Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1901 — HOLD THEM BY THE EYE. [ARTICLE]

HOLD THEM BY THE EYE.

Public Speaker* Have a Way of Talking at One Person in the Crowd. “I have noticed a rather singular thing about public speakers,” said a gentleman who had attended one of the big meetings in New Orleans, “and I have had occasion to observe the peculiarity several times in my life. In some instances the observation has been attended with some embarrass ment. Several days ago I attended a meeting in this city. I was seated well up to the front, and in fact within a few yards of where the speakers stood. One of the speakers apparently delivered his whole address to me. If he paid a particle of attention to any other person in the hall I could not notice it He spoke with great animation, and he kept his eye on me. He literally bombarded me with his thundering philippics, and whenever he shrieked his way up the 'scale to a point he would hurl it down with vehemence, pointed his Huger at me in derision, yelled at me, made faces at me, and stared at me In the most fiendish way imaginable. It was a trifle embarrassing, but I managed to stand it because I had observed the same peculiarity in public speakers before. I have never heard a public speaker say as much, but I believe they always pick out some object, probably some person, aud during the greater portion of tile time they are speaking their attention will be turned to this object, ami It probably aids them in the matter of mental concentration. It probably shuts out the side views which tend to break the evenness and continuity of the speech. This probably is why some of the early orators back in the days of Cicero and Demosthenes are credited with having addressed their remarks to stumps and other inanimate objects. By focusing and riveting the eye on an unchanged able object the mind concentrates more quickly and the speaker is able to pursue his subject with greater coherence. But my own experience in these matters brings back an Incident at one of Sam Jones’ big meetings eight or ten years ago, when he had reached the high tide of his evangelical reputation. A young friend of mine took a young lady around to bear Sam Jones, and the church was jammed to the door, as was usual then at meetings held by the evangelist. They sat pretty close up to the pulpit. Sam Jones had on his war paint, aud he picked out my friend apparently. ‘You flop-eared hound,’ he said, shaking his finger at my friend; ‘you rednnosed whelp! you blear-eyed sot—you drag yourself around in the gutters of infamy and wallow around in rum-shops, and then,’ he continued, leaning over the pulpit toward my my friend, ‘you have the nerve to call on one of the sweetest and purest little women in town and come sneaking into this church with her.’ My friend’s face was the color of red flannel, and the young lady was as mad as a hornet She had never heard Sam Jones before, and she not only believed the evangelist was talking to my friend, but she believed all that he said. My friend told me afterward that the young lady frequently referred to it during their friendly spats, and yet it was nothing more than another illustration of the peculiarity displayed by public speakers; but it shows, too, that the matter of playing in the role of the stump for Demosthenes is not the most pleasing thing in the world.”—New Orleans Times-Democrat.