nd Citizens of London; Mr. Mayor, Mr. Secretary, Admiral
Fletcher and Gentlemen of the Fleet; Mr. Grand Master, Governor
McMillan, Mr. Mayor, My Brothers, Men and Women of Tennessee.

The most important thing about the salutation is that it should never
be omitted. To begin to speak without having first recognized some
presiding officer and the audience stamps one immediately as
thoughtless, unpractised, or worse still--discourteous.

Having observed the propriety of the salutation the speaker should
make a short pause before he proceeds to the introduction of his
speech proper.

Length of the Introduction. There was a time when long elaborate
introductions were the rule, and textbooks explained in detail how to
develop them. The main assumption seems to have been that the farther
away from his topic the speaker began, the longer and more indirect
the route by which he approached it, the more sudden and surprising
the start with which it was disclosed to the audience, the better the
speech. Such views are no longer held. One of the criticisms of the
speeches of the English statesman, Burke, is that instead of coming at
once to the important matter under consideration--and all his speeches
were upon paramount issues--he displayed his rhetorical skill and
literary ability before men impatient to finish discussion and provide
for action by casting their votes. If a student will read the
beginning of Burke's famous _Speech on Conciliation_ he will readily
understand the force of this remark, for instead of bringing forward
the all-important topic of arranging for colonial adjustment Burke
uses hundreds of words upon the "flight of a bill for ever," his own
pretended superstitiousness and belief in omens. So strong is the
recognition of the opposite practice today that it is at times
asserted that speeches should dispense with introductions longer than
a single sentence.

Purpose of the Introduction. So far as the material of the speech is
concerned the introduction has but one purpose--to bring the topic of
the succeeding remarks clearly and arrestingly before the audience. It
should be clearly done, so that there shall be no misunderstanding
from the beginning. It should be arrestingly done, so that the
attention shall be aroused and held from this announcement even until
the end. A man should not declare that he is going to explain the
manufacture of paper-cutters, and then later proceed to describe the
making of tho