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Show Oratory and Wit. "A curious thing about political oratory ora-tory and wit is the side light I got upon one aspect of it years ago in Buff alo. " Thus Mr. Cleveland is quoted by a listener. lis-tener. "One morning a quaint looking old chap came into my office and said that he had read in the newspapers that I was to speak at a mass meeting the following night and wanted to know if it were true. When I told him that it was so, he revealed to me a new method of gaining oratorical distinction. distinc-tion. He volunteered to interrupt my speech at stated intervals with a remark that should be agreed upon between us. To this interjection I was to retort wittily, wit-tily, and thus, as the old fellow pointed out, I would acquire a reputation as a witty speaker. "My first impression was that he was amusing himself at my expense, but he repeated to me several things I could reply to wittily and wanted me to pay him roundly for helping me to a reputation. reputa-tion. But I told him I was indifferent to that kind of fame, and he went away disappointed. Not very long after that I was seated on a stage listening to a speaker, when who should arise in the audience but my quaint visitor and bawl out one of the very things he wanted me to pay him for interrupting me with. The orator answered him with the same retort that I was offered the privilege of making, and the audience exploded into laughter, and I heartily joined in, but my amusement' had not the same foundation, I fancy, as that of the rest of the laughers. And during the rest of the evening the old fellow made an occasional interruption from different parts of the house, and the retorts re-torts were of the same manufactured sort. I am a trifle skeptical now on th subject of witty retorts." Cincinnati Commercial. |