3. Give the train call, Omaha-Denver-Colorado Springs Chicago-and Minneapolis.

4. One secret of tone projection is to sustain the vowels. Practise this in the following words: people, Taft, moonlight, war, no, the open door, Main land, the wide ocean.

6. Series of Exercises on Final Endings. Practise the following table daily:

bl: able, table, trouble, double, bubble.
ld: cold, bold, sold, rolled, told, gold.
ng: ring, sing, wing, ringing, singing.
nd: round, sound, ground, mound, found.
ded: rounded, sounded, grounded, pounded.
sts: lasts, fasts, masts, casts, mists, fists.
dst: amidst, hadst.

ly: literally, quickly, equivocally, practically.
ps: ships, nips, whips, lips, dips, sips.
rd: roared, soared, scored, floored, gored.

7. Table of Tongue Twisters.

"A big, black bug bit a big black bear." "She sells sea shells."

Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle-sifter, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb. See that thou thrust not three thousand thistles through the thick of thy thumb."

"Peter Prangle, the prickly prangly pear-picker picked three thousand pecks of prickly prangly pears."

"Six long sleek slender saplings."

"The shop sign shiner sees cheap shop signs. 'Shine your signs,' says the shop sign shiner. The sign shiner shined the shop signs and the cheap signs soon shone sharply."

"Fritz Fisher and Phil Fisher, the fishing fresh fishers, fished fresh fish. And Fritz fried Phil's, as Phil fried Fritz's fine fresh fish."

"Ten thin tin things thin Tim wanted; ten thin tin things thin Tim saw; ten thin tin things thin Tim took."

"Said saintly Seamstress Susan to her skeptical, sinful, slothful, shiftless son: 'Son, shun statistics.' Son said: 'Statisticians state statistics show sixty shell-shocked soldiers shot by shrapnel.' Seriously said, son should shun statistics."

Practise very rapidly, but distinctly :

"John Bangs Lang of the King's Museum,

Which keeps stuffed birds-and they let you see 'em-
Went (for the King) to San Domingo,

To hunt for the last two-toed flamingo.

When they let John Lang go to Domingo,

The land of the tango and the mango,

They should have warned him to eat no mango,

Dance no tango, and stay away from the gay fandango.

"You might as well let an orangoutang go

Loose in the Congo, as let such a man go

To Domingo where they talk love's lingo in a bungalow;
Where the castanets with their bing, bing, bing,' go;
And cabarets with their slam-bang gang go

All night long while they dance the tango.
Well, that was the end of Lang, by jingo!

8. Table of Difficult Words.

Literally, extemporaneously, Biblical, bubbled, mimeograph, equitable, nonconformity, idealistic, troubled, valve, monopolistic, ethically, judge, zoology, alphabetical, statistics, inimitable, enmity, collateral, Representative Government.

A common fault is to drop the H sound in the following words: Don't say "wat,” “wich,' ""wich," "wite," etc. These words are pronounced according to the oldfashioned way of spelling, the H precedes the W, as "Hwy, Hwite." When, where, what, white, whether, wheat, wheel, whip, whack, whittle, wharf, whiskey, whoa.

9. Table of Words Frequently Mispronounced.

Government, address, Tuesday, February, pendulum, second, idea, culinary, pronunciation, tune, docile, supple, appear, believe, cowardice, biography, finis, data, clientele, anti, diploma, divorce, financial, genuine, Italian, semi, mercantile, Lusitania, Alma Mater, pro-rata, tornado, ultimatum, radiator, gratis, ignoramus, apparatus.

10. For general articulation and enunciation, practise reading the first stanza of "Sir Galahad" by Tennyson.

"My good blade carves the casques of men,
My tough lance thrusteth sure,

My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure.

The shattering trumpet shrilleth high,
The hard brands shiver on the steel,
The splinter'd spear-shafts crack and fly,
The horse and rider reel.

They reel, they roll in clanging lists,
And when the tide of combat stands,
Perfume and flowers fall in showers,

That lightly rain from ladies' hands."

"Once more; speak clearly, if you speak at all;
Carve every word before you let it fall;
Don't, like a lecturer or dramatic star,

Try over hard to roll the British R;

Do put your accents in the proper spot;

Don't let me beg you,—don't say How?' for ' What?'

And, when you stick on conversation's burrs,

Don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs."

-OLIVER Wendell Holmes.

CHAPTER XVI

HOW TO OVERCOME MONOTONY

'One of the most subtle tortures of the Inquisition was to have a drop of water fall from the ceiling at regular intervals with maddening monotony on exactly the same spot on the prisoner's head until it drove him insane."

-MACAULAY.

ANY one who can demonstrate the answer to the problem presented in the heading of this chapter, has already passed the ordinary speaker and is far on his way toward the goal of eloquence. Any teacher who can point the way toward the overcoming of monotony has rendered a very great service.

For this is the most common fault-the crux of the whole matter of effective delivery. Monotony is the fault of faults, the problem of problems. Eliminate this fault and you do away with many other supplementary faults. Solve this problem and you have the answer to most of the other serious problems of effective delivery. Monotony is the deadly bore, the dreaded kill-joy of speech.

Monotony is the thing that kills an audience at short range; it will drive the bloom from the cheek of the finest audience that ever bloomed, and wither it like a blight.

In the capacity of critic the author has listened to many speakers, and his outstanding general criticism is "monotonous delivery." While it cannot rank as "the unpardonable sin " in speech, it is a first cousin

to it. "In its effect on its victim, monotony is actually deadly," says J. Berg Esenwein; "it is the thing which will destroy all the life and force of a speech. Monotony reveals our limitations. If the victrola next door everlastingly grinds out just two selections, you may safely assume that your neighbor has no other records. If a speaker uses only a few of his powers, it reveals the fact that the rest of his powers are not developed." Monotony is Poverty, whether in speech or in life. It is a sin of omission, rather than commission. It is caused chiefly by leaving undone those things which we should do; therefore, let us analyze the case sufficiently to find out what these things are.

VARIETY

Variety is the spice of speech, therefore, we must get variety. But how? By overcoming monotony. "But how can I overcome monotony?" asks the practical student, who feels that he is wandering in a circle. To answer in a general way, monotony in speech can be overcome by multiplying our powers of speech, and this is done by increasing the number of our working tools. To answer specifically, monotony is overcome by changes in thought, in form, and in delivery. In each of these divisions we can add to the number of our working tools. The whole problem, then, hinges on this point of change.

Let us consider first the changes in thought and feeling. Obviously, these are the fountainhead, and must be the direct cause of all other changes. They are too complex to classify or limit by any set of rules. This suggestion, however, may be offered: think more intensely, feel more deeply. The average