Tt^aJisun. ft s c y I Copyright, 190 "NOW, DON'T STAY LATE TO-NIGHT" This touching ;ippeal of the young wife affords a tableau of great interest William H. Rau? THE WORLD'S Speaker, Reciter and Entertainer -FOR- HOME, SCHOOL, CHURCH AND PLATFORM RECITATIONS, READINGS, PLAYS, DRILLS, TABLEAUX, ETC. Explained by Special Pose Pictures, with Rules for Physical Culture and for the Training of the Voice and the Use of Gesture, according to the Delsarte System — BY — FRANCES P. HOYLE, B.E. Cumnock School of Oratory, Northwestern University, Evanston, 111. COMPLETE PROGRAMMES OF ENTERTAINMENT FOR ALL AGES AND OCCASIONS ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT COLOR PLATES and Half -Tone Engravings showing Attitudes, Special Poses, etc., also the World's Most Noted Impersonators, Elocutionists and Actors in Costume WORLD BIBLE HOUSE PHILADELPHIA, PA. 7 ?0 Ivik) Oopibs doca »».«.» 1 OCT. 21 1905 a ~ l X 6~/ 6 9 1 copy b. ^v Entered according to Act of Congress In the year 1905 by W. E. SCULL, in tKe office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. D. C. All Rights Reserved INTRODUCTION IN presenting this work to the public, the publishers beg to state that it has been prepared expressly to meet a practical need. There are many speaker books, yet there seems to be an almost universal demand for a volume combining appropriate selections for declamation, recitation, reading, dialogues, tableaux, plays, musical num- bers, etc., which shall be suitable alike for the home, school, church, temperance, patriotic, social and all ordinary entertainments. There is hardly a community where such entertainments are not of frequent occur- rence, and, we might say in nine- tenths of them, the chief difficulty is to find persons w ith ability or training to take part. A second difficulty also arises in making up a pro- gramme of suitable selections. This volume will be found a help in overcoming both tbese obstacles. It furnishes for the teacher and the individual a method of simple training which enables them to train others or prepare themselves to speak easily and gracefully; and at the same time places the material at their hands from which to make suitable selections. Frances P. Hoyle, B.E., graduate of the Cumnock School of Oratory, of Chicago, who prepares the departments of "PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT" AND " DEL- SARTE TRAINING AND ELOCUTION," is one of the most successful teachers of these specialties. She has devoted years to the study, practice and teaching of elocution as an art. She begins by training the body to make itself a willing, grace- ful and obedient servant to the will and the emotions of the speaker. Next she trains the mind to abandon itself to the spirit of the selection in hand, forgetful of self and surroundings, the speaker becoming for the time the real character or soul of the lines rendered. The Delsartean method has been thoroughly mastered by Miss Pogle. Hei instructor was trained by the famous Delsarte himself. Elocutionists and orators everywhere declare it is the only system by which to discover and develop those true powers of eloquence which, Webster declares, "Labor and learning may toil for in vain. Words and phrases cannot compass it It must exist in the man, in the subject and in the occasion," and come from the speaker as naturally as " the breaking out of a fountain from the earth." Miss Pogle's method of teaching this -uhject is remarkable for its simplicity The common-school child can follow her s INTRODUCTION easy conversational description and instruction. It is written in the author's simple and familiar manner of teaching individuals by correspondence. Possessors of this book will feel as if they were her personal pupils — as they really will be — following the instructions of a letter written personally to themselves. This series of lessons will be found of incalculable value to those who have not had a course at a school of elocution and physical culture. Even reading the pages over in a casual way will be found interesting and beneficial, while a short period each day devoted to study and practice will make any ambitious young man or woman more than a fair elocutionist, besides repaying the student with general benefit both mentally and physically. Mr. George M. Vickers needs no introduction to the American people. Every child in the public schools sings his famous song, "Guard the Flag," and there are few elocutionists of note who do not number in their repertoire one or more of this author's poetic productions, for they are to be found in many of the best books ot selections. His "Poems of the Occident." which recently appeared, has many new numbers, never before published, and the best of those for recitation are to be found in this volume. The special Musical Department in the work is also prepared by Mr. Vickers, and contains several of his newest and most popular songs. "Columbia, My Country," is of national reputation, the author having received special testimonials from President McKinley, the governors of many states, and others high in the public service, voicing their appreciation of the patriotic sentiment expressed in both words and music. " The New ' Dixie,' " also found in this volume, is a grand musical tribute to the South, breathing a patriotic spirit of reconciliation from a Northern soldier to those who wore the gray. The music, while new, has the same dashing time of the famous old "Dixie Land," and the words may be sung to that thrilling Southern air when so desired. " The Public School," a new and rousing school song, with a grand chorus, is fast finding its way into all the schools of the land. "The Little Foresters," a musical sketch for Arbor Day entertainment, and " The Musical Asters," a flower song with special settings, are both designed for several singers, and, with others, were prepared exclusively for this volume, and cannot be found elsewhere. The general selections for the book are divided into departments, those relating to "PATRIOTISM AND WAR," leading, in deference to the prominence of these two subjects at present, as well as to the duty of patriotism upon every citizen and our obligation to teach it to the young. The remaining departments, " NARRA- TIVE AND DESCRIPTIVE," "HUMOROUS AND DIALECTIC," "RELIGIOUS, MORAL AND DIDACTIC," "PATHETIC," "TEMPERANCE READINGS," etc., embrace the best selections and cuttings to be obtained from a wide field of research in both ancient and modern literature. The classifying of all the selections undei their proper headings renders the work of choosing suitable pieces of any character easy. Attention is particularly called to the department of " ENCORE SELECTIONS," so much sought after by popular reciters ; also to "THE LITTLE FOLKS' SPEAKER," a department of the work devoted entirely to bright speeches for children — enabling mamma to find something pretty for the child to speak in a few moments. INTRODUCTION " HAPPY QUOTATIONS is another department which, with the suggestions as to the manner of using them, will also be found both helpful and entertaining to old and young. "DIALOGUES, TABLEAUX AND PLAYS" are also grouped together in a department devoted exclusively to that class of selections ; and, the SHAKESPEAREAN DEPARTMENT," in which representative cuttings from the great plays of the world's greatest playwright are presented, will prove of special value to those who aspire to the higher levels of the dramatic art. Thus it will be seen that the work, while most comprehensive, including altogether more than 1,000 selections, suited alike to all ages and to all occasions, is so classified and arranged as to make it of the greatest possible convenience and availability in the practical using. We trust that the labor expended upon it, and the efficient and original mannei in which it has been executed and arranged for the practical use of the masses may be rewarded by the cordial reception which this new and originally planned work deserves at the hands of the public. Respectfully. THE PUBLISHERS. TABLE OF CONTENTS Part I PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT Preface 27 Military Position 29 Relaxing Exercises for the Hand Foot " Head . . . " Whole Arm " Whole Leg Trunk and Arms the Whole Body 29 29 29 30 30 30 31 MM Exercises for Strengthening the Arms . 31 " Legs . 3a " ■ for Making the Feet Strong and Pliable 33 " to Strengthen the Hands ... 33 " for Strengthening the Back . . 33 " " Putting the Shoulders in Their Proper Place ... 34 into correct position, i, e., hips and abdo- men back in place, and shoulders well drawn up, instead of being thrown back. This movement, especially, is often given by prominent nerve specialists to their patients as being fine for the nerves of the back, which are the most delicate of the body. Relaxing Exercises for the whole Body. (All tight or stiff clothing should be removed for this move- ment.) i. Lie flat on the back on the floor, with arms at sides, and eyes closed. 2. I are all with that people. Lord Camden (Jan. 20, 1775). RESISTANCE TO BRITISH AGGRESSION. The Virginia Convention having before them resolutions of a temporizing character towards Great Britain, March 23, 1775, :'.!:, Henry 'ntroduced counter (resolutions which he supported in 7 he following memorable speech. When Mr. Henry look his ■seat at ts close "no murmur of applause was heard. Th« mpression was too deep Aftei the trance of a moment, the cry to arms .' seemed to qui vet on every lip, and gleam from every eye. Their souls were on fire for action.'* Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of Hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she translorms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty ? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly con- cern our temporal salvation ? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, — to know the worst, and to provide for it ! I have but one lamp, by which my feet are guided ; and that is the lamp of ex- perience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And, judg- ing by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British min- istry, for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received ? Trust it not, sir ; it will prove a snare to your feet ! Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss ! Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition com- ports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjuga- tion, — the last arguments to which Kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies ? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us ; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them ? — Shall we try argument ? Sir, we have been trying that, for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable ; but it has been all in vain. 74 PATRIOTISM AND WAR Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication ? What terms shall we find which have not already been exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive our- selves longer. Sir, we have done every- thing that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have peti- tioned, we have remonstrated, we have supplicated, we have prostrated ourselves before the Throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the Ministry and Parliament. Our peti- tions have been slighted, our remonstrances have produced additional violence and in- sult, our supplications have been dis- regarded, and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the Throne. In vain, after these things, may we in- dulge the fond hope of peace and recon- ciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free, — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privi- leges for which we have been so long con- tending, — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, — we must fight ; I repeat it, sir, we must fight ! An appeal to arms, and to the God of Hosts, is all that is left us ! THE WAR INEVITABLE, March, 1775. They tell us, sir, that we are weak, — unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be Stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year ? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and in- action? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the noly cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. Ther* is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone ; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery ! Our chains are forged ! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston ! The war is inevitable ; and let it come ! I repeat it, sir, let it come ! It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace ! — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun ! The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms ! Our brethren are already in the field ! Why stand we here idle ? What is it that gentlemen wish ? What would they have ? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God ! I know not what course others may take ; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death ! Patrick Henry. A REVOLUTIONARY SERMON. Preached -n the eve of the battle of Btandywine, Septem- ber 10, 1 777, in the presence of Washington and his army, at Chadd's Ford. Soldiers and countrymen : We have met this evening perhaps for the last time. We have shared the toil of the march, the peril of the fight, the dismay of the retreat ; alike we have endured toil and hunger, the contumely of the internal foe, the outrage of the foreign oppressor. We have sat night after night beside the same camp-fire, shared the same rough soldier's fare ; we have together heard the roll of the reveille which called us to duty, or the beat of the tattoo which gave the signal for the hardy sleep of the soldier, with the earth for his bed, and a knapsack for his pillow. And now, soldiers and brethren, we have met in this peaceful valley, on the eve of battle, while the sunlight is dying away beyond yonder heights, the sunlight that to-morrow morn will glimmer on scenes PATRIOTISM AND WAR 75 of blood. We have met amid the whiten- ing tents of our encampment ; in times of terror and gloom have we gathered together — God grant it may not be for the last time ! It is a solemn time. It was but a day since our land slept in the light of peace. War was not here , wrong was not here . Fraud , and woe, and misery, and want, dwelt not among us. From the eternal solitude of the green woods, arose the blue smoke of the settler's cabin, and golden fields of corn peered forth from amid the waste of the wilderness, and the glad music of human voices awoke the silence of the forest. Now, God of mercy, behold the change ! Under the shadow of a pretext, under the sanctity of the name of God, invoking the Redeemer to their aid, do these foreign hirelings slay our people ! They throng our towns, they darken our plains, and now they encompass our posts on the lonely plain of Chadd's Ford. " They that take the sword shall perish by the sword." Brethren, think me not unworthy of belief when I tell you that the doom of the Britisher is near ! Think me not vain when I tell you that beyond that cloud that now enshrouds us, I see gathering, thick and fast, the darker cloud and the blacker storm of a Divine retribution ! They may conquer us to-morrow ! Might and wrong may prevail, and we may be driven from this field, but the hour of God's own ven- geance will come ! Aye, if in the vast solitudes of eternal Space, if in the heart of the boundless uni- verse, there throbs the being of an awful God, quick to avenge, and sure to punish guilt, then will the man, George of Bruns- wick, called King, feel in his brain and in his heart, the vengeance of the Eternal Jehovah ! A blight will be upon his life, — a withered brain, an accursed intellect; a blight will be upon his children, and on his people. Great God! -how dread the pun- ishment ! A crowded populace, peopling the dense towns where the man of money thrives, while the laborer starves; want striding among the people in all his forms of terror ; an ignorant and God-defying priesthood, chuckling over the miseries of millions ; a proud and merciless nobility, adding wrong to wrong, and heaping insult upon robbery and fraud ; royalty corrupt to the very heart, aristocracy rotten to the core ; crime and want linked hand in hand, and tempt- ing men to deeds of woe and death, — these are a part of the doom and retribution that shall come upon the English throne and people. Soldiers, I look around among your familiar faces with a strange interest ' To-morrow morning we will all go forth to battle — for need I tell you that your unworthy minister will go with you, invok- ing God's aid in the fight ? We will march forth to battle. Need I exhort you to fight — to fight for your homesteads, for your wives and your children ? My friends, I might urge you to fight by the galling memories of British wrong ! Walton, I might tell you of your father, butchered in the silence of midnight, on the plains of Trenton ; I might picture his gray hairs, dabbled in blood ; I might ring his death shriek in your ears. Shelmire, I might tell you of a mother butchered, and a sister out- raged ; the lonely farm-house, the night assault, the roof in flames, the shouts of the troopers as they despatched their victims, the cries for mercy, the pleadings of inno- cence for pity. I might paint this all again, in the terri ble colors of vivid reality, if I thought voui courage needed such wild excitement. But I know you are strong in the might of the Lord. You will go forth to battle to-mor- row with light hearts and determined spirits, though the solemn duty, the duty of aveng- ing the dead, may rest heavy on your souls. And in tbe hour of battle when all around is darkness, lit by the lurid cannon-glare and the piercing musket-flash, when the wounded strew the ground, and the dead litter your path, remember, soldiers, that God is with you. The Eternal God fights for you; He rides on the battle cloud,- He sweeps onward with the march of the hur- ricane charge. The Awful and the Infinite fights for you, and you will triumph. " They that take the sword shall perish by the sword." You have taken the sword, but not in the spirit of wrong and ravage. You have taken the sword for your homes, for your wives, for your little ones. You have taken