The story
“This is the story of a grocery clerk, who is slowly but surely rising in his profession. The customers liked him and his employer was satisfied. Furthermore, he was in love with a most desirable young woman. Then all was changed, for he decided to become an orator. It would have been bad enough had he been a natural speaker, or even if he had taken lessons at a school of elocution. This young man, however, fell under the spell of a Correspondence School of Oratory. He made speeches everywhere. The result was that his fiancée jilted him, his friends fled from him, and the boss, who had approved of him, fired him. Being out of work, he decided that the best thing to do was to utilize what he finally styled as his ‘heaven born gift’ by becoming an assemblyman. The political party to which he belonged gave a clambake about that time, and the clerk determined to spout eloquence so masterfully that all eyes would be turned upon him. They were, but not in the way that he imagined they would be. He made his speech, or at least started it, then some husky policemen arrived and threw him further than any man had ever been thrown before. His thoughts then turned to love, but when he arrived at his sweetheart’s home he was just in time to hear her accept another suitor, first bidding him never to become an orator. It was a bitter blow to the clerk, but he comforted himself that he still had his silver tongue left, and he still makes speeches on every subject whenever he gets a chance.”
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 1 November 1913
Another synopsis, from Reel Life · 25 October 19131 min
“Did you ever read a hard-luck story which sounded deservedly real? This play, The Silver-Tongued Orator, is one of them. It presents the case of a perfectly good grocery clerk who was giving entire satisfaction to boss and customers alike until the fatal notion struck him that he was a born orator. There are very few born orators—and they’re all licensed—upon the ‘limited output’ basis. So when an amateur butts into the game, he’s hunting trouble with both feet. This particular young man acquired his ‘heaven-born’ oratory through the medium of a correspondence school—which often falls short of the rosy promises contained in the coupon. In order to practice his new profession, he orated upon any and every occasion—in public, and in private. He tried it on his fiancée, with disastrous results. He tried it on the store customers—and drove away trade. He tried it on his boss—and was urged to take a permanent vacation, at his own expense. Not in the least disheartened, he went into politics and started in at a clambake to acquire a reputation as a spellbinder—but a fat policeman checked his flow of oratory so forcibly that when he picked himself up, he was out of wind for a full hour. Walking back to his girl’s house, he was just in time to see her accept another man who had no symptoms of oratory. It is doubtful if the man ever learned that, like ‘Polly,’ he ‘talked too d—d much’—but his various experiences make a roaringly comical play, upon the screen.”
