The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein online

V EFFICIENCY THROUGH CHANGE OF PACE

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The mob spirit stalks abroad in our land today. Every week gives a fresh victim to its malignant cry for blood. There were 48 persons killed by mobs in the United States in 1913; 64 in 1912, and 71 in 1911. Among the 48 last year were a woman and a child. Two victims were proven innocent after their death.

IN 399 B.C. A DEMAGOG APPEALED TO THE POPULAR MOB TO HAVE SOCRATES PUT TO DEATH _and he was sentenced to the hemlock cup._ FOURTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AFTERWARD AN ENTHUSIAST APPEALED TO THE POPULAR MOB _and all Europe plunged into the Holy Land to kill and mangle the heathen. In the seventeenth century a demagog appealed to the ignorance of men_ AND TWENTY PEOPLE WERE EXECUTED AT SALEM, MASS., WITHIN SIX MONTHS FOR WITCHCRAFT. _Two thousand years ago the mob yelled_, "_RELEASE UNTO US BARABBAS_"--AND BARABBAS WAS A MURDERER!

--_From an Editorial by D.C. in "Leslie's Weekly," by permission._

_Present-day business_ is as unlike OLD-TIME BUSINESS as the OLD-TIME OX-CART is unlike the _present-day locomotive._ INVENTION has made the _whole world over again. The railroad, telegraph, telephone_ have bound the people of MODERN NATIONS into FAMILIES. _To do the business of these closely knit millions in every modern country_ GREAT BUSINESS CONCERNS CAME INTO BEING. _What we call big business is the_ CHILD OF THE ECONOMIC PROGRESS OF MANKIND. _So warfare to destroy big business_ is FOOLISH BECAUSE IT CAN NOT SUCCEED _and wicked_ BECAUSE IT OUGHT NOT TO SUCCEED. _Warfare to destroy big business does not hurt big business, which always comes out on top_, SO MUCH AS IT HURTS ALL OTHER BUSINESS WHICH, IN SUCH A WARFARE, NEVER COME OUT ON TOP.

--A.J. BEVERIDGE.

_Change of Tempo Produces Emphasis_

Any big change of tempo is emphatic and will catch the attention. You may scarcely be conscious that a passenger train is moving when it is flying over the rails at ninety miles an hour, but if it slows down very suddenly to a ten-mile gait your attention will be drawn to it very decidedly. You may forget that you are listening to music as you dine, but let the orchestra either increase or diminish its tempo in a very marked degree and your attention will be arrested at once.

This same principle will procure emphasis in a speech. If you have a point that you want to bring home to your audience forcefully, make a sudden and great change of tempo, and they will be powerless to keep from paying attention to that point. Recently the present writer saw a play in which these lines were spoken:

"I don't want you to forget what I said. I want you to remember it the longest day you--I don't care if you've got six guns." The part up to the dash was delivered in a very slow tempo, the remainder was named out at lightning speed, as the character who was spoken to drew a revolver. The effect was so emphatic that the lines are remembered six months afterwards, while most of the play has faded from memory. The student who has powers of observation will see this principle applied by all our best actors in their efforts to get emphasis where emphasis is due. But remember that the emotion in the matter must warrant the intensity in the manner, or the effect will be ridiculous. Too many public speakers are impressive over nothing.

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