Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Sound, Machinery, Amusement, Human Development

    Considers the advantages of producing after-dinner speeches by machinery, an idea that would involve using a machine-operated wax figure dressed as the chairman, who could 'mumble what might pass for a good sample of after-dinner oratory'. Suggests that famous after-dinner speakers 'go about' with mechanical replicas of themselves which might be offered for hire.