Dramatic instinct in these, however, is strong. Southerners are naturally impulsive and impressionable. Southern women have, in their favor, their personal appearance; a brilliancy of manner, which gives them a striking stage-appearance; an innate refinement which makes them responsive to surroundings, and easier to teach on that account; more self-possession than the average Northern or Western woman, and a good deal of determination. We are able to tell Southern dramatic students almost at a glance because they carry with them an impression of power. Accent does not hinder them in their work, for they soon lose all offensive trace of it.'

"It is very gratifying to learn that 'accent does not hinder them in their work.' But does the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts, we wonder, discourage the use of accent by its pupils? Or does the

very flattering secretary mean to insinuate that some particular accent, other than the Southern woman's, is the natural medium of the dramatic arts, and is exclusively patronized by them? The dramatic muse, we trow, cannot surely be accentless, and it would be interesting to know just what accent she is supposed specially to affect; whether the discordant r-r-rolling explosion of Chicago; the nasal, lack-melody twang of Boston, or the half-and-half of New York; or does she, perchance, call it haccent? If the Southern woman 'loses all offensive traces' of accent, while she is being trained for the stage, she certainly has the advantage in that respect of her Northern sisters. The article in so far as it represents the institutions and teachers of the South, is necessarily very incomplete, but it will nevertheless prove of interest to a large class of readers."

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HE most successful feature of the meet

ing of the N. Y. S. T. A., at Thousand Island Park, in July, was the work of the section on Reading and Oral Expression. Other sections for special work were held in small tents, but, owing to the enterprise of the president of the section, Prof. R. E. Mayne, its meeting was held in the auditorium, the principal gathering-place of the convention.

President Mayne opened with an eloquent address on elocutionary matters, followed by Miss Caroline B. LeRow, who stated briefly, as published in WERNER'S MAGAZINE for August, the objects of the section. She was followed by Mr. George Griffith, superintendent of schools, Utica, and by Dr. John G. Wight, principal of the Girls' High School, Manhattan, both of whom made able addresses. The latter gentleman, in accepting the invitation to speak, wrote to the President: "I would gladly, if I knew how, promote oral reading in the High School, even going to the unpopular extent of calling it'elocution.' To foster a high standard of daily speech in the school and in the home comes pretty close to the promotion of good morals."

State Superintendent Charles R. Skinner expressed the warmest interest in the meeting, regretting his inability to be present. The meeting gave such satisfaction that

many teachers, notably those from Buffalo and Rochester, requested that another meeting be held. This was done on the following day, the meeting being attended by a larger audience than was the first one. After conferring with many teachers, it was deemed desirable that the gathering should be free and informal. This plan was followed, Miss LeRow being asked many questions, the answering of which her life-long experience in the work and her connection for nearly twenty years with the largest high school in the world made her thoroughly competent.

The occasion, while enjoyable and profitable, was in a certain sense a pathetic one also, for a majority of the questions formed the saddest sort of revelation of the elocutionary difficulties with which most teachers are struggling, and their utter inability to cope with them. These confessions of perplexity and ignorance fully proved the truth of the words which Miss LeRow had the day before uttered with so much emphasis: "Reading is one of the fine arts, and should be recognized as such. Because reading is a fine art, the average teacher should no more be required to teach reading than she should music or drawing without some special training, the need of which has been for years conceded in both these branches, and later in sewing and cooking."

Principal W. C. Hess, of Manhattan, took prominent part in the discussion, and contributed largely to its interest, propounding and answering many vital questions.

The result of this second meeting was the following resolution, unanimously and enthusiastically passed and forwarded to State Superintendent Skinner the same day:

"Resolved, that the Section on Reading and Oral Expression in the Public Schools shall, and hereby do, request, as a Section of the New York State Teachers' Association, that in his next annual report the State Superintendent shall request that this subject receive greater attention in all Normal and Training Schools."

Acknowledgment of this communication was promptly made.

If teachers' conventions are, as a rule, what they have been flippantly denominated, merely travel and talk, elections and excursions, and impossible programs," there was surely an exception to the rule in the work of this particular section on reading. If there is, as is usually supposed, any satisfaction in having "the last word," that Section enjoyed it to the full.

Too much credit can not be given to

President Mayne, one of the most devoted and unselfish of all the workers in the elocutionary field, who unceasingly, without money and without price, in season and out of season, in sickness and in health-for during the past winter he has worked under great physical disability-has left nothing unthought of or undone to bring about this practical result. Mr. John T. Nicholson, president of the Association, has also been actively interested in this work, and not long ago remarked to Prof. Mayne: "Your Section, although but three years old and the youngest in the Association, has become the most important of all, though some of them have been organized for forty years."

The National Association of Elocutionists may profitably consider the attention which this work has attracted in the Teachers' Association of the Empire State, and in some practical way utilize the fact for its own interest and advancement. Teachers of elocution throughout the country can easily organize similar sections in their respective States, and can not fail to be finan-· cially benefited by such a creation of interest.

Editor Werner's Magazine:

In the July issue of your magazine, page 443, Prof. S. H. Clark says: "Do what we will, and say what we will, we have no estape from the word

Elocution,' and since this is the case we must redeem the term. Who will have the courage to begin? The greater the reader the more he can do for us; the higher the rank of the school the farther will reach the influence of this new departure." The italics are mine.

New departure! Would the using of the word "elocution" be something new? Has Prof. Clark forgotten that for the last eight years we have had an organization called the National Association of Elocutionists? Has he forgotten the discussion that resulted in the word elocutionists being used in the name chosen for the association? Has he forgotten my suggestion that those elocutionists who objected to the word "elocution" would do well to choose some other vocation?

If I may venture to speak of myself, I will say that never once have I employed any one of the terms that the weaklings are wont to employ in order to avoid using

the word "elocution." To me, the using of the term "expression" as a substituteit is not a synonym-for "elocution" is most offensive; while, to my thinking, the using of the word "diction"-which the weaklings adopt from the French-in a like sense is simply nauseating. What a pity that there is no way we can reach these moral poltroons! But virility gone, neither physic nor surgery avails! The truth is we are never quite sure what is intended when either "expression" or "diction" is used as a substitute for "elocution." We hear of Schools of Expression and of Departments of Diction, but what these schools and these departments teach it is not easy to find out; what, however, they do not teach one finds out easily enough, if one has an opportunity to hear some of their pupils read.

As evidence, as far as it goes, that I have always employed the word "elocution" without stint, I would cite the circumstance that in 1886 I published a little book entitled, "The Essentials of Elocution," and, further, that in the same year I published an essay headed, "What is Elocution?" in which I used the word "elo

cution" some thirty times; that in 1894, I published a book, the sub-title of which is "Elocution and Elocutionists;" and, finally, that in the essays I have from time to time written on the art of delivery, I have never once failed to use the word "elocution" when it was the proper word to use. One of these books and some of these essays I have reason to believe Prof. Clark has seen, which naturally makes it seem rather strange to me that he should intimate that existing conditions would justify us in chronicling the habitual employing of the term "elocution" by any one now as a departure at once new and courageous.

"We must redeem the term,” says Prof. Clark, "because," he insists, "elocution is the only term that aptly characterizes the work of the leading schools and private teachers." Now how the term can be redeemed simply by using it is something I fail to see. It would seem to me that a better way-because a surer way to redeem the term would be to make the elocution of the schools, teachers and readers elocution, which, sometimes at the least, it certainly is not. The term has been brought into disrepute -who will question it?-by using it to characterize something that often was not elocution, since delivery to be elocution must be good delivery. Bad delivery is no more elocution than bad handwriting is caligraphy. Of elocution there is, there has been, and there always will be very little, for the reason that elocution is an art so difficult that there are but few that under any conditions could achieve proficiency in it. Its difficulties, its subtleties are not even dreamed of by the majority of those that honestly endeavor to master the art, hence they that undertake to redeem the term elocution" have a colossal job on their hands. Simply using the term won't do the business.

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And you, Mr. Editor, you who knew the facts-how came it that you allowed what would tend greatly to mislead the future historian of elocutionary art in the new world to find its way into the pages of your magazine? Guiltless in this matter, sir, surely you are not. The readers of your magazine, I am confident, will be interested to hear what you and Prof. Clark have to say for yourselves. Especially interested will be ALFRED AYRES. New York.

S. H. CLARK'S REJOINDER. Editor Werner's Magazine:

On several occasions I have embraced the opportunity of stating publicly my high appreciation of the work of Mr. Ayres, and I should not at this time enter into what may seem to be a controversy were it not that the above contribution may be misleading to the casual reader, and leave the impression that Mr. Ayres and I have a quarrel, when, as a matter of fact, if Mr.

Ayres had taken the spirit of my July article instead of the letter, it would have been seen that there is little real difference between us.

Mr. Ayres will excuse me when I say that I know more of the doings of public readers and teachers of elocution than he does; and of such knowledge I say that, in spite of our resolution eight years ago, to call ourselves" elocutionists," few or no public readers announce themselves on their circulars as elocutionists, and a school of elocution is as rare as an elocutionist. I am willing to admit that Mr. Ayres has made a stanch fight for the use of the term elocution, but, sir, one swallow doesn't make a summer! I will go further and admit the term is not new, when we consider the word in its true sense, but it would be a renewal, if that is a better way of putting it, if the profession should discard the various makeshifts-not synonyms, as Mr. Ayres truly puts it-and come out boldly for elocution. For, with the exception of Alfred Ayres and a very few others, there are no clocutionists, nor teachers of elocution.

I

My critic is very blind in interpreting my remark about redeeming the term. gave Mr. Ayres credit for greater perspicuity than to believe that I would imply that the mere use of the term elocution would make of us good readers. What I meant was quite clear: We must read so well, and call ourselves elocutionists at the same time, that elocution shall be synonymous with true and artistic interpretation. And, further, my appeal implied that those who taught true elocution should use that term to describe their work. I trust this is clear now to Mr. Ayres, although why it should not have been so before I

can not see.

I am glad that my words have brought out this article from Mr. Ayres, for, as a result, we shall perhaps call more attention to a vital subject than might have been given to words of mine; but Mr. Ayres must understand that the faults he finds with my article are the result of his own narrowness of interpretation and ignorance of the status of elocution in this country.

Sincerely do I hope that the future historian may not be misled by my words; that he may know that the editor of this magazine has a worthy mentor who will see to it that in the dark closing days of the nineteenth century there was at least One Elocutionist who had the courage to be known as such, and who perhaps may be known as The Elocutionist. S. H. CLARK.

T

HE announcement of the sudden death of Austin H. Merrill brings a shock of deepest pain. It was known that his absence from the St. Louis convention of elocutionists was caused by ill health, but none seemed to apprehend that his condition was at all serious, so that when the news of his death came upon us we were all unprepared, and the suddenness of it makes the sorrow harder to bear.

In the death of Prof. Merrill the profession has suffered a loss that can not be estimated. He was easily the most artistic reader in the South, and in his particular sphere had no superior anywhere. Always delicate, suggestive, and artistic, he never overstepped the bounds of modesty. spirit of the man manifested itself in all that he did, and consequently wherever he read he left behind an impression the result of which was a boon to all the profession.

The

In his class-room he wielded an even more potent influence than on the platform, for he held the highest ideals before his students, and, still better, knew and appreciated what is meant by high ideals. He urged on his students at the university to constant and conscientious effort,

D

laying stress continually on honesty of speech and manner, teaching them to discriminate between the true and the false, and insisting ceaselessly upon the duty of readers to present only such literature as might receive the sanction of people of culture. A large part of the South has, through his pupils, been affected by his teaching, and the art has lost an able exponent everywhere.

But it is as a man that we shall miss our friend most. His tenderness and kindliness of spirit, his frankness and geniality, his courtliness and amiability, made him in every sense of the word a man-ay, a gentleman he was, and to know him as I did was to make one more hopeful, trustful, and optimistic.

Our hearts go out to his wife and children in their affliction. In the hour of our blackest grief the sympathy of friends is our only consolation, small even though that may be. But as time passes there will be some alleviation in the knowledge of the fact that dear Merrill's life was well lived, and that his artistic influence has gone into the work he loved so well and so highly honored. S. H. CLARK.

"How long have you been at Vanderbilt University, and how long has the chair of elocution and oratory been established?"

"The chair was established the second year after I entered. That is, it has been established since 1888."

"What first led you to take up the reader's profession?"

"Just after leaving college I began the study of expression with a view to adopt it as a profession. My natural fondness for interpretative work had made me successful in contests at college in expression and oratory, and, shortly after that, it was my privilege to hear Prof. Robert L. Cumnock. Then, in the study of literature, the desire to find its vocal interpretation made me take up the subject as a special study with a view to platform-work. The first play I gave was Esmeralda,' inspired by hearing Mr. Leland T. Powers in his rendition of 'David Copperfield.' I then began work on 'Rip Van Winkle,' 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' and the arrangement of short stories by Thomas Nelson Page. In this work I have always looked to the historical value of the productions, because they depict a life that is now a thing of the past, such as plantation life in Virginia. In the drawing of these Mr. Page has been remarkably truthful to the situations, and has not idealized in the least or made any fancy sketches."

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'What college did you attend?"

"I attended the Delaware State College, at Newark, Delaware. Then I went to the University of Michigan for a year, and was private instructor there of expression and elocution. That was in 1883; before Thomas C. Trueblood."

"Who were your first teachers?"

“Mr. R. O. Moon, of the National School of Elocution and Oratory, was the man who made me more appreciative of vocal interpretation than any one else at that time. I went from the University of Michigan to Western Maryland College, and was there for two years as teacher of expression; and from there I went to Vanderbilt University in 1886, where I have been ever since. It has only been for the past two or three years that I have been making regular trips for platform-work.

Last year I

was at the Brooklyn Institute. Then I made a trip through Texas, filling eighteen dates there."

"We have an idea that the Southwest, especially Texas, is a good field for this work. Is this so?"

"Yes. I had eighteen consecutive dates in Texas, in the principal institutions, such as the State University, etc., and found everywhere a keen appreciation of interpretative work."

"Have you formed any opinion as to the relative worth of the so-called Rush and Delsarte systems?"

"I think there is a great deal of misconception of true Delsarte work. In my judgment, it is a basis of true artistic work, and yet, I believe, the profession and the public at large have received a great deal of socalled Delsarte that has been artificial and uninspired by the fundamental principles of the work. In the South we have to accept everything as Delsarte that is affected and full of mannerism, showing a failure on the part of the student to comprehend the real principles of the work. I have always regarded the Rush work as excellent for affording opportunities for technical drill. I have never looked into that from Murdoch's standpoint, but I have seen a great deal that is mechanical in the Rush work. In other words, the trouble arises from the failure to go behind mere incidentals into the fundamental principles or inspiration of true interpretation."

"What would you advise by way of preparation for the career of a reader?"

"My first advice to a person who aspires to a platform career is to do careful work in the study of English literature. I do not believe that artistic interpretation is simply a desire to go into expression.' There must be an intellectual basis as well as an artistic impulse. The student must prepare himself to know what is good in literature and what is good in art, in order to meet the demands of the platform. The public of to-day want higher literary interpretation. They want to feel that the reader has a grasp of his theme, and is not seeking certain spectacular efforts, either through voice or gesture. I would talk with the young aspirant carefully to find out his reasons for his choice. I would see what ability he had in the way of interpretation, and if he showed an inability to grasp the situation in a way that would lead to permanent and true success I should never hesitate, I have never hesitated, to prevent that man then and there from spending any money, or giving any time, to the profession of reader. I have had the honor and pleasure of saving the public from a number of such cases as these. I have never allowed a student to continue to work with me, or to take lessons, when he had proven to me his inability to make it a success."

"Do you not think that the work of reader is encroaching upon the work of actor?" "Yes. I think that the reader of to-day