PUBLIC SPEAKING
A course in public speaking is a most desirable training for the professional or commercial man. It will give him training to address a public meeting, but it will also greatly improve his conversational powers. It will make him careful in the selection of his words, their pronunciation and exact meaning; it will extend his vocabulary and give more power and intonation to his voice. It will also train his mind to quick thinking and to select without hesitation just such words as are best adapted to express his thoughts. Few people can speak out their ideas in a clear, concise manner, and fewer yet can ask a good, direct question that goes to the very heart of an issue. And yet, this ability to frame a concise question at the right moment is one of the most desirable attainments for a person that has much intercourse with his fellow men.
HENRY CLAY
Picture in your mind's eye a tall, gaunt, melancholic figure—a product of the wilderness—not handsome but of noble character, of commanding appearance, indomitable courage, and magnetic personality—picture this and you have a mental vision of Henry Clay. His voice was powerful, as his logic was keen and convincing. He was resourceful in sarcasm, wit and satire, which made him an opponent to be feared in debate. His time was contemporaneous with such giants as John Calhoun, the silver-tongued son of the South, and Daniel Webster, the favored orator of Massachusetts. It was the "Golden Age of American Oratory," but in the legislative councils of the nation Henry Clay towered above them all, admittedly America's most popular statesman. Notwithstanding this, the Presidency was denied him twice by an ungrateful republic, merely because he dared be right rather than be President. This is the spirit that should inspire our young men of to-day, and fit them for true leadership.
WOMAN AND SPEECH
"Let your women keep silence in the churches," is sometimes misunderstood to mean that women disobey a Bible injunction when they engage in public speaking. On the contrary, Saint Paul realized the demoralizing influences surrounding the Church of Corinth, and forbade female questioning. So far from commanding women to be silent, he specially commends the Greek woman Phoebe as minister in the Greek church of Cinchua. Most of the converts to Christianity were made by women who spoke and spoke well. The missionary movement in China, Japan, and India utterly failed until women who could speak persuasively were sent. Nearly all the work of the Salvation Army is done by women, and its leader in this country is a woman. Who are the women of influence in America to-day? They are those who can speak well—teachers, lecturers, social workers, and others engaged in professional and business pursuits. Who are the coming women of this country? Those who can speak their innermost convictions with certainty and power, help to solve great national problems, and give a message to the world that shall ring through the centuries!