more than he, but who cannot express themselves with ease or eloquence.

The awakening and stimulating of the whole personality in public speaking has effects reaching much further than the oratorical occasion. The marshaling of one's reserves, in a logical and orderly manner, to bring to the front all the power one possesses, leaves these reserves permanently better in hand, more readily in reach.

The sense of power that comes from holding the attention, stirring the emotions or convincing the reason, of an audience, gives self-confidence, assurance, self-reliance, arouses ambition and tends to make one more dignified, more manly, more effective in every particular.

Even a partial failure on the platform has good results, for it often arouses a determination to conquer which never leaves one. Demosthenes' heroic efforts, and Disraeli's, "The time will come when you will hear me," are historic examples.

It would be difficult to estimate the great part which practical drill in oratory may play in one's life.

Great occasions, when nations have been in peril, have developed and brought out some of the greatest orators of the world. Cicero, Mirabeau, Patrick Henry, Webster, and John Bright might all be called to witness to this fact.

An early training for effective speaking will make one careful to secure a good vocabulary by

good reading and a dictionary. To express his thoughts adequately one must know a great variety of words.

Attention to the following rules, formulated by Gladstone for young speakers, is said to have contributed in no small degree to Gladstone's own power in "swaying audiences."

"1. Study plainness of language, always preferring the simpler word.

"2. Shortness of sentences.

"3. Distinctness of articulation.

"4. Test and question your own arguments beforehand, not waiting for critic or opponent.

"5. Seek a thorough digestion of and familiarity with your subject, and rely mainly on these to prompt the proper words.

"6. Remember that if you are to sway an audience you must, besides thinking out your matter, watch it all along."

Ability in oratory is acquired just as ability in conversation. It is a matter of painstaking and preparation. There is everything in learning what you wish to know. Your vocal culture, manner and mental furnishing are to be made a matter for thought and careful training.

The French people have always excelled in conversation. They aim to be quick at repartee, and prepare themselves for certain occasions with bright, apt things to say. It is said that the better class of French people prepare themselves for con

versation upon any special occasion with as much pains as they prepare their toilet, for they know that no matter what they may wear, a heavy, uninteresting tongue may spoil it all.

No amount of natural ability or education or good clothes, no amount of money, will make you appear well if you murder the English language.

The truth of this was vividly brought home to me at a gathering some time since. I was profoundly impressed by the striking figure and imposing appearance of a stranger present. I could not keep my eyes from him, and sought an introduction. But the moment the man opened his mouth the bubble burst. The great hopes which his noble appearance had raised were shattered the instant he began to talk, for the poverty and awkwardness of his language betrayed a total absence of culture.

Nothing will indicate your culture or lack of it so much as your conversation—the words you use. Your conversation will give your whole history. A discerning mind can analyze your past by it. It is easy to give a picture of your environment, the kind of people you have lived with, whether the vulgar and common or the educated and refined. What you say will give the world the true measure of your manhood or womanhood.

Many people are troubled by not being able to find topics for conversation. They are in the position of Artemus Ward, who, when called upon to make a speech without a chance to prepare,

said, "I have the gift of oratory, but I haven't it just now with me." These people have the gift of speech, but they have nothing ready to say.

There is a good suggestion for them in the advice which Longfellow once gave to a young friend: "See some good picture,—in nature, if possible, or on a canvas,—hear a page of the best music, or read a great poem every day. You will always find a free half hour for one or the other, and at the end of the year your mind will shine with such an accumulation of jewels as will astonish even yourself."

Read good books, a good newspaper and some of the best magazines and, if you live in a city, go to a good play, an opera or a concert, whenever

you can.

All these things will give you food for thought and raw material for conversation. Practise talking about anything and everything you see and hear and read, your experiences during the day, whatever interests you or arouses your attention. There is practically no limit to the topics of conversation available to the keen observer, the intelligent reader and thinker. Make use of these topics.

Form a conversation club in your neighborhood and get together one or two evenings a week to talk. In these days there are few places so remote from civilization that one cannot get books and magazines and newspapers; and none so sparsely populated that there will not be enough

young people to form a reading and conversation circle.

Follow the lines adopted by a young woman in New York, who has recently formed such a circle for young society débutantes, many of whom, according to this bright woman, need drill in interesting conversation.

"The time has passed," she says, "when men do not want intelligence in a woman. Life is so much keener to-day that beauty no longer satisfies the average man; he demands responsive interest in the affairs of the day.

"So," she said, in outlining her work to an interviewer, "I'm gathering a group of the debutantes about me here in the Plaza Hotel once a week, very informally, to discuss the affairs of the day. I want to interest them in something beside the society column of the newspaper. I don't lecture to them, I just try to call to their attention the movements and projects in various fields with which intelligent people are concerned; topics that they may like to watch, so new, still, so up to the minute, that they have not yet found their way into books. I want to encourage the broadest scope of interests, the broadest world views.

"One week we discussed diplomacy and the sort of work which our representatives, our consuls and ambassadors in foreign lands are called upon to do.

"We are also interested in the merchant marine, particularly since that question is being debated in