ple, teach him; the man who knows, and knows not that he
knows, is timid, encourage him; the man who knows, and knows that he
knows, is wise, follow him."

CHAPTER XIX

STREET SPEAKING

THE PLACE

In traveling through the country on a street-speaking tour about the
first thing a speaker observes is the poor judgement shown by the local
comrades in the selection of street corners for their meetings. The
chosen corner is usually where the down-and-outs and drunks congregate
and is hemmed about by cheap noisy saloons. If a speaker is to be in a
town one or two nights he can hardly show the local comrades their
error. If I am to be in a town any longer I look through the town during
the day and early evening and pick out a down-town corner where there is
a steady flow of average citizens and nobody will stop unless they stop
to listen. Then the night after making the announcement at the old stand
I begin a revolution in the method of running street meetings. I have no
hard feelings against drunks but they are useless and worse in a street
meeting. There are two reasons for the present bad selection of corners
in so many cities. First, it is easier for a poor speaker to get an
audience where there are hangers-out waiting to be entertained. Second,
the city authorities like to have Socialist speaking done where it will
not reach the live members of the community. A change of corners
sometimes means a hard fight with the police but if the proper methods
are used victory is sure and the result is always worth the labor spent.

THE STYLE

Street speaking is widely different from hall lecturing and this the
reason so many speakers succeed at one and fail at the other. The hall
lecturer opens easily and paves the way for the treatment of his theme,
but the street speaker would get no crowd or a small one by such a
method.

He must plunge at once into the heart of his talk and put as much energy
into addressing the first dozen as when his crowd grows larger. As soon
as he adapts his voice and manner to the size of his crowd the crowd
will stop growing. The only way to add another hundred is to talk as if
they were already there.

A hall lecture should have one subject and stick to it because the
audience is the same in its composition throughout. At a street meeting
about half the audience is constantly changing, and hopping from one
question to another has many advantages. A street speaker must be
interesting