The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1866-11-17
From tn, Phrspolosissf 5surnslI
Women Who Talk.
By MRs. aEoReR wssHIseT0S vYG1Ys.

ter, they gossip they string together words
and sentences innumerable on the slenderest
possible chain of an idea they rattle and
run on but there Is not one woman in ten
who talks. Not that talking Is one Of the
lost arts we should rather class it among
the arts that have never been found It is
altogether mistaken idea that everybody
knows now to talk Dictionary words and
far-tetched expressions do not make a good
talker. Slrs So and So talks ike book,
Is very common expression; but you may
observe whenever Mrs. So and so enters q
room, a very general edging away-an ex-
preston of apprehension-a disposition to
shrink from her immediate neighberhood
No doubt she talks like a book; but nobody
cares to have book, in human binding, fol-
low them around and persecute them with
unsolicited chapters We ought to have
asylums for people who have such rabid
determination to talk at everybody
But born talkers--hOW few there are
People whose words bring up little Aeetihg
pictures in your mind, whose adJeetives are
always expressive, whose descriptions are
ike clear photographs. whose ready ideas
clothe themselves Ia words just naturally
as birds settle down into their nests, are
they not rare as black swans And Of the
few, four out of six are women
We hear q good deal Of satire about +" wO-
mems gossip Wherein, may we venture
to ask, does it differ from mems gossip il
it any less censurable to talk of the color Of
a horse than the color Of a dress Is Jones
folly In mortgaging his place to buy petro-
leum shares more allowable topic of dis
cussion than Mrs Jones Indifferent house
keeping and rebelIious servants Half the
wOmen's gOssip-we may as we'll be honest
and say two thirds of its only second
hand, gathered from the sublime lips Of their
husbands. +" Women will talk Yes-and
men viii listen, and laugh, and enjoy the
racy malice and highly seasoned comments,
and then, ungrateful wretches turn round
and sneer at "a woman's gossiplp Fair
play, gentlemen, say we. If you don't like
it. why do you expect it every evening with
your slippers and your tea2 Why do you
assume that injured air, and say, Well, l
guess III 90 round to the theatre-its SO
stupid at home !" when the spicy chalice is
not filed for your deleetation2
After all, what wide difference there IS
between gossip and tattle Gossip man
aged by asskilllul tongue Ga woman's of
couFse-nnale gossips are below seorn; ride
Boswell, Walpole, and Jenkins Of the New
York press Is just species of parlor and
kitchen history--a resume of everyday events
When It verges on what Mrs. This said and
Miss That did, and the personal affairs of
the Tother family, it becomes tattle. One
is charming and interesting-the other, mere
spite, measured off into syllables and SEN
tences
The chief difficulty is IN knowing just how
far to 20, and when to stop. Unfortunately
there are no gates or hedges or fences laid
down on the wide expanse over which wo-
mans tongue travels. People who talk merely
for the sake Of talking, can not very well
avoid saying great many foolish things.
We can t talk forever about the weather, and
the mud, and the last lecture and the next
party I'VE become personal almost before we
know it And everybody must be aware
how very difficult it is to turn conversation
out of a personal channel into any other un-
der the sun How terribly aggravating it
is to get people fairly chatting, well out Of
the dangerous shoal of personality, to con
graduate yourself on the successful paviga-
ton OF Scylla and Charybdis and then to
hear some old lady, whose pertinaciGy is a
matter beyond question, say, But to come
back to MIR. a and Miss b. Z"
| Oh, meek Moses patient job we need all
your bright examples to keep as from the
depths Of despair when that old lady speaks
up so distinctly
Then what are we to talk about Why,
| nything-everything Do you ever say to
YOURSELF " What am / tCr think about2 Not
at all; thoughts come dancing through your
mind Ike an April rivulet; you are never at
a loss for unspOken conversation just
think aloud But ] can not find words to
express ali those fancies." That is your own
fault Here are your ready thoughts on one
side; and here on the other is the whole
glorious vocabulary of the English language
You might as well say you can not breathe
with good pair of lungs and plenty of air
We know women who set little traps about
their rooms to catch conversation vases Of
fowers-albums Of Photographic views
the latest Published books-shells, and sea-
MOSES and rurious dried ferns. And they
are almost always successful, too, these skill
fully baited traps
Women who talk may be sabdivided into
any quantity of classes the old ladies who
assert things as If they were reading the
Ten Commandment the women who tell
things by detail, a Ia cookery book recipes
the girls who medel their conversation az
ter the last hero of the last sensation novel
the girls who think it cunning to inter-
sperse their sentences with the slang you
hear at every street corner-the females who
keep you standing on the steps while they
90 into all the particulars Of their family af-
fairs--the women who talk round and round
a subject in concentrict circles until they
fairly make your head swim--in fact we
might 90 on for half a dozen columns IN
stancing the various examples Of the class
female-talkeFl May We not hope for an i'm
prOvement2
II we would only espouse the cause Of
the plaintiff IN the everlasting case Of Con-
Versation UerSus Slander-if we would only
remember that Things, not People, bear dis
cussion best, how much pleasanter would be
the task Of listening to women who talk
/ What IS z8 Old Maid ?-NeveF be afraid
/ Of becoming an old maid, fair reader. An
/ old maid Is far more honorable than heart
/ less wife and single blessedness' is greatly
/ superior, in point of happiness, 70 welded
[ life without love "Fall not in love, dear
/ girls-beware = says the song But We do
not agree with said song on this squestion. On
the contrary, we hold that It is a good thing
to fall IN love or get IN love, if the loved OBJ
/ iect be q worthy one. To fall IN love with
an honorable man Is sproper as It's for an
/ honorable man to fall IN love with n yirtuOus
and amiable y Homan and what could be a
more gratifying spectacle than sight so
pure, so approaching in It's devotion to the
celestial No; fall in love as SOON as you
ike, provided it be with a suitable person.
Fall in love, and then marry but never