One wonders when the self-tuition craze will really come to an end. A glance through the ordinary periodical shows by advertisement that the piano, dancing, motor engineering and a hundred and one other subjects can be taught by correspondence. But it was a home paper which had the courage to publish an advertisement offering for study a home course on public speaking. This is by no means new, for, if we remember aright Demosthenes was the first exponent of the art of acquiring self-taught oratory. It was a cruel process. For days he wandered along the sea shore and hurled rolling periods at the waves, who, although they could not answer back, were occasionally known to become very angry. Others have been known to indulge in similar practices and besides the self-made man we now have the self-taught orator. Public speaking taught at home has in it the elements of cruelty as the picture of an earnest student practise ing the art on his long-suffering relatives would suggest. If the vendors of such a course would fit the student with something akin to the silencer of a motor-car, they would add greatly to the popularity of the system amongst those who, while they are not taking the course, have its effects thrust upon them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.