The Speaker’s Bread Line

Practically every speaker has two lines-the one he puts out when he’s on the platform and the other provides his living. A plug for the second of these often is the sole remuneration he receives for his platform performance. His line interests the audience because everyone likes to know -how green is his pasture?

Spur the Modest Speaker

A maid once asked her mistress to advance a part of her month’s wages. “You see,” she explained, “our pastor is going away and we are making a collection so that we can give him a little ‘momentum, “

There are speakers who need a little “momentum” too, a bit of prodding. This may be accomplished by padding the introduction … by attributing some particular virtue to him, then giving that virtue a build-up. Thus he sparkles in reflected light. Suppose we call our speaker a realist, saying that as a young man he started out to set the world on fire, but often returned for more matches. This relative term “realist” could apply to almost anyone, and having tied him to the term, let’s play up realists and say:

Some folks are optimists. It’s wonderful to be one of these and to go through life convinced that nothing but good will happen. An optimist may be baldheaded, yet he makes every opportunity a hair-raising experience. Other people are pessimists. A pessimist makes opportunity because he prefers to borrow trouble. It requires no interest.

But our speaker is a realist-a man who realizes that no good cook breaks an egg directly into the pan. Common sense is another reliable booster; it doesn’t show on a person, but we may presume that the speaker has some; then play it up this way:

Nature’s gifts include the five senses-touch, taste, sight, smell and hearing. Two others we earn the hard way, because we have to strive for horse sense and common sense. Nothing in our text books teaches either of these, yet they are more practical than all the lore of antiquity. It isn’t unheard of for a man with a head full of Latin and Greek to starve, when a grain of common sense could earn him great wealth. Common sense like horse sense, is only found in a stable mind and our speaker’s stable mind also knows how to store a lot of hay.

This last remark perks up the audience’s ears, and readies them for the speaker.

Should he be a firm member or a company official, it’s safe to presume that he promotes teamwork. Thus we tie him into this trite term, “teamwork,” and then tie that trait into some athletic experience he probably had. He might have been captain of the varsity or a second string sub on the beanbag team; this is irrelevant, but the salient fact remains that from this background he gleaned that athletics is more than a game; it’s the first crucible where men’s minds are blended and turned toward teamwork. “Our speaker learned early and proved in later life that it pays to play ball with the other fellow. This is a noble virtue, and our speaker is right there in the batter’s box.”

If, however, the speaker operates a one-man stand, has a doctor, dentist, or Divinity practice, or runs an individual business; or has an individual law business and so doesn’t rely upon a long list of partners and associates, many of whom have gone or have been on their way to their reward for a long time, the approach is different. We must then play up the man who lives as he pleases, the man who won’t let his life be cramped into a prescribed pattern and who refuses to have his habits honed until he is rounded to conform to a smooth monotony.

These lone wolves, dissenters and “aginer” individualists are an admirable lot. We can be grateful for the “collosal gall” of Mark Twain who put American vernacular into prose, and color into conventional English. We can respect Sinclair Lewis whose Babbitt satirized narrow-minded businessmen; and we can revere Will Rogers whose candid comments, wrapped with nothing but rope, could convert a king into an ordinary kind of guy. Here we have the appositive of the teamworker speaker, commingling with commanding company.

Tags: public speaking

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