Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1898 — BISMARCK AS A SPEAKER. [ARTICLE]

BISMARCK AS A SPEAKER.

Hi* Claim that He Wae Not an Orator Was Fully Justified. Prof. William M. Sloane contributes an article on Bismarck to the Century. Prof. Sloane says: The first time I heard him spwak in public was in the old parliament-house on Leipsic street. His seat was almost on a line with the box reseived for the members of the diplomatic corps, in which, for that occasion, I had a seat. As the squire of a lady who is the daughter of a distinguished American officer, I had been instructed to secure the services of a capable Interpreter, and the man employed was given a seat where he could hear perfectly and yet utter his translation in a low tone without disturbing the assembly. When it came Bismarck's turn to speak, his rising was an affair of deliberation; it began slowly, and continued for some time, as the towering form assumed Its full height. His great stature he had from his father. Standing six feet one and a quarter Inches in his stockings, and of coursd somewhat more in his boots, he could not, even with arms as disproportionately long as his were, reach the desk before him with his hands; consequently he was wont to stand for a while, twitching his fingers and swaying his body as if to find a support. Failing in the instinctive effort, he would then fumble in his coat-tail pocket, and, producing his handkerchief, blow a stentorian blast. These preliminaries completed, he then began to speak. His voice was a disappointment; it was the voice of an effeminate man when In a fit of nervousness, and at no time did it have any resonant sonorousness; sometimes it was actually feeble, and not Infrequently he would Interrupt himself with a little nervous cough which left the sentence unfinished. “lam no orator,’’ he says In one of his published speeches; “I have not the gift of Influencing your minds nor of obscuring the real meaning of tilings by a cloud of words. My discourse Is simple and clear. • • • A good orator Is seldom a good statesman.” And again: “When a man is too fluent of speech he talks too long and too frequently.” As might be imagined, he was no friend of the great contemporary statesman and orator, Gladstone, of whom he once said to an acquaintance: “If I had brought as many humiliations on my country as Gladstone has on his, I would be unfit to rule.” In a sense his disclaimer of the orator’s gifts was Justified. Indifferent to the audience directly before him, hisreal speech was addressed to the great German reading public and to the world. Accordingly, that which was delivered, even on the most Important occasions, was scrappy, and rather In the nature of a chat with the deputies. Often his sentences were Jerky, and left the Impression that the speaker was not exactly certain as to what he actually was saying. Many beard him with the bitterest disappointment. His uncertainty of utterance was no safeguard against prollxityj’he seemed at times to be Indulging In that form of discourse which our slang designates as “talking through one’s hat,” and consequently he often let slip the loosest assertions. Moreover, the construction of his sentences was frequently portentous. On the occasion to which I have been particularly referring, my companion was as Impatient as only an intelligent woman can be to secure the Intellectual treat before her, and gave minute Instructions to her Interpreter. All went well for a time, as the low voice of the painstaking translator rendered with some adequacy the thought of Bismarck. Then there were short pauses, followed by rapid little summaries of what had been said. As these grew more and more frequent, the lady became Irritated. Finally there was an entire cessation on the part of the interpreter, and yet Bismarck was going right on with ever-increasing vehemence. There were constant calls from the lady of “What’s he saying? What’s he saying?” and an Increase of Impatience in the box quite proportionate to the growing violence of the speaker. Finally the wretched interpreter could endure the strain no longer, and, turning with a gesture of fierce resentment to his excited employer, he hissed: “Madame, I ant waiting for the verb!”