You will have noticed, if you’ve read through these postings, that I am a fan of Henry Ward Beecher, one of the greatest speakers in American history. Even Lincoln looked up to him.
Here is a description of Beecher written by Milton MacKaye and published in The New Yorker.
Henry Ward Beecher had a genius for bringing the most somnolent audience to life. One July morning he rode into a West Virginia town which was widely known in lecture circles as “Death Valley”–for the reason that any speaker unfortunate enough to have an engagement to lecture there wilted and curled up when he faced the town’s stupid and indifferent audience.
Beecher was duly warned. That afternoon, when he was being introduced, half the audience was already dozing. Beecher rose from his chair and, wiping his brow with a large handkerchief, strode to the front of the platform.
“It’s a God-damned hot day,” the clergyman began.
A thousand pairs of eyes goggled and an electrical shock straightened the crowd erect. Beecher paused and then, raising a finger of solemn reproof, went on, “That’s what I heard a man say here this afternoon!”
He proceeded into a stirring condemnation of blasphemy–and took his audience with him.
This is a good reminder: the first job of a speaker is to get attention. The second is to keep it.