Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1894 — No Need to Hear. [ARTICLE]

No Need to Hear.

Every one has read of the “action, action, action” of Demosthenes, and of what a variety of emotions and passions Roscius could express by mere gestures. An anecdote told of William C. Preston, of South Carolina, illustrates the power of this form of art in an amusing way. A gentleman who was one of an audience held spellbound by a splendid harangue of Preston's from the stump ope day noticed beside him a man whom he knew to be very deaf, but who seemed to be listening with breathless attention, and who apparently caught every word that fell from the orator’s lips. Now tears of delight rolled down his cheeks, and again he would shout out applause in ungovernable ecstasy. At last, when a particularly splendid passage had been delivered, with the effect of raising a storm of applause from the audience, the deaf man, as if he could contain himself no longer, bawled into the ear of his neighbor, “Who’§ that a-speakjn"?” ‘’William 0. Preston? - shouted the gentleman at the top of his lungs. “Who?” roared the deaf tnan, slill louder than before. “William C. Preston, of South Carolina!” roared the gentleman in return, with an effort which rasped his throat for some moments after. “Well! well!” exclaimed the deaf man, his face working with excitement. “It don't make no difference. I can’t hear a word he or you are sayin’, not a word; but, my stars! don’t ho do the motions splendid!”—Youth’s Companion.