ADVICE TO PUBLIC SPEAKERS.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 September 1918, Page 7

ADVICE TO PUBLIC SPEAKERS.

“The interrogative in a public address is always very dangerous to the speaker.” So said Mr. L. M. Isitt, M.P., in the course of a lecture at Christchurch. Proceeding, the speaker recalled that when he was a young nreacher in Auckland, forty years ago, he saw an advertisement to the effect that a certain Emma B. Harding would give a lecture on “The Vocalisation of the Soul.” Being anxious to find what the lady had to say on this somewhat obscure subject, he duly went along to the hall. Presently a tall, elegantly .gowned woman glided on to the platform. “Why was I born?” she asked the audience in a tragic voice, taking three steps. There was a hushed silence. “Why was I born?” she repeated (three more steps), and again, her voice rising to a climax of tone, she demanded, “Why was I born?” Then one of the audience found voice. “Give it up, Emma!” he answered her. There was no lecture. That one unfortunate interrogation on the part of the lecturer had entirely killed her address.