CHAPTER VI

THE SPEAKER'S EQUIPMENT

Introduction. Equipment is a term applied to that which a person carries with him to help him accomplish his work. The woodchopper carries an axe; the artist carries paints, brushes, and canvas; the speaker must equip himself with ideas and with words with which to express those ideas. The equipment of the speaker cannot be purchased at the shop or studio but must be gradually gathered and hoarded, one thing here and another there. It is told of Webster that, after his masterful reply to Hayne, he was asked how much time he had given to preparation and he answered, "All my life." A speaker is rewarded for his effort, however, by the fact that his equipment will never wear out like that of the woodchopper or the artist, but will grow richer and finer with time and use.

If it took a lifetime for Webster to gather his equipment, it is needless to say that the young speaker should waste no time in making a start. The attitude which a speaker should take toward this matter has been well expressed by Nathan Sheppard: "An editor says, 'I never come upon a thought, a fact, or an incident without asking myself how I can get an article out of it.' The speaker says, 'How shall I use it for an audience?' He should be the most alert-minded man in the world. He should get into the habit of picking up something

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from everybody and everything and everywhere. robin should not be more industrious in gathering insects for her young."

In this chapter we shall learn: (1) how to gather an equipment of ideas; (2) how to gather an equipment of words; and (3) how to preserve our collection.

I. How To GATHER AN EQUIPMENT OF IDEAS

An equipment of ideas may be gathered from three sources: from our high-school studies, from the worldlife about us, and from our own minds.

Studies. The studies which you are pursuing daily in your high-school course, and which you may have regarded as tasks especially provided to deprive you of your freedom, are the very sources from which speakers throughout the centuries have gathered material for their speeches.

Let us consider, first, the so-called culture studies-history, literature, and languages. The speeches of George William Curtis are filled with historical facts. In the brief passage quoted in Reading Lesson IV, he used four historical facts to support his claim that a lack of education and culture is not a cause of greatness. The pages of history are open to you as they were to him. How delightfully Dickens referred, in the latter part of his speech, to the essays of Charles Lamb! You will have the privilege, during your high-school course, not only of reading Lamb's essays, but also of exploring the whole rich field of English literature. Perhaps you are studying Latin or some other foreign language. Why should not the ideas, customs, and stories of these other peoples, old yet always new, provide your speeches with color and ornament?

Let us consider next the field of science. Notice how much knowledge of geography and astronomy is shown in the passage from Edmund Burke. It would seem that with the wealth of illustration which he had at his command, he could not have failed to convince the members of Parliament that the people of New England were an enterprising people. Learn to levy tribute on your scientific studies in the same way.

The difficulty is that we are apt to look at these lessons as so many facts to be crammed for an examination, whereas we should seek to glean from them material for future use. Washington Irving says of his fat Van Twiller, "His cheeks had taken toll of all that had gone into his mouth." Why should not your mind, in the same way, take toll of these daily assignments?

World-life. It is not alone from books, however, that the speakers of the past and of the present have gathered their equipment of facts and ideas. They have come into the closest possible touch with the great worldlife about them. Lincoln's biographers say of him, "He would stop in the street and analyze a machine clocks, omnibuses, languages, paddle-wheels, and idioms never escaped his observation and analysis." As a result of this habit of close study of the things which he saw, his speeches are full of quaint, homely comparisons. We have seen that Dickens, also, was very observant. He noticed that the porridge pot was empty and that the baby's cradle was not merely a box, but an egg-box. It is because he saw and recorded these small details that his word-pictures take such hold on the mind and heart.

The great majority of us have not yet formed this

valuable habit of observation. The best way to cultivate it is to write each day a few sentences descriptive of whatever has arrested one's attention since the preceding day. Robert Louis Stevenson says of his boyhood, "As I walked, my mind was busy fitting what I saw with appropriate words; when I sat by the roadside, a pencil and a penny version book would be in my hand to note down the features of the scene I had vowed that I would learn to write. That was a proficiency that tempted me; I practiced it as men learn to whittle, in a wager with myself. Description was the principal field of my exercise; for to anyone with sense, there is always something worth describing, and town and country are but one continuous subject." Those of us who have read Treasure Island, Travels with a Donkey, or any other of his charming tales, are very glad indeed that Stevenson made this wager with himself.

Originality. We have seen that the young speaker has, in his daily lessons, an almost unlimited supply of speech-making material; and that if he will but cultivate the habit of keen observation, he may find all about him that which will give life and interest to his discourse. He may also discover a third source of ideas in his own mind. Perhaps you will say, "I am not original"; but originality does not mean the production of something absolutely new; it means the production of new combinations of things. Electricity has always existed, but the phonograph and the electric car did not exist until a certain combination was made in the mind of Edison. If a student will take time to think about that which he reads and observes, his mind, too, will produce original ideas.

II. HOW TO GATHER AN EQUIPMENT OF WORDS

Use of the Dictionary. One of the best ways to gather an equipment of words is to study the dictionary. It is said that when O. Henry was living among the cowboys and without access to books in general, he spent two years in studying the dictionary and in forming its words into sentences. Although the student, under ordinary conditions, would not find this an attractive or perhaps a desirable method of enlarging his vocabulary, he can, nevertheless, do much more than he usually does, through its use, to increase his mastery of the English tongue. When he happens upon a new word, he should look up its meaning and pronunciation and try to make it a part of his own equipment. When he is writing a letter or composing a speech, he should try to cultivate a feeling for the right word. If the one which occurs to his mind is not satisfactory, he should look it up in the dictionary and decide whether or not any of its synonyms would be better adapted to his purpose. Daniel Webster had cultivated this feeling for the right word, as is shown by the following story: "Once while addressing an audience, he had difficulty in finding just the word he wanted. He discarded one after another until five or six had been disposed of, when suddenly he found the word he had been so earnestly seeking. As he gave expression to it, the audience, who had mentally followed his anxious search, burst out into spontaneous applause." 1

Usage of Good Authors. Although we can get the meaning of words from the dictionary, it is only by read

1 Grenville Kleiser, How to Develop Power and Personality in Speaking, p. 63.