would be employed; also in communicating the more intense degrees of such feelings as anger, scorn, determination, enthusiasm, hilarity, and contempt. It is comparatively easy to know when to use energetic force; the more difficult thing is to acquire the habit of discrimination, physical capacity, proper management of the strong voice, and sure control. Some speakers have no idea of fitness regarding the relation of matter to manner. Many who know better, but have not the habit of discrimination, use energetic force when there is no occasion for it. Others, who have not accustomed the throat muscles to vigorous action, become hoarse after a few sentences; or, if they have strong throats, they may exhaust the tissues by unwisely over-driving their tones, or forcing a large volume of air through the closed throat, and failing to take advantage of the amplifying cavities. Finally, any of these speakers may be unable to control the loud voice, or to shift flexibly from one degree of force to another within the energetic range. It is, indeed, a very common thing to hear a loud speaker pound his words uniformly. Intelligent practice, which strengthens the muscles, cultivates correct management, with resultant good quality in the loud range, and establishes a habit of flexibility, - such practice should be devoted to the following selections.

SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICAL APPLICATION

OVER THE TOP

(King Henry): Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noble English,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,

Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument;
Dishonor not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon the charge

Cry "God for Harry, England, and Saint George! (SHAKESPEARE: King Henry V)

99

JUST CAUSE FOR ANGER

(Hotspur): My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
But I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dress'd,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new-reap'd
Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home;

He was perfumed like a milliner;

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box, which ever and anon

He gave his nose and took't away again;
Who therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff! and still he smiled and talk'd,
And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
With many holiday and lady terms

He question'd me; amongst the rest, demanded
My prisoners in your majesty's behalf.

I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
To be so pestered with a popinjay,

Out of my grief and my impatience,

Answer'd neglectingly I know not what,

He should, or should not; for he made me mad

To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet

And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman

Of guns and drums and wounds,- God save the mark!— And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth

Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;

And that it was great pity, so it was,

This villainous saltpetre should be digg'd

Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly and but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.
This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
I answer'd indirectly, as I said;
And I beseech you, let not his report
Come current for an accusation
Betwixt my love and your high majesty.

(SHAKESPEARE: King Henry IV)

STANDING BY THE PLEDGE TO PUERTO RICO

I never will vote to violate the promise General Miles made, or to repudiate the pledge. The Republic cannot afford, in this or any other campaign, to violate that sacred promise. It is written in the blood of our heroes that fought at El Caney, San Juan, and Santiago. It was made in the presence of all Christendom, and it is sealed by the God of battles. The Republic cannot violate that promise made to this weak and helpless people, without sullying its honor and tarnishing its fame. .. Why, gentlemen here say that we are about to inaugurate a policy of colonial government. I want to ask the gentlemen in this House if they desire to signalize their entry upon a colonial government, in their very first act, by a breach of good faith. Do you remember the history of proud Spain? What is it? What is it that has characterized Spain ever since the sixteenth century, ever since Pizarro rode ruthless and roughshod over Mexico, and the Duke of Alva filled the Netherlands with carnage, blood, butcheries, and indescribable horrors, in his infamous attempt to crush out the very beginning of civil and re

ligious liberty? What is it that has characterized her and made her contemptible before every honorable nation upon the earth? It is her duplicity and her breaches of good faith.

(LITTLEFIELD: Our Pledge to Puerto Rico)

A PLEA FOR INTERVENTION IN CUBA

The time for action has come. No greater reason for it can exist to-morrow than exists to-day. Every hour's delay only adds another chapter to the awful story of misery and death. Only our power can intervene the United States of America. Ours is the one great nation of the New World; the mother of American republics. She holds a position of trust and responsibility toward the peoples and the affairs of the whole Western Hemisphere. It was her glorious example which inspired the patriots of Cuba to raise the flag of liberty in her eternal hills. We cannot refuse to accept this responsibility which the God of the Universe has placed upon us as the one great power in the New World. We must act! What shall our action be?

Intervention means force; force means war; war means blood. When has a battle for humanity and liberty ever been won except by force? What barricade of wrong, injustice, and oppression has ever been carried except by force? Force compelled the signature of unwilling royalty to the great Magna Charta; force put life into the Declaration of Independence and made effective the Emancipation Proclamation; force beat with naked hands on the iron gateway of the Bastile and made reprisal in one awful hour for centuries of kingly crime; force waved the flag of revolution over Bunker Hill and marked the snows of Valley Forge with blood.