney, I should not be alive to-day. Death was busy among the starving men, and we saw every day hasty burials in the potter's field. I was attacked with a burning fever. For how long I know not I lay on the floor in the straw, miserably rolling from side to side. Then I lost consciousness, and knew no more for many days. When I came to a knowledge of myseK, I found Delaney caring for me. About the end of January, Delaney, seeing me better and able to sit up a little, told me this strange story. While I was ill and unconscious, a British officer had come to inspect the prison. "He came over and stood just here," said Delaney, "he looked down on you for so long that I thought he must be sorry for us. He asked me to pull the blanket from your face. I did so, as he seemed afraid to touch it. As for you, you were saying 'Darthea' over and over; but who is Darthea, the Lord knows. After standing awhile, the officer said in a queer way and very dehberately, 'it was a pity, but it was of no use; you would die.' I told him — " Breaking in on Delaney, I said, " WTio was this man? WTiat did he look hke?" "He was tall, very dark, and had a scar over the left eye." "Did he have a way of standing with half -shut eyes, and his mouth a little open?" " Certainly. Why, Wynne, you must know the man." "I do — I do. He is my cousin." It did seem to me, as I lay still, in much distress of body, that no man could be so cruel as Arthur Wynne had shown himself. Time had gone by, and he had done nothing. Months since he had warned me that I had everything to dread from his enmity, if I persisted in writing to Darthea. A.ssuredly he had been as good as his word. I thought how impossible it must ever be to hate a man enough to do as Arthur Wynne had done. I kept thinking of the hour when my cousin and I should meet, and as I fed this animal appetite I won fresh desire to live. He SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 173 must have learned later that I was still alive. It looked worse and worse as I llioughf about it, until Dolanoy, hearing me talk of nothing else, told me I would go mad if I let myself dwell longer upon it. Thus wisely counselled, I set it aside. By the beginning of February, I was greatly improved and fast gain- ing strength. One day I awakened with a fresh and happy thought in my mind. I thought I suddenly saw a way to let the sweet outside world know I was alive. At first I used to think of a chaplain as a resource, but I never saw one. Being now able to move about a little, I had noticed in the yard a fat Romanist priest, who was allowed to bring soup or other food to certain prisoners. I soon learned that, because Cunningham was of the Church of Rome, those who were of his faith were favored. Indeed, now and then, certain gray-clad sisters also brought supplies; but this was rare. That day in the yard I drew near to the priest, but saw Cunningham looking on, and so I waited with the patience of a prisoned man. It was quite two weeks before my chance came. Passing near to a stout old Sister of Charity, I said quietly: "I have friends who would help me. For God's love, see my aunt. Miss Wynne in Arch street, across from the Meeting." "I will do your errand," she said. "Others have said so, sister, and have lied to me." "I will do it," she said. "And if she is away?" I thought of my father. He seemed my natural resource, but my cousin would be there. Finally I said, " If she is not in town, then Miss Darthea Peniston, near by. If you fail me, I shall curse you while I live." "I will not fail you. Why should you poor prisoners be so ill used? Trust me." Two days later a turnkey came and bade me follow him. I went with an eager heart. As I questioned the man, he said there was an order for a lady to see me. Now at this time my hair was a foot long, and no way to shear it. We had taken the blankets of the dead, and made us coats by tearing holes through which to thrust our arms. My costume troubled me a little. As he opened the door, I saw the good Sister of Charity in the hall, and then — who but Darthea? 174 ORAL ENGLISH Seeing me in this blue blanket, all unshorn, and my beard covering my face, I wonder not that she fell back, saying there was some mistake. I cried out, "Darthea! Darthea! Do not leave me. It. is I! It is I, Hugh Wynne." "My God!" she cried, "It is Hugh! It is! it is!" At this she caught my lean yellow hand, and went on to say, "Why were we never told? Your Aunt Wynne is away. Since we thought you dead, she has ordered mourning and is gone to her farm. But you are not dead, thank God! thank God! I was but a day come home from New York, when this dear old sister came and told me. Just then Arthur came, and 1 told him of your misfortune. He was greatly shocked to hear it. He re- minded me that some while before he had told me that he had seen a man who looked like you in the jail, and was about to die. I never saw him so troubled." "Well he might be," thought I. 1 merely said, "Indeed?" But I must have looked my doubt, for she added quickly: "Who could know you, Hugh Wynne?" "Darthea," I said, "you must not remain in this awful place. God knows how welcome you are, but — " "Oh," she cried, "I told Arthur that I would wait, but I could not, so I came with the sister. You will be helped, and an end put to this wickedness. Arthur will ask for a parole for you." "Darthea," I said hoarsely, "I have been here since early in October. I have been starved, frozen, maltreated in a hundred ways, but I can never take a parole. I will take my chance here." I think death had been preferable to a parole obtained for me by Arthur Wynne. Then I was struck with a thought which was like a physical pain. "O Darthea!" I cried, "you should never have come here. Go at once. Do not stay a minute. This is a house poisoned. Write me what else is to say, but go; and let me have some plain clothes from home, and linen and a razor and scissors and, above all, soap. But go! go!" "I will go when I have done. I camo, because I am your friend, and this is the way I read friendship. Oh, I shall hear of it too. But let Arthur Wynne take care. 1 will write to you, and the rest you shall have; and now good-by." In two hours came a note with news of the war and from home. I SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 175 learned that Washington was not dead. We had been told that he was. I heard, too, of Burgoyne's surrender, of the fall of the forts on the Delaware, of Lord Cornwallis gone to England, of failures to effect exchanges. A few hours later came the turnkey. He fetched a portmantle just come, and an order to put me in a room alone. I left Delaney with sorrow, but hoped for some way to help him. In an hour I was clean for the first time in five months, neatly shaven, my hair somehow cut, and I in sweet linen and a good, plain gray suit. Then I sat down to think, the mere hope of escape making me weak. The next day I was ordered forth with a few others, and, luckily, late in the afternoon. I covered my fine clothes with a blanket, and went out. In the yard, I saw the sister, to my delight, and perceived too, that the prisoners did not recognize me, decently shaven as I was. Only one thing held me back or made me doubt that I was close to liberty; I was so feeble that at times I staggered in walking. I knew, however, that when my new clothes became familiar in the jail my chance of escape would be over. I must take the present opportunity and trust to luck. My scheme I had clearly thought out. I meant, when in the j^ard, to drop the blanket cover, and coolly follow the sister, trusting to my being taken in my new garments, for a visitor. It was simple, and like enough to succeed if my strength held out. It was now dusk. A bell was rung, this being the signal for the gang of prisoners to go to their rooms. Falling back a little, I cast aside the blanket, and then follow- ing the rest, was at once in the hall, dimly lit with lanterns. It was some eighty feet long. Here I kept behind the group, and went boldly after the stout sister. No one seemed disposed to suspect the well-dressed gentleman in gray. I went bj' the turnkey, keeping my face the other way. I was now some fifteen feet from the great barred outer door. The two sentries stepped back to let the sister go by. Meanwhile the gatekeeper, with his back to me, was busy with his keys. He unlocked the door and pulled it open. A great lantern hung over it. 1 was aghast to see the wret(!h, Cunningham, just about to enter. He was sure to detect me. I hesitated, but the lookout into space and liberty was enough for me. The beast fell back to let the 176 ORAL ENGLISH sister pass out. I dashed by the guards, upset the good woman, and, just outside the doorwaj', struck Cunningham in the face — a blow that had in it all the gathered hate of five months of brutal treatment. He fell back, stumbling on the broad upper step. I caught him a second full in the neck, as I followed. With an oath, he rolled back dowTi the high steps, as I, leaping over him, ran across Walnut street. I darted through the open door of a cobbler's shop, and out at the back into a small yard, and over palings into an open space. Then through various streets, and soon home, friends and liberty were mine again. THE RACE OF LIFE ' From The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. By Oliver Wendell Holmes Nothing strikes one more, in the race of life, than to see how many give out in the first half of the course. "Commencement day" always reminds me of the start for the "Derby," w'hen the beautiful high-bred three-year-olds of the season are brought up for trial. That day is the start, and life is the race. Here we are at Cambridge, and a class is just "graduating." Poor Harry! he was to have been there too, but he has paid forfeit; step out here into the grass behind the church; ah! there it is: — But this is the start, and here they are, — coats bright as silk, and manes as smooth as eau lustrale can make them. Some of the best of the colts are pranced around, a few minutes each, to show their paces. What is that old gentleman crying about? And the old lady by him, and the three girls, what are they all covering their eyes for? Oh, that is their colt which has just been trotted up on the stage. Do they really think those little thin legs can do anything in such a slashing sweep- stakes as is coming off in these next forty years? Oh, this terrible gift of second-sight that comes to some of us when we begin to look through the silvered rings of the arcus senilis! Ten years gone. First turn in the race. A few broken down; two or ^ Reprinted by permissiou of Houghton Mifflin Company. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 177 three bolted. Several show in advance of the ruck. Cassock, a black colt, seems to be ahead of the rest; those black colts commonly get the start, I have noticed, of the others, in the first quarter. Meteor has pulled up. Twenty years. Second corner turned. Cassock has dropped from the front, and Judex, an iron-gray, has the lead. But look how they have thinned out! Down flat, — five, — six, — how many? They lie still enough! they will not get up again in this race, be very sure! And the rest of them, what a "tailing off!" Anybody can see who is going to win, — perhaps. Thirty years. Third corner turned. Dives, bright sorrel, ridden by a follow in a yellow jacket, begins to make play fast; is getting to be the favorite with many. But who is that other one that has been length- ening his stride from the first, and now shows close up to the front? Don't you remember the quiet brown colt Asteroid, with the star in his forehead? That is he; he is one of the sort that lasts; look out for him! The black "colt" as we used to call him, is in the background, taking it easily in a gentle trot. There is one they used to call the Filly, on ac- count of a certain feminine air he had; well up, you see; the Filly is not to be despised, my boy! Forty years. More dropping off, — but places much as before. Fifty years. Race over. All that are on the course are coming in at a walk; no more running. Who is ahead? Ahead? What! and the winning post a slab of white or gray stone standing out from that turf where there is no more jockeying or straining for victory! Well, the world marks their places in its betting book; but be sure that these matter very little, if they have run as well as they knew how! SONG OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE ^ By Sidney Lanier Out of the hills of Habersham, Down the valleys of Hall, I hurry amain to reach the plain. Run the rapid and leap the fall, ' Reprinted by special arrangement with Charles Scribner's Sons. 178 ORAL ENGLISH Split at the rock and together again, Accept my bed, or narrow or wide, And flee from folly on every side With a lover's pain to attain the plain Far from the hills of Habersham, Far from the valleys of Hall. All down the hills of Habersham, All through the valleys of Hall, The rushes cried Abide, abide, The wilful waterweeds held me thrall, The laving lam-el turned my tide, The ferns and the fondling grass said Stay, The dewberry dipped deep to work delay, And the little reeds sighed Abide, abide, Here in the hills of Habersham, Here in the valleys of Hall. High o'er the hills of Habersham, Veiling the valleys of Hall, The hickory told me manifold Fair tales of shade, the poplar tall Wrought me her shadowy self to hold. The chestnut, the oak, the walnut, the pine, Overleaning, with flickering meaning and sign. Said, Pass not, so cold, these manifold Deep shades of the hills of Habersham, These glades in the valleys of Hall. And oft in the hills of Habersham, And oft in the valleys of Hall, The white quartz shone, and the smooth brook-stone Did bar me a passage with friendly brawl, And many a luminous jewel lone — Crystals clear or a-cloud with mist, Ruby, garnet and amethyst — Made lures with the lights of streaming stone SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 179 In the clefts of the hills of Habersham, In the beds of the valleys of Hall. But oh, not the hills of Habersham, And oh, not the valleys of Hall Avail: I am fain now to water the plain. Downward the voices of Duty call — Downward, to toil and be mixed with the main. The dry fields burn, and the mills are to turn, And a myriad flowers mortally yearn. And the lordly main from beyond the plain Calls o'er the hills of Habersham, Calls through the valleys of Hall. LOG DRIVING i Abridged from The Blazed Trail. By Stewart Edward White About the fifteenth of April the attention of the lumber-jacks be- came strained. Every day the mounting sun made heavy attacks on the snow. The river began to show more air holes, occasional open places. About the centre the ice looked worn and soggy. Some one saw a flock of geese high in air. Then came rain. One morning early, Long Pine Jim came into the men's camp bearing a huge chunk of tallow. This he softened at the hot stove and began to swab liberal quantities of it on his spiked river shoes. " She's comin', boys," said he. He donned a pair of woolen trousers that had been chopped off at the knee, thick woolen stockings, and the river shoes. Then he walked over to the corner to select a peavey from the lot the blacksmith had just put in shape. A peavey is like a cant-hook except that it is pointed at the end. Thus it can be used either as a hook or a pike. At the same moment Shearer, a foreman, appeared in the doorway. "Come on, boys, she's on!" said he sharply. "She'll be down on us before we know it!" ^ Copyright 1902 by Doublcday Pago and Company, and reprinted by special arrangement with these publishers. 180 ORAL ENGLISH The opening of the portal admitted a roar of sound. The freshet was abroad forceful with the strength of a whole winter's accumulated energy. The men heard it and their eyes brightened with the lust of battle. They cheered. Already the ice cementing the logs together had begun to weaken. The ice had wrenched and tugged savagely at the locked timbers until they had, with a mighty effort, snapped asunder the bonds of their hibernation. Now a narrow lane of black rushing water pierced the roll ways, to boil and eddy in the consequent jam three miles below. At the bank of the river, Thorpe, the manager, rapidly issued his directions. The affair had been all prearranged. To the foremen he assigned their tasks, calling them to him one by one, as a general calls his aids. "Moloney," said he to a big Irishman, "take your crew and break that jam. Then scatter your men down to within a mile of the pond, and see that the river runs clear. Kerlie, your crew can break rollways with the rest until we get the river fairly filled, and then you can move on down-stream as fast as you are needed. Scotty, you will have the rear." At once the signal was given to Ellis, the dam watcher. Ellis and his assistants thereupon began to pry with long iron bars at the ratchets of the heavy gates. The chore-boy bent attentively over the ratchet- pin, lifting it delicately to permit another inch of raise, dropping it ac- curately to enable the men at the bars to seize a fresh purchase. The river's roar deepened. Through the wide sluiceways a torrent foamed and tumbled. Immediately it spread through the brush on either side to the limits of the freshet banks, and then gathered for its leap again.st the uneasy rollways. Along the edge of the dark channel the face of the logs seemed to crumble away. Farther in towards the banks where the weight of the timber still outbalanced the weight of the flood, the tiers grumbled and stirred, restless with the stream's calling. Far down the river, where Bryan Moloney and his crew were picking at the jam, the water in eager streamlets sought the inters! ic(>s between the logs, gurgling ex- chedly like a mountain brook. The jam creaked and groaned in re- sponse to the pressure. From its face a hundred jets of water spurted SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 181 into the lower stream. T>op;s up-ended here and there, rising slowly, like so many arms from the lower depths. The crew worked desperately. Down in the heap somewhere, two logs were crossed in such a manner as to lock the whole. They sought those logs. Thirty feet above the bed of the river six men clamped their peaveys into the soft pine; jerking, pulling, sliding the great logs from their places. Thirty feet below, under the threatening face, six other men coolly picked out and set adrift, one by one, the timbers not inextricably imbedded. From time to time the mass creaked, settled, perhaps even moved a foot or two; but always the practiced rivermen, after a glance, bent more eagerly to their work. Outlined against the sky, big Bryan Moloney stood directing his work. He knew by the tenseness of the log he stood on that, behind the jam, power had gathered sufficient to push the whole tangle down-stream. Now he was offering it the chance. Suddenly the six men below the jam scattered. Four of them, holding their peaveys across their bodies, jumped lightly from one floating log to another in the zigzag to shore. The other two ran the length of their footing, and, overleaping an open of water, landed heavily and firmly on the very ends of two small float- ing logs. In this manner the force of the jump rushed the little timbers end-on through the water. The two men were thus ferried to within leaping distance of the other shore. In the meantime a barely perceptible motion was communicating itself from one particle to another through the centre of the jam. The crew redoubled its exertions, clamping its peaveys here and there, apparently at random, but in reality with the most definite of purposes. A sharp crack exploded immediately underneath. There could no longer exist any doubt as to the motion, although it was as yet sluggish, glacial. The jam crew were forced continually to alter their positions, riding the changing timbers bent-kneed, as a circus rider treads his four galloping horses. Then all at once something crashed. The entire stream became alive. It hissed and roared, it shrieked, groaned and grumbled. At first slowly, then more rapidly, the very forefront of the center melted inward and forward and downward until it caught the fierce rush of the freshet and shot out from under the jam. Far up-stream, bristling and 182 ORAL ENGLISH formidable, the tons of logs, grinding savagely together, swept for- ward. The six men and Bryan Moloney — who, it will be remembered, were on top of the jam — worked until the last moment. When the logs began to cave under them so rapidly that even the expert rivermen found difficulty in "staying on top," the foreman set the example of hunting safety. "She pulls, boys," he yelled. Then in a manner wonderful to behold, through the smother of foam and spray, the drivers zigzagged calmly and surely to the shore. All but Jimmy Powers. He poised tense and eager on the crumbling face of the jam. Almost immediately he saw what he wanted, and with- out pause sprang boldly and confidently ten feet straight downward, to alight with accuracy on a single log floating free in the current. And then in the very glory and chaos of the jam itself he was swept down- stream. After a moment the constant acceleration in speed checked, then com- menced perceptibly to slacken. At once the rest of the crew began to ride down-stream. Each struck the calks of his river boots strongly into a log, and on such unstable vehicles floated miles with the current. From time to time, as Bryan Moloney indicated, one of them went ashore. There, usually at a bend in the stream where the likelihood of jamming was great, they took their stands. "VMien necessary, they ran out over the face of the river to separate a congestion likely to cause trouble. At noon they ate from the little canvas bags which had been filled that morning by the cookee. At sunset they rode other logs down the river to where their camp had been made for them. There they ate hugelj% hung their ice-wet garments over a tall framework con- structed around a monster fire, and turned in on hemlock branches. All night long the logs slipped down the moonlit current, silently, swiftly, yet without haste. From the whole length of the river rang the hollow boom, boom, boom, of timbers striking one against the other. The drive was on. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 183 WHEN TULIPS BLOOM » By Henky Van Dyke I When tulips bloom in Union Square, And timid breaths of vernal air Go wandering down the dusty town, Like children lost in Vanity Fair; When every long unlovely row Of westward houses stands aglow, And leads the eyes to sunset skies Beyond the hills where green trees grow; Then weary seems the street parade, And weary books, and weary trade : I'm only wishing to go a-fishing; For this the month of May was made. II I guess the pussy-willows now Are creeping out on every bough Along the brook; and robins look For early worms behind the plough. The thistle-birds have changed their dun, For yellow coats to match the sun; And in the same array of flame The Dandelion Show's begun. The flocks of young anemones Are dancing round the budding trees: Who can help wishing to go a-fishing In days as full of joy as these? Ill I think the meadow lark's clear sound Leaks upward slowly from the ground, '' Reprinted by special arrangement with Charles Scribner's Sons. 184 ORAL ENGLISH While on the wing the blue-birds ring Their wedding bells to woods around. The flirting chewink calls his dear Behind the bush; and very near, Where water flows, where green grass grows Song-sparrows gently sing "Good cheer." And, best of all, through twilight's calm The hermit-thrush repeats his psalm. How much I'm wishing to go a-fishing In days so sweet with music's balm! IV 'Tis not a proud desire of mine; I ask for nothing superfine; No heavy weight, no salmon great, To break the record, or my line. Only an idle little stream. Whose amber waters softly gleam, Where I may wade, through woodland shade, And cast the fly, and loaf, and dream: Only a trout or two, to dart From foaming pools, and try my art: 'Tis all I'm wishing — old fashioned fishing, And just a day on Nature's heart. MAY FLOWERS ^ From The Joy o' Life. By Theodosia Garrison May flowers on the city street — A keen-faced vender sells, with eyes Fitted for coarser merchandise Than these pathetic bits of sweet That breathe of vague simplicities. ^ Reprinted by permission of Mitchell Kcnnerley. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 185 May flowers on the city street — Here where the tide of traffic roars Against its narrow, crowded shores Where men go by with hurrying feet And barter swings its thousand doors. May flowers on the city street — Why, 'tis as though the young-eyed Spring Herself had come — an artless thing, A country lass, demure and neat — To smile upon us wondering. May flowers on the city street — Pink and white poetry abloom Here in this clamor, crush and gloom — A home thought in the battle's heat, A love-song in a sunless room. May flowers on the city street — For one poor coin behold I buy Springtime and youth and poetry. E'en in this sordid mart unmeet So many miles from Arcady. THE EAGLE'S SONG » By Richard Mansfield The lioness whelped, and the sturdy cub Was seized by an eagle and carried up. And homed for a while in an eagle's nest. And slept for a while on an eagle's breast; And the eagle taught it the eagle's song: "To be staunch, and valiant, and free, and strong!" The lion whelp sprang from the eyrie nest. From the lofty crag where the queen birds rest; 1 Reprinted by permission of Mrs. Mansfield. 186 ORAL ENGLISH He fought the king on the spreading plain, And drove him back o'er the foaming main. He hold the land as a thrifty chief, And reared his cattle, and reaped his sheaf, Nor sought the help of a foreign hand, Yet welcomed all to his own free land! Two were the sons that the country bore To the Northern lakes and the Southern shore; And Chivalry dwelt with the Southern son, And Industry lived with the Northern one. Tears for the time when they broke and fought ! Tears was the price of the union wrought! And the land was red in a sea of blood. Where brother for brother had swelled the flood! And now that the two are one again. Behold on their shield the word "Refrain!" And the lion cubs twain sing the eagle's song: "To be staunch, and valiant, and free, and strong!" For the eagle's beak, and the lion's paw, And the lion's fangs, and the eagle's claw, And the eagle's swoop, and the lion's might, And the lion's leap, and the eagle's sight, Shall guard the flag with the word "Refrain!" Now that the two are one again! FALSTAFF'S VALOR From King Henry the Fourth. By William Shakespeare Scene; The Boar's Head Tavern, Eastcheap. There are present Prince Hal, Poins, Jack Falsta£f, Gadshill, Peto and others. PoiNs: Welcome, Jack, where hast thou been? Falstaff: a plague on all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too! marry, and amen! — Give me a cup of sack, boy. (He drinks) Is there no virtue extant? There live not three good men unhanged in England; SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 187 and one of them is fat and grows old; God help the while! a bad world, I say. A plague of all cowards, 1 say still. Prince: IIow now, wool-sack! what mutter you? Falstaff: a king's son! If 1 do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath, and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild-geese, I'll never wear hair on my face more. You Prince of Wales! Prince: Why, you round old man, what's the matter? Falstaff: Are not you a coward? answer me that, — and Poins there? PoiNs: Zounds, ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, by Heaven, I'll stab thee. Falstaff:.! call thee coward! PU see thee damned ere I call thee coward; but I would give a thousand pound I could run as fast as thou canst. You are straight enough in the shoulders, you care not who sees your back; call you that backing your friends? A plague upon such backing! give me them that will face me. Prince: What's the matter? Falstaff: What's the matter! there be four of us here have ta'en a thousand pounds this morning. Prince: Where is it. Jack, where is it? Falstaff: Where is it! taken from us it is; a hundred upon poor four of us. Prince: What, a hundred, man? Falstaff: I am a rogue, if I were not at sword play with a dozen of them two hours together. I have scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hacked like a hand-saw — ecce signum! I never dealt better since I was a man; all would not do. A plague of all cowards! — Let them speak; if they speak more or less thau truth, they are villains and the sons of darkness. Prince: Speak, sirs; how was it? Gadshill: We four set upon some dozen — Falstaff: Sixteen at least, my lord. Gadshill: And bound them. Peto: No, no, they were not bound. Falstaff: You rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew. 188 ORAL ENGLISH Gadshill: As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us — Falstaff: And unbound the rest, and then come in the other. Prince : What, fought you with them all? Falstaff: All! I know not what you call all; but if I fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish: if there were not two or three and fifty upon old Jack, then am I no two-legged creature. Prince: Pray God you have not murthered some of them. Falstaff: Nay, that's past praying for; I have peppered two of them; two I am sure I have paid, two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou knowest my old ward; here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me — Prince: What, four? thou saidst but two even now. Falstaff: Four, Hal; I told thee four. PoiNs: Ay, ay, he said four. Falstaff: These four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me. I made me no more ado but took all their seven points in my target, thus. Prince: Seven? why there were but four even now. Falstaff: In buckram? PoiNs: Ay, four, in buckram suits. Falstaff: Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else. Prince: Prithee, let him alone; we shall have more anon. Falstaff: Dost thou hear me, Hal? Prince: Ay, and mark thee too. Jack. Falstaff: Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine in buckram that I told thee of — Prince: So, two more already. Falstaff: Their points being broken, — PoiNs: Down fell their hose. Falstaff: Began to give me ground: but I followed me close, came in foot and hand; and with a thought seven of the eleven I paid. Prince: O monstrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two! Falstaff: But, as the devil would have it, three knaves in Kendal SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 189 green came at my back and let drive at mc; for it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see th}' hand. Prince: These lies are like their father that begets them; gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brained, greasy tallow- catch, — Falstaff: What, art thou mad? is not the truth the truth? Prince: Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal green, when it was so dark thou couldst not see thy hand? come, tell us your reason; what sayest thou to this? PoiNS: Come, your reason. Jack, your reason. Falstaff: W^hat, upon compulsion? Zounds, an I were at the strappado, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compul- sion! if reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I. Prince: I'll be no longer guilty of this sin; this sanguine coward, this huge hill of flesh, — Falstaff: 'Sblood, you starveling, you eel-skin, you dried neat's tongue, — O for breath to utter what is like thee! — Prince: Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again; and when thou hast tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me speak but this. PoiNs: Mark, Jack. Prince: W^e saw you four set on four and bound them, and were masters of their wealth. Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down. Then did we two set on you four; and, with a word, out-faced you from your prize, and have it; yea, and can show it you here in the house: and, Falstaff, you carried your guts away so nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roared for mercy and still run and roared, as ever I heard bull calf. What a slave art thou, to hack thy sword, as thou hast done, and then say it was in fight! What trick, what device, what starting-hole, canst thou now find out to hide thee from this open and apparent shame? PoiNs: Come, let's hear, Jack; what trick hast thou now? Falstaff: By Heaven, I knew ye. Why, hear you, my masters; was it for me to kill the heir-apparent? Should I turn upon the true prince? why, thou knowest I am as valiant as Hercules; but beware instinct; the lion will not touch the true prince. Instinct is a great 190 ORAL ENGLISH matter; I was now a coward on instinct. I shall think the better of myself and thee during my life; I for a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince. But lads, I am glad you have the money. A SILLY OLD MAN i By George R. Sims 'Mid all the nasty things that come to make our tempers smart, It's very nice in middle age to have a childish heart. To feel — although you've got a house, and taxes coming due — The little joys of early life possess a charm for you. My boys and girls are growing up; I'm fifty in a day; And all the hair that time has left has turned a doubtful gray; And yet I jump and skip about and sing a song of glee, Because we're off to spend a month beside the sounding sea. Where I shall wear my holland clothes, and tuck them up and wade. And buy myself an air-balloon, a bucket and a spade. I've packed my box and corded it, and seen my boys to bed, And now I'm in the drawing-room and standing on my head; I really can't contain myself, I shout and rub my hands, — Oh, won't I build a castle with a moat upon the sands! 1 know this week I've lost a lot of money upon 'Change, I know the kitchen boiler's burst and spoilt the kitchen range, I know my wife declares she wants another hundred pounds, And I should weep and tear my hair, because I've ample gi-ounds; But visions of to-morrow's bhss bid all my sorrows fade, — There's comfort in an au'-balloon, a bucket and a spade. I ought to be a solemn chap, and dress in black, and frown, And do as other fathers do when going out of town; I ought to count the cost of it, and look extremely rilod, And swear that all the jnicking-up will send me nearly wild. And when I reach the lovely sea I ought to take a seat. Or walk about a mile a day and grumble at the heat; ^ Repriiitud by permission of George Routledge and Sons, London. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 191 But oh, I can't contain myself, I'm off my head with joy, And won't I get my Irousc^s wet and be a naughty boy! For I shall wear my holland clothes, and tuck them up and wade, And buy myself an air-balloon, a bucket and a spade. UNDER THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN SHOE ' From Tales of the Mermaid Tavern. By Alfred Noyes Note. Christopher (Kit) Marlowe, the dramatist, was the son of a cobbler and played about his father's shop in his boyhood. A cobbler lived in Canterbury — He is dead now, poor soul! — He sat at his door and stitched in the sun, Nodding and smiling at everyone; For St. Hugh makes all good cobblers merry And often he sang as the pilgrims passed, " I can hammer a soldier's boot, And daintily glove a dainty foot. Many a sandal from my hand Has walked the road to Holy Land. Knights may fight for me, priests may pray for me, Pilgrims walk the pilgrim's way for me, I have a work in the world to do! — Trowl the bowl, the nut-brown bowl, To good St. Hugh!— The cobbler must stick to his last." And anon he would cry " Kit! Kit! Kit!" to his little son, " Look at the pilgrims riding by! Dance down, hop down, after them, run! " Then, like an unfledged linnet, out Would tumble the brave little lad, ^ Copyright, 1913, by Frederick A. Stokes Company, and reprinted by their permission. 192 ORAL ENGLISH With a piping shout, — " O, look at them, look at them, look at them, Dad! Priest and prioress, abbot and friar, Soldier and seaman, knight and squire! How many countries have they seen? Is there a king there, is there a queen? Dad, one day. Thou and I must ride like this, All along the Pilgrim's Way, By Glastonbury and Samarcand, El Dorado and Cathay, London and Persepolis, All the way to the Holy Land!" Then shaking his head as if he knew, Under the sign of the Golden Shoe, Touched by the glow of the setting sun, While the pilgrims passed. The little cobbler would laugh and say; " When you are old you will understand 'Tis a very long way To Samarcand! Whj', largely to exaggerate Befits not men of small estate, But — I should say, yes, I should say, 'Tis a hundred miles from where you stand; And a hundred more, my little son, A hundred more, to Holy Land! . . . I have a work in the world to do — Trowl the howl, the nut-brown bowl, To good St. Hugh!— The cobbler must stick to his last." SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 193 THE ELECTRIC TRAM ^ From The Enchanted Island. By Alfred Notes Bluff and burly and splendid Through roaring traffic-tides, By secret lightnings attended The land-ship hisses and glides. And I sit on its bridge and I watch and I dream While the world goes gallantly by, With all its crowded houses and its colored shops a-stream Under the June-blue sky, Heigh, ho! Under the June-blue sky. There's a loafer at the curb with a sulphur-colored pile Of " Lights! Lights! Lights! " to sell; And a flower-girl there with some lilies and a smile By the gilt swing-doors of a drinking hell. Where the money is rattling loud and fast, And I catch one glimpse as the ship swings past Of a woman with a babe at her breast Wrapped in a ragged shawl; She is drinking away with the rest. And the sun shines over it all. Heigh, ho! The sun shines over it all! And a barrel-organ is playing, Somewhere, far away. Abide icith me, and The ivorld is gone a-maying, And What ivill the policeman say? There's a glimpse of the river down an alley by a church, And the barges with their tawny-colored sails, ' Copyright, 1913, by Frederick A. Stokes and Company, and reprinted by their permission. 194 ORAL ENGLISH And a grim and grimy coal-wharf where the London pigeons perch And flutter and ; pread their tails, Heigh, ho! Flutter and spread their tails. 0, what does it mean, all the pageant and the pity, The waste and the wonder and the shame? I am riding tow'rds the sunset through the vision of a City Which we cloak with the stupor of a name! I am riding through ten thousand tragedies and terrors, Ten million heavens that save and hells that damn; And the lightning draws my car tow'rds the golden evening star; And — they call it only "riding on a tram," Heigh, ho! They call it only " riding on a tram." WHEN I GO OUT ON MY WHEEL ' By Alfred James Waterhouse When I go out on my wheel, the world Goes scurrying past, as the Hand unfurled The leagues of hurrying brown and green; And I see the little white houses between The hedges and trees, and the air strikes hard On my lifted face, and the odor of nard. Of myrtle and roses, exalts like wine. As I ride on my wheel and the world is mine. When I go out on my wheel, the town Fades away — fades away into stretches of brown; And I hear the murmur of brooks that run Through the shady nooks till they greet the sun. And it's ho! oho! for the joy I feel As I ride, as I glide, on my steed of steel: And the day and its moments are all divine, As I ride on my wheel and the world is mine. ^ Reprinted by permission of the author. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 195 When I go out on my wheel, I know That back to the toil and the grind I must go; But I do not mind as the moments fly, For the world is fair and its child am I. So it's ho! for the hedges that glide and glide. And it's ho! for the brooklets that hide and hide, And it's ho! for the day with its smile benign, As I ride on my wheel and the world is mine. RELATIVE VALUES SUGGESTED BY DELIVERY By varieties of emphasis in reading, we are able to make prominent what is important in a sentence and to put in the background what is least important. What is relatively important in a selection as a whole, should also be determined by painstaking analysis, and the reader's estimate of relative values expressed by a careful delivery. Preserve the balance and purpose of the following selections by attention to this principle in expressive delivery. HOW WENDELL PHILLIPS BECAME AN ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER ' By Mary A. Livermore It is possible to comprehend the character of Wendell Phillips only as he is seen against the dark background of slavery. He made his debut as an anti-slavery reformer, and he was known as an anti-slavery reformer from the time ho began his work until he was discharged bj' death from all work of an earthly character. Wendell Phillips was the son of the first mayor of Boston, and was born on Beacon Street. He was rich, and never knew the want of a dollar in his life. He had the beauty of a Greek Apollo in face and figure. He had the culture of Harvard College in his brains. He was the idol of the aristocrats of Boston. In his veins ran the same blood that flowed in the veins of Phillips Brooks, of Oliver Wendell Holmes. On every side Wendell Phillips was hedged about by the highest and noblest influences. It was a mob that sought to hang W^illiam Lloyd Garrison which gave Wendell Phillips to the cause of abolition. He saw Mr. Garrison, whom he did not know, with a rope about his waist, dragged through the streets of Boston. He said, "What is the matter with the fellow? " "Why, he is the anti-slavery leader, the editor of The Ldberator," answered a man at his elbow. "Why don't you call out the cadets, and put down this mob?" de- manded Phillips. The man turned round and said, "You fool, don't you see it is the cadets that are trying to hang him?" The next day Wendell Phillips resigned from the cadets, and re- canted his oath to support the constitution of the United States; be- cause it could compel him to return fugitive slaves. So that mob gave the world Wendell PhiUips. ^ Reprinted by permission of the Emerson College Magazine. 197 198 ORAL ENGLISH Soon after this incident, Elijah Lovejoy, who had gone to IllinoivS and started an anti-slavery paper, had his press destroyed, and thrown into the Mississippi River. He bought another, and that they de- stroyed. He got a third, and said, "This paper my friends and I will defend with our lives!" That night a number of his friends stayed with him in the warehouse until late, after which, thinking all was safe, they went to their homes and left him with a few others. Hardly had they gone when there came a mob of the lowest, vilest, drunken ruffians one could imagine. They came out all armed ready for anything. The first salutation that the men in the warehouse heard, was the falling of stones that broke in every window. Immediately Lovejoy replied that there were men inside, all heavily armed that would take care of themselves and the press; but the throwing of stones continued. One of the ruffians set the roof on fire. Lovejoy came out on the roof, his figure clearly revealed, a splendid target, against the blazing conflagration. When he turned and again warned them, a well aimed shot was fired and he dropped dead. After that, it was impossible for a posse of officers to do anything with the mob until they were fully satisfied. The story of this outrage went across the country on the wings of the wind. Everybody was saying, "Are we white slaves? Have we a collar about our necks? May we not publish our own papers and say what we please?" Meetings were called all over the country in defense of free speech and free press. One was held in Faneuil Hall in defense of free speech and in opposition to slavery. Dr. Channing made the first speech. He spoke much about free speech, but very gingerly about slavery. Two other men followed and talked the same way. It seemed as if the crowded audience were all of one opinion. Suddenly there arose in the gallery James T. Austin. He said he was glad Lovejoy was shot; that he died as he deserved to die. He said the man who shot Lovejoy deserved to rank with the patriots of the Com- monwealth whose portraits looked down from the walls of Faneuil Hall. The excitement which followed was intense. The friends of Austin applauded to the echo, while the anti-slavery men hissed and groaned and the house resounded with cries. A young man was seen making his SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE ■ 199 « way through the immense crowd. He came up and faced the audience. Everybody was saying, "Who is the handsome young fellow?" but there was a free masonry which made them believe he was not to side with Austin. Finally, a few of the men came on the platform and insisted that the young man should be heard. Wendell Phillips began. His voice was music; its fine modulations, as he talked in a conversational way, reached out to the remotest corners of the hall. Every one listened while he gave a vocal picture of the tragedy of the night which had brought about the meeting. As he went on with his graphic description they saw Lovejoy on the roof of the house; they heard the shots; they saw the whole horrible afTair; they saw the low ruffians, those half savage men, as they came out from their lairs, bent on murder. When he reached the point where they were all horror stricken with the tragedy, as they had not been before, he said, "When I heard the Attorney-General of Massachusetts class those drunken murderers with the patriots of the Commonwealth, I mar- velled, O Hancock, Adams, Otis and Quincy, that your pictured lips did not break out and rebuke this recreant slanderer of the noble dead! I marvelled that this cradle of liberty did not rock and heave again, and that the earth did not open and swallow him up for his profanity!" If there was excitement before, there was pandemonium now. Phillips had won. The majority, standing on tiptoe, shouted, "Go on! Take nothing back!" while the other faction shouted, "Throw him out! Sit down! Be quiet!" He stood there with his arms folded and let the mob howl itself out. Now he made his speech about slavery, and it was not gingerly. This was his debut as an anti-slavery reformer. It was a speech that held everybody breathless. He foretold the end of slavery. He pictured what it would be if it were allowed to grow. Everybody was spellbound; nobody hissed. The moment he finished he received a perfect ovation. He went out with the reputation of having made the greatest speech ever heard in the city of Boston. He went out poorer than the poorest beggar that goes from alley to alley to beg for food. He had killed every chance of political advancement he might ever hope to win; completely ostra- cised, nothing remained for him but to be a private citizen afterward. Have you ever read of a case like this? Here was a man twenty-six 200 ORAL ENGLISH years old, an aristocrat, of a noble family, a graduate of Harvard, full of dreams and aspirations, who might have had anything he might ask for himself; yet he gave up society and descended, not only to the level of the common people, but lower than that, — to the depths of the pit digged by the American people for the black slave. He went there of his own accord, refusing everything, taking his stand by the side of that black slave of the South; and looking up calmly at the American government and the church and society, he said, "I stand by this black slave. His cause and mine are one. Whatsoever ye do to him ye do unto me." There he stood calmly, steadfastly, enduring everything, foregoing everything, until at last the black man was raised to the level of the white man. AMERICA THE CRUCIBLE OF GOD From The Melting-Pot. By Israel Zangwill Scene. The living-room at the Quixanos home, Richmond Borough, New York City. There are present Mendel and David Quixanos, uncle and nephew, the former a pianist and the latter a violinist and composer, also Vera Revendal, a settlement worker calling at the Quixanos home who has just learned that her letter mailed a week before to David, has not been de- livered to him. David: A letter for me! {He opens it eagerly, reads and smiles) Oh, Miss Revendal! Isn't that great! To play again at your settlement. I am getting famous. Vera: But we can't offer you a fee. David: A fee! I'd pay a fee to see all those happy immigrants you gather together, — Dutchmen and Greeks, Polos and Norwegians, Swiss and Armenians. If you only had Jews it would be as good as going to Ellis Island. Vera: What a strange taste! Who in the world wants to go to Ellis Island. David: Oh, I love to go to Ellis Island to watch the ships coming in from Europe, and to think that all those weary, sea-tossed wanderers are feeling what I felt when America first stretched out her great mother- hand to me! SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 201 Vera: Were you very happy? David: It was heaven. You must remember that all my life I had heard of America — everybody in our town had friends there or was going there or got money orders from there. The earliest game I i)Iayed at was selling off my toy furniture and setting up in America. All my life America was waiting, beckoning, shining — the place where God would wipe away tears from off all faces. {He ends in a half-sob) Mendel: Now, now, David, don't get excited. David: To think that the same great torch of liberty which threw its light across all the broad seas and lands into my little garret in Russia, is shining also for all those other weeping millions of Europe, shining wherever men hunger and are oppressed — Mendel {Soothingly): Yes, yes, David. Now sit down and — David: Shining over the starving villages of Italy and Ireland, over the swarming stony cities of Poland and Galicia, over the ruined farina of Roumania, over the shambles of Russia — Mendel {Pleading): David! David: Oh, Miss Revendal, when I look at our Statue of Liberty, I just seem to hear the voice of America crying: " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest — rest." Mendel: Don't talk any more — you know it is bad for you. David: But Miss Revendal asked — and I want to explain to her what America means to me. Mendel: You can explain it in your American symphony. Vera: You compose? David: Oh, uncle, why did you talk of — ? uncle always — my music is so thin and tinkling. Wlien I am uriting my American symphony, it seems like thunder crashing through a forest full of bird songs. But next day — oh, next day! Vera: So your music finds inspiration in America? David: Yes, in the seething of the Crucible. Vera: The Crucible? I don't understand! David: Not understand! You, the spirit of the settlement! Not understand that America is God's Crucible, the great Melting Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming! Here j'ou stand, good folk, think I, when I see them at EUis Island, here you 202 ORAL ENGLISH stand in your fifty groups, with your fifty languages and histories, and your fifty blood hatreds and rivahies. But you won't be long like that, brothers, for these are the fires of God you've come to — these are the fires of God. A fig for your feuds and vendettas! Germans and French- men, Irishmen and Englishmen, Jews and Russians — into the Crucible with you all! God is making the American. Mendel: I should have thought the American was made already^- eighty millions of him. David: Eighty millions! Over a continent! WTiy, that cockleshell of a Britain has forty millions! No, uncle, the real American has not yet arrived. He is only in the Crucible, I tell you — he will be the fusion of all races, the coming superman. Ah, what a glorious Finale for my symphony — if I can only write it. HYMN TO THE NORTH STAR i By William Cullen Bryant The sad and solemn night Hath yet her multitude of cheerful fires; The glorious host of light Walk the dark atmosphere till she retires; All through her silent watches, gliding slow. Her constellations come, and climb the heavens, and go. Day, too, hath many a star To grace his gorgeous reign, as bright as they: Through the blue fields afar. Unseen, they follow in his flaming way: ]\Iany a bright lingerer, as the eve grows dim, Tells what a radiant troop arose and set with him. And thou dost see them rise, Star of the Pole! and thou dost see them set. Alone, in thy cold skies. Thou keep'st thy old unwavering station yet, ^ Reprinted l)y permission of D. Appleton and Company. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 203 Nor join'st the dances of that gUttering train, Nor dipp'st thy virgin orb in the blue western main. There, at morn's rosy birth, Thou lookest meekly through the kindling air, And eve, that round the Earth Chases the day, beholds thee watching there; There noontide finds thee, and the hour that calls The shapes of polar flame to scale heaven's azure walls. Alike, beneath thine eye, The deeds of darkness and of light are done; High toward the starUt sky Towns blaze, the smoke of battle blots the Sun; The night-storm on a thousand hills is loud, And the strong wind of day doth mingle sea and cloud. On thy unaltering blaze The half-wrecked mariner, his compass lost, FLxes his steady gaze. And steers, undoubting, to the friendly coast; And they who stray in perilous wastes, by night. Ale glad when thou dost shine to guide their footsteps right. And, therefore, bards of old. Sages and hermits of the solemn wood, Did in thy beams behold A beauteous type of that unchanging good. That bright eternal beacon, by whose ray The voj'ager of time should shape his heedful way. THE SWAN CREEK CHURCH OPENED ^ Abridged from The Sky Pilot. By Ralph Connor WTien Arthur Wellington Moore came to Swan Creek as a missionary, he was dubbed the "Sky Pilot." At first the rough cowboys and miners ^ Copyrighted 1899, by Fleming H. Revell Co., and quoted by special permission. Must not be reprinted without permission. 204 ORAL ENGLISH were slow to admit him to their confidence, but steadily he won his place with them till they came to count him as one of themselves. He rode the range with them, he slept in their shacks and cooked his meals on their tin stoves. It took them a long time to believe that the in- terest he showed in them was genuine and not simply professional. Then, too, from a preacher, they expected chiefly pity, warning and rebuke. The Pilot astonished them by giving them respect, admiration and open hearted affection. It was months before they could get over the suspicion that he was humbugging them. When once they did, they gave him back without knowing it, all the trust and love of their big generous hearts. When the Pilot set his heart upon building a church, few agreed with him; but finally Bronco Bill and some of his pals championed the cause and pledged themselves so handsomely, that it chagrined those who should have been first to subscribe. The building of the Swan Creek Church made a sensation in the country, and all the more that Bronco Bill was in command. "When I put up money I stay with the game," he announced; and stay he did to the great benefit of the work and to the delight of the Pilot, who was wearing his life out trying to do several men's work. It was Bill that organized the gangs for hauling stones for the foundations and logs for the walls, and it was Bill that assigned the various jobs to those volun- teering service. When near the end of the year, the Pilot fell sick. Bill nursed him like a mother and sent him off for rest and change, forbidding him to return till the church was finished, and visiting him twice a week. The day of the church opening came, as all days, however long waited for, will come — a bright, beautiful Christmas Day. The air was still and full of frosty Ught, as if arrested by a voice of command, waiting the word to move. The hills lay under their dazzling coverlets, asleep. Back of all the great peaks lifted majestic heads out of the dark forest and gazed with calm, steadfast faces upon the white, sunlit world. To-day, as the light filled the cracks that wrinkled their hard faces, they scorned to smile, as if the Christmas joy had somehow moved something in their old, stony hearts. The people were all there— farmers, ranchers, cowboys, wives and SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 205 • children — all happy, all proud of their new church, and now all expect- ant, waiting for the Pilot. As time passed on, Bill as master of cere- monies, began to grow uneasy. Then Indian Joe appeared and handed a note to Bill. He read it, grew gray in the face and passed it to me. Looking, I saw in poor, wavering lines the words, "Dear Bill. Go on with the opening. Sing the Psalm, you know the one, and say a prayer, and oh, come to me quick, Bill. Your Pilot." Bill gradually pulled himself together, announced in a strange voice, "The Pilot can't come," handed me the Psalm, and said; "Make them sing." It was that grand Psalm for all hill peoples, "I to the hills will lift mine eyes," and with wondering faces they sang the strong, steadying words. After the Psalm was over the people sat and waited. Bill looked at the Hon. Fred Ashley, then at Robbie Muir, then said to me in a low voice; "Kin you make a prayer?" I shook my head, ashamed as I did so of my cowardice. Again Bill paused, then said; "The Pilot says ther's got to be a prayer. Kin anyone make one?" Again dead, solemn silence. Then Hi, who was near the back, said, coming to his partner's help; "What's the matter with you trying, yourself, Bill?" The red began to come up in Bill's white face. " 'Tain't in my line. But the Pilot says ther's got to be a prayer, and I'm going to stay with the game." Then leaning on the pulpit, he said; "Let's pray," and began; "God Almighty, I ain't no good at this, and perhaps you'll understand if I don't put things just right. What I want to say is, we're mighty glad about this church, which we know it's you and the Pilot that's worked it. And we're all glad to chip in. But about the Pilot — I don't want to persoom — but if you don't mind, we'd like to have him stay — in fact, don't see how we kin do without him — look at all the boys here; he's just getting his work in and bringin 'em right along, and, God Almighty, if you take him away it might be a good thing for himself, but for us — oh, God," the voice quivered and was silent. "Amen." Then someone, I think it was the Lady Charlotte, began "Our Father," and all joined that could join, to the end. For a few moments, 206 ORAL ENGLISH Bill stood up, looking at them silently. Then as if remembering his duty, he said; "This here church is open. Excuse me." He stood at the door, gave a word of direction to Hi, who had fol- lowed him out, and leaping on his bronco shook him out into a hard gallop. The Swan Creek Church was opened. The form of service may not have been correct, but, if great love counts for anything and appealing faith, then all that was necessary was done. At the Pilot's funeral a few days later, his friends stood about in dumb groups in silent sympathy. The officiating clergyman during his remarks said: "You all know better than I that his work among you will not pass away with his removal, but endure while you live, and now you must not grudge him his reward and his rest and his home." They laid the Pilot to rest out where the canyon he loved so well opened to the sunny, sloping prairie. There spring calls to the sleep- ing flowers, summoning them forth in merry troops till the canyon ripples with them. And lives are like flowers. In dying they abide not alone, but sow themselves and bloom again with each retm-ning Spring. For often during the following years, as here and there I came upon those that companied with us in those Foothill days, I would catch a glimpse in word and deed and look of him we called, first in jest, but afterward with true and tender feeling we were not ashamed to own, our Sky Pilot. THE SEA By Bryan Waller Proctor The sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free! Without a mark, without a bound, It runneth the earth's wide regions round; It plays with the clouds; it mocks the skies; Or like a cradled creature lies. I'm on the sea! I'm on the sea! I am where I would ever be; SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 207 With the blue above, and the blue below, And silence wheresoe'er I go; If a storm should come and awake the deep, What matters, I shall ride and sleep. I love, oh, how I love to ride On the fierce, foaming, bursting tide, When every mad wave drowns the moon, Or, whistles aloft his tempest tune. And tells how goeth the world below. And why the sou'west blasts do blow. I never was on the dull, tame shore, But I loved the great sea more and more, And backward flew to her billowy breast. Like a bird that seeketh its mother's nest; And a mother she was, and is, to me; For I was born on the open sea. The waves were white, and red the mom, In the noisy hour when I was born; And the whale it whistled, the porpoise rolled. And the dolphins bared their backs of gold; And never was heard such an outcry wild As welcomed to life the ocean-child! I've lived since then, in calm and strife. Full fifty summers, a sailor's life. With wealth to spend, and power to range. But never have sought nor sighed for change; And Death, whenever he comes to me. Shall come on the wild, unbounded sea! 208 ORAL ENGLISH SCENE FROM "LITTLE WOMEN "i Dramatized frotri Louisa M. Alcott's Story by Marion DeForest The father of the family, Mr. March, who, clergyman though he was, had joined the troops in the war, has been seriously wounded. "Marmee" — Mrs. March at once prepares to join him, but in view of the deficit in the domestic exchequer, Aunt March, that irascible, golden-hearted old spinster, is sent for to supply the wherewithal of travel. She appears with Meg, indignant, pausing for breath and complaining of rheumatism. Aunt March: Oh, my knee! Be careful! What's this, what's this I hear? March sick in Washington? Serves him right, serves him right. I always said it was absurd for him to go into the army, and perhaps next time he'll take my advice. Meg: Father did what he thought was right. Aunt March. Mrs. March: Won't you sit down. Aunt March? Aunt March: No, I won't sit down. A stronger man could have done more. Shouldn't have gone, shouldn't have gone. I knew he'd get fever or something; never did know how to take care of himself or his money. You needn't be begging me for help now if he had. He'd give his last dollar or the .shirt off his back to the first man who asked him. Where would I be now if Fd done the same, I'd like to know? Mrs. March: I'm sorry to ask you for money, Aunt March, but I've nothmg for the railroad journey. Aunt March: Of course not, of course not. You're just as bad as he is, and then expect me to come to the rescue. You may be willing to end your days in a poorhouse, but I'm not. I'm a sick old woman, and I need all I've got. Mrs. March: The money will be repaid, Aunt March. Aunt March: Humph! But when, I'd like to know. Such waste- fulness. {Turns to Meg.) Gallivanting off to Washington on a scare telegram. I can't afford such trips. When you see my nephew, ask him what he means by going to the war, getting sick and then asking me to pull him out of the hole. What docs he mean by it, I say, what ^ Quoted by permission of William .V. Brady. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 209 does he mean? Oh, oh! My knee! Why don't you ask me to sit dowTi? Where's Josephine? She's the only practical one in this family. Meg: Jo went out to do some errands for mother. Laurie — Aunt Mahch: Just as I thought. She is probably gadding about with that rattle-pated boy. It's not proper. Mrs. March: Jo is not with Laurie, Aunt March. Aunt March: So much the better. Oh, my knee! I'll never sleep to-night. Tell Josephine to come and read to me. I hope for good news of my nephew, but don't expect it. March never had much stamina. Good night. Oh! Here's the twenty-five you asked for, and a check for fifty. I know there are plenty of bills to pay. (Exit.) Meg: Oh, Marmee! I was afraid she wasn't going to give it to 3'ou after all. Mrs. March: I was sure she would, Meg. She has a kind heart, but Ls ashamed to show it, and I know she loves us all. (Beth and Amy come creeping down the stairs.) Beth: Marmee! Amy: Marmee, we were afraid to come down. She was a raging Vulcan. Meg: Oh, Amy, if you mean a volcano, why don't you say so? Beth: She was kind about the money, though! {Sound of someone stamping feet in hall.) That must be Jo. Lucky she missed Aunt March. (Hands Mrs. March an old-fashioned hair brooch.) Here's your brooch with father's hair in it, Marmee. I thought you'd want to wear it. Mrs. March: Thank you, dearie. (Enter Jo, hurriedly.) Jo: Saw Aunt March come out, so I dodged through the garden. I knew she wouldn't give us anything but advice, and from her face I guess you got that in large doses. Well, we're independent of her at any rate, Marmee, and — (putting roll of bills in her jnother's lap) here's my contribution toward making father comfortable and bringing him home. Mrs. March: My dear! Where did you get it? Twenty-five dol- lars? Jo, dear, I hope you haven't done anything rash? Jo.: No, it's mine honestly. 1 didn't beg, borrow or steal it, I only sold what was my own. (Takes off her hat, showing her head, closely cropped, like a boy's. General outcry from all.) 210 ORAL ENGLISH Mrs. March: Your hair, your beautiful hair! {Puis out her arms. Jo drops on her knees, head on mother's lap. Mrs. March kisses the shorn head.) Meg: Oh, Jo, how could you? Amy: Your one beauty! Mrs. March: My dear, there was no need of this. Beth: She doesn't look like Jo, any more, but — I love her dearly for it. Jo.: It doesn't affect the fate of the nation, so don't wail about it, Beth. It will be good for my vanity. I was getting proud of my wig. Besides, it will cool my brain. I'm satisfied. Mrs. March: But I am not, Jo, I know how willingly you sacri- ficed your vanity, as you call it, for your love; but, my dear, it wasn't necessary; Aunt March has helped us, and I'm afraid you'll regret it one of these days. Jo.: Oh, no, I won't. Meg: What made you do it? Jo.: Well, I was wild to do something for father, and I'd have sold the nose off my face for him, if anybody would have bought it. I've seen tails of hair marked forty dollars, not nearly as thick as mine. It was the only thing I had to sell, so I dashed into the shop and asked what they would give for it. Beth: I don't see how you dared! Jo.: Oh, he was a little man who looked as if he only lived to oil his hair. I told him in my topsy-turvy way what I wanted the money for. His wife said, "Take it, Thomas, and oblige the young lady." Amy. Didn't you feel dreadfully when the first cut came? Jo.: Well, I did feel queer when I saw the dear old hair laid out on the table. The woman gave me a little piece to keep. I'll give it to you, Marmce, to remember past glories by. Mrs. March: Thank you, dearie. Laurie: All ready? {As he enters, followed almost immediately bij Mr. Laurence and Mr. Brooke. Catching sight of Joe's shorn head.) Jo, what t h(! dickens have you done? Are you trying to make a porcu- pine of yourself? You look like — Meg: Hush, Laurie, don't say anything now. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 211 Mr. Laurence: Time to go, madam. The conveyance is here. {The girls gather around Mrs. March. Mr. Laurence stands at door look- ing at his watch.) Mrs. March: Children, I leave you to Hannah's care and Mr. Laurence's protection. Don't grieve and fret, but go on with your work as usual. Hope and keep busy. Remember that you can never be fatherless. Meg, dear, be prudent, watch over your sisters. Be patient, Jo, don't do anything rash to get despondent. (To Beth) Com- fort yourself with your music, dearie. Amy, help all you can and be obedient. THE CASE OF FATTY SIMON » By Jesse Lynch Williams Did you ever hear about the case of big, fatty Simon? He was laughed at. They called him Simple Simon. He was here in the early days of football, before the Rugby game had spread all over the country. He weighed about two hundred and eighty pounds, mostly fat, and I don't suppose he had ever seen a canvas jacket until the day he entered col- lege and waddled down to the field along with a lot of other green Fresh- men to look at the football practice. It interested him. He was so much interested that he paid no at- tention to the Sophomores who were guying him about his fat and his simplicity. "I should think that game would be fun," he said in a high, squeaky voice. "I think I'll play," he announced to his class- mates. "That's right," said they, chuckhng at Simple Simon; "just your game, old man." "Yes. You see I can't play many games," smiled Simon simply, trying to peep at his boots. "Tell the captain j^ou are a candidate," said they chuckling. "Think I stand a chance?" "A chance? It's a dead cinch." "All right," said Simple. " I will." And he did. ^ Reprinted by special arrangement with Charles Scribner's Sons. 212 ORAL ENGLISH The captain looked him over and smiled. "I don't believe we have any suit to fit you," he said kindly, "but you come down to-morrow. That's the right spirit." The college along the side lines smiled audibly the next day when Simple Simon trotted out with the other men, or tried to, puffing and blowing, in a much-stretched sweater and a pair of breeches that had been opened in the rear to admit him. But he was accustomed to being a cause of amusement and did not mind. They laughed louder stil) when in the first scrimmage he was toppled over like a huge ninepin. "Did you feel the earth shake?" asked the humorist. The business-like captain yelled, "Line up, fellows!" The crowd roared; they saw Simon lying there on his back, flapping his arms and legs like an overturned turtle. He was not hurt — simply too fat. The next scrimmage the same thing happened. After that they reached over to pull him up as a matter of course. But with three or four more scrimmages Simple Simon had to retire, winded. A group of Sopho- mores guyed him as he waddled past to the field house. "It's a good game, though," he piped up to the trainer as soon as he got breath enough. "Are you coming out to-morrow?" he was asked when he came out of the shower bath. "You bet!" said he. Simple Simon kept it up. After the trainer had taken about thirty pounds off him he could last a full half, and could keep his feet for several minutes at a time. By and by he learned to get up alone. That was a proud day. The laughing crowds along the side lines cheered him. "You're a perfect corker, Simple," his chaffing classmates told him. "A regular Hector Cowan," said another. "You'll make the team yet." "Aw! come off — you're trying to guy me, I believe," said Simple. He thought himself quite sophisticated by this time. But he grinned and kept on trying. "It's good sport, anyway," he said as he wiped the blood away from his torn car. The coaches smiled at his cheerfulness. "That big, fat Freshman can give some of you fellows points in the way of spirit," they said to SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 213 tho 'Varsity eleven. Besides, it was good practice for the guards, wield- ing such a great weight — like a medicine-ball. After two years of thi.^;, most of Simon's fat was worn off by the trampling, shoving and butting the 'Varsity gave him; the rest was turned into solid muscle by the trampling, shoving and butting he gave the 'Varsity. Also, he was studying the game. The crowd had stopped laughing at him. "That's all right," they said, wagging their heads, "he's got the right spirit, even if he hasn't got the right shape for mak- ing the team." In his Junior year he was taken to New York on Thanksgiving Day as a substitute — with a huge sweater pulled down over his hips. And in his Senior year he was on the team, the champion football team of America. The fearless way he used to charge down the field like a fighting elephant and smash those old-fashioned wedges — by flopping down in front of them — is now a matter of football history. He is the stout gentleman I pointed out to you one day at the club with the two gold football emblems on his watch-chain. No, they don't laugh at him now, and his voice isn't high and squeaky. But it wasn't because he had the fwtior, merelj', of being a member of the team that he became a man of force and self-reUance, but because he was willing to accept the bumps and thumps and discouragements that seem the incidental parts but are really the most important features of the game — ■ and of all athletic sports, so far as concerns the actual benefit to those who arc playing. But if he had let the jeers and jibes, which, after all, were good-natured jibes, drive him off the football field he might have remained something of a big, fat booby to this day. GRIGGSBY'S STATION ^ From Afterwhiles. By James Whitcomb Riley Pap's got his patent right, and rich as all creation; But Where's the peace and comfort that we all had before? Le's go a-visitin' back to Griggsby's Station — Back where we ust to be so happy and so pore! ^ Copyright 1SS7. Used by special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company. 214 ORAL ENGLISH The likes of us a-livin' here! It's just a mortal pity To see us in this great big house, with cyarpets on the stair, And the pump right in the kitchen! And the city! city! city! — And nothin' but the city all around us ever' where! Climb clear above the roof and look from the steeple, And never see a robin, nor a beech or ellum tree! And right here in ear-shot of at least a thousan' people. And none that neighbors with us, or we want to go and see! Le's go a-visitin' back to Griggsby's Station — Back where the latch-string's a-hangin' from the door, And ever' neighbor 'round the place is dear as a relation — Back where we ust to be so happy and so pore! I want to see the Wiggenses, the whol kit and bilin' A-drivin' up from Shallor Ford to stay the Sunday through; And I want to see 'em hitchin' at their son-in-law's and pilin' Out there at 'Lizy Ellen's like they ust to do! I want to see the piece-quilts the Jones girls is makin'; And I want to pester Laury 'bout their freckled hired hand, And joke her 'bout the widower she come purt' nigh a-takin', Till her pap got his pension 'lowed in time to save his land. Le's go a-visitin' back to Griggsby's Station — Back where they's nothin' aggravatin' anymore; Shet away safe in the woods around the old location — Back where we ust to be so happy and so pore! I want to see Mirindy and he'p her with her sewin', And hear her talk so lovin' of her man that's dead and gone, And stand up with Emanuel to show me how he's growin'. And smile as I have saw her 'fore she put her mournin' on. And I want to see the Samples, on the old lower eighty — Where John our oldest boy, he was tuk and buried — for His own sake and Katy's — and I want to cry with Katy As she reads all his letter's over, writ from The War. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 215 What's all this grand life and high situation, And nary pink nor hollyhawk bloomin' at the door? — Le's go a-visitin' back to Griggsby's Station, Back where we ust to be so hai)i)y and so pore! A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT Abridged from New Arabian Nights. By Robert Louis Stevenson On a stormy night in Paris in November, 1456, Francis Villon spent the time until very late carousing in a den with several thievish companions. The revel ended with the murder of one of the company, and, to avoid discovery, the others stealthily left the place. Villon, cold and hungry, wandered about seeking shelter, but was repeatedly refused. Finally he approached a house where he saw a light. He went boldly to the door and knocked. The sound of his blows echoed through the house, a measured tread drew near, a couple of bolts were withdrawn, and one wing was opened broadly. A tall figure of a man, muscular and spare, but a little bent, confronted Villon. "You knock late, sir," said the old man in resonant, courteous tones. Villon cringed, and brought up many servile words of apologj'. "You are cold," repeated the old man, "and hungry? Well step in." "Some great seigneur," thought Villon, as his host shot the bolts once more into their places. "You will pardon me if I go in front," he said; and he preceded the poet upstairs into a large apartment, warmed with a pan of charcoal and lit by a great lamp hanging from the roof. It was very bare of furniture: only some gold plate on the sideboard; some folios; and a stand of armor between the windows. "Will you seat yourself," said the old man, "and forgive me if I leave you? I am alone in my house to-night, and if you are to eat I must forage for you myself." No sooner was his host gone than Villon leaped up, and began examin- ing the room, with the stealth and passion of a cat. He weighed the gold flagons in his hand, opened all the folios, and investigated the arms upon the shield. "Seven pieces of plate," he said. "If there 216 ORAL ENGLISH had been ten, I would have risked it." And just then, hearing the old man returning, he stole back to his chair, and began humbly toasting his wet legs before the charcoal pan. His entertainer had a plate of meat in one hand and a jug of wine in the other. He set down the plate upon the table, and going to the sideboard, brought back two goblets, which he filled. " I drink to your better fortune," he said, gravely touching Villon's cup with his own. " To our better acquaintance," said the poet, growing bold. Villon devoted himself to the viands with a ravenous gusto, while the old man watched him with steady, curious eyes. " Have you any money? " asked the old man. " I have one white," returned the poet, laughing. " I got it out of a dead jade's stocking in a porch. She was as dead as Csesar, poor wench." "I," said the old man, "am Enguerrand de la Feuillee, seigneur de Brisetout, bailly du Patatrac. Who and what may you be?" Villon rose and made a suitable reverence. "I am called Francis Villon," he said, "a poor Master of Arts of this university. I know some Latin, and a deal of vice. 1 can make chansons, ballades and roundels, and I am very fond of wine. I was born in a garret, and I shall not improbably die upon the gallows. I may add, my lord, that from this night I am your lordship's very obsequious servant to com- mand." "No servant of mine," said the knight; "my guest for this evening, and no more." "A very grateful guest," said Villon politely. "You are shrewd," began the old man; "j-ou have learning; j'ou are a clerk; and yet you take a small piece of money off a dead woman in the street. Is it not a kind of theft?" "It is a kind of theft much practiced in the wars, my lord." "The wars are the field of honor," returned the old man proudly. "There a man plays his life upon the cast; he fights in the name of his lord the king, and his Lord God." "Put it," said Villon, that I were reall}' a thief, should I not i)lay my life also, and against heavier odds?" SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 217 "For gain, but not for honor." "Gain?" repeated Villon with a shrug. "Gain! The poor fellow wants supper, and takes it. So does the soldier in a campaign. Why, what are all these requisitions we hear so much about?" "These things are a necessity of war, which the low-born must endure with constancy. It is true that some captains drive over hard; and indeed many follow arms who are no better than brigands." "You see," said the poet, "you cannot separate the soldier from the brigand. I steal a couple of mutton chops, without so much as disturb- ing people's sleep. You come up blowing gloriously on a trumpet, take away the whole sheep, and beat the farmer pitifully into the bar- gain. Just you ask the farmer which of us he prefers." "Look at us two," said his lordship. "I am old, strong, and honored. If I were turned from my house to-morrow, hundreds would be proud to shelter me. And I find you up, wandering homeless, and picking farthings off dead women by the wayside! I wait God's summons contentedly in my own house. You look for the gallows; a rough, swift death, without hope or honor. Is there no difference between these two?" "As far as to the moon," Villon acquiesced. "But if I had been bom lord of Brisetout, and you had been the poor scholar Francis would the difference have been any the less? Should not I have been the soldier and you the thief?" "A thief!" cried the old man. "I a thief! If you understood your words you would repent them." Villon turned out his hands with a gesture of inimitable impudence. "If your lordship had done me the honor to follow my argument!" he said. "I do you too much honor in submitting to your presence," said the knight. "Learn to curb your tongue when you speak with old and honorable men." And he rose and paced the apartment, struggling with anger and antipathy. Villon surreptitiously refilled his cup. "Tell me one thing," said the old man, pausing in his walk. "Are you really a thief?" "My lord, lam." "You are very young," the knight continued. 218 ORAL ENGLISH "I should never have been so old," replied Villon, showing his fingers, "if I had not helped myself with these ten talents." "You may still repent and change." "I repent daily," said the poet. "As for change, let somebody change my circumstances." "The change must begin in the heart," returned the old man solemnly. "My dear lord," answered Villon, "do you really fancy I steal for pleasure? I hate stealing, like any other piece of work or of danger. My teeth chatter when I see a gallows. But I must eat, I must drink, I must mLx in society of some sort." "Listen to me once more," the old man said at length. "You speak of food and wine, and I know very well that hunger is a difficult trial to endure; but you do not speak of other wants; you say nothing of honor, of faith to God and other men, of courtesy, of love without reproach. You are attending to the little wants, and you have totally forgotten the great and onty real ones, like a man who should be doctoring a toothache on the Judgment Day." Villon was sensibly nettled under this sermonising. "You think I have no sense of honor!" he cried. "I would have you to know I've an honor of my own, as good as yours, though I don't prate about it all day long. Why now, look you here. Did you not tell me you were alone in the house? Look at your gold plate! You're strong if you like, but you're old and unarmed, and I have my knife. What did I want but a jerk of the elbow and here would have been you with the cold steel in your bowels, and there would have been me, linking in the streets, with an armful of gold cups! Did you suppose I hadn't wit enough to see that? And I scorned the action. There are your goblets, as safe as in a church; there you are with your heart ticking as good as new; and here am I ready to go out again as poor as when I came in, wit h my one white that you threw in my teeth!" The old man stretched out his right arm. " I will tell you what you are," he said, "You are a rogue, my man, an impudent and a black- hearted rogue and a vagabond. I am sick at your presence; the day has come, and the night bird should be ofT to roost Will you go before, or after?" SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 219 "^^^lich you please," returned the poet, rising. "I believe you to be etrietly honorable." The old man preceded him from a point of self-respect; Villon fol- lowed, whistling, with his thumbs in his girdle. "God pity you," said the lord of Brisctout at the door. "Good-bye, papa," returned Villon with a yawn. "Many thanks for the cold mutton." The door closed behind him. Villon stood and heartily stretched himself in the middle of the road. "A very dull old gentleman," he thought. "I wonder what his goblets may be worth." THE MAN WITH HIS HAT IN HIS HAND^ By Clahk Howell The Twenty-ninth Regiment of United States Volunteers was quar- tered at Atlanta, Georgia. They had just received orders for their trip of ten thousand miles to Manila. The troops were formed in full regimental parade in the presence of thousands of sport at nrs. Of the enlisted men a great percentage were from Georgia, most of them from simple farmhouses and the quiet and unpretentious hearthstones which abound in the rural communities. A few had seen service in Cuba, but most- of them had volunteered as raw recruits from the farm. The men moved like machines. The regiment of raw recruits had become in a few months a command of trained and disciplined soldiers. Leaning against a tree was a white-haired mountaineer who looked with intent eyes and with an expression of the keenest sympathy upon the movements of the men in uniform. The frequent applause of tlie visiting multitude fell apparently unheard on his cars. The regiment had finished its evolutions; the commission(>d officers had lined them- selves to make their regulation march to the front for their report and dismissal. The bugler had sounded the signal; the artillery had belched its adieu as the king of day withdrew bej'ond the hills; the halyard had been grasped, and the flag slowly fell, saluting the retiring sun. ^ llepriuted by permission of the author. 220 ORAL ENGLISH As the flag started its descent, the scene was characterized by a solemnity that seemed sacred in its intensity. From the regimental band there floated upon the stillness of the evening the strains of "The Star Spangled Banner." Instinctively and apparently unconsciously, the old man by the tree removed his hat from his head and held it in his hand in reverential recognition until the flag had been furled and • the last strain of the national anthem had been lost in the resonant tramp of the troops as they left the field. What a picture that was — the man with his hat in his hand, as he stood uncovered during that impressive ceremony! I moved invol- untarily toward him, and, impressed with his reverential attitude, I asked him where he was from. "I am," said he, "from Pickens County:" and IB casual conversation it developed that this raw mountaineer had come to Atlanta to say farewell to an only son who stood in the line before him, and upon whom his tear-bedimmed eyes might then be resting for the last time. The silent exhibition of patriotism and loyalty had been prompted by a soul as rugged, but as placid as the great blue mountains which gave it birth. There was the connecting link between the hearthstone and the capitol! There was the citizen who, representing the only real, sub- stantial element of the nation's reserve strength — "the citizen standing in the doorway of his home, contented on his threshold" had an- swered his country's call — the man of whom Henry Grady so elo- quently said; "He shall save the Republic when the drum tap is futile and the barracks are exhausted." In him was duty typified, and in him slumbered the germ of sacrifice. There was that in the spontaneous action of the man that spoke of hardships to be endured and dangers to be dared for country's sake; there was that in his reverential attitude that said, even though the libation of his heart's blood should be required in far off lands, his life would be laid down as lightly as his hat was lifted to his country's call. Denied by age the privilege of .sharing the hardships and the dangers of the comrades of his boy, no rule could regulate his patriotic ardor, no limita- tion could restrain the instincts of his homage. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 221 A COURT LADY By Elizabeth Barrett Browning Her hair was tawny with gold; her eyes with purple were dark; Her cheeks' pale opal burnt with a red and restless spark. Never was a lady of Milan nobler in name and in race; Never was a lady of Italy fau-er to see in the face. Never was a lady on earth more true as woman and wife, Larger in judgment and instinct, prouder in manners and life. She stood in the early morning, and said to her maidens, " Bring That silken robe made ready to wear at the court of the king. "Bring me the clasps of diamond, lucid, clear of the mote; Clasp me large at the waist, and clasp me small at the throat. "Diamonds to fasten the hair, and diamonds to fasten the sleeves, Laces to drop from their rays, like a powder of snow from the eaves." Gorgeous she entered the sunlight, which gathered her up in a flame. While, straight in her open carriage, she to the hospital came. In she went at the door, and gazing from end to end, "Many and low are the pallets; but each is the place of a friend." Up she passed through the wards, and stood at a young man's bed: Bloody the band on his brow, and livid the droop of his head. "Art thou a Lombard, my brother? Happy art thou!" she cried, And smiled like Italy on him: he dreamed in her face — and died. Pale with his passing soul, she went on still to a second: He was a grave hard man, whose years by dungeons were reckoned. Wounds in his body were sore, wounds in his life were sorer, "Art thou a Romagnole?" Her eyes drove lightnings before her. 222 ORAL ENGLISH "Austrian and priest had joined to double and tighten the cord Able to bind thee, O strong one, free by the stroke of a sword. "Now be grave for the rest of us, using the life overcast To ripen our wine of the present (too new) in glooms of the past." Down she stepped to a pallet where lay a face like a girl's Young, and pathetic with dying, — a deep black hole in the curls. "Art thou from Tuscany, brother? and seest thou, dreaming in pain. Thy mother stand in the piazza, searching the list of the slain?" Kind as a mother herself, she touched his cheeks with her hands: "Blessed is she who has borne thee, although she would weep as she stands." On she passed to a Frenchman, his arm carried off by a ball: Kneeling, "O more than my brother! how shall I thank thee for all? "Each of the heroes around us has fought for his land and line; But thou hast fought for a stranger, in hate of a wrong not thine. "Happy are all free peoples, too strong to be dispossest; But blessed are those among nations who dare to be strong for the rest." Ever she passed on her way, and came to a couch ■where pined One with a face from Venitia, white with a hope out of mind. Long she stood and gazed, and twice she tried at the name; But two great crystal tears were all that faltered and came. Only a tear for Venice? She turned as in passion and loss. And stooped to his forehead and kissed it, as if she were kissing the cross. Faint with that strain of heart, she moved on then to another, Stern and .strong in his death. "And dost thou suffer, my brother?" Holding his hand in hers: "Out of the Piedmont lion Cometh the sweetness of freedom! sweetest to live or to die on." Holding his cold rough hands: "Well, oh, well have ye done In noble, noble Piedmont, who would not be noble alone." SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 223 Back he fell while she spoke. She rose to her feet with a spring, "That was a Piedmontesc! and this is the court of the King." SELF-ASSERTION IN SPEECH From his Autobio(}raphy. By Benjamin Franklik My list of virtues contained at first but twelve; but a Quaker friend of mine having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud; that my pride showed itself frequently in conversation; that I was not content with being in the right when discu.ssing any point, but was overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he convinced me by men- tioning several instances; I determined endeavoring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly among the rest, and I added Humility to my list, giving an extensive meaning to the word. I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it. I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradictions to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertions of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fixed opinion, such as certainly, nndouhtedly , etc., and I adopted, instead of them, / conceive, I apprehend, or / ima- gine a thing to be so or so; or so it appears to me at present. When another asserted something that I thought an error, I denied myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing im- mediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appeared or seemed to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the con- versation I engaged in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I proposed my opinions procured them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevailed with others to give up their mis- takes and join with me when I happened to be in the right. And this mode, which I at first put on with some violence to natural inclination, became at length so easy, and so habitual to me, that per- 224 ORAL ENGLISH haps for these fifty years past no one has ever heard a dogmatic expres- sion escape me. And to this habit (after my character of integrity) I think it principally owing that I had early so much weight with my fellow-citizens when I proposed new institutions, or alterations in the old, and so much influence in the public councils when I became a member; for I was but a bad speaker, never eloquent, subject to much hesitation in my choice of words, hardly correct in language, and yet I generally carried my points. SECOND FIDDLE » From Message and Melody. By Richard Burton Just behind the first fiddle he bends To his bow, as a slave to the rod; All his soul to the music he lends, All his eyes to the leader, his god. His skill is not blaring, but sure; Mark his bowing, the rhythmic accord Of his motions, the sound, crystal-pure, That he lures from the violin's board. The crowd never look at his face; He is one of the sixty who try With wood-wind or brass to displace The world by a dream from the sky. Not his, like the master of strings, To step forth superbly alone And play a Cremona that sings With heavenliest tone upon tone. No soloist he, but a part In the mighty ensemble that soars In regions divine of an art Where man but aspires and adores. * Reprinted by permission of the author and the publishers, Lothrop, Lee and Shopard. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 225 His joy is tho frl.adnoss of thos(; Who feel they arc liel])ing the whole; Less fluent the harmony flows If an instrument flag, if a soul Unfaithful should be to the beat Of the baton that bids him be true; And the music is oft times so sweet, Small matter what makes it, or who. And haply — who knows? — in the day When the ultimate piece is rehearsed, Shall come his Great Moment to play, And the fiddle called second, be first. LINCOLN, THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE ^ By Edwin Markham When the Norn Mother saw the Whirlwind Hour Greatening and darkening as it hurried on. She left the Heaven of Heroes and came down To make a man to meet the mortal need. She took the tried clay of the common road — Clay warm yet with the genial heat of Earth, Dashed through it all a strain of prophec)'; Tempered the heat with thrill of human tears; Then mixed a laughter with the serious stuff. Into the shape she breathed a flame to Ught That tender, tragic, ever-changing face. Here was a man to hold against the world, A man to match the mountains and the sea. The color of the ground was in him, tho red earth; The smack and tang of elemental things; The rectitude and patience of the cliff; The good will of the rain that loves all leaves; ^Reprinted by the permission of the author. 226 ORAL ENGLISH The friendly welcome of the wayside well; The courage of the bird that dares the sea; The gladness of the wind that shakes the com; The pity of the snow that hides all scars; The secrecy of streams that make their way Beneath the mountain to the rifted rock; The tolerance and equity of light That gives as freely to the shrinking flower , As to the great oak flaring to the wind — To the grave's low hill as to the Matterhorn That shoulders out the sky. , Sprung from the West The strength of virgin forests braced his mind, The hush of spacious prairies stilled his soul. Up from log cabin to the Capitol, One fire was on his spirit, one resolve — To send the keen ax to the root of wrong, Clearing a free way for the feet of God. And evermore he burned to do his deed With the fine stroke and gesture of a king; He built the rail-pile as he built the State, Pouring his splendid strength through every blow, The conscience of him testing every stroke. To make his deed the measure of a man. So came the Captain with the mighty heart; And when the judgment thunders split the house, Wrenching the rafters from their ancient rest, He held the ridgepole up, and spiked again The rafters of the Home. He held his place — Held the long purpose like a growing tree — Held on through blame and faltered not at praise. And when he fell in whirlwind, ho wont down As when a lordly cedar, green with boughs. Goes down with a great shout upon the hills. And loaves a lonesome place against the sky. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 227 THE STORY OF PHILIP NOLAN Abridged from The Man Without a Countuy. By Edward Everett Hale Philip Nolan was as fine a young officer as there was in the ''Legion of the West." When Aaron Burr made his first dashing expedition down to New Orleans, he met this gay, bright young fellow at a dinner party. Burr marked him, talked to him, walked with him and, in short, fascinated him. And when the wily traitor left the place, he had lured Nolan to his side. Soon a grand catastrophe came in the great treason-trial at Rich- mond. One and another of the colonels and majors were tried, and to fill out the list, little Nolan, against whom there was evidence enough, — that he was sick of the service, had been willing to be false to it, and would have obeyed an order to march anywhere, had the order been signed "By command of His Excellency, Aaron Burr." When the president of the court asked Nolan whether he wished to say anything to show that he had always been faithful to the United States, he cried out in a fit of frenzy, — "Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again!" He did not know how the words shocked the old judge who called the court into his private room, and returned in fifteen minutes, with a face as white as a sheet to say, — "Prisoner, hear the sentence of the court! The court decides, sub- ject to the approval of the President, that you never hear the name of the United States again." Nolan laughed. But nobody else laughed. The judge was too solemn, and the whole room was hushed dead as night. "Mr. Marshal," the judge continued, "take the prisoner to Orleans, and deliver him to the naval commander there. Make my respects to him, and say that the prisoner is to be placed on board one of the ships where he is to be provided with such quarters, rations and clothing as would be proper for an officer of his late rank, if he were a passenger on the vessel on the business of his Government. He is never unneces- 228 ORAL ENGLISH sarily to be reminded that he is a prisoner. But under no circumstances is he ever to hear of his country, or to see any information regarding it." Accordingly Nolan was put on board a government vessel bound on a long cruise. Here no company liked to have him with them, because his presence cut off aU talk of home, of politics or letters, of peace or of war. But it was always thought too hard that he should never meet the rest of us, except to touch hats, and we finally submitted. As he was almost never permitted to go on shore, even though the vessel lay in port for months, his time at the best hung heavy. Every- body was permitted to lend him books, if they were not published in America, and made no allusions to it. He had the foreign papers that came into the ship, only somebody must go over them first, and cut out any advertisements or stray paragraphs that alluded to America. One of the officers had a lot of English books among which was the "Lay of the Last Minstrel." Well, nobody thought there could be any risk of anything national in that, so Nolan was permitted to join our circle one afternoon when a lot of us sat on deck reading aloud. In his turn Nolan took the book, and read without a thought of what was coming, — " Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said. This is my own, my native land!" We all saw something was to pay; but Nolan expected to get through, I suppose, and plunged on, — "Wliose heart hath ne'er witliin him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand!" By this time the men were all beside themselves, wishing there was any way to make him turn over two pages; but he had not quite presence of mind for that, and staggered on, — "The wretch, concenterd all in self — " Here the j)oor fellow choked, could not go on, but starting up, swung the book into the sea, and vanished into his state-room. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 229 We did not see him again for two months, and he was not the same man afterward. He never read aloud again, unless it was the Bible or Shakespeare, or something else he was sure of. He was always shj now, and had the nervous, tired look of a heart-wounded man. When we were nearly home we met an outward bound vessel which took poor Nolan and his traps on board to begin his second cruise. There was no going home for him, even to a prison. And this was the first of some twenty such transfers, which kept him all his life at least some hundred miles from the country he had hoped he might never hear of again. One day we overhauled a little schooner which had slaves on board. The officer who boarded the boat sent back for someone who could speak Portuguese. Nolan said he would interpret if the captain wished, and was sent. "Tell them they are free," said Vaughn, the officer in charge. ^\Tien this was told them, there was a yell of delight, leaping and dancing. "Tell them that I will take them all to Cape Palmas." This did not answer so well. Cape Palmas was so distant, that they would be eternally separated from home there. Their wild delight changed to a howl of dismay. Vaughn was disappointed, and asked Nolan eagerly what they said. The drops stood out on poor Nolan's white forehead, as he hushed the men and said, — "They say, 'Not Palmas,' they say, 'take us home; take us to our own country; take us to our own house.' Onesaj's he has an old father and mother who will die if they do not see him. And this one says he was caught in the bay just in sight of home, and that he has never seen anybody from home since. And this one that he has not heard a word from home in six months." Even the slaves stopped howling, as they saw Nolan's agony, and Vaughn's almost equal agony of sympathy. As quick as he could get the words, Vaughn said, — "Tell them yes, yes, yes; tell them they shall go to the mountains of the moon, if they will. If I have to sail the schooner through the Great White Desert, they shall go home!" On his waj' back to the ship Nolan said to the youth with him, "Youngster, let that show you what it is to be without a home, and 230 ORAL ENGLISH without a country. Oh, for your country, boy, and for that flag, never dream a dream but of serving her as she bids you. No matter what happens to you, who flatters or abuses you, never look at another flag, never let a night pass but you pray God to bless that flag. You belong to your Country as you belong to your own mother. Stand by her, as you would stand by your mother. Oh! if anybody had said so to me whenlwasyour age ! ' ' This was thirty-five years after his banishment. In the next fifteen years he aged very fast, but he was still the same gentle, uncomplain- ing sufferer, that he ever was, bearing as best he could his self-appointed punishment. One morning he was not so well, and sent for me to come to his state-room. I could not help a glance round, which showed me what a little shrine he had made of the box he was lying in. The stars and stripes were triced up above and around a picture of Washington. The dear old boy saw my glance, and said, "Here you see I have a country!" And he pointed to a great map of the United States, as he had drawn it from memory. "Oh, Danforth," he said, "I know I am dying, I cannot get home. Surely you will tefl me something now? Stop! Stop! Do not speak till I say what I am sure you know, that there is not in this ship, that there is not in America — God bless her! — a more loyal man than I. There cannot be a man who loves the old flag, or prays for it, or hopes for it as I do. Oh, Danforth, how like a wretched night's dream when one looks back on such a life as mine! But tell me, — tell me something, — tell me everything, Danforth, before I die!" I felt like a monster that I had not told him everything before. Dan- ger or no danger, who was I, that I should have been acting the tyrant all this time over this dear, sainted old man, who had years ago expiated, in his whole manhood's life the madness of a boy's treason? "Nolan," said I, "I will tell you everything you ask about." Oh, the blessed smile that crept over his white face! and he pressed my hand, and said, "God bless you!" I did as well as I could, but it was a hard thing to condense the his- tory of half a century into that talk with a sick man. I told him every- thing I could think of that would show the grandeur of his country and its prosperity, and he drank it in and enjoyed it as I cannot tell you. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 231 And then he said he would go to sleep. He bent me down over him, and kissed me; and he said, "Look in my Bible, Danforth, when I am gone." And I went away. But I had no thought it was the end. 1 thought he was tired and would sleep. But in an hour, when the Doctor went in gently, he found Nolan had breathed his life away with a smile. We looked in his Bible, and there was a slip of paper in the place where he had marked the text : — "They desire a country, even a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." On the slip of paper he had written, — "Bury me in the sea; it has been my home, and I love it. But will not some one set up a stone for my memory, that my disgrace may not be more than I ought to bear? Say on it, — In memory of PHILIP NOLAN Lieutenant in the Army of the United States He loved his country as no other man has loved her; but no man de- served less at her hands." THE PATH TO PEACE ^ By William H. Taft I am strongly convinced that the best method of ultimately securing disarmament is the establishment of an international court and the development of a code of international equity which nat ions will recog- nize as affording a better method of settling international controversies than war. We must have some method of settling issues between na- tions, and if we do not have arbitration, we shall have war. What teaches nations and people the possibility of permanent peace is the actual settlement of controversies by courts of arbitration. The settlement of the Alabama controversy by the Geneva arbitration, ^ Reprinted hy permission of the author. 232 ORAL ENGLISH the settlement of the Seals controversy by the Paris Tribunal, the settle« ment of the Newfoundland Fisheries controversy by The Hague Tri- bunal are three great substantial steps toward permanent peace, three facts accomplished that have done, more for the cause than anything else in history. If now we can negotiate and put through a positive agreement with some great nation to abide by the adjudication of an international arbitral court in every issue which can not be settled by negotiation, no matter what it involves, whether honor, or territory, or money, we shall have made a long step forward by demonstrating that it is possible for two nations at least to establish as between them the same system of due process of law that exists between individuals under a govern- ment. LOYALTY 1 From The Contagion op Character. By Newell Dwight Hillis "The great thing is loyalty," said the English commander in his address to the young men of Oxford. "Write the word in golden ink and let each letter be two feet high." Experience fully justifies the high estimate placed upon this virtue. Disloyalty turns a soldier into a traitor; disloyalty in the partnership will ruin the commercial stand- ing of the house; disloyalty on the part of the clerk can defeat the wisest plans of the chief. One word will explain many failures — the word disloyalty. Contrariwise, what enterprise ever failed where the man in charge had loyal followers, who backed him at every point. "Don't praise me!" exclaimed President McKinley to a group of gentlemen congratu- lating him upon his first four years, "praise my Cabinet." The suc- cessful leader meant that he had been surrounded by loyal counsellors. But the modest, unassuming president was himself a notable illustra- tion of our theme — he was loyal. On his tomb, after all the thunder of life's battle, should be written these words: "He was faithful unto Death." 1 Copyright 1911, by Fleming H. Revell Co. Must not be reprinted without permission. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 233 Above all other eras our age asks for loyal men. In the old regime buHincsH was individual. One man had a little shoe .shop, one .sold groceries, another sold dry goods, and for the hundred articles there were a hundred shops. Then came the era of organization. Each man, no longer complete himself, became a wheel in an industrial mechanism that had a hundred parts. So complicated is a watch that if any one wheel is unfaithful to its work the whole watch is ruined for purposes of time. Not otherwise to-day — a great factory, a great store, a great bank, a great newspaper, a government of city or state, means several hundred men, working under one leader, and the success of all is through the loyalty of each one. Only as the workers go towards loyalty does the enterprise go towards prosperity. That is why our late war was followed by a great industrial development. After Appomattox a million men returned home. Sud- denly a new spirit developed in the country. Men began to plan large things. Railroads across the continent were conceived and built. Vast factories were erected. IMen united their earnings and organized great banks and great stores. What was the explanation? Simply this — the experience of war had taught men loyalty to a leader. On the day of the battle of Gettysburg every soldier in a wing of one hundred thousand m(!n received his command and fulfilled his task. "Theirs not to reason why; theirs but to do and die." For these sol- diers the great word was loyalty to their general. With that watch- word they manihed to success. Later, returning to the business life, the soldiers began to work in industrial regiments. Again they were loyal to the leader, whether he was merchant or manufacturer or editor or statesman. Men of achievement crown loyalty as one of the first of the virtues. Charity must be a divine gift indeed if it is greater than faithfulness. The soldier's worth is in his adherence to duty. The test of a jurist is loyalty to his client. The test of a pupil is loyalty to his master. The two great books in ancient literature are the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey." The "Iliad" exposes the fickleness and disloyalty of beautiful Helen, whose infidelity turned a city into a heap. The "Odyssey" celebrates the loyalty of Penelope, who kept her jKihiee and her heart. Young man, scorn the very thought of disloyalty to your employer. 234 ORAL ENGLISH If you can't work with him, resign. But flee the very thought of dis- loyalty as you would flee from the edge of the precipice. Disloyalty belongs to the serpent that bites, the wolf that rends, the Uon that slays. To be disloyal is to join hands with the devil himself. Pride yourself on your loyalty. Learn to follow, that you may be worthy to lead. Life may bring you gold, office and honor, but it will bring you nothing comparable to the happiness that comes from the conscious- ness of having been loyal to your ideals. And when it is all over, let this be men's judgment upon you: "He was faithful unto death." SAID ABDALLAH i From Mt Quest of the Arabian Horse. By Homer Davenport Said Abdallah, my Bedouin groom boy, constantly asserted all through the voyage from Alexandretta that Allah was with us and would bring us in safety to the end. His faith had helped us out of the dumps in Naples and his devotion to us and to the horses should not go unre- membered. When Akmet Haffez, the prince of the Bedouins, pre- sented to me Wadduda, the war mare, Said came with the gift and ever after counted himself as one of my family. To guard him against fits of homesickness or melancholia, before he had learned to speak any English, I often took him with me, es- pecially when I took my own children to shows and circuses. He had never seen even a street fakir in his own country. One day, accompanied by an interpreter, he went to the Horse Show, and saw there for the first time, a good team of high-acting horses, a pair that almost bumped their chins with their knees. He held up his hands in horror as he exclaimed " Mashalla! Mashalla! Is there truly a race of horses that go up and down in the same place?" When told that what he saw was the result of training and artificial breeding, antl that the horse himself was not to blame, he uttered an exclamation of pity. Then he said suddenly: " No," and pointed above him; "the desert isn't up there, but always in front of you; God made a horse to get over it with the least effort,, not the most." I have no * Reprinted by permission of William Rickey and Company. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 235 comment to make on these remarks of Said. I do not think any arc necessary. Said is as fine an example of faithfulness as could be found. After he had been in this country nearly a year, and had beaten off many attacks of blues, Dr. Frank Hoskins of the American Mission at Bey- rout, Syria, came to the farm to sec the horses, and talked with the boy who had been with the Anezeh. Reaching home in the evening, I was informed that ever since Dr. Hoskins had taken his departure, Said had been crying. I went to the barn to see him and he came smil- ingly from one of the dark corners. I asked him if he enjoyed his talk with the visitor and he said he had, for he had spoken iXjabic as if he were at home. '!Said," I said at last, "you have been crying." "What cry, Mr. Davenport?" "Your eyes," I answered, "are almost swollen shut with weeping." His head dropped and his chest began to rise and fall. After a mo- ment or two he said: " Mr. Davenport, before Allah, my heart no mad." Then he broke out and exclaimed that at night when he shut his eyes his thoughts took him to the Anezeh, and he joined the tribes as they swing to the south. Now they are past Deyr, and approaching Nejd they get into war with the Shammar! Then he wakes up and finds that he is not in the desert, but in Morris Plains. He turns on the other side and sleeps; and by and by his brain goes to Aleppo and when he meets his once great master, Akmet Haffez, he grasps him by the hand. Again he wakes up, and he is still in Morris Plains. "But, Mr. Davenport," he added bravely, "Allah knows my heart no mad." "Well," I said, "Said, I am going to send you back to the desert." "Said go desert?" He broke down with hysterical laughter, and grasping me by the hands commenced to kiss them, and tell me that I was too good to stay in this country, that I ought to live with my brother in the desert. "Mr. Davenport, Said go desert two or three months?" "No, Said, in two or three weeks. I will find a ship, if I can, that will take you direct to Iscanderoon, Alexandretta. There you follow 236 ORAL ENGLISH the old Roman road across the mountains to Aleppo, and from there the camel caravan route to the desert." I turned and walked away, bidding him good-night, and had reached the house when he called to me and asked if I would say before God that my heart was not mad. I will admit that after dinner I went to bed earlj', and did not get much sleep. I got up before daylight, still restless, and went out, and there in the north pasture saw an impressive spectacle — the trying out of Said's religious faith. Wadduda, the war mare, dressed and draped in all her beautiful, wild regaUa, was in the pasture. From her neck hung the beads of the wild tribe, and from the desert saddle long flowing tassels swayed in the morning breeze. It must have taken Said half an hour to have draped her. Sticking in the dirt at her side, towering over her head ten feet or more, was the war spear from the Anezeh. Kneeling on his prayer rug in front of her fore feet was Said, facing, as I at first thought, the strip of timber across the road. But as I watched the picture I saw that he was praying toward the light spot on the horizon — toward Mecca. I watched for fully five minutes. The boy touched his lips and forehead with an upward stroke of the hand, and dropping both hands beside him, looked intently for a moment at the approaching dawn. Rising up slowlj', he picked up his little prayer rug, lifted his spear from the damp earth, while the beautiful prancing mare came to him. Her tail was swinging proudly from side to side. As they approached me I saw that Said's eyes were, if anything, more swollen than they had been the evening before. To cheer him up, I spoke to him first. "Said, I thought when I saw you in the pasture that you were some member of the Anezeh that had come to see me." "La" (no), Mr. Davenport, Said no see Anezeh." "You are going back to the desert." "No go desert. All night Said no sleep — sit down, no lay down. Go Wadudda stall, pray; come back, no answer — no sleep — pray, no sleep." Turning, he pointed out in the pasture, to the little knoll, and said that there a few moments ago Allah had answered his prayer. When SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 237 he found where Mecca was, he had prayed to Allah and Allah had told him that he was not to go back to the desert; that he had been given with Wadduda by Akmet Haffcz to me; and that he was going to stay as long as Wadduda lived — would stay even when she was gone, with her colt and her colt's colt, and was never going back to the desert. He has never been homesick since. PRESENTING PICTURES BY DELIVERY The contemplation of a selection usually results in mental pictures of what the author sets forth. The effort to present these pictures to an audience makes the pictures more clear to the speaker and gives variety to his delivery. It is sur- prising to what extent a reader or speaker can thus convey his mental pictures to his listeners. Vivify the following selections for your classmates by imagining the details of the author's pictures, and by endeavoring to present the pictures clearly by your delivery. SERGEANT VAUGHAN AS A FIREMAN » From Heroes Who Fight Fire. By Jacob A. Riis That tho spirit which has made New York's Fire Department great, equally animates its commercial brother, has been shown more than once; but never better than at the memorable fire in the Hotel Royal, which cost so many lives. No account of heroic life-saving at fires, could pass by the marvellous feat, or feats of Sergeant (now Captain) John R. Vaughan on that February morning 1892. The alarm rang in patrol station Number Three at three twenty o'clock on Sunday morning. Sergeant Vaughan, hastening to the fire with his men, found the whole five-story hotel ablaze from roof to cellar. The fire had shot up the elevator shaft, round which the stairs ran, and from the first had made escape impossible. Men and women were jumping and hanging from windows. One, falling from a great height, came within an inch of killing the sergeant as he tried to enter the building. Sergeant Vaughan went up on the roof. The smoke was so dense there that he could see little, but through it he heard a cry for help, and made out the shape of a man standing upon a window-sill in the fifth story, overlooking the courtyard of the hotel. The yard was be- tween them. Bidding his men follow — they were five, all told — he ran down and around in the next street to the roof of the house that formed an angle with the hotel wing. There stood the man below him, only a jump away, but a jump which no mortal might take and live. His face and hands were black with smoke. Vaughan, looking down, thought him a negro. He was perfectly calm. " It is of no use," he said, glancing up. " Don't try. You can't do it." The sergeant looked wistfully about him. Not a stick or a piece of rope was in sight. Every shred was used below. There was absolutely ' Reprinted by permission of the author. 239 240 ORAL ENGLISH nothing. "But I couldn't let him," he said to me, months after, when he had come out of the hospital, a whole man again, and was back at ^ork, — "I just couldn't, standing there so quiet and brave." To the man he said sharply — "I want you to do exactly as I tell you, now. Don't grab me, but let me get the first grab." He had noticed that the man wore a heavy overcoat, and had already laid his plan. "Don't try," urged the man. "You cannot save me. I will stay here till it gets too hot, then I will jump." "No, you won't," from the sergeant, as he lay at full length on the roof looking over. " It is a pretty hard yard down there. I will get you, or go dead myself." The four sat on the sergeant's legs as he swung free down to the waist: so he was almost able to reach the man on the window with out-stretched hands. "Now jump — quick!" he commanded: and the man jumped. He caught him by both wrists as directed, and the sergeant got a grip on the collar of his coat. "Hoist!" he shouted to the four on the roof; and they tugged with their might. The sergeant's body did not move. Bending over till the back creaked, it hung over the edge, a weight of two hundred and three pounds suspended from and holding it down. The cold sweat started upon his men's foreheads as they tried and tried again, without gaining an inch. Blood dripped from Sergeant Vaughan's nostrils and ears. Sixty feet below was the paved courtyard: over against him the window, behind which he saw the back draught coming, gathering headway with lurid, swirling smoke. Now it burst through, burning the hair and the coats of the two. For an instant he thought all hope was gone. But in a flash it came back to him. To relieve the terrible weight that wrenched and tore at his muscles, he was swinging the man to and fro like a pendulum, head touching head. He could swing him up! A smothered shout warned his men. They crept nearer the edge without letting go their grip on him, and watched with staring eyes the human pendulum swing wider and wider, farther and farther, until now, with a mighty effort, it swung within their reach. They caught the skirt of the coat, held on, pulled in, and in a moment lifted him over the edge. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 241 They lay upon the roof, all six, breathless, sightless, their faces turned to the wintry sky. The tumult on the street came up as a faint echo; the spray of a score of engines pumping below fell upon them, froze, and covered them with ice. The very roar of the fire seemed far off. The sergeant was the first to recover. He carried down the man he had saved, and saw him sent off to the hospital. Then first he noticed that he was not a negro; the smut had been rubbed from his face. Monday had dawned before he came to, and days passed before he knew his rescuer. Sergeant Vaughan was laid up himself then. He had returned to his work, and finished it; but what he had gone through was too much for human strength. It was spring before he returned to his quarters, to find himself promoted, petted, and made much of. THE DEATH OF THE DAUPHIN From Letters from my Windmill. By Alphonse Daudet The little Dauphin is ill; the httle Dauphin will die. In all the churches of the kingdom the Holy Sacrament is laid ready day and night, and tapers are burning, for the recovery of the royal child. The streets of the old town are sad and silent; the bells ring no more; the carriages are driven very slowly. The curious townspeople are gathered just outside the palace, and are staring in through the grating of the gates at the guards, with their golden helmets, who walk the court with an important air. The entire castle is in a state of anxiety; the chamber- lains and major-domos go up and down the staircase, and run through the halls. The galleries are filled with pages and courtiers in silk clothing, who go from group to group collecting later news in a low voice. On the large porches can be seen the ladies of honor, bathed in tears, bowing their heads and wiping their eyes with pretty embroidered handker- chiefs. In the orangery is the numerous assembly of doctors in long robes: one can see them through the panes gesticulating in their long sleeves, and shaking their wigs knowingly. The little Dauphin's tutor and squire are waiting before the door, anxious for the decision of the 242 ORAL ENGLISH faculty. Scullions pass by without saluting them. The squire swears like a pagan; the tutor recites verses from Horace. And during this time down by the stables one can hear a long plaintive neighing. It is the Dauphin's Uttle sorrel pony, whom the grooms are neglecting, and who calls sadly from his empty manger. And the king — where is his Majesty the King? The king has shut himself in a room in a remote part of the castle. Their Majesties do not Uke to be seen weejiing. But the Queen — that is different. Seated by the little prince's pillow, her beautiful face bathed in tears, she sobs bitterly before every one, just as a peasant mother would do. In his lace crib is the little Dauphin, whiter than the cushions on which he reposes, with closed eyelids. They think he is sleeping; but no, the little Dauphin does not sleep. He turns toward his mother, and seeing that she weeps, he says to her, " Madam my Queen, why do you weep? Do you think truly that I am going to die?" The queen wishes to reply, but sobs prevent her speaking. " Pray do not cry, Madam my Queen. You forget that I am the Dauphin, and Dauphins cannot die thus." The Queen sobs more bitterly still, and the little Dauphin be- gins to be frightened. "Hola!" he .says, "I do not wish to have Death come and take me; and I shall know how to prevent his coming here. Bring forth forty lancers, our stronge.st, to mount guard around our bed; a hundred cannon night and day; torches lighted beneath our windows. And unhappy Death if he dares to approach us then!" The Queen gives a sign to please the royal child. Forthwith, one can hear heavy cannon being rolled across the courtyard; and forty soldiers, halberds in hand, come and range themselves around the room; they are veterans, with gray moustaches. The little Dauphin claps his hands feebly as he sees them, and recog- nizing one he calls him by name, "Lorrain! Lorrain!" The old sol- dier takes a step towards the bed. "I love you well, my good Lorrain. Let me see your big sword. If Death comes to take me, we must kill him, must we not?" Lorrain replies, "Yes, Monseigneur," as the big tears run down his bronzed cheeks. At this moment the chaplain approaches the little Dauphin, and talks to him for some time in a low tone, showing him a crucifix. The little SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 243 Dauphin listons with an astonished air; then suddenly interrupting, "I understand well what you say, Monsieur I'Abbc; but after all, could not my little friend Beppo die in my place, if we should give him a great deal of money?" The chaplain continues talking to him in a low voice, and the little Daui)hin looks more and more astonished. When the chaplain has finished, the little Dauphin resumes, with a heavy sigh, "AH that you tell me is very sad, Monsieur I'Abbc, but one thing consoles me: up there in the paradise of stars, I shall still be the Dauphin. I know that our good God is my cousin, and would not fail to treat me ac- cording to my rank." Then he adds, turning to his mother, "Have my finest garments brought — my ermine cloak and velvet slippers. I wish to array myself for the angels, and enter paradise dressed as a Dauphin." A third time the chaplain bends over the little prince, and talks a long time in whispering tones. The royal child interrupts him in anger, in the midst of his discourse, and cries, "Then it is no use to be a Dau- phin, — it is nothing at all;" and not wishing to hear more, he turns toward the wall weeping. A VISION OF AMERICAN HISTORY ^ By Henry Watterson Extract from an oration delivered at the dedication of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, October 21, 1892. We look before and after, and we see, through the half-drawn folds of time, as though through the solemn archways of some grand cathedral, the long procession pass, as silent and real as a dream. The caravels, tossing upon the Atlantic billows, have their sails refilled from the East, and bear away to the West; the land is reached, and fulfilled is the vi- sion whose actualities are to be gathered by other hands than his who planned the voyage and steered the bark of discovery; the long-sought golden day has come to Spain at last, and Castilian conquests tread upon one another fast enough to pile up perpetual power and riches. ^ Reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher, Dufficld and Company. 244 ORAL ENGLISH But even as simple justice was denied Columbus, was lasting tenure denied the Spaniard. We look again, and we see in the far Northeast the Old World struggle between the French and the English transferred to the New, ending in the tragedy upon the heights above Quebec; we see the sturdy Puritans in bell-crowned hats and sable garments assail in unequal battle the savaga and the elements, overcoming both to rise against a mightier foe; we see the gay but dauntless Cavaliers, to the southward, join hands with the roundheads in holy rebellion. And lo, down from the green-walled hills of New England, out of the swamps of the Carolinas, come faintly to the ear, like far-away forest leaves stirred to music by autumn winds, the drum-taps of the Revolution; the tramp of the minute-men, Israel Putnam riding before; the hoof -beats of Sumter's horse galloping to the front; the thunder of Stark's guns in spirit battle; the gleam of Marion's watch-fires in ghostly bivouac; and there, there in serried, saint-like ranks on fame's eternal camping ground stand, "The old continentals In their ragged regimentals, Yielding not " as, amid the singing of angels in Heaven, the scene is shut out from our mortal vision by proud and happy tears. We see the rise of the young republic, and the gentlemen in knee breeches and powdered wigs who made the Constitution. We see the little nation menaced from without. We see the riflemen in hunting shirt and buckskin swarm from the cabin in the wilderness to the rescue of country and home; and our hearts swell to see the second and final decree of independence won by the prowess and valor of American arms upon the land and sea. And then, and then, — since there is no life of nations or of men with- out its shadow or its sorrow, — there comes a day when the spirits of the fathers no long(T walk upon the battlements of freedom; and all is dark; and all seems lost save liberty and honor, and, praise God! our blessed Union. With these surviving, who shall marvel at what we see to-day — this land filled with the treasures of tlie earth; this city, snatched SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 245 from the ashes to rise in splendor and renown, passinp; the mind of man to proconcoive? Truly, out of trial comes the strength of man; out of disaster comes the glory of the state. MARGUERITE ' John Greenleaf Whittier The robins sang in the orchard, the buds into blossoms grew; Little of human sorrow the buds and the robins knew! Sick, in an alien household, the poor French neutral lay; Into her lonesome garret fell the light of the April day. Through the dusty window, curtained by the spider's warp and woof. On the loose-laid floor of hemlock, on oaken ribs of roof. The bedquilt's faded patchwork, the teacups on the stand. The wheel with flaxen tangle, as it dropped from her sick hand! What to her was the song of the robin, or warm morning light. As she lay in the trance of the dying, heedless of sound or sight? Done was the work of her hands, she had eaten her bitter bread; The world of the alien people lay behind her dim and dead. But her soul went back to its child-time; she saw the sun o'erflow With gold the basin of Minas, and set over Gasperau. She saw the face of her mother, she heard the song she sang; And far off, faintly, slowly, the bell for vespers rang! By her bed, the hard-faced mistress sat, smoothing the wrinkled sheet, Peering into the face so helpless, and feeling the ice-cold feet. With a vague remorse, atoning for her greed and long abuse, By a care no longer heeded and pity too late for use. Up the stau-s of the garret softly the son of the mistress stepped. Leaned over the head-board, covering his face with his hands, and wept Out spake the mother, who watched him sharply, with brow a-frown: "What! love you the Papist, the beggar, the charge of the town?" " Be she Papist or beggar who lies here, I know and God knows I love her, and fain would go with her wherever she goes! * Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. 246 ORAL ENGLISH O Mother! that sweet face came pleading, for love so athirst. You saw but the town-charge; I knew her God's angel at first." Shaking her gray head, the mistress hushed down a bitter cry; And awed by the silence and shadow of death drawing nigh, She murmured a psalm of the Bible; but closer the young gu-1 pressed, With the last of her life in her fingers, the cross to her breast. "My son, come away," cried the mother, her voice cruel growTi. "She is joined to her idols, like Ephraim; let her alone!" But he knelt with his hand on her forehead, his lips to her ear, And he called back the soul that was passing: "Marguerite, do you hear?" She paused on the threshold of heaven; love, pity, surprise, Wistful, tender, lit up for an instant the cloud of her eyes. With his heart on his lips he kissed her, but never her cheek grew red. And the words the living long for he spake in the ear of the dead. And the robins sang in the orchard, where buds to blossoms grew; Of the folded hands and the still face never the robins knew! A PASSION IN THE DESERT ^ HoNORE DE Balzac During the expedition undertaken by General Desaix into upper Egypt, a Provencal soldier was made a prisoner by the Arabs and taken into the desert beyond the cataracts of the Nile. In order to place a safe distance between themselves and the French army, the Arabs made a forced march, resting only by night. They camped about a well over-shadowed by palm trees. Not suspecting that the idea of escape would occur to their prisoner, they merely tied his hands and went to sleep. When the brave Frenchman saw that his enemies were no longer watching him, he made u.sc> of his teeth to seize a simitar, fixed the blad-e between his knees, and cut the cord which restrained his hands. He then seized a carbine and a poniard, mounted a horse, and quickly ^ Abridged. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 247 spurred away in the direction where he thought to find the French army. So impatient was he, that he urged on his already tired courser till the poor animal, its flanks lacerated by the spurs, soon breathed its last and left its rider in the midst of the desert. After walking on for some time in the sand, the soldier was obliged to stop, as the day was at an end. In spite of the beauty of an Oriental night, he felt he had not strength enough to go on. Fortunately he found a small hill on the summit of which grew a few palm trees. His weariness was so great that he lay down on a granite boulder, and fell asleep without taking any precautions for his safety. Great was his joy the next day on discovering a kind of grotto, naturally shaped in the blocks of granite; and a few steps farther on, some trees loaded with dates. Then the instinct which draws us to life reawakened in his heart. That night he slept under the red roof of his damp cave. In the mid- dle of the night his sleep was disturbed by an unusual noise. He sat up, and the deep silence permitted him to recognize the alternating accents of a respiration whose savage energy could belong to no human creature. He almost felt his hair stand on end when, dilating the pupils of his eyes, he perceived a huge animal lying only two steps away. Soon the reflection of the moon illumined the cave, and by insensible degrees revealed the resplendent coat of a spotted panther. Her eyes opened for a moment and closed again; her face was turned towards the man. A thousand confused thoughts passed through the Frenchman's mind. At first he thought of killing it with a shot from his gun, but he soon saw there was not room enough to take aim, and that the shot would fail to take eflfect. And if the beast were to awake! — the thought made his limbs rigid. Twice he placed his hand on his poniard intending to cut off the head of his enemy, but the difficulty of cutting through the stiff short hair obliged him to renounce this project. To fail would surely mean his death. He preferred the chances of combat, and re- solved to await the day. The day did not give him long to wait. The Frenchman could now examine the panther; its muzzle was smeared with blood. "She has had a good meal," he mused, "and will not be hungry when she wakes up." Then a bold thought made daylight in his heart and checked the 248 ORAL ENGLISH cold sweat on his brow. He determined to view this adventure merely as a tragic drama, and play out his part with honor to the final scene. When the sun appeared, the panther suddenly opened her eyes; vigorously stretched out her paws as if to get rid of cramps; then turned her head toward the Frenchman and looked at him steadily without moving. He watched her with a caressing gaze, staring as if to hypno- tize her, and let her come quite near him. Then with a gentle move- ment he passed his hand over her body from the head to the tail. The beast voluptuously straightened her tail, and her eyes grew gentle. When for the third time the Frenchman accomplished this effective flattery, she began to purr, as our cats do in expressing their pleasure. Assured of having extinguished the ferocity of his capricious companion, the soldier rose to go out of the cave. The panther indeed let him pass; but when he had ascended the hill, she bounded after him and began rubbing herself against the soldier's legs, putting up her back like all the race of cats. Regarding her guest with eyes whose brilliancy had become some- what softened, she gave vent to a wild cry. "She is exacting!" cried the Frenchman with a smile. He ventured to play with her ears, and scratch her head as hard as he could. Perceiving his success, he tickled her skull with the point of his dagger, watching for a propitious moment to kill her. The sultana of the desert indicated her acceptance of the attentions of her slave by raising her head, stretching her neck, and displaying her infatuation by the tranquility of her demeanor. It suddenly occurred to the soldier that to kill this savage princess with one blow, he must stab her in the throat. He raised the blade, when the panther lay down at his feet and cast glances at him, in which, in spite of their native fierceness, was mingled a confused goodwill. The Provengal tried if he might walk up and down. The panther left him free, contenting herself with following him with her eyes. He conceived the fond hope of continuing on good terms with the panther, of course neglecting no means of taming and conciUating her. He came back to her and had the unspeakable happiness of seeing her wag her tail in an almost imperceptible movement. He then sat down without fear beside; her, and the two began to play; he fondled her paws and muzzle, pulled her ears, rolled her over on her back and stroked her SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 249 warm, silky flanks. The man, keeping his poniard in hand, thought even to pkmge it into the too-confiding panther; hut he feared being strangk'd in the last convulsion which would seize her. Besides, he felt in his heart a sort of compunction which cried out to him to respect an inoffensive creature. He seemed to have found a friend in this boundless desert. Involun- tarily he thought of his first sweetheart, whom he had nicknamed " Mignonne." This memory of his youth suggested the idea of teaching this young panther to answer to the name. Toward the end of the day he had become accustomed to his perilous situation, and he almost enjoyed the painfulness of it. The soldier awaited with impatience the hour when Mignonne should fall asleep, and when it arrived he ran swiftly in the direction of the Nile; but hardly had he made a quarter of a league in the sand when he heard the panther bounding after him, and uttering her rasping cry, more fearful even than the sound of her leaping. "Ah," he said, "she's taken a fancy to me; she has never met any one before, and it is really quite flattering to have her first love." At that instant the man fell into one of those quicksands, so di'eaded by travellers, since it is impossible to escape from them. Feeling himself caught, he gave a cry of alarm. The panther seized him by the collar with her teeth, and leaping backward with vigor, dragged him from danger as if by magic. "Ah, Mignonne!" cried the soldier, "we are now bound together for life and death." Thenceforth the desert seemed inhabited. It contained a being to whom the man could talk, whose ferocity had been softened by him, though he could not explain the reason for this remarkable friend- ship. One day, when the sun was shining brightly, an immense bird cut through the air. The Frenchman left his panther, to examine this new visitor; but after a moment's waiting, the deserted sultana gave a harsh growl. "I do believe she is jealous!" exclaimed the soldier, as he saw her eyes become hard again. The Frenchman and the panther looked at each other with an air of perfect understanding. The co(iU(>ttp quivered when she felt her friend stroke her head, her eyes flashed like lightning, and then she shut them tightly. "She has a soul," he said, as he studied 250 ORAL ENGLISH the tranquility of this queen of the sands, golden like them, white like them, solitary and burning like chem. But this passion of the desert ended as all great passions do end, with a misunderstanding. One suspects the other of treason; there is no ex- planation, because of pride; and they fall out through stubbornness. "I don't know if I hurt her," said the soldier, "but she turned round as if enraged, and with her sharp teeth seized me by the leg — gently, I dare say; but I, thinking she was about to devour me, plunged my dagger into her throat. She rolled over, uttering a cry that froze my heart. I saw her struggling in death, still watching me without anger. I would have given all the world to bring her back to life again. It was as though I had murdered a real person. The soldiers who finally came to my assistance, found me in tears. Since then I have been in war in Germany, in Spain, in Russia, in France; but never have I seen anything like the desert. It is very beautiful and what you feel there cannot be described. In the desert, you see, there is everything, and nothing. It is God without mankind." A NIGHT AMONG THE PINES From Tbavels with a Donkey. By Robert Louis Stevenson Night is a dead monotonous period under a roof; but in the open world it passes lightly, with its stars and dews and perfumes, and the hours are marked by changes in the face of Nature. What seems a kind of temporal death to people choked between walls and curtains, is only a light and living slumber to the man who sleeps a-field. All night long he can hear nature breathing deeply and freely; even as she takes her rest, she turns and smiles; and there is one stirring hour unknown to those who dwell in houses, when a wakeful influence goes abroad over the sleeping hemisphere, and all the outdoor world are on their feet. It is then that the cock first crows, not this time to an- nounce the dawn, but like a cheerful watchman speeding the course of the night. Cattle awake on the meadows; sheep break their fast on dewy hillsides, and change to a new lair among the ferns; and houseless men, who have lain down with the fowls, open their dim eyes and be- hold the beauty of the night. SELECTIOXS FOR PRACTICE 251 At what inaudible summons, at what gentle touch of Nature, are all these sleepers thus recalled in the same hour to life? Do the stars rain down an influence, or do we share some thrill of mother earth below our resting bodies? Even shepherds and old country-folk, who are the deepest read in these arcana, have not a guess as to the means or pur- pose of this nightly resurrection. Towards two in the morning they declare the thing takes place; and neither know nor inquire further. And at least it is a pleasant incident. We are disturbed in our slumber onh', like the luxurious Montaigne, "that we may the better and more sensibly relish it . " We have a momen t to look upon the stars. And there is a special pleasure for some minds in the reflection that we share the impulse with all outdoor creatures in our neighborhood, that we have escaped out of the Bastille of civiliza- tion, and are become, for the time being, a mere kindly animal and a sheep of Nature's flock. When that hour came to me among the pines, I wakened thirsty. My tin was standing by me half full of water. I emptied it at a draught; and feeling broad awake after this internal cold aspersion, sat upright to make a cigarette. The stars were clear, colored, and jewel-like, but not frosty. A faint silvery vapor stood for the INIilkj- Way. All around me the black fir-points stood upright and stock-still. By the whiteness of the pack-saddle, I could see Modestine walking round and round at the length of her tether; I could hear her steadily munching at the sward; but there was not another sound save the inde- scribable quiet talk of the runnel over the stones. I lay studying the color of the .sky, as we call the void of space, from where it showtid a reddish gray behind the pines to where it showed a glossy blue-black between the stars. ■'^ A faint wind, more like a moving coolness than a stream of air, passed do'WTi the glade from time to time; so that even in mj' great chamber the air was being renewed all night long. I thought with horror of the inn at Chasserades and the congregated nightcaps; with horror of the nocturnal prowesses of clerks and students, of hot theatres and pass-keys and close rooms. I have not often enjoyed a more serene possession of myself, nor felt more independent of material aids. The outer world, from which we cower into our houses, seemed after 252 ORAL ENGLISH all a gentle habitable place; and night after night a man's bed, it seemed, was laid and waiting for him in the fields, where God keeps an open house. I thought I had rediscovered one of those truths which are re- vealed to savages and hid from political economists: at the least, I had discovered a new pleasure for myself. a/ When I awoke again (Sunday, 29th September), many of the stars had disappeared; only the stronger companions of the night still burned visibly overhead; and away towards the east I saw a faint haze of light upon the horizon, such as had been the Milky Way when I was last awake. Day was at hand. I lit my lantern, and by its glowworm light put on my boots and gaiters; then I broke up some bread for Modestine, filled my can at the water-tap, and lit my spirit-lamp to boil myself some chocolate. The blue darkness lay long in the glade where I had so sweetly slum- bered; but soon there was a broad streak of orange melting into gold along the mountain-tops of Vivarais. A solemn glee possessed my mind at this gradual and lovely coming in of day. I heard the runnel with delight; I looked round me for something beautiful and unexpected; but the still black pine-trees, the hollow glade, the munching ass, re- mained unchanged in figure. Nothing had altered but the light, and that, indeed, shed over all a spirit of life and of breathing peace, and moved me to a strange exhilaration. I drank my water chocolate, which was hot if it was not rich, and strolled here and there, and up and down about the glade. While I was thus delaying, a gush of steady wind, as long as a heavy sigh, poured direct out of the quarters of the morning. It was cold, and set me sneezing. The trees near at hand tossed their black plumes in its pas- sage; and I could see the thin distant spires of pine along the edge of the hill rock slightly to and fro against the golden east. Ten minutes after, the sunlight spread at a gallop along the hillside, scattering shadows and sparkles, and the day had come completely. X SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 253 TALL-STOY i By George Ade Characters Mr. Robert Latimer, a man absorbed in business. A Solicitor, representing "The Interplanetary Publishing Co." Scene; Mr. Latimer's office Mr. Latimer is seated in a revolving chair at his desk. The solicitor enters. Solicitor: This is Mr. Latimer? Latimer {turning in chair) : It is. S. : Your name has been given to us, Mr. Latimer, as one who is fond of good books. L.: Who is "us"? S.: The Interplanetary Publishing Company is the house I have the honor to represent. Our manager was very anxious that I should call on you. Even if you do not care to place an order, I know that as a lover of beautiful prints and bindings, you will take some pleasure in examining the sample volume I have here. L.: Your manager is mixed in his dates. You have hunted up the wrong Latimer. S.: I hardly think so. You have placed several orders with us al- ready, haven't you? Didn't you take a set of the Balzac? L.: I guess I did — four dollars per Balzac. I've got 'em out home there now, just as good as new. S.: That was an excellent edition. L.: I wouldn't dare to contradict you, because I've never looked into one of them. S. : I had understood that you were something of a collector. L.: That isn't what I call myseK. I call myself an easy mark. I've got about as much use for a lot of them books as a Methodist preacher'd have for a dark lantern an' a pair of loaded dice. I don't know how I happened to let myself be worked on that first lot. I guess I had orders ^ Copj'right 1903 bj' Doubleday Page and Company, and reprinted by special arrangement with these publishers. 254 ORAL ENGLISH from home to fill up the shelves. You fellows didn't do a thing to me. Bing! Four dollars a throw. They may be swell books all right but I don't have any time to get at 'em. Say, I don't even have time to read the newspapers. S.: You have no objection, however, to my showing you some of our new things? L.: Show it, if you want to, but you're simply usin' up your own time, I can tell you that. S.: I have something here that I fancy will please you. {takes book from under coat) L.: What is it? S.: Tolstoi. L.: Come again. S.: Tolstoi. L.: Tall-stoy? S.: Yes. I suppose you are more or less familiar with his work? L.: Chicago man? S.: I don't think you caught the name — Tolstoi, the eminent Russian. L.: Russian? S.: Yes. He is accorded first place among the great literary work- ers of the czar's domain, his writings being characterized by simplicity, immense strength, and a sympathy for all mankind, particularly the poor and downtrodden. L.: That's all right, too, but if your house wants to get out books and sell them to people, why don't you plug for somebody here at home? There's lots of good fellows in this country j-ou might help to a little money if j'ou wanted to. Instead of that, you have to hunt up some fellow over in Russia. You can bet that any coin he gets out of these books he spends over there. He don't come to Chicago to blow it in, does he? S.: Our house is always ready to give encouragement to American authors, but in this line of work you must admit that Tolstoi is pre- eminent. L.: Let mc tell you something. You come in here and you want me to buy some books written bj^ this — whatever his name is. and you saj' to me that he is the best ever? SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 255 S. : I moroly repeat what tho critics have agreed upon. L.: The critics, ch? Now, let me tell you about them. I had a friend here from Grand Rapids the other day and I wanted to take him to a show. I didn't know what was good in town, so I gets a paper and reads the notices. Well, I find one play that gets an awful lift all around, so we go over there, and say! it was the saddest ever. It was so punk it was blue all around the edges. I don't want any critic tellin' me where to get off. I don't think they're on the level. Now you say that they're all out cappin' for this fellow. Mebbe they are, but look here, I never heard of this mug before and I've been in town all the time, too. S.: He has been writing for years. L.: Where? S.: Over in Russia. L.: Yes, an' I've been in Chicago all that time. If he wants to do business with us people, why don't he come here? S.: My dear sir, Count Tolstoi's work has a world-wide interest. Will you be good enough to notice the print? The etchings are un- usually good, also. L.: How many books in the set? S.: There are twenty. L.: Oh, Willie! I've just got a panel photograph of myself settin' up these winter nights to read twenty of these thi^igs by his Russian nobs. Is that his picture — with the fringe? He don't look to me much like a count. S.: I believe, Mr. Latimer, that you would deeply enjoy reading Tolstoi. He appeals to all thoughtful people. L. : What are you trying to do, swell me? On the level do you find a good manj' people to go against this kind of a game? S.: I am meeting with gratifying success, Mr. Latimer. You see, there has long been a demand for a uniform edition of Tolstoi. L.: There has, eh? I hadn't heard about it. S.: I sold three sets yesterday out at the university. L.: What do you get for a set? S.: The price is three dollars a volume, payable in installments. L.: Sixty dollars worth of — What's his name? S.: Tolstoi. 256 ORAL ENGLISH L.: I'd have to be getting my sixties easy to let go of 'em for any- thing likethis. S. : You couldn't have a more valuable set in your library. L.: Yes? Well, you tell it all right. I s'pose you get a piece of that sixty. S.: Naturally — I get my commission. L.: How much? About forty-five? S.: Oh, really! I merely get a fair percentage for placing the works. L. : Well, you'll earn all the percentages you get here. S.: If you will — L.: Say, you ain't got one chance in a million. Let me give you a pointer, too. Drop Tall-stoy and get a live one. Here's your book. I won't keep you waiting. A ROYAL MARAUDER ^ Abridged from Red Fox. By Charles G. D. Roberts Red Fox's new home on the ridge was a deep well-drained pocket of dry earth, hard to come at, and surrounded by an expanse of rocky debris where scent would not lie. In this difficult retreat Red Fox and his family had few neighbors to intrude upon his privacy. But there was one pair on whom Red Fox and his mate looked with strong dis- approval, not unmixed with anxiety. On an inaccessible ledge, in a ravine a little way down the other side of the ridge, toward Ringwaak, was the nest of a white-headed eagle. It was a great, untidy, shapeless mass, a cart-load of sticks, as it were, apparently dropped from the skies upon this bare ledge, but in reality so interwoven with each point of rock, and so braced in the crevices, that no tempest could avail to jar its strong foundations. In the hollow in the top of this mass, on a few wisps of dry grass mixed with feathers and fur, huddled two half-naked, fierce-eyed nestlings. Of the eagle pair, the female had her aerial range over Ringwaak, and the chain of lonely lakes the other side of Ringwaak. But the male did his hunting over the region of the settlements and on toward the Ottanoonsis Valley. Every morning, just after sunrise, his great winga ' Reprinted by special arrangement with L. C. Page and Company. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 257 wont winnowing mightily over the ridge, just over the hollow where Rod Fox had his lair. And as the dread shadow passed by, the little foxes would shrink back into their den, well taught by their father and mother. One morning when, in the gray of the earliest dawn. Red Fox climbed to his retreat with a plump woodchuck in his jaws, it chanced he was in no hurry for his meal. Dropping the limp body till he should feel more relish for it, he lay down to rest and contemplate the waking earth. As he lay, the sun rose. The female eagle sailed away toward Ringwaak. The male beat up, and up, high above the ridge, and Red Fox paid no more attention to him. Suddenly he heard a sharp, hissing rush of great wings in the air just above him, and glanced upward astonished. The next instant he felt a buffeting wind, huge wings almost smote him in the face, — and the dead woodchuck, not three feet away, was snatched up in clutch- ing talons, and borne off in the air. With a furious snarl he jumped to his feet; but the eagle, with the prize dangling from his claws, was already far out of reach, slanting down majestically toward his nest. The insolence and daring of this robbery fixed in Red Fox's heart a fierce desire for vengeance. He stole down to the ravine that held the eyrie, and prowled about for hours, seeking a place where he could climb to the ledge. It was quite inaccessible, however; and the eagles, knowing this, looked dowTi upon the prowlings with disdainful serenity. Then he mounted the near-by cliff and peered down directly into the nest. But finding himself still as far off as ever, he gave up the hope of an immediate settlement of his grudge and lay in wait for the chances of the wilderness. A few days later, while Red Fox was away hunting down in the valley, the fox-puppies were playing just in the mouth of the den when they saw their sliiA mother among the rocks. In a puppy-like frolic of welcome they rushed to meet her, feeling secure in her nearness. When they were half-way across the open in front of the den, there came a sudden shadow above them. Like a flash they scattered, — all but one, who crouched flat and stared irresolutely. There was a dreadful whistling sound in the air, a pounce of groat, flapping wings and wide reaching talons, a strangled yelp of terror. And before the mother fox's 258 ORAL ENGLISH leap could reach the spot, the red puppy was snatched up and carried away to the beaks of the eaglets. When he learned about this, Red Fox felt such fury a,s his philosophic spirit had never known before. He paid another futile visit to the foot of the eagles' rock; and afterwards, for days, wasted much time from his hunting in the effort to devise some means of getting at his foe. It' was one day when he was not thinking of eagles or of vengeance that Red Fox's opportunity came. Toward evening as he lay watching for a wary old woodchuck to venture from its hole, he caught sight of a huge black snake gliding slowly across the open glade. He hesitated, in doubt whether to attack the snake or keep on waiting for the wood- chuck. Just then came that whistling sound in the air which he knew so well. The snake heard it, too, and darted toward the nearest tree. It had barely reached the foot of the tree when the feathery thunder- bolt out of the sky fell upon it, clutching it securely with both talons about a foot behind the head. Easily and effectively had the eagle made his capture; but, when he tried to rise with his prey, his broad wings beat the air in vain. At the instant of the attack the snake had whipped a couple of coils of its tail around the young tree, and that desperate grip the eagle could not break. Savagely he picked at the coils, and then at the reptile's head, preparing to take the prize off in sections if necessary. Red Fox's moment, long looked for, had come. His rush from cover was straight and low, and swift as a dart; and his jaws caught the eagle a slashing cut on the upper leg. Fox-like, he bit and let go; and the great bird with a yelp of pain and amazement, whirled about, striking at him furiously with beak and wings. He got one buffet from those wings which knocked him over; and the eagle, willing to shirk the con- flict, disengaged his talons from the snake and tried to rise. But in an instant Red Fox was upon him again, reaching up for his neck with a lightning-like ferocity that disconcerted the bird's defense. At such close quarters the bird's wings were ineffective, but his rending beak and steel-like talons found their mark in Red Fox's beautiful ruddy coat, which was dyed with crimson in a second. For most foxes the king of the air would have proved more than a match; but the strength and cleverness of Red Fox put the chance of SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 259 battle heavily in his favor. In a few seconds he would have had the eagle overborne and helpless, and would have reached his throat in spite of beak and claw; but at this critical moment the bird found an unexpected and undeserved ally. The snake which he had attacked, being desperately wounded, was thrashing about in the effort to get away to some hiding. Red P^ox happened to step upon it in the struggle; and instantly, though blindly, it threw a convulsive coil about his hind legs. Angrily he turned, and bit at the constricting coil. And while he was tearing at it, seeking to free himself, the eagle recovered, raised himself with difficulty, and succeeded in flopping up into the air. Bedraggled, bloody, and abjectly humiliated, he went beating over the forest toward home; and Red Fox, fairly well satisfied in spite of the incompleteness of his victory, proceeded to refresh himself by a hearty meal of snake. He felt rea- sonably certain that the big eagle would give both himself and his family a wide berth in the future. THE PASSING OF CAPTAIN JEWETT^ From The Cavalier. By George W. Cable In the Mississippi campaign of the Civil War Ferry's Scouts, a band of Confederates, charging down a broad lane, captured a score of the Northern soldiers. Captain Jewctt, the leader of the Blue-coats, was mortally wounded and taken to the Confederate headquarters. Realizing that his end was near, the Captain asked for Charlotte Oliver, a Southern girl at the headquarters, that he might beg her to bear his last message home to his wife. One of the scouts, named Smith, gives the following account of the final hours of the Captain. As Charlotte once more wiped the damp brow, the captive said, with much labor, "After that — war seems — an awful thing. I suppose it isn't half so much a crime — as it is a — penalty — for the crimes that bring it on. But anyhow — you know — being — " The bugle rang out the reveille. "Being a soldier," said Chark)tte, "you want to die like one?" "Yes, oh, yes! — the best I can. I'd like to sit half up — and hold my sword — if there's — no objection. I've loved it so! It would almost be ^ Copyright, 1901, by Charles Scribuer's Sons and reprinted by their permission. 280 ORAL ENGLISH like holding — the hand that's far away. Of course, it isn't really neces- sary, but — it would be more like — dying — for my country." He would not have it in the scabbard, and when I laid it naked in his hand he kissed the hilt. Charlotte sent Gholson for Ned Ferry. Glancing from the window, I noticed that for some better convenience our scouts had left the grove, and the prisoners had been marched in and huddled close to the veranda-steps, under their heavy marching- guard of Louisianians. One of the blue-coats called up to me softly: " Dying — really? " He turned to his fellows — " Boys, Captain's dying." Every Northern eye was lifted to the window and I turned away. "Richard!" gently called Charlotte, and I saw the end was at hand; a new anguish was on the brow; yet the soldier was asking for a song; "a soldier's song, will you?" "Why, Captain," she replied, "you know, we don't sing the same words to our soldier-songs that you do — except in the hymns. Shall I sing 'Am I a soldier of the cross?' " He did not answer promptly; but when he did he said, "Yes — sing that." She sang it. As the second stanza was begun we heard a responsive swell grow softly to fuller and fuller volume beneath the windows, the prisoners were singing. I heard an austere voice forbid it, but it rose straight on from strength to strength: "Sure I must fight if I would win, Increase my courage. Lord. I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, Supported by thy word." The dying man lifted a hand and Charlotte ceased. He had not heard the muffled chorus of his followers below; or it may be that he had, and that the degree of liberty they seemed to be enjoying prompted him to seek the new favor he now asked. I did not catch his words, but Charlotte heard, and answered tenderly, yet with a thrill of pain so keen she could not conceal it even from him. "Oh! you wouldn't ask a rebel to sing that," she sighed, "would you?" He made no rejoinder except that his eyes were insistent. She wiped his temples. "I hate to refuse you." SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 261 His gaze was grateful. She spoke again: "I suppose I oughtn't to mind it." Miss Harper came in, and Charlotte, taking her hand without a glance, told the Captain's hard request under her voice. Miss Harper, too, in her turn, gave a start of pain, but when the dying eyes and smile turned iilcadinglj^ to her she said, "Why, if you can, Charlotte, dear, but oh! how can you?" Charlotte addressed the wounded man: "Just a little bit of it, will that do?" and as he eagerly assented she added, to Miss Harper, "You know, dear, in its history it's no more theirs than ours." "No, not so much," said Miss Harper, with a gleam of pride; and thereupon it was my amazement to hear Charlotte begin guardedly to sing: " O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?" But guardedly as she began, the effect on the huddled crowd below was instant and electrical. They heard almost the first note; looking down anxiously, I saw the wonder and enthusiasm pass from man to man. They heard the first two lines in awed, ecstatic silence; but at the third, warily, first one, then three, then a dozen, then a score, bereft of arms, standard, and leader, little counting ever again to see freedom, flag, or home, they raised their voices, by the dawn's early light, in their song of songs. Our main body were out in the highway, just facing into column, and the effect on them I could not see. The prisoners' guards, though in- stantly ablaze with indignation, were so taken by surprise that for two or three seconds, with carbines at a ready, they — and even their sergeant in command — only darted fierce looks here and there and up at me. The prisoners must have been used to singing in ordered chorus, for one of them strode into their middle, and smiling sturdily at the maddened guard and me, led the song evenly. "No, sir!" he said, as I made an angry sign for them to desist, "one verse through, if every one of us dies for it — let the Captain hear it, boys — sing! '"The rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air — '" Charlotte had ceased, in consternation not for the conditions without more than for those within. With the first strong swell of the song 262 ORAL ENGLISH from below, the dying leader strove to sit upright and to lift his blade, but failed and would have slammed back upon the pillows had not she and Miss Harper saved him. He lay in their arms gasping his last, yet clutching his sabre with a quivering hand and listening on with rapt face untroubled by the fiery tumult of cries that broke into and over the strain. "Club that man over the head!" cries the sergeant of the guard, and one of his men swung a gun; but the Yankee sprang inside of its sweep, crying, "Sing her through, boys!" grappled his opponent, and hurled him back. In the same instant the sergeant called steadily, "Guard, ready — aim — " There sounded a clean slap of levelled carbines, yet from the prisoners came the continued song in its closing couplet: "The star-spangled banner! O, long may it wave! — " and out of the midst of its swell the oaths and curses and defiant laughter of a dozen men crying, with tears in their eyes, "Shoot! shoot! why don't you shoot?" But the command to fire did not come, suddenly there was a drum- ming of hoofs, then their abrupt stoppage, and the voice of a vigilant commander called, "Attention!" With a few words to the sergeant, more brief than harsh, and while the indomitable singers pressed on to the very close of the stanza with- out a sign from him to desist. Ferry bade the subaltern resume his command, and turned toward me at the window. He lifted his sword and spoke in a lowered tone, the sullen guard stood to their arms, and every captive looked up for my reply. "Shall I come?" he inquired; but I shook my head. "What! — gone?" he asked again, and I nodded. BURIAL OF DUNDEE From Lays of Scottish Cavaliers. By W. E. Aytoun On the heights of Killiecrankie Yester-morn our army lay; Slowly rose the mist in columns From the river's broken way; SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 263 Hoarsely roared the swollen torrent, And the pass was WTapped in gloom, When the clansmen rose together From their lair amidst the broom. Then we belted on our tartans, And our bonnets down we drew. And we felt our broadswords' edges, And we proved them to be true; And we prayed the prayer of soldiers, And we cried the gathering-cry, And we clasped the hands of kinsmen, And we swore to do or die! Then our leader rode before us On his war-horse black as night, — Well the Cameronian rebels Knew that charger in the fight ! — And a cry of exultation From the bearded warriors rose; For we loved the house of Claver'se, And we thought of good Montrose. But he raised his hand for silence "Soldiers! I have sworn a vow: Ere the evening star shall glisten On Schehallion's lofty brow, Either we shall rest in triumph. Or another of the Graemes Shall have died in battle-harness For his country and King James! "Strike this day as if the anvil Lay beneath your blows the while, Be they covenanting traitors Or the brood of false Argyle! 264 ORAL ENGLISH Strike! and drive the trembling rebels Backwards o'er the stormy Forth; Let them tell their pale Convention How they fared within the North. "Let them tell that Highland honor Is not to be bought or sold, That we scorn their Prince's anger As we loath his foreign gold. Strike! and when the fight is over, If ye look in vain for me, Where the dead are lying thickest, Search for him that was Dundee!" Loudly then the hills re-echoed With our answers to his call, But a deeper echo sounded In the bosoms of us all. For the land of wide Braedalbane, Not a man who heard him speak Would that day have left the battle. Flashing eye and burning cheek Told the clansmen's fierce emotion, And they harder drew their breath; For their souls were strong within them, Stronger than the grasp of death. Soon we heard a challenge-trumpet Sounding in the Pass below, And the distant tramp of horses. And the voices of the foe; Down we crouched amid the bracken, Till the Lowland ranks drew near, Panting like the hounds in summer. When they scent the stately deer. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 265 From the dark defile emerging, Next we saw the squadrons come, Leslie's foot and Leven's troopers Marching to the tuck of drum; Through the scattered wood of birches, O'er the broken ground and heath, Wound the long batallion slowly, Till they gained the plain beneath; Then we bounded from our covert, — Judge how looked the Saxons then, When they saw the rugged mountains Start to life with armed men! Like a tempest down the ridges Swept the hurricane of steel, Rose the slogan of Macdonald, — Flashed the broadsword of Lochiel! Vainly sped the withering volley 'Mongst the foremost of our band, — On we poured until we met them, Foot to foot and hand to hand. Horse and man went down like drift-wood When the floods are black at Yule, And their carcasses are whirling In the Garry's deepest pool. Horse and man went down before us, — Living foe there tarried none On the field of Killiecrankie, When that stubborn fight was done! And the evening star was shining On Schehallion's distant head, When we wiped our bloody broadswords, And returned to count the dead. 266 ORAL ENGLISH Then we found him gashed and gory, Stretched upon the cumbered plain, As he told us where to seek him, In the thickest of the slain. And a smile was on his visage, For within his dying ear Pealed the joyful note of triumph, And the clansmen's clamorous cheer; So, amidst the battle's thunder. Shot, and steel, and scorching flame, In the glory of his manhood Passed the spirit of the Graeme! RESCUED FROM THE STADTHOUSE TOWER From The Cloister and the Hearth. By Charles Reade Gerard, the son of a Tergouw mercer living in the fifteenth century, ia designed for the Church where a good benefice is promised him. He falls in love with Margaret Brandt, the daughter of a poor scholar, and giving up the Church career, betroths himself to her. He is on the eve of marriage when his irate father imprisons him in the Stadthouse Tower for his dis- obedience, as a medieval parent had power to do. Martin, Gerard's faithful friend, and Margaret Brandt devise a plan to rescue Gerard from the tower. Gerard was taken up several flights of stairs and thrust into a small room lighted only by a narrow window with a vertical iron bar. The whole furniture was a huge oak chest. Imprisonment in that age was one of the high-roads to death, for it implied cold, unbroken solitude, torture, starvation, and often poison. Gerard felt that he was in the hands of an enemy. And he kneeled down and commended his soul to God. Presently he rose and sprang at the iron bar of the window, and clutched it. This enabled him to look out by pressing his knees against th(! wall. Falling back somewhat heavily, he wrenched the rusty iron bar, held only by rusty nails, away from the stonework just as Ghys- brccht Van Swicten, the burgomaster, opened the door stealthily be- SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 267 hind him. He brought a brown loaf and a pitcher of water, and set them on the chest in solemn silence. Gerard's first impulse was to brain him with the iron bar, and fly down stairs; but the burgomaster, seeing something wicked in his eye, gave a little cough, and three stout fellows, armed, showed themselves directly at the door. "My orders are to keep you until you shall bind yourself by an oath to leave Margaret Brandt, and return to the Church to which you have belonged from your cradle." "Death sooner." "With all my heart." And the burgomaster retired. As the sun declined, Gerard's heart too sank and sank; with the waning light even the embers of hope went out. He was faint, too, with hunger; for he was afraid to eat the food Ghysbrecht had brought him; and hunger alone cows men. He sat upon the chest, his arms and his head drooping before him, a picture of dispondency. Suddenly something struck the wall beyond him very sharply, and then rattled on the floor at his feet. It was an arrow; he saw the white feather. A chill ran through him, — -they meant to assassinate him from the outside. He crouched. No more missiles came. He crawled on all fours, and took up the arrow; there was no head to it. He uttered a cry of hope: had a friendly hand shot it? He took it up and felt it over; he felt a soft substance attached to it. Then one of his eccentricities was of grand use to him. His tinder-box enabled him to strike a light; it showed him two things that made his heart bound with delight. Attached to the arrow was a skein of silk, and on the arrow itself were words written. How his eyes devoured them, his heart panting the while! Well-beloved, make fast the silk to thy knife and lower to us: but hold thine end fast: then count an hundred and draw up. Gerard seized the oak chest, and with almost superhuman energy dragged it to the window. Standing on the chest and looking down he saw figures at the tower foot. They were so indistinct they looked like one huge form. He waved his bonnet to them with trembling hand: then he undid the silk rapidly but carefully, and made one end fast to his knife and lowered it till it ceased to draw. Then he counted a hundnMl. Then pulled the eilk carefully up: it 268 ORAL ENGLISH came up a little heavier. At last he came to a large knot, and by that knot a stout whipcord was attached to the silk. What could this mean? While he was puzzling himself, Margaret's voice came up to him, low but clear. "Draw up, Gerard, till you see liberty." At the word, Gerard drew the whipcord line up, and drew and drew until he came to another knot, and found a cord of some thickness take the place of the whipcord. He had no sooner begun to draw this up than he found that he now had a heavy weight to deal with. Then the truth suddenly flashed upon him, and he went to work and pulled and pulled till the perspiration rolled do-mi him: the weight got heavier and heavier, and at last he was well nigh exhausted; looking down he saw in the moon- light a sight that revived him: it was as it were a great snake coming up to him out of the deep shadow cast by the tower. He gave a shout of joy, and a score more wild pulls, and lo! a stout new rope touched his hand: he hauled and hauled, and dragged the end into his prison, and instantly passed it through both handles of the chest in succession, and knotted it firmly; then sat for a moment to recover his breath and collect his courage. The first thing was to make sure that the chest was sound, and capable of resisting his weight poised in mid- air. He jumped with all his force upon it. At the third jump the whole side burst open, and out scuttled the contents, a host of parchments. This shook his confidence in the chest's powers of resistance; so he gave it an ally: he took the iron bar and fastened it with the small rope across the large rope, and across the window. He now mounted the chest, and from the chest put his foot through the window, and sat half in and half out, with one hand on that part of the rope which was inside. In the silent night he heard his own heart beat. The free air breathed on his face, and gave him the courage to risk what we must all lose one day — for liberty. Many dangers awaited him, but the greatest was the first getting on to the rope outside. Gerard reflected. Finally, he put himself in the attitude of a swimmer, his body to the waist being in the prison, his legs outside. Then holding the inside rope with both hands, he felt anxiously with his feet for the out- side rope, and, when he had got it, he worked it in between the soles of his feet, and kept it there tight ; then he uttered a short prayer, and, all the calmer for it, put his left hand on the sill and gradually wriggled out. SELECTIOXS FOR PRACTICE 269 Then he seized the iron bar, and for one fearful moment hung out- side from it by his right hand, while his left hand felt for the rope down at his knees; it was too tight against the wall for his fingers to get round it higher up. The moment he had fairly grasped it, he left the bar, and swiftly seized the rope with his right hand too; but in this maneuver his body necessarily fell about a yard. A stifled cry came up from below. Gerard hung in mid-air. He clenched his teeth, and nipped the rope tight with his feet and gripped it with his hands, and went down slowly hand below hand. He passed by one huge rough stone after another. He saw there was green moss on one. He looked up and he looked down. The moon shone into his prison window; it seemed very near. The fluttering fig- ures below seemed an awful distance. It made him dizzy to look down: so he fixed his eyes steadily on the wall close to him, and went slowly down, down, down. He passed a rusty, slimy streak on the wall: it was some ten feet long. The rope made his hands very hot. He stole another look up. The prison window was a good way off now. Down — down — down — down . The rope made his hands sore. He looked up. The window was so distant, he ventured now to turn his eyes downward again; and there, not more than thirty feet below him, were Margaret and Martin, their faithful hands upstretched to catch him should he fall. He could see their eyes and their teeth shine in the moonlight. For their mouths were open, and they were breath- ing hard. "Take care, Gerard! O, take care! Look not down." "Fear me not," cried Gerard, joj'fully, and eyed the wall, but came down faster. In another minute his feet were at their hands. They seized him ere he touched the ground, and all three clung together in one embrace. 270 ORAL ENGLISH THE MIRACLE OF THE PEACH-TREE » From Little Novels of Italy. By Maurice Hewlett Giovanna Scarpa, the young wife of a Verona ragpicker, has been slandered and nearly mobbed during her husband's absence, and has fled from the city with her baby in her arms. Directly you were outside the Porta San Zeno the peach-trees began — acre by acre of bent trunks, whose long branches, tied at the top, took shapes of blown candle-flames : beyond these was an open waste of bents and juniper scrub, which afforded certain eatage for goats. Here three herd-boys, Luca, Biagio, and Astorre, simple brown- skinned souls, watched their flocks all the summer night, sleeping, waking to play pranks with each other, whining endless doggerel, pray- ing at every scare, and swearing at every reassurance. Simple puppyish folk though they were, Madonna of the Peach-Tree chose them to wit- ness her epiphany. It was a very still night, of wonderful star-shine, but without a moon. The stars were so thickly spread, so clear and hot, that there was light enough for the lads to see each other's faces, the rough shapes of each other. It was light enough to notice how the square belfry of San Zeno cut a wedge of black into the spangled blue vault. Sheer through the Milky Way it ploughed a broad furrow, which ended in a ragged edge. You would never have seen that if it had not been a clear night. Still also it was. You heard the cropping of the goats, the jaws' champ when they chewed the crisp leaves; the flicker of the bats' wings. In the marsh, half a mile away, the chorus of frogs, when it swelled up, drowned all nearer noise; but when it broke off suddenly, those others resumed their hold upon the stillness. It was a breathless night of suspense. Anything might happen on such a night. Luca, Biagio, and Astorre, under the spell of this marvelous night, lay on their stomachs alert for alarm.s. A heavy-wheeling white owl had (!ome by with a swish, and Biagio had called aloud to Madonna in his agony. Astorrt; had crossed himself over and over again: this ' Reprinted by pcrniission of the author. SELECTIONS FOR PR ACT ICE 271 was the Angel of Death cruising abroad on the hunt, for goats or goat- herds; but "No, no!" cried Luca, eldest of the three, "The wings are too short, friends. That is a fluffy new soul just let loose. She knows not the way, you see. Let us pray for her. There are devils abroad on such close nights as this." Pray they did, with a will, "Ave Maria," "O maris Stella," and half the Paternoster, when Biagio burst into a guffaw, and gave Luca a push which sent Astorre down. "Why, 'tis only a screech-owl, you fools!" he cried, though the sound of his own voice made him falter; "an old mouse-teaser," he went on in a much lower voice. "Who's afraid?" A black and white cat making a pounce had sent hearts to mouths after this: though they found her out before they had got to "Dominus tecum," she left them all in a quiver. It had been a cat, but it might have been the devil. Then, before the bristles had folded down on their backs, they rose up again, and the hair of their heads became rigid as quills. Over the brow of a little hill, through the peach-trees (which bowed their spiry heads to her as she walked), came quietly a tall white Lady in a dark cloak. Hey! powers of earth and air, but this was not to be doubted! Evenly forward she came, without a footfall, without a rustle or the crackling of a twig, without so much as kneeing her skirt — stood before them so nearly that they saw the pale oval of her face, and said in a voice like a muffled bell, "I am hungry, my friends; have you any meat?" She had a face like the moon, and great round eyes; within her cloak, on the bosom of her white dress, she held a man-child. He, they passed their sacred word, lifted in his mother's arms and turned open-handed towards them. Luca, Biagio, and Astorre, goat-herds all and honest lads, fell on their faces with one accord; with one voice they cried, "Madonna, Madonna, Madonna! pray for us sinners!" But again the Lady spoke in her gentle tones, "I am very hungry, and my child is hungry. Have you nothing to give me?" So then Luca kicked the prone Biagio, and Biagio's heel nicked Astorre on the shin. But it was Luca, as became the eldest, who got up first, all the same; and as soon as he was on his feet the others followed him. Luca took his cap off, Biagio saw the act and followed it. Astorre, who dared not lift his eyes, and was so busy making crosses on himself that he had 272 ORAL ENGLISH no hands to spare, kept, his on till Luca nudged Biagio, and Biagic cuffed him soundly, saying, "Uncover, cow-face." Then Luca on his knees made an offering of cheese and black bread to the Lady. They saw the gleam of her white hand as she stretched it out to take the victual. That hand shone like agate in the dark. They saw her eat, sitting very straight and noble upon a tussock ot bents. Astorre whispered to Biagio, Biagio consulted with Luca for a few anxious moments, and communicated again with Astorre. Astorre jumped up and scuttled away in the dark. Presently he came back, bearing something in his two hands. The three shock-heads inspected his burden; there was much whispering, some contention, almost a scuffle. The truth was, that Biagio wanted to take the thing from Astorre, and that Luca would not allow it. Luca was the eldest and wanted to take it himself. Astorre was in tears. "Crista amore!" he blubbered, "you will spill the milk between you. I thought of it all by myself. Let go, Biagio; let go, Luca!" So they whispered and tussled, pulling three different ways. The Lady's voice broke over them like silver rain. "Let him who thought of the kind act give me the milk," she said; so young Astorre on his knees handed her the horn cup, and through the cracks of his fingers watched her drink every drop. That done, the cup returned with a smile piercingly sweet, the Lady rose. Saints on thrones, how tall she was! "The bimhn will thank you for this to-morrow, as I do now," said she. "Good-night, my friends, and may the good God have mercy upon all souls!" She turned to go the way she had come, but Astorre, covering his eyes with one hand, crept forward on three legs (as you might say) and plucked the hern of her robe up, and kissed it. She stooped to lay a hand upon his head. "Never kiss my robe, Astorre," said she — and how under Heaven did she know his name if she were not what she was? — "never kiss my robe, but get up and let me kiss you." Well of Truth! to think of it! Up gets Astorre, shaking like a nun in a fit, and the Lady bent over him and, as sure as you are you, kissed his forehead. Astorre told his village next day as they sat round him in a ring, and he on the well-head as plain to be seen as this i)apcr, that he felt at that moment as if two rcse- leaves had dropped from heaven upon his forehead. Slowly then, very slowly and smoothly (as they report), did the Lady move away towards SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 273 the peach-trees whence she had come. In the half hght there was — for by this it was the hour before dawn — thej' saw her take a peach from one of the trees. She stayed to eat it. Then she walked over the crest of the orchard and disappeared. As soon as they dared, when the light had come, they looked for her over that same crest, but could see nothing whatever. With pale, serious faces the three youths regarded each other. There was no doubt as to what had happened — a miracle! a miracle! With one consent then — since this was plainly a Church affair — they ran to their parish priest, Don Gasparo. He got the whole story at last; nothing could shake them; no detail was wanting. Thus it was: the Blessed Virgin, carrying in her arms the Santissimo Bambino Gesii, had come through the peach-trees, asked for and eaten of their food, prayed for them aloud to Messer Domeneddio himself, and kissed As- torre on the forehead. As they were on their knees, she walked away, stopped, took a peach, ate it, walked on, vanished — ecco! The curate rubbed his head, and tried another boy. L^seless: the story was the same. Third boy, same story. He tucked up his cassock with decision, took his biretta and walking-staff, and said to the three goat-herds: — "My lads, all this is matter of miracle. I do not deny its truth — God forbid it in a simple man such as I am. But I do certainly ask you to lead me to the scene of your labors." The boys needed no second asking: off they all set. The curate went over every inch of the ground. Here lay Luca, Biagio, and Astorre; the belfry of San Zeno was in such and such a direction, the peach-trees in such and such. Good: there they were. What next? According to their account, Madonna had come thus and thus. The good curate bundled off to spy for footprints in the orchard. Marvel! there were none. This made him look very grave; for if she made no earthly foot- prints, she could have no earthly feet. Next he must see by what way she had gone. She left them kneeling here, said they, went towards the peach-garden, stayed by a certain tree (which they pointed out), plucked a peach from the very top of it — this they swore to, though the tree was near fourteen feet high — stood while she ate it, and went over the brow of the rising ground. Here was detail enough, it is to be hoped. The curate nosed it out like a slot-hound; he paced the track himself from the scrub to the peach-tree, and stood imder this last gazing to its top, 274 ORAL ENGLISH from there to its roots; he shook his head many times, stroked his chin a few; then with a broken cry he made a pounce and picked up — a peach-stone! After this to doubt would have been childish; as a fact he had no more than the boys. "My children," said he, "we are here face to face with a great mys- tery. It is plain that Messer Domeneddio hath designs upon this ham- let, of which we. His worms, have no conception. You, my dear sons. He hath chosen to be workers for His purpose, which we cannot be very far wrong in supposing to be the building of an oratory or tabernacle to hold this unspeakable relic. That erection must be our immediate, anxious care. Meantime I will place the relic in the pyx of our Lady's altar, and mark the day in our calendar for perpetual remembrance. I shall not fail to communicate with his holiness the bishop. Who knows what may be the end of this?" He was as good as his word. A procession was formed in no time — children carrjdng their rosaries and bunches of flowers, three banners, the whole village with a candle apiece; next Luca, Biagio, and Astorre with larger candles — half a pound weight each at the least; then four men to hold up a canopy, below which came the good curate himself with the relic on a cushion. It was deposited with great reverence in the place devoted, having been drenched with incense. There was a solemn mass. After which things the curate thought himself at liberty to ruffle into Verona with the news. ANTELOPE THE SIOUX SCOUT i Abridged from Old Indian Days. By C. Alexander Eastman On a hot midsummer morning while most of the inmates of the tepees in the Sioux camp were breakfasting in the open air, the powerful voice of the herald chanted, "Hear ye, hear ye, warriors! The council has decreed that four brave young men must scout the country for the peace and protection of our people!" All listened eagerly for the names of the chosen warriors, and in another moment there came the sonorous call: "Antelope, Antelope! the council has selected you! " ^ Reprinted by permission of Doubleday Page and Company. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 275 In due time the four chosen youths appeared before the council fire. The oath of the pipe was administered, and each took a few whiffs as reverently as a churchman would partake of the sacrament. It was a peculiarly trying and hazardous moment in which to per- form the duties of a scout. The Sioux were encroaching upon the ter- ritory of hostile tribes, here in the foot-hills of the Big Horn Mountains. If continued vigilance could not save them, it might become necessary to retreat to their own hunting grounds. Antelope had been running for two or three hours at a good, even gait, and had crossed more than one of the smaller creeks. His keen ej-es were constantly sweeping the country in his front. Suddenly he paused and shrank back motionless, still keeping an eye upon a moving object. It was soon evident that some one was stealthily eyeing him from behind cover. Stooping, he glided down, a little ravine, and as he reached the bed of the creek there emerged from it a large, gray wolf. This was verj"^ opportune for Antelope. He gave the gray wolf's danger-call, then he turned and- ran fleetly down the stream. At the same moment the wolf appeared upon the top of the bank, in full view of the enemy. "Here he comes! " they whispered, and had their arrows on the string as the wolf trotted leisurely along, exposing only his head, for this was a common disguise among the plains Indians. But when he came into the open, behold! it was only a gray wolf! "Ugh!" the Utes grunted. "Surely he was a man, and coming di- rectly into our trap! Either he is a Sioux in disguise, or we don't know their tricks! " exclaimed the leader. Now thej' gave the war-whoop, and their arrows flew through the air. The wolf gave a yelp of distress, staggered and fell dead. Instantly they ran to examine the body, and found it to be truly that of a wolf. "Either this is a wonderful medicine-man, or we are shamefully fooled by a Sioux warrior," they muttered. They lost several minutes before they caught sight of Antelope. It would be safer for him to remain in concealment until dark; but in the meantime the Ute warriors would reach the camp, and his people were unprepared! It was necessary to expose himself to the enemy. He knew that it would be chiefly a contest of speed and he had an ex- 276 ORAL ENGLISH cellent start; but on the other hand, the Utes doubtless had their horses. "The Sioux who has played this trick on us must die to-day!" ex- claimed their leader. "Come, friends, we cannot afford to let him tell this joke on us at the camp-fires of his people!" Antelope was headed directly for Eagle Scout Butte, for the Sioux camp was in plain view from the top of this hill. "I shall reach the summit first, unless the Ute horses have wings!" he said to himself. Looking over his shoulder, he saw five horsemen approaching, so he examined his bow and arrows as he ran. Now he was within hearing of their whoops, but he was already at the foot of the butte. Their horses could not run up the steep ascent, and they were obliged to dismount. Like a deer the Sioux leaped from rock to rock, and almost within arrow-shot came his pursuers. When he achieved the summit, he took his stand between two great rocks, and flashed his tiny looking-glass for a distress signal into the distant camp of his people. He sent down a swift arrow now and then, to show the Utes that he was no child or woman in fight. They replied with yells of triumph, as they pressed more closely upon him. From time to time he continued to flash his signal, and at last Uke lightning the little white flash came in reply. The sun was low when the besieged warrior discovered a large body of horsemen approaching from the northwest. It was the Ute war- party! He looked earnestly once more toward the Sioux camp. There, too, were many moving specks upon the plain, drawmg toward the foot of the hill! When the Sioux warriors reached the well-known butte, they could distinguish their enemies massed behind the hanging rocks and scattered cedar-trees, crawling up closer and closer, for the Ute war-party reached the hill just as the scouts who held Antelope at bay discovered the ap- proach of his kinsmen. Antelope had long since exhausted his quiver of arrows and was gather- ing up many of those that fell about him to send them back among his pursuers. When their attention was withdrawn from him for an instant by the sudden onset of the Sioux, he sprang to his feet. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 277 He raised both his hands heavenward in token of gratitude for his rescue, and his friends announced with loud shouts the daring of An- telope. Both sides fought bravely, but the Utes at last retreated and were fiercely pursued. Antelope stood at his full height upon the huge rock that had sheltered him, and gave his yell of defiance and exultation. Below him the warriors took it up, and among the gathering shadows the rocks echoed praises of his name. In the Sioux camp upon Lost Water there were dances and praise songs, but there was wailing and mourning, too, for many lay dead among the crags. The name of Antelope was indelibly recorded upon Eagle Scout Butte. If he wished for a war-bonnet of eagle feathers, it was his to wear. PIRATES 1 From Collected Poems. By Alfred Notes Come to me, you with the laughing face, in the night as I lie Dreaming of the days that are dead and of joys gone by; Come to me, comrade, come through the slow-dripping rain, Come from your grave in the darkness and let us be playmates again. Let us be boys together to-night, and pretend as of old We are pirates at rest in a cave among huge heaps of gold, Red Spanish doubloons and great pieces of eight, and muskets and swords, And a smoky red camp-fire to glint, you know how, on our ill-gotten hoards. The old cave in the fir-wood that slopes down the hills to the sea Still is haunted, perhaps, by young pirates as wicked as we: Though the fir with the magpie's big mud-plastered nest used to hide it so well. And the boys in the gang had to swear that they never would tell. Ah, that tree; I have sat in its boughs and looked seaward for hours; I remember the creak of its branches; the scent of the flowers 1 Copyright, 1913, Frederick A. Stokes and Company and reprinted by their permission. 278 ORAL ENGLISH That climbed round the mouth of the cave: it is odd I recall Those little things best, that I scarcely took heed of at all. I remember how brightly the brass on the butt of my spy-glass gleamed As I climbed the purple heather and thyme to our eyrie and dreamed ; I remember the smooth glossy sun-burn that darkened our faces and hands As we gazed at the merchantmen sailing away to those wonderful lands. I remember the long sigh of the sea as we raced in the sun, To dry ourselves after our swimming; and how we would run With a cry and a crash through the foam as it creamed on the shore, Then to bask in the warm dry gold of the sand once more. Come to me; you with the laughing face; in the gloom as I lie Dreaming of the days that are dead and of joys gone by; Let us be boys together to-night and pretend as of old We are pirates at rest in a cave among great heaps of gold. Come; you shall be chief; we'll not quarrel: the time flies so fast: There are ships to be grappled, there's blood to be shed, ere our play- time be past: No; perhaps we ivill quarrel, just once, or it scarcely will seem So like the old days that have flown from us both like a dream. Still; you shall be chief in the end; and then we'll go home To the hearth and the tea and the books that we loved : ah, but come, Come to me, come through the dark and the slow-dripping rain; Come, old friend, come from your grave and let us be playmates again. NANDI LION HUNTING 1 From. African Game Trails. By Theodore Roosevelt At Sergoi Lake (in East Africa) there is a store kept by Mr. Kirke, a South African of Scotch blood. With a kind courtesy which I cannot too highly appreciate he, with the equally cordial help of another settlor, Mr. Skally — also a South African, but of Irish birth — and of the District ^ Copyright, 1909, by Charles Scribner's Sons. Reprinted in this volume by special arrangement with Charles Scribner's Sons. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 279 Commissioner, Mr. Corbctt, had arranged for a party of Nandi warriors to come over and show me how they hunted the lion. Two Dutch farmers, Boers, from the neighborhood, had also come; they were Messrs. Mouton and Jordaan, fine fellows both, the former having served with De Wet during the war. Mr. and Mrs. Corbett — who were hospitality itself — had also come to see the sport; and so had Captain Chapman, an English army officer who was taking a rest after several years' service in Northern Nigeria. The Nandi are a warlike pastoral tribe, close kin to the Masai in blood and tongue, in weapons and in manner of life. They have long been accustomed to kill with the spear lions which became man-eaters or which molest their cattle overmuch; and the peace which British rule has imposed upon them — a peace so welcome to the weaker, so irksome to the predatory, tribes — has left lion killing one of the few pursuits in which glory can be won by a young warrior. "When it was told them that if they wished they could come to hunt lions at Sergoi eight hun- dred w\arriors volunteered, and much heart-burning was caused in choosing the sixty or seventy who were allowed the privilege. They stipulated, however, that they should not be used merely as beaters, but should kill the lion themselves, and refused to come unless with this understanding. They were splendid savages, stark naked, lithe as panthers, the muscles rippling under their smooth dark skins; all their lives they had hved on nothing but animal food, milk, blood, and flesh, and they were fit for any fatigue or danger. Their faces were proud, cruel, fearless; as they ran they moved with long springy strides. Their head-dresses were fantastic; they carried ox-hide shields, painted with strange de- vices; and each bore in his right hand the formidable war spear, used both for stabbing and for throwing at close quarters. The narrow spear heads of soft iron were burnished till they shone like silver; they were four feet long, and the point and edges were razor sharp. The wooden haft appeared for but a few inches; the long butt was also of iron, end- ing in a spike, so that the spear looked almost solid metal. Yet each sinewy warrior carried his heavy weapon as if it were a toy, twirling it till it glinted in the sun-rays. Herds of game, red hartebeests, and 280 ORAL ENGLISH striped zebra and wild swine, fled right and left before the advance of the line. It was noon before we reached a wide, shallow valley, with beds of rushes here and there in the middle, and on either side high grass and dwarfed and scattered thorn-trees. Down this we beat for a couple of miles. Then, suddenly, a maned Hon rose a quarter of a mile ahead of the line and galloped off through the high grass to the right; and all of us on horseback tore after him. He was a magnificent beast, with a black and tawny mane; in hia prime, teeth and claws perfect, with mighty thews and savage heart. He was lying near a hartebeest on which he had been feasting; his life had been one unbroken career of rapine and violence; and now the maned master of the wilderness, the terror that stalked by night, the grim lord of slaughter, was to meet his doom at the hands of the only foes who dared molest him. It was a mile before we brought him to bay. Then the Dutch farmer, Moulton, who had not even a rifle, but who rode foremost, was almost on him; he halted and turned under a low thorn-tree, and we galloped past him to the opposite side, to hold him until the spearmen could come. It was a sore temptation to shoot him; but of course we could not break faith with our Nandi friends. We were only some sixty yards from him, and we watched him with our rifles ready, lest he should charge either us, or the first two or three spearmen, before their compan- ions arrived. One by one the spearmen came up, at a run, and gradually began to form a ring around him. Each, when he came near enough, crouched behind his shield, his spear in his right hand, his fierce, eager face peering over the shield rim. As man followed man, the lion rose to his feet. His mane bristled, his tail lashed, he held his head low, the upper lip now drooping over the jaws, now drawn up so as to show the gleam of the long fangs. He faced first one way and then another, and never ceased to utter his murderous grunting roars. It was a wild sight; the ring of spearmen, intent, silent, bent on blood, and in the centre the groat man-killing beai^t, his thunderous wrath growing ever more dangerous. At last the tense ring was complete, and the spearmen arose and closed SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 281 in. The lion looked quickly from side to side, saw where the line was thinnest, and charged at his topmost speed. The crowded moment began. With shields held steady, and quivering spears poised, the men in front braced themselves for the rush and the shock; and from either hand the warriors sprang forward to take their foe in flank. Bounding ahead of his fellows, the leader reached throwing distance; the long spear flickered and plunged; as the lion felt the wound he half turned, and then flung himself on the man in front. The warrior threw his spear; it drove deep into the life, for entering at one shoulder it came out of the opposite flank, near the thigh, a yard of steel through the great body. Rearing, the lion struck the man, bearing dowTi the shield, his back arched; and for a moment he slaked his fury with fang and talon. But on the instant I saw another epear driven clear through his body from side to side; and as the lion turned again the bright spear blades darting toward him were flashes of white flame. The end had come. He seized another man, who stabbed him and wrenched loose. As he fell he gripped a spear-head in his jaws with such tremendous force that he bent it double. Then the warriors were round and over him, stabbing and shouting, wild with furious exultation. From the moment when he charged until his death I doubt whether ten seconds had elapsed, perhaps less; but what a ten seconds! The first half-dozen spears had done the work. Three of the spear blades had gone clear through the body, the points projecting several inches; and these, and one or two others, including the one he had seized in his jaws, had been twisted out of shape in the terrible death struggle. We at once attended to the two wounded men. Treating their wounds with antiseptic was painful, and so, while the operation was in progress, I told them, through Kirke, that I would give each a heifer. A Nandi prizes his cattle rather more than his wives; and each sufferer smiled broadly at the news, and forgot all about the pain of his wounds. Then the warriors, raising their shields above their heads, and chanting the deep-toned victory song, marched with a slow, dancing step around the dead body of the lion; and this savage dance of triumph ended a scene of as fierce interest and excitement as I ever hope to see. 282 ORAL ENGLISH THE KING'S TRAGEDY Abridged from Ballads and Sonnets. By Dante Gabriel Rossetti Note. Tradition says that Catherine Douglas, in honor of her heroic act when she barred the door with her arm against the murderers of James the First of Scots, received popularly the name of "Barlass." This name is retained by her descendants, the Barlass family, in Scotland, who bear for their crest a broken arm. I, Catherine, am a Douglas bom, A name to all Scots dear; And Kate Barlass they've called me now Through many a waning year. This old arm's withered now. 'Twae once Most deft 'mong maidens all To rein the steed, to wing the shaft, To smite the palm-play ball. Aye, lasses, draw round Kate Barlass, And hark with bated breath How good King James, King Robert's son, Was foully done to death. 'Twas in the Charterhouse of Perth That the king and all his Court Were met, the Christmas Feast being done, For solace and disport. And the queen was there, more stately fair Than a lily in garden set; And the king was loth to stir from her side For as on the day when she was his bride, Even so he loved her yet. And the Earl of Athole, the King's false friend. Sat with him at the board; And Robert Stuart the chamberlain Who sold his sovereign Lord. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 283 With reverence meet to King cand Queen, To bed went all from the board; And the last to leave the courtly train Was Robert Stuart the chamberlain Who had sold his sovereign lord. And all the locks of the chamber-door Had the traitor riven and brast; And that Fate might win sure way from afar, He had drawn out every bolt and bar That made the entrance fast. And now at midnight he stole his way To the moat of the outer wall, And laid strong hurdles closely across Where the traitors' tread should fall. But we that were the Queen's bower-maids Alone were left behind; And with heed we drew the curtains close Against the winter wind. And now that all was still through the hall, More clearly we heard the rain That clamored ever against the glass And the boughs that beat on the pane. And now there came a torchlight-glare. And a clang of arms there came; And not a soul in that space but thought Of the foe Sir Robert Graeme, Yea, from the country of the Wild Scots, O'er mountain, valley, and glen. He had brought with him in murderous league Three hundred armed men/ 284 ORAL ENGLISH The King knew all in an instant's flash, And like a king did he stand; But there was no armor in all the room, Nor weapon lay to his hand. And all we women flew to the door And thought to have it made fast; But the bolts were gone and the bars were gone And the locks were riven and brast. And he caught the pale, pale Queen in his arms As the iron foot-step fell, — Then loosed her, standing alone, and said, "Our bliss was our farewell!" And 'twixt his lips he murmured a prayer, And he crossed his brow and breast; And proudly in royal hardihood Even so with folded arms he stood, — The prize of the bloody quest. Then on me leaped the Queen like a deer: — "O Catherine, help!" she cried. And low at his feet we clasped his knees Together side by side. "Oh! even a king, for his people's sake. From treasonous death must hide!" "For her sake most!" I cried, and marked The pang that my words could wring, And the iron tongs from the chimney-nook I snatched and held to the King: — "Wrench up the plank! and the vault beneath Shall yield safe harboring." With brows low-bent, from my eager hand The heavy heft did he take; SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 285 And the plank at his feet he wrenrliod and tore; And ae he frowned through the open floor, Again I said, "For her sake!" Then he cried to the Queen, "God's will be done!" For her hands were clasped in prayer. And down he sprang to the inner crypt; And straight we closed the plank he had ri])p'd And toiled to smoothe it fair. Then Ihe Queen cried, "Catherine, keep the door, And I to this will suffice! " At her word I rose all dazed to my feet, And my heart was fire and ice. And now the rush was heard on the stair, And "God, what help?" was our cry. And was I frenzied or was I bold? I looked at each empty stanchion-hold, And no bar but my arm had I! Like iron felt my arm, as through The staple I made it pass: — Alack! it was flesh and bone — no more! 'Twas Catherine Douglas sprang to the door, But I fell back Kate Barlass. With that they thronged into the hall. Half dim to my failing ken; And the space that was but a void before Was a crowd of wrathful men. Behind the door I had fall'n and lay. Yet my sense was wildly aware, And for all the pain of my shattered arm I never fainted there. 286 ORAL ENGLISH Even as I fell, my eyes were cast Where the King leaped down to the pit; And lo! the plank was smooth in its place, And the Queen stood far from it. And under the litters and through the bed And within the presses all The traitors sought for the King, and pierced The arras around the wall. And through the chamber they ramped and stormed Like lions loose in the lair. And scarce could trust to their very eyes, — For behold! no King was there. And forth flowed all the throng like a sea. And 'twas empty space once more; And my eyes sought out the wounded Queen As I lay behind the door. And I said, "Dear Lady, leave me here, For I cannot help you now; But fly while you may, and none shall reck Of my place here lying low." And now again came the armed tread, And fast through the hall it fell; But the throng was less; and ere I saw. By the voice without I could tell That Robert Stuart had come with them Who knew that chamber well. And Stuart held a torch to the floor, And he found the thing he sought; And they slashed the plank away with their swords; And God! I fainted not! SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 287 O God! what more did I see, Or how should I tell the rest? But there at length our King lay slain With sixteen wounds in his breast. Ah me! and now did a bell boom forth, And the murderers turned and fled; — Too late, too late, alas, did it sound! — And I heard the true men mustering round, And the cries and the mustering tread. 'Twas in the Charterhouse of Perth, In the fair-lit Death-chapelle, That the slain King's corpse on bier was laid With chaunt and requiem-knell. In his robes of state he lay asleep With orb and sceptre in hand; And by the crown he wore on his throne Was his kinglj^ forehead spann'd. And the Queen sat by him night and day. And oft she knelt in prayer. All wan and pale in the widow's veil That shrouded her shining hair. And the month of March wore nigh to its end, And still was the death-pall spread; For she would not bury her slaughtered lord Till his slayers all were dead. And now of their dooms dread tidings came. And of torments fierce and dire; And nought she spake, — she had ceased to speak, — But her eyes were a soul on fire. But when I told her the bitter end Of the stern and just reward. She leaned o'er the bier, and thrice three times She kissed the Ups of her lord. 288 ORAL ENGLISH And then she said, — "My King, they are dead!" And she knelt on the chapel-floor, And whispered low with a strange proud smile, — "James, James, they suffered more!" And "O James!" she said,— "My James!" she said,- "Alas for the woful thing, That a poet true and a friend of man. In desperate days of bale and ban, Should needs be born a King!" DIRECTNESS IN DELIVERY The old style declamatory method of speaking has passed away, as has, also, tearing of passions to tatters by ranting actors. Occasionally an over-zealous speaker mistakes vo- ciferous delivery for eloquence, but the best speakers of to- day are simple, direct and colloquial in their utterances. In making your delivery direct, avoid robbing it of vitality. Keep the undercurrent of vitality, consider your audience as being near at hand, and appeal directly to them. Exem- plify directness in the following selections. AT ABBOTSFORD WITH SCOTT i Frovi Chayon Miscellany. By Washington Irving I had a letter of introduction to him from Thomas Campbell, the poet, and had reason to think, from the interest he had taken in some of my earlier scribbUngs, that a visit from me would not be deemed an intrusion. On the following morning, after an early breakfast, I set off in a post- chaise for the Abbey. On the way thither I stopped at the gate of Abbotsford, and sent the postilion to the house with the letter of intro- duction and my card, on which I had written that I was on my way to the ruins of Melrose Abbey, and wished to know whether it would be agreeable to Mr. Scott (he had not yet been made a baronet) to receive a visit from me in the course of the morning. In a little while the "lord of the castle" himself made his appearance. I knew him at once by the descriptions I had read and heard, and the likeness that had been pubhshed of him. He was tall, and of a large and powerful frame. His dress was simple, and almost rustic: an old green shooting-coat, with a dog-whistle at his button-hole, brown linen pantaloons, stout shoes that tied at the ankles, and a white hat that had evidently seen service. He came limping up the gravel-walk, aiding himself by a stout walking-staff, but moving rapidly and with vigor. By his side jogged along a large iron-gray stag-hound of most grave demeanor. Before Scott had reached the gate he called out in a hearty tone, wel- coming me to Abbotsford, and asking news of Campbell. Arrived at the door of the chaise, he grasped me warmly by the hand: "Come, drive down, drive down to the house," said he. "Ye're just in time for break- fast, and afterward ye shall see all the wonders of the Abbey." I would have excused myself, on the plea of having already made my breakfast. "Hout, man," cried he, "a ride in the morning in the keen air of the Scotch hills is warrant enough for a second breakfast." I ^ Reprinted by permission of G. P. Putnam's Sons. 291 292 ORAL ENGLISH was accordingly whirled to the portal of the cottage, and in a few mo- ments found myself seated at the breakfast table. Scott proposed a ramble to show me something of the surrounding country. As we sallied forth, every dog in the establishment turned out to attend us. There was the old stag-hound Maida, a noble animal, and a great favorite of Scott's; and Hamlet, the black greyhound, a wild thoughtless youngster; and Finette, a beautiful setter, with soft silken hair, long pendent ears, and a mild eye, the parlor favorite. When in front of the house, we were joined by a superannuated greyhound, who came from the kitchen wagging his tail, and was cheered by Scott as an old friend and comrade. Scott would frequently pause in con- versation to notice his dogs and speak to them, as if rational com- panions. We had not walked far before we saw the two Miss Scotts advancing along the hillside to meet us. The morning's studies being over, they had set off to take a ramble on the hills, and gather heather-blossoms. As they came bounding lightly, like young fawns, and their dresses fluttering in the pure summer breeze, I was reminded of Scott's own description of his children in his introduction to one of the cantos of "Marmion." As they approached, the dogs all sprang forward and gamboled around them. They played with them for a time, and then joined us with countenances full of health and glee. Sophia, the elder, was the more lively and joyous, having much of her father's varied spirit in conver- sation, and seeming to catch excitement from his words and looks. Ann was of quieter mood, rather silent, owing, in some measure, no doubt, to her being some years younger. At the dinner Scott had laid by his half-rustic dress, and appeared clad in black. The girls, too, in completing their toilet, had twisted in their hair the sprigs of purple heather which they had gathered on the hillside, and looked all fresh and blooming from their breezy walk. There was no guest at dinner but myself. Around the table were two or three dogs in attendance. Maida, the old stag-hound, took his seat at Scott's elbow, looking up wistfully in his master's eye, while Finette, the pet spaniel, placed herself near Mrs. Scott, by whom, I soon perceived, she was completely spoiled. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 293 After dinner we adjournc^d to the drawing room, which served also for study and Hbrary. Against the wall on one side was a long WTiting table, with drawers; surmounted by a small cabinet of polished wood, with folding-drawers richly studded with brass ornaments, within which Scott kept his most valuable papers. Above the cabinet, in a kind of niche, was a complete corselet of glittering steel, with a closed helmet, and flanked by gauntlets and battle-axes. Around were hung trophies and relics of various kinds; a simitar of Tipu Sahib; a Highland broadsword from Flodden field; a pair of Rip- pon spurs from Bannockburn, and above all, a gun which had belonged to Rob Roy, and bore the initials, R. M. C. an object of peculiar interest to me at the time, as it was imderstood Scott was actually engaged in printing a novel founded on the story of that famous outlaw. On each side of the cabinet were bookcases, well stored with works of romantic fiction in various languages, many of them rare and anti- quated. This, however, was merely his cottage library, the principal part of his books being at Edinburgh. The evening passed away delightfuU.y in this quaint-looking apart- ment . Scott had read several passages from the old romances of Arthur, with a fine, deep, sonorous voice, and a gravity of tone that seemed to suit the antiquated black-letter volume. It was a rich treat to hear such a work, read by such a person, and in such a place; and his ap- pearance as he sat reading, in a large armed chair, with his favorite hound, Maida, at his feet and surrounded by books and relics, and border trophies, w^ould have formed an admirable and most character- istic picture. A MORNING IN AN AFRICAN VILLAGE ^ Abridged from A Voice from the Congo. By Herbert Ward Ibenza is the name of the village. It is situated in the heart of the great African forest, fifteen hundred miles from ocean shores. The population is small, for the native communities of this wild region are wanting in the elements of union. ^Copyright, 1910, by Charles Scribner's Song. Reprinted by special ar- rangement with these publishers. 294 ORAL ENGLISH It is early morning — dark, damp and cold. A white mist hanga heavily over the ground, enveloping the huts and all the lower growths of foliage in ghostly mystery. *********** Men and women crawl forth from their tiny grass huts, yawning and stretching themselves after their night's deep slumber. The morning mists soon disappear and the village gradually becomes animated. Children, light-hearted and joyous, commence to gambol in every direc- tion; some with their mimic bows and arrows shoot at the prowling pariah dogs. *********** The morning meal, consisting of a few ears of maise and half-smoked fish, is soon over. Then follows the departure of nearly all the women; they vanish into their forest plantations in quest of food and firewood. The men gradually assemble in front of the chief's hut to hear the pub- lic discussions of the day. These palaver meetings are dear to all Central Africans, They take keen delight in orator>', which may in fact be said to constitute one of their important arts. They talk fluently and employ many metaphorical and flowery expressions. Possessing a natural gift of rude eloquence, it is greatly enhanced in efi"ect by the soft inflections and the harmo- nious euphony of their language; they reason well and display great aptitude for debate. The case before the court to-day relates to the death of a young slave girl. She was recently seized by a crocodile, while bathing in the river. About two hundred men and boys in semi-nakedness, seat themselves in a circle in front of their chief, a large-boned truculent-looking man, decorated with heavy iron anklets and bracelets, sitting cross-legged upon a leopard skin. The former owner of the deceased slave steps forward; striking his spear blade downwards in the ground in front of him, he produces in his right hand a number of small pieces of split bamboo. Speaking fluently and with simple gesture he caps each point of his oration by selecting one of his small sticks and placing it upon the ground in front of him. In brief, his speech relates first to his early life, and in monot- onous rotation, and with a careless indifference to relevancy, he enum- SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 295 arates all the most memorable and favorable events of his own life, down to the time when he purchased the deceased slave. He then re- lates the history of the unfortunate slave-girl's untimelj' end. "Death is not a natural event," he continued, in the flowery idiom of his language. "Some person with an evil heart has been in com- munication with the crocodile that deprived me of my slave. An evil spirit, born of envy or malice, has entered the soul of some person in this village and has been communicated to the crocodile. It may even be that some revengeful man or woman has actually become trans- formed into the shape of a crocodile to do me harm. An evil spirit has been at work, and I call upon our Nganga, our wise and clever witch- doctor, to seek it." His speech is ended, and upon the ground at his feet lies the row of small sticks which have served as memoranda. No sooner has the first speech concluded than another orator com- mences, with a different line of argument; suggesting that the slave girl had offended the great Evil Spirit, and that the angry "Ndoki" had sent his emissary the crocodile to punish her. Other men, with yet more strangely superstitious views, hasten to gain the attention of the company; the discussion grows heated, and voices are suddenly raised in anger. An imminent brawl is, however, diverted by the timely appearance of several women upon the scene. They carry large earthen-ware jars of fermented sugar-cane juice. The hubbub ceases; the natives forgetful of their differences crowd forward and drink the intoxicating liquid and their voices assume a more friendly tone. The sun is now at its zenith and the heat is intense. Suddenly all eyes are directed towards a forest path. A jingle of iron bells, a stamping of feet, and from a cloud of dust there springs the grotesque figure of the Fetish Man. Wild-cat skins dangle from his waist. His eyelids are whitened with chalk. His body is smeared with the blood of a fresh-killed fowl. His feather head-dress flutters as he dances. His charms and metal ornaments clank and jingle as he bounds and springs hither and thither somewhat after the manner of a harlequin. Wildly he dances, stamping his feet and wriggling his body as though his waist was a hinge; the company, squatting round him in a circle. 296 ORAL ENGLISH meanwhile chant a monotonous dirge-Hke song and clap their hands in unison. At length, bathed in perspiration, dusty and bedraggled, the Fetish Man with a gesture of his hand commands silence. With high prancing steps and swaying shoulders he passes slowly around the com- pany directing searching looks into many faces. In a falsetto voice, still swaying his body, he states that he has come to seek an evil spirit, that he seeks the person who is guilty of having taken the form of a crocodile to kill a woman. "It is a woman," says he with a fiendish grin, changing the tone of his voice from shrill falsetto to deep bass, "a woman, an old woman, who was envious of the good favor shown to the dead girl by her master." Stooping low, he places his ear to the ground, and carries on an imag- inary conversation. He pretends to consult a spirit in the earth. Then rising, he walks with measured prancing steps in the direction of a poor forlorn-looking woman. Pointing towards her, he makes a hideous grimace and in a sepulchral tone of voice he condemns her as being the guilty person. The wretched woman shrieks, springs to her feet, and turns to flee. Too late. A spear instantly glistens in the air, it strikes her in the back, and with a moan of pain she falls heavily to the ground. During the ensuing uproar her bodj' is dragged away towards the river amid deafening yells and shouts. They then rejoice, these simple people, that an evil spirit has been appeased. SEA ICE AND ICEBERGS i From The Forms of Water. By John Tyndall Water becomes heavier and more difficult to freeze when salt is dis- solved in it. Sea water is therefore heavier than fresh, and the Green- land Ocean requires to freeze it a temperature three and one half degrees lower than fresh water. But even when the water is saturated with salt, the crystallizing force studiously rejects the salt, and devotes itself to the congelation of the water alone. Hence the ice of sea water, when melted, produces fresh water. The only saline particles existing in such ice are those entangled ' Reprinted by permission of D. Appleton & Co. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 297 mechanically in its pores. They have no part or lot in the structure of the crystal. This exclusiveness, if I may use the term, of the water molecules: this entire rejection of all foreign elements from the edifices which they build, is enforced to a surprising degree. Sulphuric acid has so strong an affin- ity for water that it is one of the most powerful agents known to the chemist for the removal of humidity from air. Still, as shown by Faraday, when a mixture of sulphuric acid and water is frozen, the crystal formed is perfectly sweet and free from acidity. The water alone has lent itself to the crystallizing force. Every winter in the Arctic regions the sea freezes, roofing itself with ice of enormous thickness and vast extent. By the summer heat, and the tossing of the waves, this is broken up; the fragments are drifted by winds and borne by currents. They clash, they crush each other, they file themselves into heaps, thus constituting the chief danger en- countered by mariners in the polar seas. But among the drifting masses of flat sea ice, vaster masses sail, which spring from a totally different source. These are the icebergs of the Arctic seas. They rise sometimes to an elevation of hundreds of feet above the water, while the weight of ice submerged is about seven times that seen above. The first observers of striking natural phenomena generally allow wonder and imagination more than their due place. But to exclude all error arising from this cause, I will refer to the journal of a cool and intrepid Arctic navigator, Sir Leopold McClintock. He describes an iceberg two hundred fifty feet high, which was aground in five hundred feet of water. This would make the entire height of the berg seven hundred fifty feet, not an unusual altitude for the greater icebergs. From Baffin's Bay these mighty masses come sailing down through Davis' Straits into the broad Atlantic. A vast amount of heat is de- manded for the simple liquefaction of ice; and the melting of icebergs is on this account so slow, that when large they sometimes maintain themselves till they have been drifted two thousand miles from their place of birth. What is their origin? The Arctic glaciers. From the mountains in the interior the indurated snows slide into the valleys and fill them with 298 ORAL ENGLISH ice. The glaciers thus formed move hke the Swiss ones, incessantly downward. But the Arctic glaciers reach the sea, enter it, often plowing up its bottom into submarine moraines. Undermined by the lapping of the waves, and unable to resist the strain imposed by their own weight, they break across, and discharge vast masses into the ocean. Some of these run aground on the adjacent shores, and often maintain themselves for years. Others escape southward, to be finally dissolved in the warm waters of the Atlantic. STRUGGLING FOR AN EDUCATION i Abridged from Up from Slavery. By Booker T. Washington One day, while I was at work in the coal-mine, I happened to over- hear two miners talking about a great school for colored people some- where in Virginia. This was the first time that I had ever heard any- thing about any kind of school or college that was more pretentious than the little colored school in our town. In the darkness of the mine I noiselessly crept as close as I could to the two men who were talking. I heard one tell the other that not only was the school established for the members of my race, but that opportunities were provided by which poor but worthy students could work out all or a part of the cost of board, and at the same time be taught some trade or industry. As they went on describing the school, it seemed to me that it must be the greatest place on earth, and not even Heaven presented more attractions for me at that time than did the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, about which these men were talking. I resolved at once to go to that school, although I had no idea where it was, or how I was going to reach it; I remembered only that I was on fire constantly with one ambition, and that was to go to Hampton. This thought was with me day and night. In the fall of 1872 I determined to make an effort to get there. The distance from Maiden to Hampton is about five hundred miles. By walking, begging rides both in wagons and in the cars, sometimes pay- ^ Copyright 1901 by Doubleday Page and Company, and reprinted by special arrangement with thesB publishers. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 299 ing my fare by stage-coach or train from my scanty savings, in some way, after a number of days, I reached Richmond, Virginia, about eighty-two miles from Hampton. At Richmond I spent several days heljjing unload pig iron from a vessel, thus earning a little to add to the amount I must get to pay my way to Hampton. I reached Hampton, with a surplus of exactly fifty cents with which to begin my education. To me it had been a long, eventful journey; but the first sight of the large, three-story, brick school building seemed to have rewarded me for all that I had undergone in order to reach the place. If the people who gave the money to provide that building could appreciate the influence the sight of it had upon me, as well as upon thousands of other youths, they would feel all the more encouraged to make such gifts. It seemed to me to be the largest and most beautiful building I had ever seen. I felt that a new kind of existence had now begun — that life would now have a new meaning. I felt that I had reached the promised land, and I resolved to let no obstacle prevent me from putting forth the highest effort to fit myself to accomplish the most good in the world. As soon as possible after reaching the grounds of the Hampton In- stitute, I presented myself before the head teacher for assignment to a class. Having been so long without proper food, a bath, and change of clothing, I did not, of course, make a very favorable impression upon her, and I could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a student. I felt that I could hardly blame her if she got the idea that I was a worthless loafer or a tramp. For some time she did not refuse to admit me, neither did she decide in my favor, and I continued to linger about her, and to impress her in all the ways I could with my worthiness. In the meantime I saw her admitting other students, and that added greatly to my discomfort, for I felt, deep down in my heart, that I could do as well as they, if I could only get the chance to show what was in me. After some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me: "The ad- joining recitation-room needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it." It occurred to me that here was my chance. Never did I receive an order with more delight. I knew that I could sweep, for Mrs. Ruffner had taught me how to do that when I lived with her. 300 ORAL ENGLISH I swept the recitation-room tliree times. Then I got a dusting-cloth and dusted it four times. All the woodwork around the walls, every bench, table, and desk, I went over four times with my dusting-cloth Besides, every piece of furniture had been moved and every closet and corner in the room had been thoroughly cleaned. I had the feeling that in a large measure my future depended upon the impression I made upon the teacher in the cleaning of that room. When I was through, I reported to the head teacher. She was a " Yan- kee" woman who knew just where to look for dirt. She went into the room and inspected the floor and closets; then she took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls, and over the table and benches. When she was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor, or a particle of dust on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked, "I guess you will do to enter this institution." I was one of the happiest souls on earth. The sweeping of that room was my college examination, and never did any youth pass examination into Harvard or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction. I have passed several examinations since then, but I have always felt that this was the best one I ever passed. STANDARDS OF SUCCESS ' From The American of the Future and Other Essays. By Brander Matthews In spite of much that may seem like evidence to the contrary, the American people as a whole are not now setting up false standards of success. It is not true that they are drugged with "the spirit of mer- cenary materialism." There is really little reason to believe that the average man here in the United States, however much he may wish to be better off than he is, weighs his fellow men by their balance in the bank. In fact, the average man to-day is not without a pretty high opinion of those whose minds are not set on money-making; and he is in no danger of denouncing as a dire failure a career devoted to the loftier things of life. He may at times display too much curiosity about the ^ Copyright, 1909, bj' Charles Scribner's Sons. Reprinted by special ar- rangement with these publishers. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 301 methods and the amassed money of Mr. Midas or Mr. Croesus; but he does not reveal any too great esteem for their persons. He does not actually envy them, even though he may wish that he also had a little more of the material prosperity of which they have too much. It may even be doubted whether he holds them to have been more successful than the men whom he admires as the leaders of public opinion and as the possessors of the things that money cannot buy. He may gossip about the latest entertainment or the latest benefaction of in- ordinately wealthy men, but he does not set them as high as he rates certain college presidents, certain artists, certain men of letters, cer- tain inventors, whose power and success cannot be measured in money. He would not dispute Bacon's assertion that "no man's fortune can be an end worthy of the gift of being . . . and often the worthiest men abandon their fortunes willingly that they may have leisure for higher things." All those who are old enough to remember the funeral of Peter Cooper and its outpouring of affectionate regard from all classes in the city he had made a better place to live in, will not need to be assured that the average American clings sturdily to the belief that public service, in office or out of it, is the true gauge of life. The most useful citizen is in fact the most successful; and it is those who have given loyal serv- ice to the community whom the community holds in highest regard. Probably the average American, if he were forced to give thought to it, would admit willingly that the unknown settlement-workers, who put behind them all desire for gain and who give their lives gladly to unostentatious service, have achieved a fuller measure of success than the most of the men who have been conspicuous in amassing milUons. Not what we have, but what we use; Not what we see, but what we choose — These are the things that mar or bless The sum of human happiness. Not as we take, but as we give; Not as we pray, but as we live — These are the things that make for peace, Both now and after time shall cease. 302 ORAL ENGLISH THE PREMIERE OF "SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER" ^ Abridged fro77i The Jessamy Bride. By F. Frankfort Moore When Goldsmith reached his chambers in Brick Court, he found awaiting him a letter from Colman, the lessee of Covent Garden Theatre, to let him know that Woodward and Mrs. Abington had resigned their parts in his comedy which had been in rehearsal for a week, and that he, Colman, felt they were right in doing so, as the failure of the piece was inevitable. He hoped that Dr. Goldsmith would be discreet enough to sanction its withdrawal while its withdrawal was still possible. He read the letter — one of several from Colman prophesying dis- aster — without impatience, and threw it aside without a further thought that night. Next morning he hurried off to the theatre and found Colman in his most disagreeable mood. "I have been a manager now for some years," said Colman, "and, speaking from the experience which I have gained, I say without hesita- tion that I never had a piece offered to me which promised so complete a disaster as this, sir. Why, 'tis like no other comedy that was ever wrote." "That is a feature which I think the playgoers will not be so slow to appreciate," said Goldsmith. "Good Heavens! Mr. Colman, can- not you see that what the people want nowadays is a novelty? Pray let us not take so gloomy a view of the hereafter of our play." "Of your play, sir, by your leave," intoned Colman contemptuously. At rehearsals Colman provoked Goldsmith almost beyond endurance by his sneers, and actually encouraged the members of his own com- pany in their frivolous complaints regarding their dialogue. But Gold- smith occupied himself making such changes in his play as were sug- gested to him in the course of the rehearsals. He persuaded Mr. John Quick to take the part of Tony Lumpkin resigned by Woodward, and Mrs. Bulkley that of Miss Hardcastle resigned by Mrs. Abington. At the end of a week Gentleman Smith who had been cast for young Mar- low threw up his part, and it was handed over to Lee Lewes. The ' Reprinted by special arrangement with DufBeld and Company. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 303 title of the comedy, too, Goldsmith changed from "The Mistakes of a Night" to "She Stoops to Conquer." Fortunately Goldsmith had influential friends that recognized his genius, and believed in the success of his comedy. "To prove how certain we are of the future of your piece," said Joshua Reynolds to him, "we ask you to join us at dinner on Monday previous to the first performance." "Commonplace people would invite you to supper, sir," put in Dr. Johnson, "to celebrate the success of your plaj'. Our esteem remains independent of the verdict of the public. On Monday night, sir, j-ou will find a thousand people who will esteem it an honor to have you sup with them; but on Monday afternoon you will dine with us." On that Monday George Steevens called for Goldsmith and accom- panied him to the St. James coffee-house, where the dinner was to take place. There they found Dr. Johnson, Reynolds, Edmund and Richard Burke, and Caleb Whiteford already assembled. Garrick could not join them. The dinner was a dismal failure, so far as the guest of the party was concerned. Goldsmith was unable to swallow a morsel, so parched had his throat become from sheer nervousness. While there was still plenty of time even for walking to the theatre. Goldsmith left the room hastily, explaining elaborately that he had forgotten to brush his hat, and he meant to have the omission repaired without delay. The party looked for his return until a waiter reported that Dr. Goldsmith had left some time ago, hurrying in the direction of Pall Mall. "I suppose we may take it for granted that he has gone to the play- house?" said Edmund Burke. "It is not wise to take anything for granted so far as Goldsmith is concerned," said Steevens. "I think that the best course we can adopt is for some of us to go to the playhouse without delay. The play must be looked after; but for myself I mean to look after the author. If I know anything of him, the playhouse is just the place which he would most persistently avoid." While the rest of the party set out for Covent Garden Theatre, Steevens hurried oflf in the opposite direction. He w^ent on foot from 304 ORAL ENGLISH coffee house to coffee hous^-from Jack's, in Dean street, to the Old Bell, in Westminster— but he failed to discover his friend in one of them. An hour and a half he spent in this way. All this time roars of laughter from every part of the playhouse were greeting the brilliant dialogue, the natural characterization, and the admirably contrived situations in the best comedy that a century of brilliant authors had witnessed. The scene comes before us with vivid- ness. We see the enormous figure of Dr. Johnson leaning far out of the box nearest the stage, with a hand behind his ear, so as to lose no word spoken on the stage. Reynolds is in the opposite corner, his ear-trumpet resting on the ledge of the box. What a play! What spectators! We listen to the one year by year with the same delight that it brought to those who heard it this night for the first time; and we look with delight at the faces of the notable spectators which the brush of the little man with the ear-trumpet in Johnson's box has made immortal. And all this time Oliver Goldsmith was pacing, backward and for- ward, the broad walk in St. James Park. Steevens came upon him there after spending nearly two hours searching for him. "Don't speak, man," cried Oliver, "you come to tell me that the comedy is a failm-e." "Not I," said Steevens. "I have not been to the playhouse yet." "Then I beg you to hasten there, and bring me news of the play— don't fear to tell me the worst." "My dear friend," said Steevens, "I have no intention of going to the playhouse unless you are in my company. Have you no considera- tion for your art?" "What do you mean by that?" "I mean that some question may arise on the stage which 3-ou, and you only, can decide — are you willing to allow the future of your comedy to depend upon the decision of Colman?" "It shall not — it .shall not!" cried Goldsmith. They hurried to Charing Cross, whore a hackney coach was obtain- able. When they got out of the coach Goldsmith hastened round to the stage door. He reached the back of the stage just as Quick in the part of Tony Lumpkin was pretending to his mother that Mr. Hard- SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 305 castle was a highvvaj'man. The laughter that followed was not the laugh of playgoers who have endured four acts of dull play; it was the laugh of people who have been m good humor for over two hours, and Goldsmith knew it. When the house was still cheering at the conclusion of the epilogue, Goldsmith, overcome with emotion, hurried into the green room. Mrs. Abington was the first person whom he met. "Oh, sir," she said, "I cannot tell you the humiliation which I feel at having resigned my part in your comedy. I have been justly pun- ished by hearing the words which I might have spoken, applauded so rapturously coming from another." Members of the company and distinguished friends of the author now crowded about him. Dr. Johnson's voice filled the room. "We perceived the reason of your extraordinary modest}-, Dr. Gold- smith, before j-our play was many minutes on the stage. You dog, you took as your example the Italians who, on the eve of Lent, indulge in a carnival, celebrating their farewell to flesh by a feast. On the same analogy you had a glut of modesty previous to bidding modesty good- bye forever; for to-night's performance will surely make you a coxcomb." "Oh, I hope not, sir," said Goldsmith. "No, you don't hope it, sir," cried Johnson. "You are thinking at this moment how much better you are than your betters — I see it in your face, you rascal." "And he has a right to think so," said Mrs. Abington. "Come, Dr. Goldsiiiith, speak up, say something insulting to your betters." "Certainly, madam," replied Goldsmith, "Where are they?" THE ITALIAN IN ENGLAND By Robert Browning That second time they hunted me From hill to plain, from shore to sea. And Austria, hounding far and wide Her blood-hounds through the country-side, Breathed hot and instant on my trace, — I made six days a hiding-place 306 ORAL ENGLISH Of that dry green old aqueduct Where I and Charles, when boys, have plucked The fire-flies from the roof above, Bright creeping through the moss they love; — How long it seems since Charles was lost! Six days the soldiers crossed and crossed The country in my very sight; And when that peril ceased at night, The sky broke out in red dismay With signal fires; well, there I lay Close covered o'er in my recess. Up to the neck in ferns and cress, Thinking on Metternich our friend, And Charles's miserable end. And much beside, two days; the third, Hunger o'ercame me when I heard The peasants from the village go To work among the maize. You know, With us in Lombardy, they bring Provisions packed on mules, a string With little bells that cheer their task, And casks, and boughs on every cask To keep the sun's heat from the wine; These I let pass in jingling line, And, close on them, dear noisy crew. The peasants from the village, too; For at the very rear would troop Their wives and sisters in a group To help, I knew. When these had passed, I threw mj'^ glove to strike the last. Taking the chance: she did not start, Much less cry out, but stooped apart. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 307 One instant rapidly glanced round, And saw me beckon from the ground; A wild bush grows and hides my crypt; She picked my glove up while she stripped A branch off, then rejoined the rest With that; my glove lay in her breast. Then I drew breath: they disappeared: It was for Italy I feared. An hour, and she returned alone Exactly where my glove was thrown. Meanwhile came many thoughts; on me Rested the hopes of Italy; I had devised a certain tale Which, when it was told her, could not fail Persuade a peasant of its truth; I meant to call a freak of youth This hiding, and give hopes of pay, And no temptation to betray. But when I saw that woman's face, Its calm simplicity of grace — At first sight of her eyes, I said, "I am that man upon whose head They fix the price, because I hate The Austrians over us: the State Will give you gold — oh, gold so much! — If you betray me to their clutch. And be your death, for aught I know, If once they find you saved their foe. "Now, you must bring me food and drink, And also paper, pen and ink. And carry safe what I shall write To Padua, which you'll reach at night Before the duomo shuts; go in. And wait till Tenebrae begin; 308 ORAL ENGLISH Walk to the third confessional, Between the pillar and the wall, And kneeling whisper, Whence comes peacel Say it a second time, then cease; And if the voice inside returns. From Christ and Freedom; what concerns The cause of Peace? — for answer, slip My letter where you placed your lip; Then come back happy we have done Our mother's service — I, the son. As you the daughter of our land! " Three mornings more she took her stand In the same place, with the same eyes: I was no surer of sunrise Than of her coming. We conferred Of her own prospects, and I heard She had a lover — stout and tall. She said — then let her eyeUds fall, "He could do much" — as if some doubt Entered her heart, — then, passing out, "She could not speak for others, who Had other thoughts; herself she knew:" And so she brought me drink and food. After four days the scouts pursued Another path; at last arrived The help my Paduan friends contrived To furnish me: she brought the news. For the first time I could not choose But kiss her hand, and lay my own Upon her head — "This faith was shown To Italy, our mother; she Uses my hand and blesses thcc." She followed down to the sea-shore' I left and never saw her more. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 309 How very long since I have thought Concerning — much less wished for — aught Beside the good of Italy, For which I live and mean to die! I never was in love; and since Charles proved false, what shall now convince My inmost heart I have a friend? However, if I pleased to spend Real wishes on myself — say, three — I know at least what one should be. I would grasp Mettemich until I felt his red wet throat distil In blood through these two hands. And next — Nor much for that I am perplexed — Charles, perjured traitor, for his part. Should die slow of a broken heart Under his new employers. Last — Ah, there, what should I wish? For fast Do I grow old and out of strength. If I resolved to seek at length My father's house again, how scared They all would look, and unprepared! My brothers live in Austria's pay — Disowned me long ago, men say; And all my early mates who used To praise me so — perhaps induced More than one early step of mine — Are turning wise: while some opine "Freedom grows license," some suspect "Haste breeds delay," and recollect They always said, such premature Beginnings never could endure! So, with a sudden "All's for best," The land seems settling to its rest. 310 ORAL ENGLISH I think then, I should wish to stand This evening in that dear, lost land, Over the sea the thousand miles, And know if yet that woman smiles With the calm smile; some little farm She lives in there, no doubt: what harm If I sat on the door-side bench, And, while her spindle made a trench Fantastically in the dust, Inquired of all her fortunes — just Her children's ages and their names. And what may be the husband's aims For each of them. I'd talk this out. And sit there, for an hour about. Then kiss her hand once more, and lay Mine on her head, and go my way So much for idle wishing — how It steals the time ! To business now. GETTING STARTED AS A LA^VYERl From The Honorable Peter Stirling. By Paul Leicester Ford The morning after his first day in New York, Peter Stirling called on his friend, the civil engineer, to consult him about an office. Mr. Converse shook his head when Peter outlined his plan. "Do you know any New York people," he asked, "who will be likely to give you cases?" "No," said Peter. "Then it's absolutely foolish of you to begin that way," said Mr. Converse. "Get into a lawyer's office, and make friends first before you think of starting by yourself. You'll otherwise never get a client." Peter shook his head. "I've thought it out," he added, as if that settled it. Mr. Converse looked at him, and, reall}^ liking the fellow, was about * Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 311 to exi)lain the real facts to him, when a caller came in. So he only said, "If that's so, go ahead. Locate on Broadway, anywhere between the Battery and Canal Street." Anywhere between the Battery and Canal Street represented a fairly large range of territory, but Peter went at the matter directly, and for the next three days passed his time climbing stairs, and in- specting rooms and dark cells. At the end of that time he took a mod- erate-sized office, far back in a building near Worth Street. Another day saw it fitted with a desk, two chairs (for Peter as yet dreamed only of single clients) and a shelf containing the few law books that were the monuments of his Harvard law course, and his summer reading. On the following Monday, when Peter faced his office door he felt a glow of satisfaction at seeing in very black letters on the very newly scrubbed glass the sign of: PETER STIRLING Attorney and Counsellor-at-law He had cdme to his office early, because he believed that early hours were one way of winning success. He was a little puzzled what to do with himself. He sat down at his desk and thrummed it for a minute. Then he rose, and spread his books more along the shelf, so as to leave little spaces between them, thinking that he could make them look more imposing thereby. After that he took down a book — somebody "On Torts" — and dug into it. In the Harvard course, he had had two hours a week of this book, but Peter worked over it for nearly three hours. Then he took paper, and in a very neat hand, made an abstract of what he had read. Then he compared his abstract with the book. Returning the book to the shelf, very much pleased with the accuracy of his memory, he looked at his watch. It was half -past eleven. Peter sat down at his desk. "Would all the days go like this?" he asked himself. He could not read law for more than four hours a day and get anything from it. What was to be done with the rest of the time? He went down the two flights of stau's to the street. Even that had the deserted look of summer. He turned and went back to his room. 312 ORAL ENGLISH Sitting down once more at his desk, and opening somebody "On Torts'' again, he took up his pen and began to copy the pages Hterally. He wrote steadily for a time, then with pauses. Finally, the hand ceased to follow the lines, and became straggly. Then he ceased to write. He laid his head down on the blotter, and the erect, firm figure relaxed. There is no more terrible ordeal of courage than passive waiting. Most of us can be brave with something to do, but to be brave for months, for years, with nothing to be done and without hope of the future! So it was in Peter's case. It was waiting — waiting — for what? Days passed. When Peter finished somebody "On Torts," he went through the other law books of his collection. Those done, he began to buy others, and studied them with great thoroughness and persistence. In one of his many walks, he stumbled upon the Apprentices' Library. Going in, he inquired about its privileges, and became a regular borrower of books. Peter had always been a reader, but now he gave three or four hours a day to books, aside from his law study. Although he was slow, the number of volumes he not merely read, but really mastered was marvellous. Books which he liked, without much regard to their popular reputa- tion, he at once bought; for his simple life left him the ability to indulge himself in most respects within moderation. Before the year was out, he was a recognized quantity in certain book-stores, and was privileged to browse at will both among old and new books without interference or suggestion from the "stock" clerks. "There isn't any good trying to sell him anything," remarked one. "He makes up his mind for himself." In his long tramps about the city, to vary the monotony, he would sometimes stop and chat with people — with a policeman, a fruit-vender, a longshore-man or a truckster. It mattered little who it was. Then he often entered manufactories and "yards" and asked if he could go through them, studying the methods, and talking to the overseer or workers about the trade. When the courts opened, Peter kept track of the (Calendars, and whenever a case or urgunicnt proini.sed to be interesting, or to call out the great lights of the profession, he attended and listened to them. He SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 313 tried to write out the arguments used, from notes, and finally this practice induced him to give two evenings a week during the winter mastering shorthand. It was really only a mental discipline, for anj case of importance was obtainable in print almost as soon as argued. Such was the first year of Peter's New York life. He studied, he read, he walked, and most of all he waited. "How much longer will I have to wait? How long will my patience hold out?" These were the questions he asked himself, when for a moment he allowed himself to lose courage. One day his attention was called to the death of several children in his ward caused, the doctor said, by drinking bad milk. Peter realized at once that the National Milk Company from whose wagon the milk was bought, should be prosecuted. The same day he freshened his mind upon certain municipal laws, and began to collect evidence for the trial. He had found his first case. WHERE EDIBLE BIRDS' NESTS ARE GATHERED i From Wanderings Among South Sea Savages. By H. Wilfred Walker I had just returned down the river with Richardson from Tangkulap. Tangkulap is a journey of several days up the Kinbatangan River in British North Borneo. Richardson was the magistrate of the district, and his rule extended over practically the whole of this river, Tangkulap being his headquarters. Richardson and I determined to visit the wonderful Gomanton birds' nest caves, from which great quantities of edible birds' nests are taken annually. Very few Europeans had ever visited them, though they arc considered among the wonders of the world. We left Batu Puteh in Richardson's canoe early one morning, and reached Bilit that evening. The next morning we were off before sunrise. After leaving the village, we walked about an hour and a half until we came to a small river, the Menungal. "Gobangs" (canoes) were speedily launched, we both getting into the leading one. We were followed by three others, in one of which was an influential Hadji. Toward evening the river got exceedingly narrow, and fallen trees ^ Reprinted by special arrangement with Witherby and Company, London. 314 ORAL ENGLISH obstructed our way, so that we had sometimes to lie flat on our backs to pass under them, and at other times we had to get out while our canoe was hauled over the mud at the side. Just before we reached our des- tination for the night, the Hadji and all his men proceeded to wash their faces in the river. This they did to ensure success in their nest-collecting. We stayed the night in one of two half-thatched huts. It poured all night, and when we started off on foot the next morning we found the track in the forest a regular quagmire. After about three hours' hard tramping, I caught sight of a high mass of white limestone gleaming through the trees. It made a pretty picture in the early morning, the white rock peeping out of luxuriant creepers and foliage. It rises very abruptly from the surrounding forest, and at a distance looked quite inaccessible to a climber. We waded through a stream of clear water, washing the horrible forest mud from us, and soon found ourselves in a most picturesque village at the base of the rock. After some breakfast we started off to see the near lower cave, which was one of the smaller ones. We followed a very pretty ferny track by *he side of a rocky stream for a short distance. The sky overhead was thick with swallows, in fact one could almost saj^ the air was black with them. These, of course, were the birds that make the nests. The mouth of the cave partly prepared me for what I was to see. I had expected a small entrance, but here it was, I should say, sixty feet in height and of great width, the entrance being partly overhung with a curtain of lux- uriant creepers. The smell of guano had been strong before, but here it was overpowering. Extending inside the cave for about one hundred yards was a small village of native huts used chiefly by the guards or watchers of these caves. Compared with the vastness of the interior of the cave — I be- lieve about four hundred and eighty feet in height — one could almost imagine that he was looking at a small model of a village. The vastness of the interior of this cave impressed me beyond words. One could actually see the very roof overhead, as there were two or three openings near the top (reminding one of windows high up in a cathedral) through which broad shafts of light forced their way, making some old hanging rattan ladders high up appear like silvery spider webs. As for the birds themselves, this was one of their nesting seasons, and SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 315 tho nave was full of myriads of f horn. The twitterinp; they made resem- bled the whispering of a multitude. The majority of them kept near the roof, and a.s they flew to and fro through the shafts of light they pre- sented a most curious effect and looked like swarms of gnats; lower down they resembled silvery butterflies. Where the light shone on the rocky walls and roofs one could distinguish masses upon masses of little silver black specks. These were their nests, as this was a black-nest cave. Somewhere below in the bowels of the earth rumbled an underground river with a noise like distant thunder. This cavernous roar far below and the twittering whisper of the swallows overhead, combined to add much to the mysteriousness of these wonderful caves. Spread out on the ground in the cave and also drying outside, raised from the ground on stakes, was coil after coil of rattan ropes and ladders used for collecting the nests. These have to be new each season, and are first carefully tested. The ladders are made of well twisted strands of rattan with steps of strong, hard wood, generally "bihan." In the afternoon we started off in search of the upper caves. We came to the entrance of a long chain of caves, through which we passed, going down a very steep grade, where our guides had to carry lights. After a climb down some steep rocks in semi-darkness, we found our- selves in the largest cave of all, supposed to be about five hundred and sixty feet in height. This cave greatly resembled the smaller one I have already described, except that it was of much grander dimensions. On the way back, when passing through some very low caves, the Hadji got some of his men to knock down with long poles a few of the white nests from the wall of the cave for me, and in another cave they got some black nests. The difference between these white and black nests is this: they are made by two different kinds of swallows. A very small bird makes the white nest, but the bird that builds the black nest is twice as large. The white nest looks something like pure white gela- tine, is very clear, and has no feathers in it. The black nest is plentifully covered with feathers, and is, in consequence, not worth nearly as much. The nests are made from the saliva of the birds. Both are very plain colored birds; an ordinary swallow is brilliant in comparison. The next day we watched the natives collecting the nests. The chief method is by descending rattan ladders, which are let down through a 316 ORAL ENGLISH hole in the top of the cave. It made one quite giddy even to watch the men descending these frail, swaying ladders with over five hundred feet of space below them. The man on the nearest ladder had a long rattan rope attached to his ladder with a kind of wooden anchor at the end of it. With a wonderful throw he succeeded in getting the anchor to stick in the soft guano on the edge of the slanting ledge where we were. Sev- eral men waiting there seized it, hauled it up until they could catch hold of the end of the ladder, which they dragged higher and higher up the steep, slanting rocks. This in time brought the flexible ladder, at least the part where the man was, level with the roof, and he lying on his back on the thin ladder, pulled the nests off the rocky roof, putting them into a large rattan basket fastened about his body. These birds' nest caves are found all over Borneo and the Malay Peninsula, and also in Java and other parts of the Malay archipelago, but these are by far the largest. The revenue from these caves alone brings the government a very large sum. By far the greatest number of the nests is sent to China, where birds' nest soup is an expensive luxury. The natives of Borneo do not eat them. For myself, I found the soup rather tasteless. JOHN BROWN'S LAST SPEECH From The Public Life of John Brown. By James Redpath I have, may it please the court, a few words to say. In the first place, I deny everything but what I have all along ad- mitted — the design on my part to free the slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clear thing of that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri, and there took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to have done the same thing again, on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection. I have another objection: and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer Buch a penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 317 which I admit has been fairly proved — (for 1 admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case) — had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right, and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment. The Court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the Law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or, at least, the New Testament. That teaches me that all things "whatso- ever I would that men should do unto me I should do even so to them." It teaches me further, to "remember them that are in bonds as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have always freely admitted I have done, in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments — I submit: so let it be done. Let me say one word further. I feel entirely satisfied with the treat- ment I have received on my trial. Considering all the circumstances, it has been more generous than I expected. But I feel no consciousness of guilt. I have stated from the first what was my intention and what was not. I never had any design against the life of any person, nor any disposition to commit treason, or excite slaves to rebel, or make any general insurrection. I never encouraged any man to do so, but always discouraged any idea of that kind. Let me say, also, a word in regard to the statements made by some of those connected with me. I hear that it has been stated by some of them that I have induced them to join me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure them, but as regretting their weakness. There is not one of them but joined me of his own accord, and the greater part at their own expense. A number of them I never saw, and never 318 ORAL ENGLISH had a word of conversation with, till the day they came to me, and that was for the purpose I have stated. Now I have done. CONSECRATION TO COUNTRY By Abraham Lincoln Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was last to desert, but that I never deserted her. I know that the great volcano [The Slave Issue] at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing. I cannot deny that all may be swept away. Broken by it, I, too, may be; bow to it I never will. The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause which we believe to be just. It shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimen- sions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I con- template the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly, alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, without contemplating consequences, before Heaven, and in the face of the world, / swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love; and who that thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath that I take? Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But, if after all, we shall fail, be it so, we still have the proud con- solation of saying to our consciences, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment, and adorned of our hearts in disaster, in chains, in death, we never faltered in defending. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 319 HENRY HUDSON'S LAST VOYAGE » By Henry Van Dyke One sail in sight upon the lonely sea, And only one, God knows! For never ship But mine broke through the icy gates that guard These waters greater grown than any since We left the shore of England. We were first, My men, to battle in between the bergs And floes to these wide waves. This gulf is mine; I name it ! and that flying sail is mine ! And there, hull-down below that flying sail. The ship that staggers home is mine, mine, mine! My ship Discoverie! The sullen dogs Of mutineers, the bitches' whelps that snatched , Their food and bit the hand that nurtured them, Have stolen her! You ingrate Henry Greene, I picked you from the gutter of Houndsditch, I paid your debts, and kept you in my house, And brought you here to make a man of you. You, Robert Juet, ancient, crafty man. Toothless and tremulous, how many times Have I employed you as a mate of mine To give you bread! And you, Abacuck Prickett, You sailor-clerk, you salted puritan. You knew the plot and silently agreed. Salving your conscience with a pious lie. Yes, all of you, — hounds, rebels, thieves! Bring back My ship! Too late — I rave — they cannot hear My voice: and if they heard, a drunken laugh Would be their answer. For their minds have caught ^ Reprinted by special arrangement with Charles Scribner's Sons. 320 ORAL EXGLISH The fatal firmness of the fool's resolve, That looks like courage but is only fear. They'll blunder on, and lose my ship, and drown, - Or blunder home to England and be hanged. Their skeletons will rattle in the chains Of some tall gibbet on the Channel cliffs, \Miile passing sailors point to them and say. ''Those are the rotten bones of Hudson's men, Who left their captain in the frozen North!" God of justice, why hast Thou ordained, Plans of the wise and actions of the brave Dependent on the aid of fools and cowards? Look — there she goes — her topsails in the sun Gleam from the ragged ocean edge, and drop Clean out of sight ! So let the traitors go Clean out of mind! We'll think of braver things! Come closer in the boat, my friends. John King, You take the tiller, keep her head nor'west. You, PhiUp Staffe, the only one who chose Freely to share with us the shallop's fate, Rather than travel in the hell-bound ship, — Too good an English sailor to desert These crippled comrades, — try to make them rest More easy on the thwarts. And John, my son, My little shipmate, come and lean your head Upon your father's knee. Do j'ou recall That April day in Ethelburga's church, Five years ago, when side by side we kneeled To take the sacrament, with all our company, Before the Hopewell left St. Catherine's docks On our first voj'age? Then it was I vowed My sailor-soul and yours to search the sea Until we found the water-path that leads From Europe into Asia. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 321 I believe That God has poured the ocean round His world, Not to divide, but to unite the lands; And all the English seamen who have dared In little ships to plow uncharted waves — Davis and Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher, Raleigh and Gilbert — all the other names — Are written in the chivalry of God As men who served His purpose. I would claim A place among that knighthood of the sea: And I have earned it, though my quest should fail! For mark me well. The honor of our life Derives from this: to have a certain aim Before us always, which our will must seek Amid the peril of uncertain ways. Then, though we miss the goal, our search is crowned With courage, and along the path we find A' rich reward of unexpected things. Press towards the aim: take fortune as it fares! I know not why, but something in my heart Has always whispered, "Westward seek your aim." Four times they sent me east, but still my prow Turned west again, and felt among the floes Of ruttling ice along the Groneland coast. And down the rugged shores of Newfoundland, And past the rocky capes and sandy bays Where Gosnold sailed, — like one who feels his way With outstretched hand across a darkened room, — I groped among the inlets and the isles. To find the passage to the Isles of Spice. I have not found it yet — but I have found Things worth the finding! Son, have you forgot Those mellow autumn days, two years ago. When first we sent our little ship Half-Moon — The flag of Holland floating at her peak — 322 ORAL ENGLISH Across a sandy bar, and sounded in Among the channels to a goodly bay Where all the navies of the world could ride? A fertile island that the redmen called Manhattan crowned the bay; and all the land Around was bountiful and friendly fair. But never land was fair enough to hold The seaman from the calling of the waves: And so we bore to westward, past the isle, Along a mighty inlet, where the tide Was troubled by a downward-rolling flood That seemed to come from far away — perhaps From some mysterious gulf of Tartary? We followed that wide waterway, by palisades Of naked rock where giants might have held Their fortress; and by rolling hills adorned With forests rich in timber for great ships; Through narrows where the mountains shut us in With frowning cliffs that seemed to bar the stream; And then through open reaches where the banks Sloped to the water gently, with their fields Of corn and lentils smiling in the sun. Ten days we voyaged through that placid land, Until we came to shoals; and sent a boat Upstream, to find — what I already knew — We sailed upon a river, not a strait! But what a river! God has never poured A stream more royal through a land more rich. Even now I see it flowing in my dream, While coming ages people it with men Of manhood equal to the river's pride. I see the wigwams of the redmen changed To ample houses, and the tiny plots Of maize and green tobacco broadened out To prosperous farms, that spread o'er hill and dale SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 323 The many-colored mantle of their crops. I see the terraced vineyards on the slopes Where now the wild grape loops the tangled wood; And cattle feeding where the red deer roam; And wild bees gathered into busy hives To store the silver comb with golden sweet; And all the promised land begins to flow With milk and honey. Stately manors rise Along the banks, and castles top the hills, And little villages grow populous with trade, Until the river runs as proudly as the Rhine, — The thread that links a hundred towns and towers! All this I see, and when it comes to pass I prophesy a city on the isle They call Manhattan, equal in her state To all the older capitals of earth, — The gateway city of a golden world, — A city girt with masts, and crowned with spires, And swarming with a busy host of men, While to her open door, across the bay. The ships of all the nations flock like doves! My name will be remembered there, for men Will say, "This river and this bay were found By Henry Hudson, on his way to seek The Northwest Passage into farthest Inde." Yes, yes, I sought it then, I seek it still, My great adventure, pole-star of my heart! For look ye, friends, our voyage is not done: Somewhere beyond these floating fields of ice, Somewhere along this westward widening bay, Somewhere beneath this luminous northern night. The channel opens to the Orient, — I know it,— and some day a little ship Will enter there and battle safely through! And why not ours — to-morrow — who can tell? 324 ORAL ENGLISH We hold by hope as long as life endures: These are the longest days of all the year, The world is round, and God is everywhere. And while our shallop floats we still can steer. So point her up, John King, nor'west by north! We'll keep the honor of a certain aim Amid the peril of uncertain ways. And sail ahead, and leave the rest to God. SIDNEY CARTON'S SACRIFICE i trom The Only Way, a dramatic version by Freeman Wills of Charlea Dickens' novel, "A Tale of Two Cities " Scene. A cell in the conciergerie, Charles Darney seated at a table asleep. Enter John Barsad followed by Sidney Carton. Baksad: Come in. Lose no time. It's a touch and go job this. Carton: Be near at hand, that you may enter the instant I call. I am prepared with a powerful drug, ^^'^len you enter you will find him unconscious. See that assistance is ready to convey him to the coach. {Exit Bars.-U)) Darn ay: Carton! Carton: Of all the people on earth you least expected to see me? Darnay: I can scarcely beUeve it is really you. You are not a prisoner? Carton: No. I am accidentally possessed of a power over one of the jailors here, and in virtue of that I stand before you. I come with a request from her — your promised wife, dear Darnay. Darnay: A request. Carton: It is more than that. It is an entreaty — a prayer. You have not time to ask me why I bring it, or what it means. Do what I tell you and you will know all. Off with your coat, put on this of mine. Darnay: Carton, there is no escaping from this place. We should only die together. It is madness. Carton: It would be madness if I asked you to escape, but do I? ^ Reprinted by permission of Martin Harvey. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 325 Darn ay: IMj^ dear brave friend, it is all no good. It has been tried a hundred times, and it has always failed. Carton: Not my way, Darnay, I promise y:;u. Darn ay: Once again I say — Carton: Yes, but why do you? Your love dear Darnay, for her sake. Come let me take this ribbon from your hair; now shake it out like this of mine. Good — your hand — is it steady enough to write? Darnay: It was when you came in. Carton: Steady it again and write what I dictate — . See, pen — ink — paper — are you ready? Darnay: To whom shall I address it? Carton: That will come last of all. Now. {Dictates) I know you remember the words that passed between us. It is not in your nature to forget them. Have you got that? Darnay : I have. Is that a weapon in your hand? Carton: No. Darnay : What is in your hand? Carton: You shall know directly — write on — / am thankful that the time has come ivhen I can prove them. That I do so now is no sub- ject for regret or grief. (Carton has held his saturated handkerchief near Darnay's nostrils) Darnay: What vapor is that? Carton: Vapor? Darnay: Something that crosses me. Carton: I am conscious of nothing — 'Regret or grief. ^ Have you got that? Darnay: Regret or — I hardly know what I am writing — Carton there is a vapor. Carton: Come quickly, another little effort — You have given me more than I can tell. Some pure thoughts, a few healing tears, perhaps a light to shine in the darkness that is so near. (Darnay struggles as the drug takes effect, Carton assisting him to lie upon the floor before he is entirely overcome.) Barsad! Come in! Barsad [reentering): All right. Carton: All right. Get assistance and take me to the coach. Barsad: You? 326 ORAL ENGLISH Carton: Him, man, with whom I have exchanged. Take him to the court-yard near Dr. Manette's lodgings, place him in the carriage you will find waiting there, show him to Mr. Lorry, tell him to remember my words of this morning, and his promise of this morning, and drive away. [Exit Barsad. Carton adds the last words to the note Darney has been writing) 'A light to shine in the darkness that is so near.' Some day she will read this and remember — (Carton places the letter in Dar- nay's coat. Barsad enters with two jailors.) Jailor: So afflicted for his friend? Oh, this is not true. Come, come, one, two, three, now. (Darnay is carried out.) Barsad. The time is short Evremonde. To-morrow at dawn. Carton: I know it well. Be careful of my friend, I entreat you. {Exit Barsad) THE DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE » From The North Pole. By Robert E. Peart The last march northward ended at ten o'clock on the forenoon of April 6. I had now made the five marches planned, and my reckoning showed that we were in the immediate neighborhood of the goal of all our striving. After the usual arrangements for going into camp, at approximate local noon, of the Columbia meridian, I made the first observation at our polar camp. It indicated our position as 89° 57'. We were now at the end of the last long march of the upward journey. Yet with the pole actually in sight I was too weary to take the last few steps. As soon as our igloos had been completed and we had eaten our dinner and double-rationed the dogs I turned in for a few hours of absolutely necessary sleep. The first thing I did after awaking was to write these words in my diary: "The Pole at last. The prize of three centuries. My dream and goal for twenty years. Mine at last! I can- not bring myself to realize it. It seems all so simple and commonplace." Everything was in readiness for an observation at 6 P. M., Columbia meridian time, in case the sky should be clear, but at that hour it was, unfortunately, still overcast. But as there were indications that it * Copyright by Frederick A. Stokes & Co. Reprinted by permission of the author and the publishers. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 327 would clear before long, two of the Esquimos and myself made readj- a light sledge carrying only the instruments, a tin of pemmican, and one or two skins; and drawn by a double team of dogs, we pushed on an estimated distance of ten miles. While we traveled, the sky cleared, and at the end of the journey, I was able to get a satisfactory series of observations at Columbia meridian midnight. These observations in- dicated that our position was then beyond the pole. Nearly everything in the circumstances which then surrounded us seemed too strange to be thoroughly realized; but one of the strangest of these circumstances seemed to me to be the fact that, in a march of only a few hours, I had passed from the western to the eastern hem- isphere and had verified my position at the summit of the world. It was hard to realize that, in the first miles of this brief march, we had been traveling due north, while, on the last few miles of the same march, we had been traveling south, although we had all the time been traveling in precisely the same direction. It would be difficult to imagine a better illustration of the fact that most things are relative. Again please con- sider the uncommon circumstance that, in order to return to our camp, it now became necessary to turn and go north again for a few miles and then to go directly south, all the time traveling in the same direction. As we passed back along that trail which none had ever seen before or would ever see again, certain reflections intruded themselves which I think, may fairly be called unique. East, west, and north had dis- appeared for us. Only one direction remained and that was south. Every breeze which could possibly blow upon us, no matter from what point of the horizon, must be a south wind. Where we were, one day and one night constituted a year, a hundred such days and nights con- stituted a century. Had we stood in that spot during the six months of the arctic winter night, we should have seen every star of the northern hemisphere circling the sky at the same distance from the horizon, with polaris (the north star) practically in the zenith. All during our march back to camp the sun was swinging around in its ever-moving circle. At six o'clock on the morning of April 7, having again arrived at Camp Jesup, I took another series of observations. These indicated our position as being four or five miles from the Pole, towards Bering Strait. Therefore, with a double team of dogs and a 328 ORAL ENGLISH light sledge, I traveled directly towards the sun an estimated distance of eight miles. Again I returned to the camp in time for a final and completely satisfactory series of observations on April 7 at noon, Columbia meridian time. These observations gave results essentially the same as those made at the same spot twenty-four hours before. I had now taken in all thirteen single, or six and one-half double, altitudes of the sun, at two different stations, in three different directions at four different times. All were under satisfactory conditions, except for the first single altitude on the sixth. The temperature during these observations had been from minus 11° Fahrenheit to minus 30° Fahren- heit, with clear sky and calm weather. Of course there were some more or less informal ceremonies connected with our arrival at our difficult destination, but they were not of a very elaborate character. We planted five flags at the top of the world. The first was a silk American flag which Mrs. Peary gave me fifteen years ago. That flag has done more traveling in high latitudes than any other ever made. I carried it wrapped about my body on every one of my expeditions northward after it came into my possession, and I left a fragment of it at each of my "farthest norths:" Cape Morris K. Jesup, the northernmost point of land in the known world ; Cape Thomas Hubbard, the northernmost point of Jesup Land, west of Grant Land; Cape Columbia, the northernmost point of North American lands; and my farthest north in 1906, latitude 87° 6' in the ice of the polar sea. By the time it actually reached the Pole, therefore, it was somewhat worn and discolored. A broad diagonal section of this ensign would now mark the farthest goal of earth — the place where I and my dusky companions stood. It was considered appropriate to raise the colors of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, in which I was initiated a member while an under- graduate student at Bowdoin College, the "World's Ensign of Liberty and Peace," with its rod, white, and blue in a field of white, the Navy League flag and the Red Cross flag. After I had planted the American flag in the ice, I told Henson to time the Esquimos for throe rousing cheers, which they gave with the greatest enthusiasm. Thereupon, I shook hands with each member of the party — surely a sufficiently unceremonious afi"air to meet with the SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 329 approval of the most democratic. The Esquimos wore childishly de- lighted with our success. While, of course, they did not realize its im- portance fully, or its world wide significance, they did understand that it meant the final achievement of a task upon which they had seen me engaged for many years. Then, in a space between the ice blocks of a pressure ridge, I deposited a glass bottle containing a diagonal strip of my flag and a copy of my records. AS MEN SHOULD » By Leonard B. Kendall In a little Connecticut town there is a factory. On the surface every- thing about this factory is quite commonplace. It contains simply a body of men engaged in making hoists. They work carefully and well, with due consideration as to the details, for these men happen to have ideals — which occasionally makes a difference. Down at the end of the long iron construction shed of the Southwest Manufacturing Company in Africa the great trip-hammer was making the night hideous with its clamor. In the lurid glow from the white-hot metal that soon was to be the crane shaft in an up-country opal mine stood four men stripped to the waist. The sweat glistened on them as they moved, and their shadows, monstrous in the flickering light, leaped and danced fantastically behind them on the wall. Periodically, on the half-hour, a lantern waved twice in a semicircle, and of a sudden the din ceased. The heavj^ silence of the South African night at once crowded in, and seemed tenfold more solid by comparison. The workers then sat down on packing-cases to rest, and took turns swabbing themselves with a wet sponge, for the big thermometer on the wall registered something over one hundred degrees. In the far distance, at intervals, a desert jackal howled dismally, while the never- ending rain pattered softly on the tin roof. Rain, rain, nothing but rain. A million tiny drops, each one in time becoming part of the dark streamlet that flowed steadily around the corner of the construction shed, carrying with it its toll of sediment. And ^Reprinted by permission of the author and The Outlook Company. 330 ORAL ENGLISH still it rained. Soon the clanging anvils took up their note again, in minor key to the shuddering thunder of the mighty trip-hammer, while the forges roared and whispered among themselves under the force of the air blast. But always in the pauses it was the subdued tinkle of running water that made itself felt. A tiny rivulet began tentatively feeling its way over the hard-packed earth of the floor towards where, in the corner, stood the base of the derrick that had been swinging full cases up in tiers to await shipment. Farther it reached, and still farther, till it encircled one of the supports. Then, as if its missions were accomplished, it ran off quickly elsewhere. The half-clad figures that hurried by in the dimness, which seemed only emphasized by the hanging lanteras, heeded it not, for what is a little water when rush work is toward in the German Southwest? By degrees the trickle grew larger. It dug with growing strength at the soil by the base of the derrick, which, little by little, it gathered up and carried away. In the course of time one corner sagged slightly, and the rigid guy-wire opposite, as it felt the pull of thirty tons of steel, began murmuring to itself like a live thing under the strain. With the crashing shock of the fall was mingled a sound which was never born of splintering wood nor flying metal, and, as if at a given signal, silence fell along the length of the whole shop. A few sharp orders rang out, and the great overhead crane came trundling down the line. WTien it stopped, it failed to reach the spot by almost ten feet. The noise of the crowbar as a man pried ineffectually at the fallen mass was, for a while, the only sound. Underneath something moved suggestively, and a man's leg protruded. "He's not caught yet, but this water's underminin' and she's sinkin' down on him," declared the one with the crowbar. "Somebody get a hoist!" "There ain't a one that can be used," replied a man. WTiereupon the old shop foreman got to his feet from where he was examining the wreck, and spoke: "There's a Holton Biplex in the shed — get it," he said. And four men drove hastily out into the night, while the rest stood impo- tently by, watching while the fallen mass sunk imperceptibly lower. Th(! little rivulet was doing its work well. From out of the dark the four returned, dripping water as they ran. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 331 Between them swung the chain that was to pull a man back from the brink of eternity. One of them clambered up the tiers of boxes to ar- range the hook on a steel girder above. A six-foot native sledgeman elbowed his way to the fore. "Dat hoist cet be for twentec tons an' dees be t'irtee," he declared stolidly, pointing a grimy forefinger; "she slip — an' eef she fall again — " He looked suggestively at the protruding foot, which moved feebly. "For twenty-five years I've seen the Holton Biplex working in the shops," replied the old foreman, peering over his spectacles. "String her up — she won't slip." So the load was adjusted and three men put on the lift-chain. At the word they hauled evenly and well, and only the sharp click as each link passed over the sprocket bespoke the tremendous strain, but still — it did not slip! Off in the dim background some deserted forges were sighing to them- selves. Now and again the flames leaped up, casting into high relief the group of silent men about the wreck. A breath of tragedy was in the air, yet they gazed stolidly. The half-naked great bodies, with their bulging muscles, bulked large in the half-light. Slowly, very slowly, the big mass was lifting. Link by link the slender chain supporting it moved upward into the darkness overhead. The iron hook was bending gradually, but no break appeared. They raised it two feet more and got him free, before the hook straight- ened out and the collapse came. A life was saved, because out beyond the night, ten thousand miles away, in a little Connecticut town, a body of men happened to have had ideals, had done their work care- fully and well, with due attention to details — as men should. AMERICAN INTEGRITY! From Addresses and Papers. By Charles Evans Hughes The typical American does not seek idleness but work. He wants to justify himself by proved capacity in useful effort. Under different conditions he still has the spirit of those who faced the wilderness, ! Reprinted by permission of G. P. Putnam's Sons. 332 ORAL ENGLISH advanced the outposts of civilization, and settled a continent of match* less resources, where has been laid the basis for a wider diffusion of prosperity among a greater population than the world has ever known. To whatever department of activity we turn, after making all nec- essary allowances for ignorance, shiftlessness and vice, we still find throughout the country, dominant and persuasive, the note of energy and resistless ambition. The vitality of the people has not been sapped by prosperity. The increase of comfort has not impaired their virility. We are still a hardy people, equal to our task, and pressing forward vigorous and determined in every direction to enlarge the record of achievement. It is easy, looking at phases of our life in an absolute way, for one who is pessimistically inclined to gather statistics which superficially con- sidered are discouraging. Congestion in our great cities, the widened opportunities for the play of selfishness, and the increase of temptations following in the wake of prosperity, give rise to an appalling number and variety of private and pubhc wrongs whose thousands of victims voice an undying appeal to humanity and patriotism. But one would form a very inaccurate judgment of our moral con- dition by considering these wrongs alone. They must be considered in their relation to other phases of our life. We must not fail to take note of the increasing intensity of the desire to find remedies and the earnest- ness with which all forms of evil and oppression are attacked. Considering the tremendous increase in the opportunities for wrong- doing, the seductive and refined temptations, and the materialistic appeals that are incident to our present mode of life, and the material comforts which invention and commerce have made possible, I believe that the manner in which the ethical development of the people has kept jiace with their progress in other directions may fairly be called extraor- dinary. In saying this, I am not at all unmindful of how far short we come of an ideal state of society. On the contrary, existing evils are the more noticeable, because they stand out in strong contrast to the desires and aspirat ions of the people. We have had disclosures of shocking infidelity to trust and to public obligation, but more important than the evil dis- closed was the attitude of the people toward it. Individual short- SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 333 comings are many, but the moral judgment of the community is keen and severe. To-day the American people are more alive to the importance ol impartial and honorable administration than ever before. They do not simply discuss it; they demand it. While in many communities ad- ministration is controlled in the selfish interest of a few to the detriment of the people, that which is more characteristic of our present political life is the determination that selfish abuse of governmental machinery shall stop. Let there be no vague fears about the outcome. I place full confidence in the sobriety and integrity of motive of the American people. I have profound belief in their ability to cure existing evils without disturbing their prosperity. I am convinced that we shall have more and more intelligent and unselfish representation of the people's interests: that political leadership will be tested more and more by the soundness of its counsel and the disinterestedness of its ambition. I believe that with an increasing proportion of true representation, with increasing discriminating public discussion, with the patient ap- plication of sound judgment to the consideration of public measures, and with the inflexible determination to end abuses and to purify the administration of government of self interest, we shall realize a greater prosperity and a wider diffusion of the blessing of free government than we have hitherto been able to enjoy. CLIMBING TO A STEEPLE-TOP > From Careers of Danger and Daring. By Cleveland Moffett It came to my knowledge that Robert Merrill, otherwise known as Steeple "Bob," had agreed to "do" that famous Brooklyn Church of the Pilgrims, with its queer, crooked spire and big brass ball, a landmark on Columbia Heights. "It's one of those easy jobs that is the hardest," said Merrill. "Come over and see us use the stirrups. If you like, you can go up on the swing yourself!" I expressed my thanks as I would do to a lion-tamer offering me the * Reprinted by permission of The Century Company. 334 ORAL ENGLISH hospitality of his cages. Then I reflected, with a kind of shame, that I had drawn back from daring only once what they dare every day, what they must dare for their living. And I reasoned myself into a feeling that it was my duty to go up that steeple on the swing, as Merrill had proposed. In this mind I went to the church the next day. I found all hands on the "bell-deck" spreading out packets of patent gilding for the ball which awaited its new dress, all stickj- from a fresh coat of sizing. As to my going up on the swing there was no difficulty. Lawlor would go first, and be there to keep me in good heart, for they say it is not well for a novice to be at a steeple-top alone. Merrill would see to the lashings, and Walter would give a hand at the hauling-line. There we were at the top of the tower, and at the base of the steeple, Lawlor, red-faced and red shirted, preparing to ascend; Merrill, pale, as he always is, but powerful, standing at the ropes; and I, in shirt-sleeves and bare- headed, watching Walter make a little harness for my kodak. After a time Lawlor, having reached the top, called down something, and IMerrill answered. It was my turn now. I climbed out through a small window and stood on the ledge, while "Steeple Bob" dropped the swing noose over my head and proceeded to lash me fast to seat and ropes. "That's in case a suicidal impulse should get hold of you!" he said smiling, but meaning it. "Now, keep this rope between your legs and work your hands up along it as we lift you. It's anchored to St. Peter." Then he explained how I was to press my toes against the steeple side, so as to keep my knees from barking on the shingles. "And don't look down at all," he told me. "Just watch your ropes and take it easy. Are you ready? " At this moment Walter said something in a low tone, and Merrill asked me to lend him my knife. I handed it out, and he stuck it in his pocket. "You don't need this now," said he, and a moment later the pulley ropes tightened and my small swing-board lifted under me. I was rising. "Shove off there with your toes! " he cried. "Take short steps. Put your legs wider apart. Wider yet. You don't have to pull on the rope. Just slide your hands along. Now you're going! " SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 335 I saw nothing but the stoople side in front, of mo, and the life-line hanging down like a bell-rope between my spread legs, and the pulley block creaking by my head, and the toes of my shoes as I pressed them against the shingles step by step. I smiled to think of the odd appear- ance I must present from below. And then for the first time I let my eyes turn into the depths, and caught a glimpse of men on housetops watching me. I saw Merrill's upturned face down where the ropes ended. And I saw little horses wriggling along on the street. There were three places where the steeple narrowed into slenderer lengths, and at each one was a sort of cornice to be scrambled over (and loose nails to be avoided), and then more careful steering with legs and toes to keep on one particular face of the steeple and not swing off and come bumping back, a disconcerting possibility. "Hello!" called Lawlor presently, from above. "You're doing fine. Come right along." And before I knew it the swing had stopped. I was at the top, or as near it as the tackle could take me. The remaining fifteen feet or so must be made with stirrups. And there was Lawlor standing in them up by the ball. There was not a stick of staging to support him (he had scorned the bother of hauling up boards for so simple a job), and he was working with both hands free, each leg standing on its stirrup, and several hitches of life-line holding him to the shaft top by his waist. This steeple-lassoing exploit was one of the things I certainly would not attempt — would not and could not. Strangely enough, as I hung there at rest I felt the danger more than coming up. It seemed most perilous to rest my weight on the swing- board, and I found myself holding my legs drawn up, with muscles tense, as if that could make me lighter. Gradually I realized the fool- ishness of this, and relaxed into greater comfort, but not entirely. Even veteran steeple-climbers waste much strength in needless clutching; cannot free their bodies from this instinctive fear. I stayed up long enough to take three photographs (some minutes passed before I could unlash my kodak), and here I had further proof of subconscious fright, for I made such blunders with shutter and focus length as would put the youngest amateur to shame. Two pictures out of the three were failures, and the third but an indifferent success. 335 ORAL ENGLISH There is one thing to be said in extenuation, that a steeple is never still, but always rocking and trembling. When Lawlor changed his stirrup hitches or moved from side to side the old beams would groan under us, and the whole structure rock. "She'd rock more," said Lawlor, "if she was better built. A good steeple always rocks." There wasn't much more to do up there, and presently we exchanged jirks on the line for the descent. And Lawlor cried: "Lower away! Hang on, now! " And I did over again my humble part of leg-spreading and toe-steering, with the result that presently I was down on the "bell-deck" again, receiving congratulations. "Here's your knife," said Merrill, after he had unlashed me. " What did you take it for? " I asked. "Oh, men sometimes get a mania to cut the ropes when they go up the first time. And that isn't good for their health. I was pretty sure you'd keep your head, but I wasn't taking any chances." After this came thanks and warm hand-grips all around, and then I left these daring men to their duties, and went down the lower ladders. I am sure I never appreciated the simple privilege of standing on a sidewalk as I did, a few minutes later, when I left the Church of the Pilgrims. EXTRACT FROM INAUGURAL ADDRESS » By WooDROw Wilson This is the high enterprise of the new day: to lift everything that concerns our life as a nation to the light that shines from the hearthfire of every man's conscience and vision of the right. It is inconceivable that we should do this as partisans; it is inconceivable we should do it in ignorance of the facts as they are or in blind haste. We shall re- store, not destroy. We shall deal with our economic system as it is and as it may be modified, not as it might be if we had a clean sheet of paper to write upon; and step by step we shall make it what it should be, in the spirit of those who question their own wisdom and seek coun- sel and knowledge, not shallow self-satisfaction or the excitement of ^ Reprinted by permission of Mr. Wilson. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 337 excarsions whither they cannot tell. Justice, and only justice, shall always be our motto. And yet it will be no cool process of mere science. The nation has been (leej)ly stirred, stirred by a solemn passion, stirred by the knowl- edge of wrong, of ideals lost, of government too often debauched and made an instrument of evil. The feelings with which we face this new age of right and opportunity sweep across our heartstrings like some air out of God's owti presence, where justice and mercy are reconciled and the judge and the brother are one. We know our task to be no mere task of politics but a task which shall search us through and through, whether we be able to understand our time and the need of our people, whether we be indeed their spokesmen and interpreters, whether we have the pure heart to comprehend and the rectified will to choose our high course of action. This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication. Here muster, not the forces of party, but the forces of humanity. Men's hearts wait upon us; men's fives hang in the balance; men's hopes call upon us to say what we will do. Who shall live up to the great trust? Who dares fail to try? I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking men, to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain me! BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Ade, George. 1866- . Author and playwright. "The County Chairman" and "The College Widow" are among his best known plays. Alcott, Louisa M. 1832-1888. Most popular works are "Little Women," "Little Men," "An Old-Fashioned Girl" and "Jo's Boys." Aytoun, William Edmondstoune. 1813-1865. A Scottish lawyer and poet and a grandson of Sir Robert Aytoun. Editor of Blackwood's Magazine and Professor of Literature at Uni- versity of Edinburgh. Balzac, Honore de. 1799-1850. The greatest of French novelists, and the chief of the realistic school among French writers. His earlj'^ inclination to write was strongly opposed by his family, but he persisted and published his first novel of merit in 1829. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. 1806-1861. Wife of Robert Brown- ing, and ranked among the most gifted of female poets. Her " Sonnets from the Portuguese " are considered her best poems. Browning, Robert. 1812-1889. Browning and Tennyson are the two foremost poets of the Victorian era. Browning is the great poet of the human soul, and gives us a message of faith and hope. He spent most of his Ufe in Italy, and is buried in Westminster Abbey. Bryant, William Cullen. 1794-1878. Called "the landscape poet of New England scenery," and the "Wordsworth of America." He was editor in chief of the New York Evening Post for fifty years. 339 340 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Burton, Richard. 1859- . Editor, author, lecturer, and pro- fessor of English Literature at the University of Minnesota. His works are chiefly essays and poems. Cable, George W. 1844- . Served in the Fourth Mississippi Cavalry, C. S. A., 1863-5; reported for New Orleans Picayune, 1865-79; since that date has devoted himself to literature. His delineation of Creole characters in his novels has made him well known. Daudet, Alphonse. 1840-1897. French humorist, poet, and novel- ist. He began writing when he was in his teens. Settled in Paris in 1857 and began contributing to papers and periodicals. His first novel appeared in 1874. Davenport, Homer. 1867-1912. Cartoonist for the New York Journal and the New York Evening Mail. His work caused the attempt to pass the anti-cartoon bill in New York in 1897. In 1906 he was granted permission by the Sultan of Turkey to export twenty-seven Arabian horses to America, Dickens, Charles. 1812-1870. The poverty and hardships of his early life enabled him to make the English poor live in his writings. His sixteen novels did more than all the English statesmen of his time to better the conditions of the lower classes. His books still rank among the best sellers. ^t> Doyle, A. Conan. 1859- . English physician and novelist. His list of publications is a very long one. "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is the work by which he is most widely known. He was knighted in 1902. 'O' Eastman, C. Alexander. 1858- . Acting as government phy- sician at various agencies for Indians, has made him familiar with Indian life and equipped him well to write of Indian cus- toms, manners, and romance. Ford, Paul Leicester. 1S65-1902. American author. Among his works are "The True George Washington," "The Mjiny- BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 341 sided Franklin" and "Janice Meredith." "The Honorable Peter Sterling" is his best work. Franklin, Benjamin. 1706-1790. American philosopher and statesman. Published Poor Richard's Almanac for twenty- five years. Although he began his career in poverty, yet he became one of the greatest men of his time, and was recognized at home and abroad for his services to his fellowTiien and to his country. Garrison, Theodosia. Born Newark, N. J. Author of "Joy o' Life" and "The Earth Cry." Contributor of poems and stories to magazines. Gordon, Charles William. 1860- . Pseudonym, Ralph Con- nor. Clergyman and author. Missionary in Rocky Mountain districts of Canada, for which work he secured large sums from British churches. Minister of St. Stephen's, Winnepeg, since 1894. Hale, Edward Everett. 1822-1909. Clergyman and author. Pastor of South Congregational Church, Boston, for more than fifty years and chaplain of the United States Senate. " The Man Without a Country " is his best short story. Hewlett, Maurice. 1861- . English novelist. His first novel appeared in 1895. A fresh novel from his pen has been pub- lished nearly every year since that date. Hillis, Newell Dwight. 1858- . Clergyman, author, and lec- turer. He is successor to Henry Ward Beecher and Lyman Abbott as pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. Holmes, Oliver Wendell. 1809-1894. Physician, poet, essayist, novelist, humorist, and philosopher. Probably the most versa- tile of all American writers. His "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," alone, is enough to make him famous. Howell, Clark. 1863- . Editor and statesman. Editor of "The Atlanta Constitution," ex-speaker of the House of Representatives, Georgia Legislature. 342 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Hughes, Charles Evans. 1862- . Jurist and statesman. Ex- governor of the State of New York, associate justice of the supreme court of the United States. Irving, Washington. 1783-1859. Essayist, novelist, historian. With matchless literary style, he gives us delightful descrip- tion as in "Rural Life in England," genial humor as in the "Christmas Sketches," and tender pathos as in "The Pride of the Village." Kendall, Leonard B. 1891- . Contributor to periodicals. Lanier, Sidney. 1842-1881. Musician, poet, and critic. Occupied the chair of Enghsh Literature at Johns Hopkins Universit3^ Since his death his poetry has been accorded a much higher place in literature than was given it while he hved. Lincoln, Abraham. 1809-1865. Sixteenth president of the United States, and savior of the LTnion. His remarkable speech of consecration to the cause of his country was made when he was but thirty-one years old. Livermore, Mary A. 1821-1905. American reformer and lec- turer. She is best known by her work in sanitary reforms for the benefit of soldiers during the Civil War. Mansfield, Richard. 1857-1907. A German-American actor and playwright. He was successful in several Shakespearian roles, but is best remembered for his acting in "Beau Brummel" and in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Markham, Edwin. 1852- . Poet, writer, and lecturer. Born Oregon City, Oregon. His poem, "The Man with the Hoe," so well known, appeared in 1899. Matthews, Brander. 1852- . Poet, essayist, critic, and pro- fessor of dramatic literature at Columbia University. He has a large acquaintance with literary people both in England and America, and has published a variety of works. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 343 Mitchell, S. Weir. 1829- . Neurologist and novelist. His early writings, beginning about 1860, were ajjou medical sub- jects, but since 1880 he has directed his efforts mostly to fiction. Moflfett, Cleveland. 1863- . Editor and author. Associated with the New York Recorder and the New York Herald. His "Careers of Danger and Daring" was published in 1901. Moore, F. Frankfort. 1855- . Irish novelist and dramatist. He published verses as early as 1875. Besides his many novels he has written several successful plays. Noyes, Alfred. 1880- . EngUsh poet. He has contributed poems to both English and American periodicals, and has already been widely recognized as a poet of worth. Peary, Robert E. 1856- . Ai-ctic explorer. He started on his eighth Arctic expedition, July, 1908. He reached the North Pole, April 6, 1909. He was promoted to the rank of Rear- Admiral, and given the thanks of Congress by special act March 3, 1911. Proctor, Bryan Waller. 1787-1874. Pseudonym, Barry Cornwall. English poet. Byron and Sir Robert Peel were his schoolmates, and later in life he counted Dickens, Thackeray, Tennyson, Browning and Carlyle among his friends. He was at his best in lyric poetry. Reade, Charles. 1814-1884. English novelist and playwright. Reade studied the great art of fiction closely for fifteen years before he ventured to write a word of it. "Peg Woffington" was first written in the form of a play, and then turned into a novel. "The Cloister and the Hearth" is his masterpiece, and is pronounced truer than history. r.edpath, James. 1833-1891. Scottish-American editor, lecturer, and historian. He was associated with the New York Tribune, the North American Review, and for several years pubUshed his own paper, "Redpath's Weekly." 344 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Riis, Jacob A. 1849- . Danish-American journalist and philanthropist. Besides his work as police reporter to the New York Sun, he has been active in the small parks and play- ground movement, and in tenement house and school reform. Riley, James Whitcomb. 1853- . A lyric poet. Much of his verse is in the Middle Western or Hoosier dialect, and he is known as "the Hoosier poet." He has pictured children and home life so well that his name is a household word. Roberts, Charles C. D. 1860- . Canadian author, editor, and poet. Published a volume of poems in 1903, "Hunters of the Silences" in 1904, "The Watchers of the Trails" in 1907, and "The House in the Water" in 1908. Roosevelt, Theodore. 1858- . Ex-governor of New York State, Lieutenant Colonel in the Spanish-American War, the twenty-sixth president of the United States, advocate of re- forms municipal and national, on the staff of the Outlook. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. 1828-1882. Painter and poet. He translated poems of the early Italian poets, and brought out a volume of his own poetry. "The Blessed Damozel" is one of his best. Shakespeare, William. 1564-1616. Shakespeare is admitted to be the greatest hterary genius of all time. The thirty-seven dramas he wrote are his lasting memorial. To know his works well and to appreciate them is a liberal education. Sims, George R. 1847- . English verse wi'iter, dramatist, and journahst. He is the author of "The Life Boat," "The Old Actor's Story," "In the Harbor," "The Ticket o'Leave," "Billy's Rose," and many other popular recitations. Stevenson, Robert Louis. 1S50-1S94. Scottish essajnst, romancer, and poet. Educated at Edinburgh University. He was called to the Scottish bar, but never practiced. The last five years of his life were spent at Samoa. He is one of the most popular of modern writers. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 345 Taft, William Howard. 1857- . Secretary of War in the cabi- net of President Roosevelt, the twenty-seventh President of the United States. Eminent for his knowledge of international affairs and his success as a dij)lomat. Tyndall, John. 1820-1893. British phj'sicist. Occupied the chair of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution, London; ex- plored with Huxley the glaciers of Switzerland in 1856, thus beginning a study to which he gave much attention. Van Dyke, Henry. 1852- . Clergyman, author, and educator. Professor of English Literature at Princeton University, 1900- 1913. Minister to Holland, 191.3- . His works include sermons, essays, poems and stories. He has written of his fishing excursions in "Little Rivers." Walker, H. Wilfred. Traveler and fellow of the Royal Geographi- cal Society. Ward, Herbert, African traveler, sculptor, and Knight of the Legion of Honor. Among his publications are "Five Years with the Congo Cannibals" and "My Life with Stanley's Rear Guard." Washington, Booker T. 1859- . Educator. Organizer and head of Tuskegee Institute 1881. He has done more toward the practical education of negroes than any other educator. Waterhouse, Alfred James. 1855- . Newspaper man and author. Now the associate editor of the San Francisco Star. Watterson, Henry. 1840- . Journalist and orator. Editor of the Courier Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, and member of the forty-fourth congress. White, Stewart Edward. 1873- . Fiction writer. His ex- perience as member of the American Forestry Association is reflected in all that he has written. The forests and mountains take on new attractions as he portrays them. 34G BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Whittier, John Greenleaf. 1807-1892. The Quaker poet who as a boy received his first inspiration to write by hearing some of Burns' poems read aloud. He is revered for his simple living, the ennobling verses he wrote, and his devotion to the cause of freedom. Williams, Jesse Lynch. 1871- . A Princeton alumnus, still residing at Princeton, who has written many good stories of his Alma Mater. Wills, Freeman. Enghsh clergyman and dramatist. Vicar of St. Agatha, Finsbury, London, since 1871. Wilson, Woodrow. 1856- i'?^. 4. Born Staunton, Va. President Princeton University 1902-1910, Governor of New Jersey 1911-1913, twenty-eighth president of the United States. Author of various political and historical works. Zamacoiis, Miguel. Man of letters, dramatic author, and ChevaUer of the Legion of Honor. "The Jesters" was first played at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre, Paris, in 1907. Zangwill, Israel. 1864- . Hebrew poet and playwright. Among his best known works are "Children of the Ghetto," and "Merely Mary Ann." ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF SELECTIONS PAGE America the Crucible of God Israel Zangmll 200 American Integrity Charles Evans Hughes 331 Antelope, the Sioux Scout C. Alexander Eastman 274 As Men Should Leonard B. Kendall 329 At Abbotsford with Scott Washington Irving 291 Breaking of Pommcrs, The A. Conan Doyle 159 Burial of Dundee William Edmondstoune Aytoun 262 Case of Fatty Simon, The Jesse Lynch Williams 211 Climbing to a Steeple-Top Cleveland Moffelt 333 Consecration to Country Abraham Lincoln 318 Court Lady, A Elizabeth Barrett Browning 221 Death of the Dauphin, The Aiphonse Daudel 241 Discovery of the North Pole, The Robert E. Peary 326 Eagle's Song, The Richard Mansfield 185 Electric Tram, The Alfred Noyes 193 Escape from Prison , .5. Weir Mitchell 171 Extract from Inaugural Address Woodrow Wilson 336 Falstaff's Valor William Shakespeare 186 Finish of Patsy Barnes, The Paul Laurence Dunbar 164 Getting Started as a Lawyer Paid Leicester Ford 310 Griggsby's Station James Whitcomb Riley 213 H(>nry Hudson's Last Voyage Henry van Dyke 319 How Wendell Phillips Became an Anti-slavery Reformer Mary A. Livermore 197 Hymn to the North Star William Cullen Bryant 202 Italian in England, The Robert Browning 305 John Brown's Last Speech James Redpath 316 King's Tragedy, The Dante Gabriel Rossetti 282 Lincoln, the Man of the People Edwin Markham 225 Little Women, Scene from (Louisa M. Alcott) Dramatized by Marion DeForest 208 Lodging for a Night, A Robert Louis Stevenson 215 347 348 INDEX OF SELECTIONS PAGE Log Driving Stewart Edward White 179 Loyalty Newell Dwight Hillis 232 Man with his Hat in his Hand, The Clark Howell 219 Marguerite John Greenleaf Whittier 245 May Flowers Theodosia Garrison 184 Miracle of the Peach-Tree, The Maurice Hewlett 270 Morning in an African Village, A Herbert Ward 293 Nandi Lion Hunting Theodore Roosevelt 278 Night Among the Pines, A Robert Louis Stevenson 250 Passing of Captain Jewett, The George W. Cable 259 Passion in the Desert, The Honore de Balzac 246 Path to Peace, The William Howard Taft 231 Pirates Alfred Noijes 277 Premiere of "She Stoops to Conquer," The. ...F. Frankfort Moore 302 Race of Life, The Oliver Wendell Holmes 176 Rescued from the Stadthouse Tower Charles Reade 266 Royal Marauder, A Charles G. D. Roberts 256 Said Abdallah Homer Davenport 234 Sea Ice and Icebergs John Tyndall 296 Sea, The Bryan Waller Proctor 206 Second Fiddle Richard Burton 224 Self-assertion in Speech Benjamin Franklin 223 Sergeant Vaughan as a Fireman Jacob A. Riis 239 Sidney Carton's Sacrifice (Charles Dickens) Dramatized by Freeman Wills 324 Silly Old Man, A George R. Sims 190 Song of the Chattahoochee Sidney Lanier 177 Standards of Success Brander Matthews 300 Story of Philip Nolan, The Edward Everett Hale 227 Story of the Breeze, The Miguel Zamacdis 169 Struggling for an Education Booker T. Washington 298 Swan Creek Church Opened, The Ralph Connor 203 Tall-stoy George Ade 253 Under the Sign of the Golden Shoe Alfred Noyes 191 Vision of American History Ilrnry Watterson 243 When I Go Out on my Wheel Alfred James Watcrhouse 194 When Tulips Bloom Henry van Dyke 183 Where Edible Birds' Nests are Gathered H. Wilfred Walker 313 ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF AUTHORS PAGE Ade, George 253 Alcott, Louisa M 208 Aytoun, William E 2G2 Balzac, Honore de 246 Browniug, Elizabeth B 221 Browning, Robert 305 Bryant, William Cullen 202 Burton, Richard 224 Cable, George W 259 Daudet, Alphonse 241 Davenport, Homer 234 DeForest, Marion 208 Dickens, Charles 324 Doyle, A. Conan 159 Dunbar, Paul Laurence 164 Eastman, C. Alexander 274 Ford, Paul Leicester 310 Franklin, Benjamin 223 Garrison, Theodosia 184 Gordon, Charles William 203 Hale, Edward Everett 227 Hewlett, Maurice 270 Hillis, Newell Dwight 232 Holmes, Oliver Wendell 176 Howell, Clark 219 Hughes, Charles Evans 331 Irving, Washington 291 Kendall, Leonard B 329 Lanier, Sidney 177 Lincoln, Abraham 318 Livermore, Mary A 197 Mansfield, Richard 185 Markham, Edwui 225 PAGE Matthews, Brander 300 Mitchell, S. Weir 171 Moffett, Cleveland 333 Moore, F. Frankfort 302 Noyes, Alfred 191, 193, 277 Peary, Robert E 326 Proctor, Bryan Waller 206 Reade, Charles 266 Redpath, James 316 Riis, Jacob A 239 Riley, James Whitcomb 213 Roberts, Charles G. D 256 Roosevelt, Theodore 278 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel 282 Shakespeare, William 186 Sims, George R 190 Stevenson, Robert Louis 215, 250 Taft, William Howard 231 Tyndall, John 296 Van Dyke, Henry 183, 319 Walker, H. Wilfred 313 Ward, Herbert 293 Washington, Booker T 298 Waterhouse, Alfred James. . . 194 Watterson, Henry 243 Wliite, Stewart Edward 179 Whit tier, John G 245 Williams, Jesse Lj'nch 211 Wills, Freeman 324 Wilson, Woodrow 336 Zamacois, Miguel 169 Zangwill, Israel 200 349 INDEX Abbott, Lyman, quotation from, 89 Abdominal breathing, 12 Accent, adjective and verb dis- tinguished by, 66-67; correct, of words often wrongly ac- cented, 70; defined, 66; foreign, 26; noun and adjective distin- guished by, 66-67; noun and verb distinguished by, 66-67; primary and secondary, 66 Accuracy, in reading, 80 Actors, emotions of, 99; voices of, 104 Allen, James Lane, quotation from, 137 Alphabet, N. E. A., 74777 American institutions encourage public speaking, 5 American voice, 7, 107 Analyzing thought, 80, 84, 85, 112 Anderson, William Gilbert, quotation from, 90 Antonyms, 95-96 ARcnER, William, quotation from, 99 Argument, 89-91; antecedent probability, 153; from author- ity, 153; positive, 153; pure rea- son, 153; real evidence, 153 Argumentation, 89-91 Articulation, organs of, 15, 16, 18 Atherton, Gertrude, quotation from, 115 Atmosphere of audience, 101-103 Atonies, defined, 16; tabulated, 17 Attainments in spoken English, 3, 6 Beecher, Henry Ward, quota- tion from, 147 Begging the question, 152 Bible, quotation from, 128 Book, how to hold it, 12 Breathing, abdominal, 12; af- fected by position, 10; costal, 12; effect of proper breathing, 12; exercises for deep breath- ing, 13; exercises for control of breath, 14; control of, for group- ing words, 123; methods of, 12; thoracic, 12 Brief making, 155 Bronte, Charlotte, quotation from, 140 Browne, Walter, quotation from, 114 Browning, Robert, quotation from, 127 Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, quo- tation from, 132 Burden of proof, 152 Business success, aided by good English, 3-5 Byron, Lord, quotation from, 141 Cable, George W., quotation from, 142 351 352 INDEX Cawein, Madison, quotation from, 123 Central idea, 113, 148 Chambers, Robert W., quota- tion from, 144 Character and emotional expres- sion, 100 Choosing, a selection, 149; a topic for an original speech, 150; a topic for oral composition, 92- 93; a question for debate, 154 Circumflex inflection, 133 Clay, Henry, quotation from, 135 Clearing ground, 152 Cognates defined, 16 Compass of voice, 129 Complexity of oral English, 8 Composition, oral, forms of, com- pared with purposes of public speaking, 91; ideals in, 78-79; topics for, 92-93 Concentration of thought, 84 Conclusion, of original speech, 150; of debate, 155 Cone, Helen Gray, quotation from, 120 Connolly, James Brendan, quo- tation from, 134 Consonants, beginning and final, 18; correct sound of, in words often mispronounced, 71; how formed, 16; lessons in enuncia- tion of, 19-46; tabulation of, 17; with more than one sound, 61-65; with musical qualities, 107-108 Contrast of ideas, 113 Control of breath, exercises for, 13; while grouping words, 123 Conversation, reveals the indi- vidual, 4; compared with public address, 6 Conviction, a purpose of public speaking, 89 Correcting a speech, 151; a de- bate, 155; a misstatement, 102 Costal breathing, 12 Cox, Samuel S., quotation from, 89 Criticism, 94 Curtis, George William, quota- tion from, 116, 121 Debates, cautions, 156; how to prepare, 151 ; positive argument, 153; refutation, 154 Deep breathing, exercises for, 13 Delivery affected by emotion, 100 Description, form of composition, 91 Descriptive gestures, 145-146 Diacritical marks, 46 Diagnosis of pupil's expression, 80 Dickens, Charles, quotations from, 131, 134, 137 Dictionaries, records of current usage, 67; Webster diacritical markings, 46-75 Diphthongs in English, 55 Directness in delivery, 290 Diversion, a purpose of public speaking, 87; illustration, 87 Doubt, inflection expressing, 133 Doyle, A. Conan, quotations from, 114, 124, 127 Dramatization, 101, 147 Drawling, how to overcome, 18 INDEX 353 Ear, cultivation of, 68, 103, 104; meaning of good, 104; trained, gives ideals, 105; trained, acts as gauge, 106; untrained, a handi- cap, 105 Eastman, C. Alexander, quota- tion from, 128 Elements of language, 16; in Eng- lish tabulated, 17; of oral Eng- lish tabulated, 7 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, quota- tion from, 115 Emotional elements, 9, 99 Emotions, cultivation of, 100; efifect of, in delivery, 100; relan tion to imagination, 99; univer- sal language, 99 Emphasis defined, 112; rules for, 113; rules illustrated, 114-117 English language, vowels and consonants of, 15-17; deserves respect, 68 Enunciation, aids to good, 18; what is good, 18; graded lessons in, 19-46 Errors, in grammar, 81; in pro- nunciation, 67-72 Exaggeration, to be avoided, 156 Exercises for controlling breath, 14; cultivating the voice, 128- 129; deep breathing, 13; enun- ciation, 19-46; pronunciation, 46-74 Exposition, a form of composition, 91 Extemporaneous speech, 98 Familiarity with words, 95 Feeling the pulse of the audience, 101; help to a speaker, 102, 188; how cultivated, 102 Field, Eugene, quotation from, 132 Flippancy in debate, 156 Focusing tone, 18, 109 Force, an expressive element, 112 Ford, Paul Leicester, quota- tion from, 88 Foreign accents, 26 Formal Elements, S, 10 Formation, of consonants, 16, 19; of vowels, 16 Freedom of organs of articulation, 109 Galsworthy, John, quotations from, 115, 121 Garrison, Theodosia, quotation from, 125 Gestures, descriptive, 145, 146; elaborate, 145; emotionally manifestive, 147; self-manifcs- tive, 146; sympathetic, 146; use and abuse of descriptive, 146 Gilder, Richard Watson, quo- tation from, 125 Grady, Henry W., quotations from, 120, 127 Grammatical relations, apprecia- tion of, 80; effect on reatling, SI ; effect on spoken English, 81; errors that are common, 81- 82 Grasp of subject, 98 Grouping, according to punctua- tion, 123; according to thought, 123; exercises in, 123-126; lines of poetry, 123 354 INDEX Habits of speech, 3, 80, 81 Hagedorn, Hermann, quotation from, 132 Hall, Newman, quotation from, 117 Hamilton, Alexander, quota- tion from, 98 Hardy, Thomas, quotation from, 143 Harrison, Clifford, quotation from, 82 Henry, O., quotation from, 116 Herbert, George, quotation from, 129 Herrick, Robert, quotation from, 118 HovEY, Richard, quotation from, 134 Hughes, Thomas, quotation from, 121 Hunt, Leigh, quotation from, 130 Ibsen, Henrik, quotations from, 114, 136 Ideals in oral composition, 78, 79 Idioms of English, 96-97 Imagination, how developed, 83; related to reading aloud, 82; used in many professions, 83 Imitation, basis of speech, 78; of teacher's reading, 104; of voices heard, 104 I.npression, a purpose of public speaking, 86; illustration, 89 Inflections, circumflex, 133; de- fined, 133; falling, 133; rising, 133 Ingersolt,, Robert, quotations from, 83. 128 Instruction, a purpose of public speaking, 86; illustration, 88 Integrity of speaker, 103 Intellectual Elements, 8, 78 Interpretation, characteristic of reading aloud, 7; of literature gives ideals, 79 Interrogative sentences with force of commands, 133 Introduction, to an original speech, 150; to a debate, 155 James, William, quotations from, 79, 144 Jaw, free movement of lower, 18 Johnson, Owen, quotation from, 136 Keys in speech, 130 Klein, Charles, quotation from, 115 Labials, classified, 17; defined, 16 Lamb, Charles, quotation from, 121 Leacock, Stephen, quotation from, 87 Linguals, classified, 17; defined, 16 Lips, mobility of, 18 Lisping, how to avoid, 18 Longfellow, Henry W., quota- tion from, 119 Mackaye, Percy "W., quotation from, 142 Maeterlinck, Maurice, quota- tion from, 138 Mannerisms, effect of, on audi- ence, 11 INDEX 355 Manuscript, reading from, 151 Maudkn, ()kis(jn Swett, quota- tion from, 122 Matthews, Brander, quotation from, 124 Matthews, William, quotation from, 14 Mechanical, pausing, 126; proc- esses not the object of thouglit, 105 l^.Ielody, of sentences, 129; and ac- cent, 66 Memorizing, 140 Mental gras]) of thought, 84, 98 Mental training from vital oral reading, 84, 85, 98 MERiMfcE, Prosper, quotation from, 142 Models, study of, 78 Monotone, cause of, 103, 175; in untrained voice, 107; of deaf, 104 Moody, William Vaughn, quo- tation from, 115 Narration, a form of composition, 91 Nasal consonants, musical quali- ties of, 108 Nasality, how to avoid, 18 Newbolt, Henry, quotation from, 141 Nose, breathing through the, 13 Note-book, value of, 95 Old rule of counting at pauses, 126 Oral composition, ideals for, 78- 79; topics for, 92-93 Oral English, command of, essen- tial in j)ublic speaking, 5; com- mand of, an element of success, 3; divisions of, 6; elements of, tabulated, 8-9; permanency of attainments in, 6; value of, at school, 3; value of, in social relations, 4; value of, in busi- ness, 4, 5 Oral reading, complexity of, 8; ele- ments of, tabulated, 8-9; form of oral English, 6; how to im- prove in, 7; neglect of, 7; vi- tality in, 158 Oratory, 103 Original speech, how to prepare one, 150 Palatals, classified, 17; defined, 16 Pantomime, 101, 145, 147 Parliamentary usage in debate, 156 Pauses, related to emphasis, 112; related to grouping, 123; re- lated to time, 126; rhetorical, 127; illustrations, 127-129 Peabody, Ephraim, quotation from, 119 Perception of vocal effects, 103; cultivation of, 104; essential to good oral English, 106 Perry, Bliss, quotation from, 128 Persuasion, a purpose of public speaking, 86; illustration, 90 Phillips, Charles, quotation from, 127 Phillips, Wendell, quotation from, 116 Physical response, 144 Pier, Arthur Stanwood, quota- tion from, 118 Pitch, an expressive element, 129 ooo INDEX Pleading, inflections in, 133 PoE, Edgar Allan, quotation from, 122 Positive assertion, inflection of, 133 Practice, necessary in oral compo- sition, 133; reading aloud, 79; voice exercises, 108; weak ele- ments developed by, 8 Premise, 152 Preparation, of a debate, 151; a declamation, 149; an original speech, 150; a reading lesson, 148 Presenting pictures in delivery, 238 Proof, burden of, 152 Pronunciation, correct accentua- tion, 70; correct consonant sounds, 61 ; correct vowel sounds, 46-60; defined, 67; inserting extra syllables, or letters, 69; of consonants, 71; of silent letters, 72; of vowels, 71; omit- ting syllables or letters, 69; wrong division of syllables, 68 Public speaking, purposes of, di- version, 86-87; instruction, 86, 88; impression, 86, 89; convic- tion, 86, 89; persuasion, 86, 90; compared with forms of oral composition, 91; equipment for, 5 Purpose, subservient and ulti- mate, in public speaking, 87 Quality, an expressive element, affected by emotions, 139*, cul- tivation of, 108, 139; defined, 138; physical basis 138j varie- ties of, used in interpreting literature, 140-144 Quality of voice affected by breathing, 12, 18 Question, begging the, 152; state- ment of, in debate, 152 Reade, Charles, quotation from, 143 Reading aloud, a form of oral Eng- lish, 6; good training, 6, 7; neg- lect of, 7 Reading lesson, how to prepare, 148 Refutation, 154 Rehearsing, 149, 151, 156 Resonance, 18; exercises for se- curing, 108, 110 Resonant chambers, 15, 108 Rhetorical pauses, 127; illustra- tions of, 127-129 Rhythm rouses emotions, 99 Riis, Jacob A., quotation from, 133 Riley, James Whitcomb, quota- tion from, 140 Robertson, Forbes, quotation from, 99 School subjects and oral English, 4, 84, 106 Scollard, Clinton, quotation from, 125 Scott, Walter, quotations from, 130, 136 Self-confidence, 5 Self-consciousness, overcoming, 10, 147 Self-control, 11 Shakespeare, William, quotas INDEX 357 ♦ ions from, 118, 119, 126, 127, 12.S, 130, 136 Shifting ground, 152 Silent letters, sounding of, 72 Slovenly speoch, 4, 5 Smith, F. Hopkinson, quotation from, 135 Social relations and oral English, 4 Spalding, John L., quotation from, 128 Stating the question, 152 Stevenson, Robert Louis, quo- tation from, 140 Student cooperation with teacher, 94,95 Stud}' of models, 78 Subordination, defined, 120; illus- trated, 120-123 Subservient purpose in public speaking, 87 Subtonics, classified, 17; defined, 16 Swift, Jonathan, quotation from, 122 Syllables, inserting extra, 87; omitting, 69; wrong division of 68 Syllogism, 152 Synonyms, 95 Tabulation, elements of oral English, 8-9; elements of Eng- lish, 17 Technical Elements, 9, 112 Temperament, emotional, 100 Tennyson, Alfred, quotations from, 122, 131 Thackeray, William M., quota- tion from, 122 Thoracic breathing, 12 Thought, concentration of, in stud 3', 84; grasp of author's, 84; vitality of, in conversation and public speech, 158 Time, an expressive element, 117; significance of fast, moderate and slow, 117; varieties of, illus- trated, 118-123 Tone, breathy, 13, 18; empty, 97; focusing, 18; fronting, 109; general direction of, 10; influ- enced bj- physical conditions, 10 Tonics, classified, 17; defined, 16 Topics, for oral composition, 92- 93; for original speech, 150 Trowbridge, John T., quotation from, 117 Tyndall, John, quotation from, 118 Ultimate purpose in public speak- ing, 87 Utterance, rapid, 18; related to thought, 112 Value of good oral English, in business, 4, 5; at school, 3; in society, 4 Values, relation of, in expressive delivery, 196 Vitality in oral reading, 158 Vocabulary, how to increase, 95, 96; of use and comprehension, 95 Vocal apparatus, 15; exercises for, 109 Voice, American, 107; cultivation of, 107; exercises, 109-111; nat- 358 INDEX ural reporter of mental states, Webster, Daniel, quotation 100 from, 98 Vowels, correct, in words often Whittier, John Greenleaf, quo- mispronounced, 71; graded les- tation from, 138 sons in sounds of, 46-60; how Wister, Owen, quotation from, formed, 16; tabulated, 17 117 Words, choice of, 95 Watson, John, quotation from, Wordsworth, William, quota- 144 tion from, 124 npHE following pages contain advertisements of a few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjefts. Studies in Literature By FREDERICK MONROE TISDEL Assistant Professor of English in the University of Missouri. Clothy i2>no., illustrated, ;^jj pages, list price %. go In Part I of this book the author introduces the student to more than twenty standard EngHsh classics, giving in connection with each a brief explanatory introduction, suggestions for study and topics for oral and written discussion. These classics are grouped with respect to the dif- ferent types of literature which they represent, — epic, drama, essay, novel, etc., and there is a brief e.xposition of the type. The result is that in the mind of the reader the individual masterpiece and the type with its characteristics are inseparably connected. Part II consists of a brief but masterly survey of English literature. The book as a whole serves to systematize and unify the study of sec- ondary school literature, — a most desirable end. Professor E. A. Cross, State Teachers College, Greeley, Co'.o. " It meets with my heartiest approval. It is brief, considers all the writers high school students need to know, touches the interesting features in the lives and works of these men, — about all you could want it to do." Mr. John B. Opdycke, English Department of the High School of Commerce, New York City. " I like it very much indeed. It has just enough in its re- view of the history of English literature, and its treatment of the classics is restrained and dignified. So far as I have seen, this is the only book that combines the two in one volume. I am all against the use of an abstract History of English Literature in the high school and I am all in favor of put- ting into the hands of the students some book that analyzes classics fully and yet with restraint. This book seems to have combined the two in just the right proportions and treated them in just the right manner." THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Ave. New York City Boston Chicago Atlanta Dallas San Francisco Elements of English Composition By Professor HENRY S. CANBY, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, and Mr. JOHN B. OPDYCKE, High School of Commerce, New York City Cloth, 12mo, 593 pages, $1.00 The most characteristic feature of this book is that the authors see the end from the beginning and never lose sight of it. That end is the ability on the part of the pupil to write clearly, correctly, and intelli- gently. From start to finish the appeal is to the intelligence rather than to mere form. The fact that before all else there must be something to say is emphasized in the first two chapters on Composition and Shap- ing the Material. The remainder of the book is simply a study of dif- ferent ways and the best ways of saying what you want to say. The manner of approach is psychological. Part I contains (1) choice of subject; (2) arrangement of what you want to say; (.3) the use of the sentence as the expression of a single thought; (4) the use of the para- graph; (5) the structure of the whole composition; (6) the choice of the right word to express meaning nicely. Part II is a study of the recog- nized forms of composition, exposition, argument, description, narra- tion, the story. In Part III, Aids to Composition, there are given for reference necessary details concerning spelling, punctuation, capitaliza- tion, grammatical forms, figures of speech, etc. Throughout the book there are abundant exercises and illustrative excerpts that serve to emphasize the point under consideration. The book is a unit, the plan works. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York Boston Chicago Atlanta Dallas San Francisco Manual of Argumentation for High Schools and Academies By CRAVEN LAYCOCK, Assistant Professor of Oratory in Dart- mouth Collcgo, and A. KEITH SPOFFORD, Instructor in English in Hartford (Vermont) High School Cloth, 12mo, 161 pages, $.50 This compact little manual was made to meet the needs of high school students of argument and debate. It presents in a clear and simple way the elements of debate to that large class of students who are not ad- vanced enough to master the rather difficult college textbooks on the subject, but who are deeply interested in debating because it "appeals to those instincts which are the basis of oratory and as old as the race." The book is simply planned and very clearly executed. It is complete, logical, and full of common sense suggestions. After a general treatment of The Question, its formation, definition of terms, etc., The Issues and The Evidence are discussed. Another chapter treats of arguments from cause, arguments from sign, and arguments from example. There is a full treatment of fallacies covering among others that of definition, of false cause, of too few facts, of arguing beside the point, of begging the question. Part I closes with a chapter on Refutation. Part II in twenty pages covers matters relating to the presentation of the debate, formal matters of manuscript, brief and notes, and in three appendixes are a sample brief, some questions for debate and a list of general refer- ence books. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York Boston Chicago Atlanta Dallas San Francisco A History of the Ancient World By GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD Professor of History in Columbia University Cloth, i2mo Illustrated xviii + ^88 pages $f.Jo In the short time since this book came from the press it has met with excep- tional commendation by those who have examined it and tested it in the class- room. The prominence of the author in the world of scholarship, the simple yet thorough treatment of the subject, the wealth of illustrations, the conformance of the book to modern ideas of content and method, and its evident adaptability to the practical needs of the classroom have combined to produce a most favorable impression. W. H. PEIRCE, Head of the History Department, High School, Melrose, Mass. " I consider it to be the finest Ancient History on the market to-day. Ev- erything about it pleases me — maps," illustrations, all." Miss CORA S. fiANGSTER, History Department, Lafayette High School, Buffalo, N.Y. " I am more than pleased to state that I consider it the best elementary text- book I have ever seen. It is up to date m every respect. The maps and illustrations are excellent. I feel that I cannot recommend the book too highly." GEORGE R. HULL, Technical High School, Harrisburg, Pa. " I am particularly pleased with the emphasis laid by Botsford on the devel- opment of ancient government, law, art, and custom ; with the maps, plates, and the suggestive questions at the end of each section." Educational Review, Februjiry, 191 2. " Professor George W. Botsford combines the most precise and accurate scholarship with extraordinary capacity as a writer of simple and well-ordered textbooks. His ' History of the Ancient World,' which has just come from the press, presents in a single volume of not too great size, a complete view of the Ancient World from the rise of civilization in the Euphrates Valley to the break-up of the Roman Empire. The work is thoroughly well done and the apparatus for the use of teachers and students, as well as the illustrations, are adequate and well chosen. The book is the best in its held." THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York BOSTON CHICAGO ATLANTA DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO .lji:S2iL-!yL:.XS: ftf-'T^TM This book is DUE on the last date stamped below NOV 8 19^' 2 erf'*' JAM i 6 1964 Form L-9-3r>/)(-8,'2S 1 i s K CO O - S 1 PLEA«? DO NOT REMOVE THIS BOOK CARD j ^tllBRAliYa >A ^ 33 ^