Composition-Rhetoric Part 2

Would the preceding incident be interesting if we were told at the beginning that the boy and the Indian had encamped near a hatching place of turtles?

2. Not every story that reads like fiction is fact, but the _Brooklyn Eagle_ a.s.sures its readers that the one here quoted is quite true. The man who told it was for many years an officer of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company in Illinois, and had annual pa.s.ses over all the important railroads in the country. His duties took him to Springfield, the state capital, and as he generally went by the Chicago, Alton & St.

Louis road, the conductors on that line knew him so well that they never asked to see his pa.s.s.

"One day I received a telegram summoning me to meet one of the officers of my company at Aurora the next morning. I had only a short time to catch my train to Chicago, and in my haste left my pa.s.sbook behind. I did not find this out until I reached Chicago, and was about to take the last train for Aurora that night. Then I saw that the conductor, a man brought over from the Iowa division, was a stranger, and the fact that I would need my pa.s.s reminded me that I did not have it.

"I told the conductor the situation, but he said he could not carry me on my mere representation that I had a pa.s.s.

"Why, man," said I, "I am an officer of the company, going to Aurora on company business, and this is the last train that will get me there in time. You must take me."

"He was polite, but firm. He said he was a new man on this division, and could not afford to make any mistakes.

"When I saw that he was determined, I rushed off to the telegraph office; but it was too late to catch anybody authorized to issue pa.s.ses, so I settled it in my mind that I must go by carriage, and the prospect of an all-night ride over bad roads through the dark was anything but inviting.

Indeed, it was so forbidding that I resolved to make one more appeal to the conductor.

"You simply must take me to Aurora!" I said, with intense earnestness.

"I can't do it," he answered. "But I believe you are what you represent yourself to be, and I will lend you the money personally. It is only one dollar and twelve cents."

"Well, sir, you could have knocked me down with the flat side of a palm-leaf fan. I had more than two thousand dollars in currency in my pocket, but it had never for an instant occurred to me that I could pay my fare and ride on that train. I showed the conductor a wad of money that made his eyes stick out.

"I thought it was funny," said he, "that a man in your position couldn't raise one dollar and twelve cents. It was that that made me believe you were playing a trick to see if I would violate the rule."

"The simple truth was, I had ridden everywhere on pa.s.ses so many years, that it did not occur to me that I could ride in any other way."

+Oral Composition III.+[Footnote: Oral compositions should be continued throughout the course. A few minutes may be profitably used once or twice each week in having each member of the cla.s.s stand before the cla.s.s and relate briefly some incident which he has witnessed since the last meeting of the cla.s.s. Exercises like those on page 53 also will furnish opportunities for oral work.]--_Relate to the cla.s.s some personal incident suggested by one of the following subjects_:--

1. A day with my cousin.

2. Caught in the act.

3. A joke on me.

4. My peculiar mistake.

5. My experience on a farm.

6. My experience in a strange Sunday school.

7. What I saw when I was coming to school.

(In preparation for this exercise, consider the point of your story. What must you tell first in order to enable the hearers to understand the point? Can you say anything that will make them want to know what the point is without really telling them? Can you lead up to it without too long a delay? Can you stop when the point has been made?)

+8. Theme Writing and Correcting.+--Any written exercise, whether long or short, is called a theme throughout this book. Just as one learns to skate by skating, so one learns to write by writing; therefore many themes will be required. Since the clear expression of thought is one of the essential characteristics of every theme, theme correction should be primarily directed to improvement in clearness. The teacher will need to a.s.sist in this correction, but the really valuable part is that which you do for yourself. After you leave school you will need to decide for yourself what is right and what is best, and it is essential that you now learn how to make such decisions.

To aid you in acquiring a habit of self-correction, questions or suggestions follow the directions for writing each theme. In Theme I you are to express clearly to others something that is already clear to you.

+Theme I.+-_Write a short theme on one of the subjects that you have used for an oral composition._

(After writing this theme, read it aloud to yourself. Does it read smoothly? Have you told what actually happened? Have you told it so that the hearers will understand you? Have you said what you meant to say?

Consider the introduction. Has the story a point?)

+9. The Conclusion.+--Since the point of a story marks the climax of interest, it is evident that the conclusion must not be long delayed after the point has been reached. If the story has been well told, the point marks the natural conclusion, and a sentence or two will serve to bring the story to a satisfactory end. If a suitable ending does not suggest itself, it is better to omit the conclusion altogether than to construct a forced or flowery one. Notice the conclusion of the incident of the Civil War related on page 18.

+Theme II.+-_Write a short theme suggested by one of the following subjects:_--

1. A school picnic.

2. A race.

3. The largest fire I have seen.

4. A skating accident.

5. A queer mistake.

6. An experience with a tramp.

(Correct with reference to meaning and clearness. Consider the introduction; the point; the conclusion.)

+10. Observation of Actions.+--Many of our most interesting experiences arise from observing the actions of others. A written description of what we have observed will gain in interest to the reader, if, in addition to telling what was done, we give some indication of the way in which it was done. A list of tools a carpenter uses and the operations he performs during the half hour we watch him, may be dull and uninteresting; but our description may have an added value if it shows his manner of working so that the reader can determine whether the carpenter is an orderly, methodical, and rapid worker or a mere putterer who is careless, haphazard, and slow. Two persons will perform similar actions in very different ways. Our description should be so worded as to show what the differences are.

+Theme III.+--_Write a theme relating actions._

Suggested subjects:-- 1. A mason, blacksmith, painter, or other mechanic at work.

2. How my neighbor mows his lawn.

3. What a man does when his automobile breaks down.

4. Describe the actions of a cat, dog, rabbit, squirrel, or other animal.

5. Watch the push-cart man a half-hour and report what he did.

(Have you told exactly what was done? Can you by the choice of suitable words show more plainly the way in which it was done? Does this theme need to have an introduction? A point? A conclusion?)

+11. Selection of Details.+--You are at present concerned with telling events that actually happen; but this does not mean that you need to include everything that occurs. If you wish to tell a friend about some interesting or exciting incident at a picnic, he will not care to hear everything that took place during the day. He may listen politely to a statement of what train you took and what you had in your lunch basket, but he will be little interested in such details. In order to maintain interest, the point of your story must not be too long delayed. Brevity is desirable, and details that bear little relation to the main point, and that do not prepare the listener to understand and appreciate this point, are better omitted.

+Theme IV.+--_Write about something that you have done. Use any of the following subjects, or one suggested by them:_--

1. My first hunt.

2. Why I was tardy.

3. My first fishing trip.

4. My narrow escape.

5. A runaway.

6. What I did last Sat.u.r.day.

(Read the theme aloud to yourself. Does it read smoothly? Have you said what you meant to say? Have you expressed it clearly? Consider the introduction; the point; the conclusion. Reject unnecessary details.)

+12. Order of Events.+--The order in which events occur will a.s.sist in establishing the order in which to relate them. If you are telling about only one person, you can follow the time order of the events as they actually happened; but if you are telling about two or more persons who were doing different things at the same time, you will need to tell first what one did and then what another did. You must, however, make it clear to the reader that, though you have told one event after the other, they really happened at the same time.

In the selection below notice how the italicized portions indicate the relation in time that the different events bear to one another.