STUMP ORATORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 17, 21 January 1933, Page 7 (Supplement)

STUMP ORATORY.

WHEN THE SPEAKER USED A STUMP. In the recent U.S.A. Presidential campaign old phrases drawn from the storehouse of history reappeared in American speech and writing. Of these phrases, "taking the stump" was one of the most familiar. Though tree stumps are disappearing from the old frontier, to-day's politicians are said to be "taking the stump" when they start on speaking, tours.

The phrase originated in early days when the stump of a tree was not only used as a platform by the political orator, but as a pulpit by the travelling preacher. In pre-revolutionary times the padre on horseback frequently found no other cathedral in which to hold services than the wide open spaces dotted with tree stumps. Like the politician, he spoke from a stump.

"Stumping for Harrison" was a common phrase during the log-cabin and hard-cider campaign of the ninth President of the United States, William Henry Harrison. Attributed to the Middle West, the term was indigenous to all districts where forests were being cleared to make way for settlements.