A speaker at a dinner of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, in which membership is awarded for rank in cultural as contrasted with practical, technical studies, seized upon the chance to deliver a rather long, quite detailed legal explanation of the parole system for convicted offenders against laws.  At a dinner given by the Pennsylvania Society in a state far from their original homes the members were praised to the skies for preserving the love of their native state and marking their identity in a district so distant and different.  This was quite appropriate for an introduction but the speaker then turned abruptly to one of his political speeches and berated the foreigner in America for not becoming at once an entirely made-over citizen.  The speech contradicted its own sentiments.  A wrong emphasis was placed upon its material.  A disquieting impression was made upon the Pennsylvanians.  At the conclusion they felt that they were guilty for having kept the love of their native soil; according to the tone of the speaker they should have accepted their new residence and wiped out all traces of any early ties.

An after-dinner speaker should remember that dinners are usually marks of sociability, goodfellowship, congratulation, celebration, commemoration.  Speeches should answer to such motives.  The apt illustration, the clever twist, the really good story or anecdote, the surprise ending, all have their places here, if they are used with grace, good humor, and tact.  This does not preclude elements of information and seriousness, but such matters should be introduced skilfully, discussed sparingly, enforced pointedly.

The Commemorative Speech.  Besides dinners, other gatherings may require commemorative addresses.  These speeches are longer, more formal.  The success of a debating team, the successful season of an athletic organization, the termination of a civic project, the election of a candidate, the celebration of an historic event, the tribute to a great man, suggest the kinds of occasions in which commemorative addresses should be made.

Chosen with more care than the after-dinner speaker, the person on such an occasion has larger themes with which to deal, a longer time for their development, and an audience more surely attuned to sympathetic reception.  He has more time for preparation also.  In minor circumstances, such as the first three or four enumerated in the preceding paragraph, the note is usually congratulation for victory.  Except in tone and length these speeches are not very different from after-dinner remarks.  But when the occasion is more dignified, the circumstances more significant, addresses take on a different aspect.  They become more soberly judicial, more temperately laudatory, more feelingly impressive.  At such times public speaking approaches most closely to the old-fashioned idea of oratory, now so rapidly passing away, in its attempt to impress upon the audience the greatness of the occasion in which it is participating.  The laying of a corner-stone, the completion of a monument or building, a national holiday, the birthday of a great man, the date of an epoch-marking event, bring forth eulogistic tributes like Webster’s speech at Bunker Hill, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Secretary Lane’s Flag Day speech.