Stories of Achievement, Volume III

Stories of Achievement, Volume
III

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Title: Stories of Achievement, Volume III (of 6) Orators and Reformers
Author: Various
Editor: Asa Don Dickinson
Release Date: June 15, 2006 [eBook #18597]
Language: English
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STORIES OF ACHIEVEMENT, VOLUME III
Orators and Reformers
Edited by
ASA DON DICKINSON
Orators and Reformers
DESMOSTHENES ELIHU BURRITT JOHN B. GOUGH
FREDERICK DOUGLASS HENRY WARD BEECHER BOOKER T.
WASHINGTON BEN. B. LINDSEY

[Frontispiece: Henry Ward Beecher]

Garden City ---- New York Doubleday, Page & Company 1925
Copyright, 1916, by Doubleday, Page & Company All Rights Reserved

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
In the preparation of this volume the publishers have received from
several houses and authors generous permissions to reprint copyright
material. For this they wish to express their cordial gratitude. In
particular, acknowledgments are due to the Houghton Mifflin Company
for the extract concerning Elihu Burritt; to George W. Jacobs & Co. for

the extract from Booker T. Washington's "Frederick Douglass"; to P. B.
Bromfield for permission to use passages from "The Biography of
Henry Ward Beecher"; to the late Booker T. Washington for
permission to reprint extracts from "Up From Slavery"; to Judge Ben.
B. Lindsey for permission to reprint from "The Beast."

CONTENTS
ORATORS AND REFORMERS
DEMOSTHENES The Orator Who Stammered
ELIHU BURRITT "The Learned Blacksmith"
JOHN B. GOUGH The Conquest of a Bad Habit
FREDERICK DOUGLASS The Slave Who Stole Freedom
HENRY WARD BEECHER The Boy Who Half-heartedly Joined the
Church
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON The Boy Who Slept Under the Sidewalk
BEN. B. LINDSEY The Man Who Fights the Beast

DEMOSTHENES
(384-322 B. C.)
THE ORATOR WHO STAMMERED
Modern critics are fond of discriminating between talent and genius.
The fire of genius, it seems, will flame resplendent even in spite of an
unworthy possessor's neglect. But the man with talent which must be
carefully cherished and increased if he would attain distinction by its
help--that man is the true self-helper to whom our hearts go out in

sympathy. Every schoolboy knows that Demosthenes practised
declamation on the seashore, with his mouth full of pebbles. This
description of the unlovely old Athenian with the compelling tongue is
Plutarch's contribution to the literature of self-help.
From Plutarch's "Lives of Illustrious Men."
The orator Callistratus was to plead in the cause which the city of
Oropus had depending; and the expectation of the public was greatly
raised, both by the powers of the orator, which were then in the highest
repute, and by the importance of the trial. Demosthenes, hearing the
governors and tutors agree among themselves to attend the trial, with
much importunity prevailed on his master to take him to hear the
pleadings. The master, having some acquaintance with the officers who
opened the court, got his young pupil a seat where he could hear the
orators without being seen. Callistratus had great success, and his
abilities were extremely admired. Demosthenes was fired with a spirit
of emulation. When he saw with what distinction the orator was
conducted home, and complimented by the people, he was struck still
more with the power of that commanding eloquence which could carry
all before it. From this time, therefore, he bade adieu to the other
studies and exercises in which boys are engaged, and applied himself
with great assiduity to declaiming, in hopes of being one day numbered
among the orators. Isaeus was the man he made use of as his preceptor
in eloquence, though Isocrates then taught it; whether it was that the
loss of his father incapacitated him to pay the sum of ten minae, which
was that rhetorician's usual price, or whether he preferred the keen and
subtle manner of Isaeus as more fit for public use.
Hermippus says he met with an account in certain anonymous memoirs
that Demosthenes likewise studied under Plato, and received great
assistance from him in preparing to speak in public. He adds, that
Ctesibius used to say that Demosthenes was privately supplied by
Callias the Syracusan and some others, with the systems of rhetoric
taught by Isocrates and Alcidamus, and made his advantage of them.
When his minority was expired, he called his guardians to account at
law, and wrote orations