POWER OF SILENCE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8181, 24 July 1912, Page 4

POWER OF SILENCE

JOHN RANDOLPH USED IT TO CONFUSE A POWERFUL OPPONENT.

In painting the sacrilege of IptigenK the artist, it is said, exhausted the emotions of grief and horror m the faces of the bystanders. ‘ _ “He has left nothing unsaid. How can he depict her father's sorrow? was the anxious query of those friends who were watching the development of the pictureThe artist threw a mantle over Agamemnon’s face. The blank silence was mors effective than any picture of woe. One of the most extraordinary effects produced by an absolute silence is recorded in the reports of a convention in which the foremost man of Virginia took part. John Randolph had a measure ta carry, in which he looked for the opposition of Alexander Campbell, a man then noted for his scholarship and power in debate. ~ , _ , , Randolph had never seen the Scotch logician, but he had heard enough of him to make him and his partisans uneasy. When, therefore, the gaunt stranger first rose to speak n the convention, Randolph looked at him with such an air of alarm as to attract the who.e attention of the convention, and as ho glanced around seemed to be asking for sympathy in his coming defeat. He then composed himself to listen in rapt attenCampbell, aware of this byplay, hesitated, and lost the thread of Ir.s argument. Randolph's face by turns as ha listened expressed weariness, indifference, and finally contempt. He learned back and yawned. Campbell sat dona hastilv llv had lOit the whole force of his speech iVot a word had been spoken, but he waa defeated.