Show Mannerisms Mark the tIle ManThey Man ManThey Man Man- ManThey They All Perform Off Guard YORK Al AI Al Smith NEW jingles coins in his left pocket and the duke of Windsor Windsor Wind Wind- sor straightens his necktie Franklin D. D Roosevelt jerks his head sideways Call them habits mannerisms mannerisms mannerisms manner manner- isms or just plain nervousness nervousness nervousness nervous nervous- ness but they're among the distinguishing features youve you've noticed noticed noticed no no- when famous men make speeches or appear before the newsreel newsreel news news- reel camera Most of us great or little are thumb button twisters arm swingers swinger or fist clench clench- ers ere in our forgetful moments This Is Ie the Point A widely known Boston Doston professor used to enter his classroom holding bolding a short well sharpened sharpened pencil which he twirled a as he be talked Now this he be would say at Intervals In is the point Each time he be would jab the pencil at the class until hi his bl amused students student finally dually made up sweepstakes on how many times time hed he'd do It each hour The late William Jennings Bryan Dryan combined his mannerism with prat Before Detore his platform appearances appearances ap be he would have someone bring an in old-fashioned old dishpan with witha a piece of ice he to the rostrum As his flery him Bryan Dryan would run the palm of hi his hi hand over the ice then over his forehead To break this routine he would occasionally step to the front of the platform weaving back and forth while the audience gasped for fear he be would topple Into the front row A Monocle Swinger Bertha Dertha Wells of Boston Doston who was formerly In Chautauqua work with Bryan Dryan recalls the platform gestures gesture of many other speakers Dudley Crafts Watson director of music at atthe atthe the Chicago art museum went through a repeated routine of taking taking tak take ing off oll his swinging it U around in hi his hand and replacing it to the eye I IOne One woman speaker asked me for a handkerchief just before she went on Miss Wells remembers All through her lecture she stood twisting it t in her hands When she returned it the handkerchief looked like a cruller Sen James Reed of Missouri used to have a habit of chewing tobacco in the courtroom while Sen David I. I Walsh of Massachusetts can never speak without thrusting his left thumb into the corner of his hi trousers trousers trousers' trousers trousers' trou trou- sers' sers pocket Ex Ex Gov John G. G Winant Wi Wi- nant of New Hampshire used to hang his arms straight down his sides and walk sideways across the stage stale like a small boy reciting his jeison Jeson Had It 1 Tool Too Such mannerisms are not exclusively a modem modern device Many years ago the highly intellectual Ralph Waldo Emerson had a habit of placing plat lag ing the thumb and forefinger of one hand between the thumb and forefinger fore fore- finger of the other moving them gently while speaking Henry Ward Beecher Deecher would emphasize the climax cli max of his speech by rising to his toes and throwing his arms over his head virtually pulling the audience audi ence enee up with him Psychologists who have watched such carryings on on from the spectators spectator's tars tor's seat teat dont don't believe its it's necessarily a matter of nervousness Sometimes the speakers are merely throwing off oft excess energy Or as one psychologist suggested it may not be so much the energy or the audience as what the speaker had for dinner |