STREET ORATORS IN WAR TIME.

Patea Mail, Volume XLIII, 17 March 1919, Page 4

STREET ORATORS IN WAR TIME.

(From “Tho Scotsman.”) Tlio street corner orator is always sure of an audience, no matter what Ids subject may be. Religion and politics, local or national, will always draw tho crowd, which is sure to he a large one if tlie speaker 1 is well known and if he should happen to be a local “character,” in whom eloquence and humour are blended, and by whom a rigid adherence to one subject is not by any means observed. It may be taken for granted that a good proportion of his audience is out to be entertained and amused. Since the outbreak of war the number of street orators, ns one would natura'ly expect, has greatly increased. Various organisations which have come into being since 1914 have been conducting a strenuous propaganda over tlio length and breadth of the land, and at the present time it is hardly possible to find a town or a village which has not one or more open-air meetings every week. At such meetings are to bo found speakers, on the one band advocating a strenuous prosecution of the Mar lid complete and final victory is achieved, while, on tho oilier hand, are the pacifist orators, who try to impress their audiences with «tlie futility of.war. with its awful sacrifice of human life, as a means of settling international quarrels, and the desirableness of terminating tlie struggle by'negotiations. No matter what opinion one may hold ns to the views expounded by such orators, there can be no question as to the sincerity of the speakers—in the majority of ca'-os at least. They argue out 'heir respective cases with great thoroughness and earnestness, and if sometimes their logic bo shaky; and their metaphors mixed, they cmierady make a fairly good case for tho cause ihoy aro out to advance. Audiences, as a rule, arc fairly attentive, and the speaker, unless ho has tho bad luck to be up against a hostile crowd, usually manages to ge(, his message delivered. Question time presents the opportunity for some lively incidents. Tlio speaker, or chairman, in inviting qiuv. rions. seeks to drive home tlie fact that the questions asked must have some hearing on tlie subject under consideration. Small heed is paid to this advice, however, and tho speaker who would undertake to answer some of tlie ! * posers” pip to him would require to he a Socrates in know'edge and a Job in patieueev The unevr ioner often takes advantage of the occasion to harraugiio speaker and audience alike on the views that have been expounded, ibis, of course, giving rise to further confusion, and the final outcome generally is that out of the original mooting ocher groups arc born and a geonral Babe' of tongues and ideas ensues. Tho speaker and promoters of the meeting often take tlie opportunity of this diversion to steal silently away, but the more courageous type of orator usually sticks it out till ho manages to get i ll his tongue again, to announce u collection to bo taken “to defray expenses and to carry on the good work.” And thiis last, more than anything else, has a decidedly “moving” effect on the audience.

Another typo of orator is the one who is out strictly “on his own,” and who, like a once famous member of Parliament, is prepared to talk on any subject for any length of time. Ho proudly proclaims the fact that he is the nominee of no party and the paid hireling of no association, that he has no wealthy millionaire to back him up, and that he is out first* and foremost for the benefit of the working classes. Ho has. as a rule, no special topic, but ramh'es over the whole system of created tilings, and may discuss matters as widely apart a national finance and the likely winners of the leading football matches at the week-end. His language is more forcible than polite, and Ids speech is distinguished by a comprehensive vocabulary of lurid adjectives, fearful and wonderful adverbs, and a general massacre of the King’s English. Ho is a patriot above all things else, and a speaker of this class has assured his audience at a wellknown corner in Glasgow that we will defeat Germany in this war “navalistitally, militaristically, and commercially.” This class of speaker does not* follow tlio example of som e astute and taoiful politicians, who seek to work themselves into popularity by flattering their audiences. On the contrary, the later, in tones of withering sarcasm, tells his hearers how easily they have been fooled by those in high places, and how they have played into the hands of Germany, both before and during tho war. On this last point a -wellknown character in Glasgow assured his audience that they were nothing but* a “ lot of undeevloped vegetables” ; the listeners seemed to enjoy his somewhat novel description, to judge by the goodnatured outburst of laughter with which it was received.

For silencing interrupters and others would lain craek a joka at tho speaker’s expense the street- orator has no peer, and many a more cultured and polished speaker would give much to possess tho art of reducing to a condition of impotent silence the exasperating and irritating individual who seeks to stem tho oven flow of the spcakci’s eloquence hy Ins frequent- m.torjections of “Question!” and other less refined expressions. At- the close of their speeches the street orators are never likely to forget to thank their hearers for tho “patient and attentive hearing,” and tho date and subject of 'ho next meeting are announced with the utmost gravity before thq orator leaves his “platform” —-sometimes a chair or an inverted mineral water case —mixes with tho crowd, and vanishes.