J. BERG ESENWEIN DALE CARNAGEY - THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

Think I'll wander down and see you when you're married--eh, my

boy? When the honeymoon is over and you're settled down, we'll

try--What? the deuce you say! Rejected--you rejected? So was

I.

--_Anonymous_.

The necessity for changing pitch is so self-evident that it should be

grasped and applied immediately. However, it requires patient drill to

free yourself from monotony of pitch.

In natural conversation you think of an idea first, and then find words

to express it. In memorized speeches you are liable to speak the words,

and then think what they mean--and many speakers seem to trouble very

little even about that. Is it any wonder that reversing the process

should reverse the result? Get back to nature in your methods of

expression.

Read the following selection in a nonchalant manner, never pausing to

think what the words really mean. Try it again, carefully studying the

thought you have assimilated. Believe the idea, desire to express it

effectively, and imagine an audience before you. Look them earnestly in

the face and repeat this truth. If you follow directions, you will note

that you have made many changes of pitch after several readings.

It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you

can hardly put more upon a man than he can bear. Worry is rust

upon the blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the

machinery but the friction.

--HENRY WARD BEECHER.

_Change of Pitch Produces Emphasis_

This is a highly important statement. Variety in pitch maintains the

hearer's interest, but one of the surest ways to compel attention--to

secure unusual emphasis--is to change the pitch of your voice suddenly

and in a marked degree. A great contrast always arouses attention. White

shows whiter against black; a cannon roars louder in the Sahara silence

than in the Chicago hurly burly--these are simple illustrations of the

power of contrast.

"What is Congress going to do next?

(High pitch) |

|

| I do not know."

-----------------

(Low pitch)

By such sudden change of pitch during a sermon Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis

recently achieved great emphasis and suggested the gravity of the

question he had raised.

The foregoing order of pitch-change might be reversed with equally good

effect, though with a slight change in seriousness--either method

produces emphasis when used intelligently, that is, with a common-sense

appreciation of the sort of emphasis to be attained.

In attempting these contrasts of pitch it is important to avoid

unpleasant extremes. Most speakers pitch their voices too high. One of

the secrets of Mr. Bryan's eloquence is his low, bell-like voice.

Shakespeare said that a soft, gentle, low voice was "an excellent thing

in woman;" it is no less so in man, for a voice need not be blatant to

be powerful,--and _must_ not be, to be pleasing.

In closing, let us emphasize anew the importance of using variety of

pitch. You sing up and down the scale, first touching one note and then

another above or below it. Do likewise in speaking.

Thought and individual taste must generally be your guide as to where to

use a low, a moderate, or a high pitch.

1. Name two methods of destroying monotony and gaining force in

speaking.

2. Why is a continual change of pitch necessary in speaking?

3. Notice your habitual tones in speaking. Are they too high to be

pleasant?

4. Do we express the following thoughts and emotions in a low or a high

pitch? Which may be expressed in either high or low pitch? Excitement.

Victory. Defeat. Sorrow. Love. Earnestness. Fear.

5. How would you naturally vary the pitch in introducing an explanatory

or parenthetical expression like the following:

He started--_that is, he made preparations to start_--on

September third.

6. Speak the following lines with as marked variations in pitch as your

interpretation of the sense may dictate. Try each line in two different

ways. Which, in each instance, is the more effective--and why?

What have I to gain from you? Nothing.

To engage our nation in such a compact would be an infamy.

Note: In the foregoing sentence, experiment as to where the

change in pitch would better be made.

Once the flowers distilled their fragrance here, but now see the

devastations of war.

He had reckoned without one prime factor--his conscience.

7. Make a diagram of a conversation you have heard, showing where high

and low pitches were used. Were these changes in pitch advisable? Why or

why not?

8. Read the selections on pages 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38, paying careful

attention to the changes in pitch. Reread, substituting low pitch for

high, and vice versa.

_Selections for Practise_

Note: In the following selections, those passages that may best be

delivered in a moderate pitch are printed in ordinary (roman) type.

Those which may be rendered in a high pitch--do not make the mistake of

raising the voice too high--are printed _in italics_. Those which might

well be spoken in a low pitch are printed in _CAPITALS_.

These arrangements, however, are merely suggestive--we cannot make it

strong enough that you must use your own judgment in interpreting a

selection. Before doing so, however, it is well to practise these

passages as they are marked.

_Yes, all men labor. RUFUS CHOATE AND DANIEL WEBSTER_ labor, say

the critics. But every man who reads of the labor question knows

that it means the movement of the men that earn their living

with their hands; _THAT ARE EMPLOYED, AND PAID WAGES: are

gathered under roofs of factories, sent out on farms, sent out

on ships, gathered on the walls._ In popular acceptation, the

working class means the men that work with their hands, for

wages, so many hours a day, employed by great capitalists; that

work for everybody else. Why do we move for this class? "_Why_,"

asks a critic, "_don't you move FOR ALL WORKINGMEN?" BECAUSE,

WHILE DANIEL WEBSTER GETS FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR ARGUING THE

MEXICAN CLAIMS, there is no need of anybody's moving for him.

BECAUSE, WHILE RUFUS CHOATE GETS FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR

MAKING ONE ARGUMENT TO A JURY, there is no need of moving for

him, or for the men that work with their brains_,--that do

highly disciplined and skilled labor, invent, and write books.

The reason why the Labor movement confines itself to a single

class is because that class of work _DOES NOT GET PAID, does not

get protection. MENTAL LABOR is adequately paid_, and _MORE THAN

ADEQUATELY protected. IT CAN SHIFT ITS CHANNELS; it can vary

according to the supply and demand_.

_IF A MAN FAILS AS A MINISTER, why, he becomes a railway

conductor. IF THAT DOESN'T SUIT HIM, he goes West, and becomes

governor of a territory. AND IF HE FINDS HIMSELF INCAPABLE OF

EITHER OF THESE POSITIONS, he comes home, and gets to be a city

editor_. He varies his occupation as he pleases, and doesn't

need protection. _BUT THE GREAT MASS, CHAINED TO A TRADE, DOOMED

TO BE GROUND UP IN THE MILL OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND, THAT WORK SO

MANY HOURS A DAY, AND MUST RUN IN THE GREAT RUTS OF

BUSINESS,--they are the men whose inadequate protection, whose

unfair share of the general product, claims a movement in their

behalf_.

--WENDELL PHILLIPS.

_KNOWING THE PRICE WE MUST PAY, THE SACRIFICE WE MUST MAKE, THE

BURDENS WE MUST CARRY, THE ASSAULTS WE MUST ENDURE--KNOWING FULL