Le Baron wrote:Despite the terrible background noise, I caught all but one word of the William McKinley video. His economics trails far behind Lincoln's very modern grasp. Here's what I got from it:My fellow citizens...recent events have imposed upon the patriotic people of this country a responsibility (word inaudible) greater than that of any since the civil war. Then it was a struggle to preserve the government of the United States, now it is a struggle to preserve the financial honour of the government. Our creed embraces an honest seller, an untarnished national credit and it puts revenues for the uses of the government; protection to labour and industry; preservation of the home market and reciprocity which will extend our foreign markets. Upon this platform we stand and submit each declaration to the sober and considerate judgement of the American people.
Apparently this is not McKinley at all, but a recreation recording made by another speaker in a studio in 1901. Yet it's still in the library of Congress as McKinley.
I'm extremely impressed. Just to be clear: yes, the main problem is the background noise, not the accent or anything like that. On the other hand, I'm not surprised to hear you had no problems with the Scottish one: if you've had a lot of exposure to Scottish English (and of course, many Brits have), then that one should be easy. For people who lack such experience, though...
Oh, and good catch about it not actually being McKinley! Was that in the YouTube comments? Apparently, the Serbian one I linked to also wasn't original, and was actually performed by some actor (or so claim some people in the YouTube comments). It makes sense: it probably wasn't feasible (technologically) to make such recordings outside of studio settings back in those days.