BISMARCK AS AN ORATOR.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1701, 2 August 1879, Page 3

BISMARCK AS AN ORATOR.

The “Tagblatt” of Berlin gives the following pen and ink sketch of the German Chancellor delivering his great speech in the Reichstag on the Customs tariffs : —Before even hearing a word you can tell by the aspect of the Chamber that it is the Chancellor who is speaking. With their bodies stretched out nud ears wide open, everybody leans forward to listen. The pencils of the shorthand writers fly over the paper with the rapidity of lightning, and you hold your breath involuntarily, that you may hear better. From below is heard a feeble voice—one of those voices which by its nervous tone suggests excess of intellectual work. The words come by Jerks, each sentence being laboriously formed. The orator is sometimes hurried, sometimes hesitating in his speech. Ho recalls each sentence, twists it, and turns it about till he has eliminated all the points which an adversary might attack. It is then only that he abandons it to the House. In listening to him you experience a strange excitement, for while this strong man continues his speech you are momentarily feeling that he will suddenly stop short in the middle of his discourse. Not that ideas are likely to be wanting, but one fears lest the weakly voice which issues so laboriously from the Chancellor’s robust frame, may fail in the midst of a peroration without the possibility in the hurry of picking up the broken threads. The Chancellor himself looks ill at ease while speaking, his thin white hands fidgetting now with one and now with another button of his modest dark blue cuirassier’s uniform. Then they catch feverishly at the long pencil so much talked about; seek refuge on the table ; and at last rest on the glass of water which stands on the tribune. You might fancy that it was only this resting place that was wanting, for presently his speech grows firmer, more severe ; words flow from his lips with greater clearness, his thick eyebrows are lowered still more upon the grey eyes, which seem to penetrate the ranks of the deputies. It is now evident that the orator is approaching the end of his speech, the sentences become shorter and more vigorous. And then the Chancellor draws himself up to his full height; the voice so weak at first, gains a dear, hard ring, and he throws his last sentence like a bomb into the midst of the Chamber, resuming his seat amidst the loud applause of his friends.