Читать книгу The New Democracy: A handbook for Democratic speakers and workers - Walter Vrooman - Страница 13

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Very often a little coterie of enthusiasts will think that with the aid of a few handbills they can get a great crowd of their stupefied, over-worked and discouraged fellow beings to give up their other engagements and walk to some out-of-the-way place or corner of the town to listen to their speaker. Our friendly promoters do not know that to the eye of the multitude the bills suggest only an uninteresting harangue or the visionary proclamations of a dreamer that in no way concern them. The result is that very often instead of a thousand greeting the speaker, all eager for information and ready for a change of heart, as anticipated, there are a dozen or so already familiar with his teachings and sharing his opinion on all important subjects and half as many idle curiosity seekers without influence in the community. The speaker is discouraged and the ardent reformers are chilled to the bone and despairingly admit to each other that the citizens of their particular community are more perverse and hardened against new ideas and reforms than the residents of any other locality under the sun.

If, instead of the preparation for an out-of-the-way meeting and the laborious provision of seats for people who never came, a few circulars announcing the meeting and containing two or three gems of thought had been distributed and the speaker had mounted a wagon or box in the center of town as heretofore suggested, the meeting would probably have been a success.

Except on occasions of great excitement, when men are drawn together by some celebrated orator, or on holidays, when they expect, under any circumstances, to leave their homes and work and betake themselves with their families to the woods and fields, it is important to hold outdoor meetings where an audience can be gathered largely from passersby.