2. An After-Dinner Speech Should Aid Digestion.

So much is in print on the subject of after-dinner speaking and responding to toasts and presentations, that we need mention only the most essential considerations.

An after-dinner speech, even in colleges, comes, presumably, after the diners have done rather unusually well by themselves in the matter of viands. The speeches should aid digestion. They need not lack important information; but in most cases, the primary motive for delivering them is that of providing entertainment. The risk of putting a well fed audience to sleep is not fictitious. Most speeches of this sort given by undergraduates after club banquets are rather awful. Usually, they are just strings of once funny stories. Frequently, the stories are not so pretty; and that does not aid digestion. Often, the speakers are chosen merely because they are known for something rather different from public speaking; when they are "zero" as genializers and as good tasters, everybody present wishes that he were at home in bed and that the inflicter of the suffering were put out of his misery.

The banquet entertainer should be in good spirits, bright, witty and humorous, gentlemanly, affable, courteous, and not long-winded.

On occasions of good-will meetings including representatives from rival associations or institutions, the task of the speaker is especially difficult and important. He may be introduced: "Our next speaker represents one of the most important colleges in this section of the Continent. He has a message to give us which may change the lives of college men and women during the coming generations for all time. He will speak on, 'The Application of Democratic Principles to All Phases of University Life'. We salute you, sir. Mr. Adam A. Adams, "Red" Adams, captain of the University of Alaska's Arctic Zone championship football team. Mr. Adams." He repre

sents his own University. He must make its members proud of him. He must be on his dignity, but not so muscle-bound that he leans over backward. He has the interests of his own institution primarily at heart; but he must also be inter-minded, sympathetic with the aims of all worthy persons present. His appearance must be favorable. He must be completely equipped for exposi tion, entertainment, persuasion.

Project.

Memorize these selections from Daniel Webster's argument in the Dartmouth College Case, March, 1818:

"The case before the court is not of ordinary importance, nor of everyday occurrence. It affects not this college only, but every college, and all the literary institutions of the country. They have flourished hitherto, and have become in a high degree respectable and useful to the community. They have all a common principle of existence, the inviolability of their charters. It will be a dangerous, a most dangerous experiment to hold these institutions subject to the rise and fall of popular parties, and the fluctuations of political opinions. . . . . . It is here that (their) rights are now to be maintained, or they are prostrated forever.

"This, sir, is my case. It is the case not merely of that humble institution, it is the case of every college in the land. It is more. It is the case of every eleemosynary institution throughout our country-of all those great charities formed by the piety of our ancestors, to alleviate human misery, and scatter blessings along the pathway of life. It is more! It is, in some sense, the case of every man among us who has property, of which he may be stripped, for the question is simply this: Shall our State legislatures be allowed to take that which is not their own, to turn it from its original use, and to apply it to such ends or purposes as they in their discretion shall see fit?

"Sir, you may destroy this little institution; it is weak; it is in your hands! I know it is one of the lesser lights on the literary horizon of our country. You may put it out. But, if you do so, you must carry through your work! You must extinguish, one after another, all those greater lights of science, which, for more than a century, have thrown their radiance over our land!

"It is, sir, as I have said, a small college, and yet there are those who love it."

Chapter XVII

DRAMATICS, READINGS, ENTERTAINMENTS A.-STAGE FRIGHT AND THE URGE TO ACT

1. "Please Excuse Me This Time" vs. "Thank You, I'd Love To."

Many could-be performers and entertainers like to be teased, to "fish" for compliments before they will respond; but others are quite frank in their hesitancy about accepting invitations to appear in public. The reasons for such modesty are various. Sometimes, it is caused by inexperience; the neophyte fears to take the first icy plunge before he has learned how to swim. Occasionally, the modesty is the result of a previous unfortunate experience at a time when he was forced to do something when he had nothing to do; now he is convinced that he disgraced himself in public. Usually, a possible participant in organized social activities is actually unprepared, untrained, unfitted to contribute to the enlightenment or the gaiety of nations. A director of dramatics can take an unprepared young person and train him for a part in a play, so that a large share of the responsibility for successful performance is lifted from his shoulders; but on more spontaneous social occasions stage fright may have a very real and understandable

cause.

The most important first remedy for stage fright is to have the desire, the will, to be socially responsive and active. If one really wants to be of help to a director of amateur dramatics, or to a host or hostess, he can probably prepare himself for cooperation. If one can realize that since many persons enjoy entertaining others, obtain their

greatest joy in life from pleasureable social experiences, so he can enjoy himself likewise; he will put himself into the most strategic position for success, happiness, and the conquest of stage fright. The urge to act immediately takes the place of the other. The "yen" to act is contagious.

It is, of course, necessary to have something of a repertoire of acts, readings, or entertainments which one can offer. If these are of any formal nature at all, practice is necessary to bring them approximately to the point of perfection as offerings for the public. In practice, one should create out of his imagination different sorts of audiences so that the drill can have a large element of reality. Both during practice and at the times of actual presentation, if the performer will bear in mind that he is doing this for the fun of it, to be shared by others with himself; and if he will never hesitate, but always respond to invitations, almost automatically, there will be for him no such thing as stage fright, but only the happy sensation of wanting to act.

Project. Work up a repertoire of readings, stories, and little acts from which you can draw, on different sorts of occasions. You might include: some scenes from famous or popular plays, some poems excellent for their emotional content or dramatic quality, some selections from noteworthy books which you have read, some humorous stories, and some songs. If you will spend a few hours in selection and practice you will save yourself the ignominy of hours of unsocial reticence.

2. A Reading Is Really An Interpretation.

Dramatic readings well presented are nearly always appreciated by audiences of persons who lack opportunities to attend first class stage productions, by persons in small towns and country districts. There are "readers" who can give even sophisticated audiences the impression that they are really witnessing a professional stage perform