iews, or is
inclined to be doubtful, cold, or critical, I can pick him out. When
I have found him I usually go straight at him, and it is a great
satisfaction to watch the process of his thawing out. I find that the
most effective medicine for such individuals is administered at first
in the form of a story, although I never tell an anecdote simply for the
sake of telling one. That kind of thing, I think, is empty and hollow,
and an audience soon finds it out.

I believe that one always does himself and his audience an injustice
when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking. I do not believe that
one should speak unless, deep down in his heart, he feels convinced that
he has a message to deliver. When one feels, from the bottom of his feet
to the top of his head, that he has something to say that is going
to help some individual or some cause, then let him say it; and in
delivering his message I do not believe that many of the artificial
rules of elocution can, under such circumstances, help him very much.
Although there are certain things, such as pauses, breathing, and pitch
of voice, that are very important, none of these can take the place of
soul in an address. When I have an address to deliver, I like to forget
all about the rules for the proper use of the English language, and all
about rhetoric and that sort of thing, and I like to make the audience
forget all about these things, too.

Nothing tends to throw me off my balance so quickly, when I am speaking,
as to have some one leave the room. To prevent this, I make up my mind,
as a rule, that I will try to make my address so interesting, will try
to state so many interesting facts one after another, that no one can
leave. The average audience, I have come to believe, wants facts rather
than generalities or sermonizing. Most people, I think, are able to draw
proper conclusions if they are given the facts in an interesting form on
which to base them.

As to the kind of audience that I like best to talk to, I would put at
the top of the list an organization of strong, wide-awake, business
men, such, for example, as is found in Boston, New York, Chicago, and
Buffalo. I have found no other audience so quick to see a point, and
so responsive. Within the last few years I have had the privilege of
speaking before most of the leading organizations of this kind in the
large cities of the United States. The best time to get hold of an
organization of business men is a