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Excerpt from Reminiscences of J. L Toole, Vol. 1
What a different thing talking is compared with writing! I am on tour when I jot down this profound re�ection. My'dear friend Joseph Hatton has been on my track since we parted in town, a month or two ago, with this one message, by post and telegram You ought to write the Preface, every word of it 1 As it is my own Preface of course I ought, and of course I have done so. But while the writing of it has been a labour of love, it has bothered me a good deal more than a labour of love is supposed to do.
Many times I have admired the skill with which my collaborator has written, in these pages, stories which seemed to me to require, for a complete narration, the point one puts into an anecdote when acting it. I am occasionally called upon to make a speech in public. Well, I get ald'fig now and then pretty well, thanks to the inspiration that seems to come to me from the friendly sympathy of my audience but there is no inspiration in a blank sheet of paper, and there is no applause ~in pens and ink. When one makes a speech one seeks kindly faces around one, and it is wonderful what assistance there is in a little applause. You take up the report of a speech in a newspaper you see that it is peppered with Laughter, Applause, Loud cheers, and so on that sets you reading it, and carries you on to the end. It is very much the same with a speaker he makes his little joke, and there is a laugh, which helps him to his next then he says a nice thing about the occasion, and gets a round of applause that helps him on his road to the climax, when he hopes to finish up, and mostly does - with a burst of enthusiasm. What I am coming to is an emphasis of my original point - the tremendous difference between speaking and writing.
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