My speech in reply to the Freedom was the subject of
much concern. I spoke to my Uncle Bailie Morrison, telling him I just
felt like saying so and so, as this really was in my heart. He was an
orator himself and he spoke words of wisdom to me then.
"Just say that, Andra; nothing like saying just what you really feel."
It was a lesson in public speaking which I took to heart. There is one
rule I might suggest for youthful orators. When you stand up before an
audience reflect that there are before you only men and women. You
should speak to them as you speak to other men and women in daily
intercourse. If you are not trying to be something different from
yourself, there is no more occasion for embarrassment than if you were
talking in your office to a party of your own people--none whatever.
It is trying to be other than one's self that unmans one. Be your own
natural self and go ahead. I once asked Colonel Ingersoll, the most
effective public speaker I ever heard, to what he attributed his
power. "Avoid elocutionists like snakes," he said, "and be yourself."
[Illustration: AN AMERICAN FOUR-IN-HAND IN BRITAIN]
I spoke again at Dunfermline, July 27, 1881, when my mother laid the
foundation stone there of the first free library building I ever gave.
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