fter a good dinner, although I think
that one of the worst instruments of torture that was ever invented
is the custom which makes it necessary for a speaker to sit through a
fourteen-course dinner, every minute of the time feeling sure that his
speech is going to prove a dismal failure and disappointment.

I rarely take part in one of these long dinners that I do not wish that
I could put myself back in the little cabin where I was a slave boy, and
again go through the experience there--one that I shall never forget--of
getting molasses to eat once a week from the "big house." Our usual
diet on the plantation was corn bread and pork, but on Sunday morning
my mother was permitted to bring down a little molasses from the "big
house" for her three children, and when it was received how I did wish
that every day was Sunday! I would get my tin plate and hold it up for
the sweet morsel, but I would always shut my eyes while the molasses was
being poured out into the plate, with the hope that when I opened them
I would be surprised to see how much I had got. When I opened my eyes
I would tip the plate in one direction and another, so as to make the
molasses spread all over it, in the full belief that there would be more
of it and that it would last longer if spread out in this way. So strong
are my childish impressions of those Sunday morning feasts that it
would be pretty hard for any one to convince me that there is not more
molasses on a plate when it is spread all over the plate than when it
occupies a little corner--if there is a corner in a plate. At any rate,
I have never believed in "cornering" syrup. My share of the syrup was
usually about two tablespoonfuls, and those two spoonfuls of molasses
were much more enjoyable to me than is a fourteen-course dinner after
which I am to speak.

Next to a company of business men, I prefer to speak to an audience of
Southern people, of either race, together or taken separately. Their
enthusiasm and responsiveness are a constant delight. The "amens" and
"dat's de truf" that come spontaneously from the coloured individuals
are calculated to spur any speaker on to his best efforts. I think that
next in order of preference I would place a college audience. It has
been my privilege to deliver addresses at many of our leading colleges
including Harvard, Yale, Williams, Amherst, Fisk University, the
University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley, the University of Michigan,
Trinity College in