suggested--to render the audience attentive and well-disposed, to
introduce the topic, and in addition to present the speaker.

Choosing a Theme. The speaker at a special occasion must choose the
theme with due regard to the subject and the occasion. Frequently his
theme will be suggested to him, so that it will already bear a close
relation to the occasion when he begins its preparation. The next
matter he must consider with extreme care is the treatment. Shall it be
serious, informative, argumentative, humorous, scoffing, ironic? To
decide this he must weigh carefully the significance of the occasion.
Selecting the inappropriate manner of treatment means risking the
success of the speech. Recall how many men and speeches you have heard
criticized as being "out of harmony with the meeting," or "not in
spirit with the proceedings," and you will realize how necessary to
the successful presentation is this delicate adjustment of the speech
to the mood of the circumstances.

The After-dinner Speech. When men and women have met to partake of
good food under charming surroundings and have enjoyed legitimate
gastronomic delights it is regrettable that a disagreeable element
should be added by a series of dull, long-winded, un-appropriate
after-dinner speeches. The preceding adjectives suggest the chief
faults of those persons who are repeatedly asked to speak upon such
occasions. They so often miss the mark. Because after-dinner speaking
is so informal it is proportionally difficult. When called upon, a
person feels that he must acknowledge the compliment by saying
something. This, however, is not really enough. He must choose his
theme and style of treatment from the occasion. If the toastmaster
assign the topic he is safe so far as that is concerned, but he must
still be careful of his treatment.

A speaker at a dinner of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, in which
membership is awarded for rank in cultural as contrasted with
practical, technical studies, seized upon the chance to deliver a
rather long, quite detailed legal explanation of the parole system for
convicted offenders against laws. At a dinner given by the
Pennsylvania Society in a state far from their original homes the
members were praised to the skies for preserving the love of their
native state and marking their identity in a district so distant and
different. This was quite appropriate for an introduction but the
speaker then turned abruptly to one of his pol