of the schools; it is not that bed men are brave, but that good men are infidels and cowards. Truth and Victory D. C. Scoville For the most part, ringing tones and very strong force should characterize the delivery of this declamation. A pause and change to the conversational style comes at the opening of the third paragraph. Express the suspense as the story is unfolded. The climax is reached on "Balaklava was won." Then follows a note of pathos, and the speech closes with a very strong, ringing appeal. THE face of the world is changing. When crazy old John Coffin went down to the Battery and, looking eastward over New York Bay, called out "Attention, Europe! Nations! by the right, wheel !" he saw what sane men see now. Nations are discovering there is something more terrible than armies, something more reliable than battalions and bayonets, something wiser than Senators, something greater than royalty, something sweeter than liberty. Through the Gospel of Peace and through the Gospel of War one name is sounding over the continents. Truth! inspires the student of history; Truth is the watchword of science; Truth! is the victorious cry of Christianity. Graven on the intellect of the statesman, burned into the brain of the philosopher, blazoned upon the standard borne in the van of the army of progress. Truth! is the animating shout of the ages. In these days of political corruption, while one after another of our trusted leaders falls before the righteous and relentless indignation of public senti ment, it helps him who despairs of the future to remember that company in whose veins flows the young blood of the nation, in whose eyes kindle the fires of a pure faith, and from whose hearts radiate the strong purposes that make nations and direct civilization. These shall rise up where need is, and go into life's great battle with unfaltering heroism; and under their banner shall gather the world's best and bravest youth. In the terrible battle of Balaklava two British regiments were calmly awaiting the advance of twelve times their number of Russians. It was a fearful moment. The English and French generals and thousands of soldiers looked from the heights above upon this heroic handful of silent, motionless men who, with sublime courage, held the honor of Britain in that supreme hour. The glittering lines of Russians came confidently on. They halted in very wonderment at the heroism of the devoted band of English. Suddenly the British trumpets sounded the charge, and the Scotch Greys dashed at the foremost line of Russians. It yielded and broke. Again the heroic little band gathered its thinned and broken ranks, and flung itself against the second line. "God save the Queen! they are lost!" cried a thousand of their comrades from the heights. It seemed madness, it was madness; but it was madness which knows nothing but success. Ten minutes of the agony of suspense, and then a wild, spontaneous, tumultuous cheer burst from the watching thousands on the hills, and Balaklava was won. There, on the post where victory re warded valor, they lifted tenderly up a dying Highlander. He plucked from his breast a cross of honor, through which the fatal bayonet had crashed. "Take this to mother," said he, "and tell her I was struck when we charged the first line, but I could not die till we had carried the second." And so, in the infinitely nobler battle of life, remember, as you stand single and unsupported in the conflict of Truth, that the hosts of Heaven, whose cause is that day intrusted to your keeping, are watching you with infinite solicitude. Heed not the odds against you. Ask for no allies. Depend upon no reinforcements. Against all the world, against wrong government, against corrupt society, you alone are invincible, you alone irrestible. The Minute Man of the Revolution George William Curtis This is taken from an oration delivered at the Centennial Celebration of Concord Fight, April 19, 1876. Note and depict by means of tone changes and word-coloring the various pictures that are presented in the first paragraph. Note the change of rate required in the second paragraph. Following the exclamation of John Adams, "Oh, what a glorious morning!" The rate should be much faster as the subsequent action is described. In delivering the third paragraph, it should be remembered that within sight of the speaker stood the statue of the Minute Man which is erected at Concord. The last paragraph is an exceedingly strong appeal, and the latter part, particularly, should be delivered with all the fire and force you can muster. THE Minute Man of the American Revolution! And who was he? He was the old, the middleaged, and the young. He was the husband and father, who left his plow in the furrow and his hammer on the bench and marched to die or to be free. He was the son and lover, the plain, shy youth of the singing school and the village choir, whose heart beat to arms for his country and who felt, though he could not say, with the old English cavalier: "I could not love thee, dear, so much, He was the man who was willing to pour out his life's blood for a principle. Intrenched in his own honesty, the king's gold could not buy him; enthroned in the love of his fellow citizens, the king's writ could not take him; and when, on the morning at Lexington, the king's troops marched to seize him, his sublime faith saw, beyond the clouds of the moment, the rising sun of the America we behold, and, careless of self, mindful only of his country, he exultingly exclaimed, "Oh, what a glorious morning!" And then, amid the flashing hills, the ringing woods, the flaming roads, he smote with terror the haughty British column, and sent it shrinking, bleeding, wavering, and reeling through the streets of the village, panic-stricken and broken. Him we gratefully recall to-day; him we commit in his immortal youth to the reverence of our children. And here amid these peaceful fields,here in the heart of Middlesex County, of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill,-stand fast, Son of Liberty, as the minute men stood at the old North Bridge. But should we or our descendants, false to justice and humanity, betray in any way their cause, spring into life as a hundred years ago, take one more step, descend, and lead us, as God led you in saving America, to save the hopes of man. No hostile fleet, for many a year, has vexed the waters of our coast; nor is any army but our own ever likely to tread our soil. Not such are our enemies to-day. They do not come, proudly stepping to the drumbeat, their bayonets flashing in the morning sun. But wherever party spirit shall strain the ancient guarantees of freedom; or bigotry and ignorance shall lay their fatal hands on education; or the arrogance of caste shall strike at equal rights; or corruption shall poison the very springs of national life,-there, Minute Men of Liberty, are your Lexington Green and Concord Bridge. And as you love your country and your kind, and would have your children rise up and call you blessed, spare not the enemy. Over the hills, out of the earth, down from the clouds, pour in resistless might. Fire from every rock and tree, from door and window, from hearthstone and chamber. Hang upon his flank from morn till sunset, and so, through a land blazing with holy indignation, hurl the hordes of ignorance and corruption and injustice back,-back in utter defeat and ruin. |