, be as original as you can. How is it possible to summarize the
qualities that go to make up the good after-dinner speech, when we
remember the inimitable serious-drollery of Mark Twain, the sweet
southern eloquence of Henry W. Grady, the funereal gravity of the
humorous Charles Battell Loomis, the charm of Henry Van Dyke, the
geniality of F. Hopkinson Smith, and the all-round delightfulness of
Chauncey M. Depew? America is literally rich in such gladsome speakers,
who punctuate real sense with nonsense, and so make both effective.

Commemorative occasions, unveilings, commencements, dedications,
eulogies, and all the train of special public gatherings, offer rare
opportunities for the display of tact and good sense in handling
occasion, theme, and audience. When to be dignified and when colloquial,
when to soar and when to ramble arm in arm with your hearers, when to
flame and when to soothe, when to instruct and when to amuse--in a word,
the whole matter of APPROPRIATENESS must constantly be in mind lest you
write your speech on water.

Finally, remember the beatitude: Blessed is the man that maketh short
speeches, for he shall be invited to speak again.

SELECTIONS FOR STUDY

_LAST DAYS OF THE CONFEDERACY_

(Extract)

The Rapidan suggests another scene to which allusion has often
been made since the war, but which, as illustrative also of the
spirit of both armies, I may be permitted to recall in this
connection. In the mellow twilight of an April day the two
armies were holding their dress parades on the opposite hills
bordering the river. At the close of the parade a magnificent
brass band of the Union army played with great spirit the
patriotic airs, "Hail Columbia," and "Yankee Doodle." Whereupon
the Federal troops responded with a patriotic shout. The same
band then played the soul-stirring strains of "Dixie," to which
a mighty response came from ten thousand Southern troops. A few
moments later, when the stars had come out as witnesses and when
all nature was in harmony, there came from the same band the old
melody, "Home, Sweet Home." As its familiar and pathetic notes
rolled over the water and thrilled through the spirits of the
soldiers, the hills reverberated with a thundering response from
the united voices of both armies. What was there in this old,
old music, to so touch the chords of sympathy, so thrill the
sp