ess remains with me to this day and now and
then I find myself reaching out after the secret of oratory. "It is
not so much what you say as how you say it," has become a proverb.

Some years ago I lectured in an Iowa village on a bitter cold evening.
The rear of the hall was up on posts. When introduced there was only
one inch between my shoe soles and zero, while a cold wind from a
broken window struck the back of my head. It occurred to me that if I
would play Bernhardt I might save a spell of pneumonia.

In a few moments I was pacing the platform, swinging my arms and
stamping my feet to keep up circulation. I put all the intensity,
activity and personality possible into one hour and left the platform.

Returning to the hotel a commercial traveler who had heard me a number
of times said: "I congratulate you; you get younger. I never heard you
put so much life into your lecture."

I replied: "Why man, I was trying to keep my feet from freezing."

He said: "I advise you to go on the platform every evening with cold
feet."

John and Charles Wesley were going along a street in London when they
came upon two market women engaged in a wordy war. John Wesley said:
"Hold up, Charles, and let's learn how to preach. See how these women
put earnestness and even eloquence into their street quarrel. Can't we
be just as earnest and eloquent in dealing out the truth?" No wonder
John Wesley gave such impetus to the platform.

It is said what John Wesley and George Whitefield were to the
religious platform, Fox and Burke became later on to the political
platform. They saw the platform was fast becoming the voice of public
sentiment and dared to indorse it.

When Mr. Fox made his first platform address he said: "This is the
first time I ever had the privilege of addressing an uncorrupted
assembly." Going back into Parliament he said: "Let's put an end to a
policy that separates us from the people. Let's cut all cables, snap
all chains that bind us to an unfriendly shore and enter the peaceful
harbor of public confidence."

When Mr. Burke made his platform debut, he was so inspired by the
enthusiasm of the people, it is said, he made the greatest speech ever
made in the English language up to that time. When he appeared in
Parliament next evening a leader of the government took occasion to
denounce the platform as a disturber of public peace, directing his
remarks to Mr. Burke. The great orator was ready with the reply: "Yes,