PECULIARITIES OF SPEAKERS AND WRITERS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 189, 10 November 1876, Page 13

PECULIARITIES OF SPEAKERS AND WRITERS.

The New York ' World' tells a story of a scene during a recent debate in Congress under the operation of the one hour rule, which well illustrates some of the peculiarities of speakers. S. S. Cox liad the floor, but consented to yield it to Mr. Cannon on condition that Mr. Cannon would speak with his hands in his pockets, professing to be annoyed with Mr. Cannon's habit of emphasising his remarks by porntintj his forefinger at the person to whom he was replying. The World' relates the sequence as follows : — The hapless Cannon accepted the condition, spoke a few words in the attitude of a schoolboy looking for hie lo3t alley in his pantaloon pockets, forgot himself, pointed a threatening index finger at Cox, and sat down amid the laughter of the House, as quiet as a discharged culvenn. The scene was an intensely ridiculous one, and in feigning to be afraid of Cannon's finger, and making him speak with his hands in his pockets, Mr. flox tested very neatly the force of mere physical habits over mental processes. We wonder if he himself could deliver one of his elaborate pieces of burlesque eloquence, if he were obliged to stand m his tracks during the operation. What would Eugene Hale be able to do in the way of serving the nation by wind and tongue it he had to speak with his coat unbuttoned ? Could Prye bend so vigorously to an argument if somebody were to thrust a shingle up under his waistcoat ? Would Thurman be so great without his red handkerchief? Could John Sherman contrive to find words to excuse so glibly the financial aberrations of his party if be had not Morton's crutch to play with? And could Geo. Frisber Hoar express an idea if he were restricted to twenty smiles a minute in the operation ? It is curious how these little tricks of habit influence people ; and only very rarely do we see a speaker who is so completely an artist that he has got rid of every awkward personal peculiarity. Demosthenes is said to have cured himself of a propensity to shrug his shoulders by suspending a sword with the point directly over the shoulder most prone to offend. Had John Tan Buren adopted the same plan, would his sarcasms have been so effective without that gentle and almost imperceptible lifting of the shoulders with which he so often introduced them ? Seward was great on a platform where We had room to parade up and down like a gander, but we are inSmed to think that he would have lost all sequence of ideas if mounted on top of a barrel. One man is self possessed and ready when he has his arms crossed on his breast. Another when he has his hands clasped under his coat-tails. Palmerston, unlike Congressman Cannon, was at his best with his hands in his breeches-pockets i.«m u ?i. ln8 V' ho can talk s0 lon ° as tlxe y can have a h *t to hold, while others become boobies without an umbrella or a cane. v£» ™T *?*"*** in Jus discourse and natural in his carriage so long as he has bu watch-chain to handle. The other becomes an idiot if he loses the ring which he is in the haMt of twisting ai ound his finger while he speaks. A Roman Senator, accustomed to feel his right arm perfectly free and his left confined to the folds of his toga wouMprobably fail in explaining his vote if clad in a swallow

Even in writing the same strange power of more physical habit m ?i?' °!f * elebl ? ted au *hor could only compose in a close room; the mind of another required open windows and wide prospect. Scott wrote his novels before breakfast. Schiller wrote his plays late at night, with a bottle of wine at his elbow. Pope translated the « Iliad on scraps of paper. Othet men could not write ?W IK?*? y had a b °? k I to reCord {t ' We have heard said that Milton s muse was voiceless except from the autumnal to the Aernal equinox. Some minds only work well when their ownera are

walking about, and great men have been known who could not think unless when lying down. A shrewd observer, watchful of the foibles of those with whom he comes in contact, is often enabled to trip up the mental processes ot an opponent by throwing some slight material obstacle in his way. The failure of Cannon, under Cox's whimsical requisition that he should keep his hands in his pockets, is an admirable instance of this, and may hereafter be quoted with Scott's story of one of the tricks of his boyhood. In his class at school he had won his way upward with greab rapidity until he reached the second place, but there he stuck. The boy at the head never foiled or even faltered in answering a question, and day after day Scott watched for an opportunity to get above him, but no opportunity came. He studied the situation with great anxiety and tested the weakness of his rival's character to no purpose. The boy at the head could nob be tempted to relax his vigilant industry. At last Scott noticed a peculiar habit of the lad. When a question was put to him he invariably took hold of one of the buttons in the breast of hw jacket and began to finger it. Scott conceived the existence of some subtle connectiou between this button and his rival's self-possession and readiness, and secretly cut the button off Next day, when the first question in the lesson was put to the boy at the head of the class, he felt for the re-assuring button, found it missing, got amazed and faltered. His faculties lost; touch and tune, and he failed to answer. The young plotter went above him, and watched with complacency the course of his victim as he went down to the foot, losing place after place. Mr. Cannon should study this story of the boy and bis button, and lay its lesson to heart.