with the publication of these works and similar ones, elocution gained wider public interest. while training on proper speaking had been an important part of private education for many centuries, the rise in the nineteenth century of a middle class in western countries (and the corresponding rise of public education) led to great interest in the teaching of elocution, and it became a staple of the school curriculum. american students of elocution drew selections from what were popularly deemed "speakers." by the end of the century, several speaker texts circulated throughout the united states, including mcguffey's "new juvenile speaker", the "manual of elocution and reading", the "star speaker", and the popular "delsarte speaker". some of these texts even included pictorial depictions of body movements and gestures to augment written descriptions.