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Riis, Jacob A., 1849-1914

"The Making of an American"

But, truly, I lay no claim to eloquence.
So it must have been the facts, again. There is nothing like them.
Whatever it was, it made me smile sometimes in the middle of a
speech to think of the prophecies when I was a schoolboy that "my
tongue would be my undoing" for here it was helping right wrongs
instead. In fact, that was what it had tried to do in the old days
when the teachers were tyrannical. It entered the lists here when
Will Craig, a clerk in the Health Department, with whom I had struck
up a friendship, helped me turn my photographs into magic-lantern
slides by paying the bills, and grew from that, until now my winters
are spent on the lecture platform altogether. I always liked the
work. It tires less than the office routine, and you feel the touch
with your fellows more than when you sit and write your message.
Also, if you wish to learn about a thing, the best way is always
to go and try to teach some one else that thing. I never make a
speech on a subject I am familiar with but that I come away knowing
more about it than I did at the start, though no one else may have
said a word.


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