AND How to Hold an Audience A COLLECTION OF SHORT By GRENVILLE KLEISER Author of "How to Speak in Public" THIRD EDITION FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON 1909 COPYRIGHT 1908 BY FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY Printed in the United States of America Published March, 1908 All rights reserved INTRODUCTORY In preparing this volume the author has been guided by his own platform experience extending over twelve years. During that time he has given hundreds of public recitals. before audiences of almost every description, and in all parts of the country. It may not be considered presumptuous, therefore, for him to offer some practical suggestions on the art of entertaining and holding an audience, and to indicate certain selections which he has found have in themselves the elements of success. The "encore fiend," as he is sometimes called, is so ubiquitous and insistent that no speaker or reader can afford to ignore him, and, indeed, must prepare for him in advance. To find material that will satisfy him in one or in a dozen of the ordinary books of selections is an almost impossible task. It is only too obvious that many compilations of the kind are put together by persons who have had little or no practical platform experience. In an attempt to remedy this defect this volume has been prepared. It is believed that the book will be valuable not only to the amateur and the professional reader, speaker, elocutionist, and entertainer, but also to the after-dinner and impromptu speaker, the politician who wants to make a "hit," the business man who wishes to tell a good story and tell it effectively, the school-teacher in arranging her "Friday Afternoon" programs, as well as for reading aloud in the family circle, and for many other occasions. 粘 3597 1526 889546 • RECAP) |