The voice, in speech and song : a view of the human voice for speakers and singers and all who love the arts of speech and song / by Theodore E. Schmauk.

  • Schmauk, Theodore Emanuel, 1860-1920.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The voice, in speech and song : a view of the human voice for speakers and singers and all who love the arts of speech and song / by Theodore E. Schmauk. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The power of a mind richly saturated with culture, enthusiastically impelled by an earnest purpose, giving utterance to it- self in full, musical, sympathetic tones, is perhaps most happily seen in the case of Rufus Choate. He was exact in argument, exhuberant in imagination, brilliant in statement, ample in development, gracious in address, burning in spirit, and captivating in utterance. ‘ ‘ When he rose for his argu- ment/’ says Dr. Storrs, “ all facts reported by witnesses in the case, all the related and governing precedents, all legal principles bearing upon it, all passages of history, let- ters, life, that might illustrate his argument or confound his antagonists, seemed visibly present to his mind. He thought of1 noth- ing but jury and verdict. His eloquence was then as completely independent of tech- nical rule as the screams of passion, or the shouts of a mob. He was after a favourable decision of the case, as if his own life de- pended on it. Short, sharp, shattering words rattled like volleys before and after resounding sentences. Language heaped on his lips. Images, delicate, homely, start- ling, blazed upon his pictured words. The common court-room became the scene of the