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THE

EXHIBITION SPEAKER:

CONTAINING

FARCES, DIALOGUES, AND TABLEAUX,

WITH

EXERCISES FOR DECLAMATION

IN

PROSE AND VERSE.

ALSO, A TREATISE ON ORATORY AND ELOCUTION, HINTS ON DRAMATIC
CHARACTERS, COSTUMES, POSITION ON THE STAGE,
MAKING UP, ETC., ETC.,

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

CAREFULLY COMPILED AND ARRANGED FOR SCHOOL EXHIBITIONS,

BY P. A. FITZGERALD, ESQ.

TO WHICH IS ADDED A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF CALISTHENICS AND GYMNASTICS,
WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PUPILS, ILLUS-

TRATED WITH FIFTY ENGRAVINGS.

NEW YORK:

SHELDON, LAMPORT & BLAKEMAN.

ROCHESTER, D M. DEWEY. PHILADELPHIA, LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO. BOSTON, JOHN P. JEWETT
& CO. BUFFALO PHINNEY & CO. DETROIT, KERR, MORLEY & CO. CLEVELAND, S. KING & CO.
CINCINNATI, APLEGATE & CO. CIRCLEVILLE, A. BEACH & CO. CHICAGO, KEEN & BRO.
ST. LOUIS, E, K, WOODWARD, AND KEITH & WOODS.

1856.

· Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1855,

BY D. M. DEWEY,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Northern District of New York.

STEREOTYPED BY

J. & C. E. FELTON,

BUFFALO.

PREFACE.

THERE have been, during the last quarter of a century, many books printed for the use of schools, academies, and literary associations, containing addresses, dialogues, etc., proper to be spoken on, as they are commonly called, exhibition days, by tyros in oratory, and embryo statesmen, to the edification of strangers, and the delight of relatives and friends, which have been justly popular with those for whose use they were intended, and productive of good equal to the highest expectations of all interested in their adoption and success. Believing, however, that there yet remains room for the introduction of other volumes, devoted to similar purposes, yet differing somewhat from those that have preceded them, in that they contain several entire farces, dramas, etc., easily represented, and capable of furnishing much amusement when produced, the compiler of the present volume offers the result of his labors to the consideration of the public, in the sanguine expectation that a candid judgment will allow him the benefit of that approval, without which all efforts tending to advance the cause of general education must be rendered entirely futile.

To make the rough way smooth, to scatter flowers along and upon the track which, well followed, guides the weary yet hopeful student to the portals of that great temple from whence the light of knowledge shineth ever, is the first duty of all who feel a proper interest in the high and holy cause of popular education that education, without which, Progress must stay her advance, and fall nerveless beneath the blight of Error, the poison of that deadly moral sirocco, Ignorance. The materials of which the compiler has availed himself in furtherance of his design, have long been in the possession of the public; but this fact can not injure their worth, if the selections prove to have been made with judgment. The plan of the volume will, he thinks, commend itself to approbation; of this, however, success must be the sole criterion.

The remarks on Elocution, if well studied, can hardly fail to assist. Accompanying each farce, and some of the other selections, including the tableaux, will be found explanatory remarks. These, as they may tend to assist the student to a proper understanding of the sentiments uttered, the characters represented, will, it is believed, be found worthy of, and receive their due share of attention. The fair hope and honorable ambition to be thought worthy to rank with those whose time and labor have been devoted to the encouragement and development of our native eloquence have urged the compiler to proceed in his undertaking, hopeful that it may be blessed to the benefit of some, who study that they may become worthy citizens; men in intellect, as well as form; men who, while living, will do honor to their country, their kind, and themselves; dying, leave to their children the inheritance of a legacy worth treasuring for aye, in the fame that grows in radiance as the light of time beams brightly over their oft visited, their quiet resting place, beneath the green turf, that on

"The heroes breast lies soft, as though

In reverence for the dust, sepulchred where
Was from all time decreed its final home.”

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