THE LAND OF USED-TO-BE
The particular thing taught in the early school, as I recall it, was to
make a bow. When a boy was about to speak a piece he made his manners
and at the conclusion of his address he again caused his head to descend
and made a quick nervous stoop. Declamation was made of three parts, two
of which were the introductory bow and the concluding one. If the bow
was grotesque, the speaker was recalled, not only to bow, but to do it
gracefully. It is nothing to the credit of those scholars that in later
life they sometimes forgot to perform the gracious act, which this
master sacrificed other items to teach. The schedule, day by day, was a
mere overture to the main performance which came at the end of the term
which was the exhibition. This came "the last day." As the libraries
were small the pupils searched high and low to find a "piece." This was
a new task to those who had been simple answer-hunters. In arithmetic
they were informed in advance what result they must attain and to reach
it was to do their sums. But now there is involved also the human
equation.
_Dolling Up_
When they came "to speak in public on the stage," they were noisily
dressed. They would have looked better and felt better in customary
apparel, but they were ill at ease and this helped to mark a red-letter
day.
The whole town was moved. The scholars were full of excitement over the
glory of the occasion. The country side was deserted. The farmers with
all the members of their families appeared in town. There was no room to
stable the horses and so they were covered with many other articles
besides blankets, there being no uniformity to their uniform. They were
tied for the very long evening in the lee of some stack or shed. The boy
who spoke the last piece excited great admiration, particularly, in the
minds of his proud father and of his adoring mother.
"So sleeps the pride of former days,
So glory's thrill is o'er,
And hearts that once beat high for praise
Now feel that pulse no more."
Interest in these things so then developed that Mr. Caldwell had to
compose dialogues of a spicy picturesque character for our public use.
He incited his scholars to enter into the spirit of their single pieces
and dialogues and his exhibitions surprised and delighted the audiences
so admirable became the performance of children and youth. Fine
declamation was to him what painting is to an artist, or melody to the
musician, it was a passion, and nerved him for effort. Scholars still
live all about who can "witness if I lie." The stage afterward must have
claimed many of those actors for they showed unquestioned genius for the
art of theatrical representation. The conditions were primitive, but for
the platform we must have curtains, so when the eventful moment came,
sheets and table-cloths instead were pulled aside, these being the only
curtains that were available and we had to live with what we had. The
"stage properties" were hastily gathered from the homes of participants.
_Fitted for a Day Sure to Come_
As the parents attended these exhibitions, the contagion caught them and
then followed the lyceum. It swept the town, it was the most popular
thing ever. I distinctly remember the evening when they discussed Neal
Dow's Maine liquor law, my father participating. One of our neighbors
carried the honor of out-talking the whole field. Let his thoughts slide
into the familiar current and they flowed on easily and indefinitely.
For debate they caught at Bulwer's dramatic sentence, The pen is
mightier than the sword, and they argued the pros and cons without
getting a verdict, leaving thus to Germany and the Allies to bring the
time honored discussion to an end with a demonstration that no one will
ever be able effectively to question. To these meetings each man brought
a candle but no candle-stick. From the lighted end, he would drop a
little tallow on the desk, and thus set up the candle, that it would
give light to all that were in the house. What a sight greeted us the
next morning.
"The Isles of Greece!
The Isles of Greece!"
Friction matches, which according to Faraday, were the most useful
invention of the age were not then sold, loose in boxes, but were made
in cards, each match being detached only a part of its length from the
others which stood with it in a thin layer of wood. The word, Lyceum,
marks an era in the United States. It means a great school of debate, a
college that grants no degrees. It gives me a sadness that is not akin
to pain, to hear a young person designate a building as Lyceum Hall,
using the word as if it were Grampian Hall or Hamilton Hall, having no
glorious, clear conception of what the name of the hall signified to the
early community. Tradesmen, farmers, professional men, themselves
readers and thinkers, above all restless and eager disputants would meet
night after night to discuss the unselfish problems of life. At first
they were not allowed to speak upon irritable subjects. They tried to
escape both the Scylla and the Charybdis of religious and political
contentions, but in early days narrow was the way. Some sanguine souls
sought to build a suspension bridge over the foaming waters of
controversy and to find a way of union for the bitter strife and
dissension that only cases of conscience can supply. This little
community-university was co-educational. The women too were welcomed,
not only to the meeting where their presence was a stimulus to the
debaters, but to participation in the conduct of the lyceum paper,
which, read by one of the sterner sex, often contained contributions by
the women. In it were witty conundrums, based on local names and
conditions, pointed suggestions, humorous hits at the hardships they
were at the moment experiencing, which enabled the people to laugh at
their own privations. Deep feeling and marked literary ability were
often shown in the contributions to this unprinted paper. It was for
just such pages as these that the first poems of Lucy Larcom were
produced, and she says that if she had learned anything by living it was
that education may proceed "not through book learning alone, sometimes
entirely without it."
_Flights of Oratory_
The outstanding feature of the lyceum was the report of the critic. He
must be a bright glad witty man without a shade of vulgarity, a perfect
master of all those nice little arts which give zest to conversation and
a quaint coloring and a good deal of it, to his thoughts. I have a
pleasant record of him. His chief theme was always, The Ladies. No one
of them could do anything poorly enough to get anything but a warm
encomium. If the debaters did well it was because the ladies by their
presence gave just such cheer as bands of music contributed to
Napoleon's army, when getting their heavy cannon over St. Bernard Pass.
This critic never had the affrontery to lecture the participants. "Who
made thee a ruler and a judge over us?" Mathew Arnold came over here to
lecture us, from the know-it-all point of view, and began his work
without any specific preparation for any evening, discussing no
sympathetic theme, and the people declined to hear. The great benefit of
the lyceum, to say the least of it, was that the whole conduct of it
rested solidly on the men who blended in it and habitually attended it.
It came right up out of the intellectual force, the convictions, the
good neighborhood feeling and intelligence of the community. These
debates developed leaders in the various departments of mental effort.
It sent debaters straight into the State legislature. It was like
running a magnet over a dust heap, in that it revealed metal, and drew
it out, and this was what people were looking for. Any one who looks
over the surface of our towns finds many minds, endowed by nature with
brilliant faculties and framed by their Creator for great usefulness and
honor, waiting to have their energies awakened and invigorated.
_Choosing the Front Subject_
The thing that made the lyceum was in the air. What is discussed now in
the papers was then a theme for argument, evenings, in the stores and
taverns. Our word caucus, is derived from the Caulkers, ship-builders,
hardy, upright efficient men who gave tone and character to the meeting
that they with others held, to discuss politics and the other live
issues of the day. To increase the number of parts taken, certain grave,
slow men, not likely to share in the discussions, noted chiefly for
their moderation and caution, were named in advance as judges, and their
decision was to be based first, on the weight of argument, and then on
the merits of the question. To keep up the excitement, the decision was
sometimes appealed to the house. If I close my eyes and open the
chambers of memory I distinctly see the young men, with many signs of
diffidence rising timidly to participate in the proceedings. At the
earlier meeting, two persons had been appointed to maintain the
affirmative and two other members were requested to maintain the
negative. The free-for-all fray was let loose with the old time
question, Does any one desire to debate that question? Sometimes we had
"rough house" which was always followed at the next meeting of the
lyceum by a capacity audience. As Samson found the honey, so these
lyceums discovered talent where it would be looked for least. Men came
to look for good in each other under these conditions, and that helped
some. And there is a partial explanation of the fact that so many men,
who became prominent in early politics, were from small towns. Great
opportunity was given for discovering and developing latent literary and
oratorical talent and for invigorating and confirming every germ of
reform and political aspiration. Leaders were discovered in the various
departments of investigation and of influence. It must be kept in mind
that the communities were to an exceptional degree homogeneous and
over-whelmingly American.
_Educating Themselves_
I never look upon the panorama of the past where vivid life forms have
lost little of their original distinctness without thinking of the
village oracles who exercised their eloquence in these local, free
schools of debate. They gave a permanent bias and coloring to the genius
and taste and style, in all their subsequent years, to men distinguished
for their talents, whom the lyceums discovered and trained, who shone
splendidly in after life. To find the place of the lyceum in the
evolution of the debaters, we will eliminate genius. To draw a rude
likeness was once genius. In mechanics genius ceased to be recognized as
soon as labor could equal the result, once attributed to nature's gift,
acting unaided. Whittier tells us that when he began life verse-making
was a monopoly. Good citizenship is not a gift or an inheritance any
more than is good soldiering. Courage alone does not make the soldier
nor honesty alone the citizen. Training is essential to both. In the
recent constitutional convention held in Massachusetts those who worked
like Trojans, looked forward with apprehension, to the oratorical
assaults, that would be made upon their results. They recognized the
disproportionate advantage, but a real advantage never-the-less, of
oratory, and this was not over-looked but acknowledged. For a fact, some
excellent ideas went begging for the support of those who had talents
and training for speaking exceptionally well. One who surpasses the
ordinary standards, but a little, takes a position quite in advance of
his fellows. Superiority on the race course is a matter of seconds and
half-seconds. The honor bestowed by us on excellence in public address
is greater than that attributed to men in literature or the professions,
in business, or invention. The difference becomes so plain and is so
conspicuous that it gains attention. The ablest speaker arouses the
sympathies and gains the result. Where a cause is to be presented I have
heard this formula. A poor cause, a good speaker. A good cause, any
speaker. All of us have been present when a fine speaker having what may
be called the wit of speech where a laugh was loaded with a principle
where the address was clear, sparkling, above all things witty, wit
being the rarest of qualities and surest of appreciation, the audience
worked up by the rough and ready eloquence of a popular orator, reaching
indeed an extraordinary pitch of excitement, has swept everything with
the weaker side of the case. No accomplishment gains consideration for
its possessor and his cause so speedily as public speaking. When
billions were being raised in Liberty Loans, during the German war, the
telling factor was the four-minute speakers that came out of the
Phillips debating societies in the various communities, and these
speakers having come to the front show some disposition to remain
there.
_A New Impetus_
Here is brought to light the reason, that those northern states in which
these elementary schools of patriotism and freedom have existed, cling
so tenaciously, for local government, to the old town meeting. In this
country where the motive power is public opinion, the ability to help in
forming it is greatly to be coveted. The power of the lyceum would be
instantly admitted, if we could use it for a moment as a negative
quantity, and show how completely unfitted for public work many of our
strongest factors would have been, had these little schools of oratory
never opened their doors. I share in the well expressed opinion that
there are four kinds of human activity for which a man must have a
natural preparation, music, the sculptor's art, the painter's art, these
three, and the highest forms of oratory. For these, most successful men
must have aptitude. But to a person with the gift of utterance, occasion
must say, Oratory, come forth! Money does not talk. Culture not wealth
is the mark of distinction. Take a man whose father was poor and also
the descendant of poor men with all their ideas of life associated with
conditions of extreme poverty. The atmosphere and practices were such
that Henry Wilson besought the legislature to change his name from
Jeremiah Jones Colbaith to that one that he made famous as United States
senator and as vice-president being elected on the ticket with Grant. He
had known what it was to ask his mother for bread when she had none to
give. Before he was twenty-one he had never had but two dollars and had
never spent more than one dollar. At the end of an eleven years'
apprenticeship to a farmer, he received a yoke of oxen and six sheep
which he sold for eighty-four dollars. During these eleven years he
never had more than twelve months schooling. The turning point in his
life was the lyceum which he attended, following the lines of argument,
but lacking courage to share in the debate. But one evening when the
discussion was thrown open to the audience he engaged in it to the
delight of his friends. His pastor called upon him and expressed his
gratification and the lyceum increased in popularity as a place to hear
him. His pastor urged him to seek an education. The lyceum had awakened
his dormant powers. His special forte, his biographer says, was
extemporaneous speaking and debate. In meetings held once or twice a
week he acquired the drill he needed for coming conflicts.
_The Onward Upward Course_
Henry Clay rose to fame, by a sudden impulse at the meeting of a lyceum
in Lexington. He overcame timidity and embarrassment, that had
oppressed him, and in this favorite forum for the display of youthful
talent, first exhibited the evidence of his extraordinary powers of
oratory. His hour had struck. In this school for the highest powers of
debate he discovered himself. He used a very common expedient and made
it great and was proud to descend from the summit of political
preferment to honor that arena, such as any community can provide, in
which any ambitious young man can educate himself. Both Mr. Beveridge's
brilliant oratory and Dolliver's success, as the greatest campaigner
America has produced, are proof, that a training field is an
indispensable condition of getting results, in the study of eloquence
and in the art of oratory.