Mr. Stevenson's Reading Party [pp. 417-422]

Mr. Stevenson's Reading Party.
MR. STEVENSON'S READING PARTY.
THOMAS STEVENSON and Henry Cornell were taking their usual early morning walk in the Golden Gate Park. The
fog had not yet lifted, nor yet the fog
from Mr. Cornell's brain, which Mr.
Stevenson was trying to clear by earnest
and somewhat disputatious talk. They
were old friends, prosperous business
men of San Francisco, but in early life
they had been teachers in the city of
New York, -born, reared, educated,
and educators in that metropolis. It
need not be a matter of surprise, then,
if their language, even in familiar conversation, was decidedly didactic, dogmatic, prosaic, pedantic, or any other ic
characteristic of teachers in general; and
so the gentle reader (to use the old-fashioned, flattering title), if he dislikes
such talk, and is tired of educational
topics, had better stop reading this at
once.
"Don't tell me!" said Mr. Stevenson.
"Richard Grant White was a scholarly
critic, and he uttered a solemn truth,
more than twenty-five years ago, when
he proclaimed that the art of reading
aloud was a lost art."
"Nonsense!" ejaculated Mr. Cornell "Well, he meant by that, of course,"
answered Mr. Stevenson, "that there was
no general capability of opening books
and reading aloud random passages acceptably at siftht. And don't you remember that Professor Dowden of the
Dublin University wrote an article, last
year, on this subject, in one of the foreign reviews, —the Fortnightly, I think?
I should say that he held the same opinion. And then you must remember
those protests in the New York Tribune, and other papers, from parents
complaining that their children were
neglected in this matter at the schools.
For a while I supposed th.at the multi VoL. XV.-27.
plicity of studies had crowded this one
out. I knew that Greek was nearly banished from University curricula, and
that Latin would share the same fate,
but that we can't understand our English without it -"
"Stop, rny dear friend, you're all
wrong," exclaimed Mr. Cornell; "why,
the whole country rings with declamations; look in the daily papers, and see
the notices of the doings of literary societies. The boys are just as fond as
ever of recitations, the girls are taking
to Delsarte, elocution is a household
word, the elocutionist is abroad in the
land."
"0 yes, he's abroad - in fact, I think
he's all abroad," said Mr. Stevenson.
"And that's one cause of the neglect.
He's either under-teaching or overteaching or mis-teaching; you can take
your choice. Of course, I know that
there are very many good teachers, and
many good readers among their pupils;
and nobody enjoys the recitations, generally, more than I do, and I fairly delight in any evidence of talent of this
sort, and in any real appreciation of good
literature it demonstrates; but why
don't all the teachers insist that the
pupils should have a clear knowlege of
the meaning of that troublesome word
elocution. Why not show them that the
very derivation (loquor, to speak,) is
proof that the most important branch is
every day speech; and that the next,
because of the multiplicity of books, is
reading aloud; and last of all, public
or platform performance. No, they reverse all this; and the aim of the young
miss or the young gentleman is, not to
talk well, nor to read well, but to declaim
well. Why don't they show them," he
continued, getting warmer and warmer,
"that the more distinct and well modu
1890.]
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