Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1872-03-09
Americans as Takers.

Mr.. Charles Dudley Warner, in his
"Back Log Studies," in the February
number Of .Scribner's Monthiy, pie asan,.
ly saws:
"Do we talk as well as our fathers and
mothers did We hear wonderful sto-
ries of the bright generations that sat
about the wide tire-places Of New Eng
land. Good talk is so much short hand
that it cannot he reported the intlec-
lion, the change of the voice, the shrug,
caunot be caught OIL paper. The best oi
it is when the subject unexpectedly goes
cross lots, 10y flashes OF shortcut, 10 a
conclusion 50 suddenly revealed that il
est culture and the finest breeding TO
prevent the conversation from running
INTO mere pcrshage Oh the Que hand
its common tate-Or monologue on the
other. Our conversation is largely claff.
| am not sure but the former generation
preached good deal, bu: had great
practice in hre-side talk, and must ha, e
talked well. There were narrators in
those days who could charm circle all
the evening long with stories. When
each day brought comparatively little
new TO read, there was leisure Tor talk,
and the rare book and the intrequent
magazine were thoroughly discussed.
Families are now swamped by the print
ed matter that comes daily upon the cen
ter-table. There must bc division Of
labor, one readiIg this, and another that
TO make an impression OIL it, The tele.
graph brings the only common food, and
works tins miracle daily, that every
mind in Christendom is excited by one
topic simultaneously with every Other
nnd; it enables Il concurrent mental nc.
llon, Il burst OF sympathy or universal
prayer to be made, which must be, if we
nave any faith in the immateral left,
one of the chief forces in modern life.
1t is fit that an agent 80 subtle as elec-
tricity should be The minister of it.
When there is SO much to read, there
is little time tor conversation, nor il
there leisure for another pastime of the
ancient tiresides, called reading aloud
The listeners, who heard while they
looked into the wide chimney places
saw there pass III stately procession the
events and the grand persons OF history
were kindled by the delights of travel
touched by the romance OF true love, OF
made restless by the tales Of adventure
the hearth becoming sort of magic
stone, that could transport those who sa
By il TO the most distant places anC
times, as soon as the book was opened
and the reader began of winter
night. ~,
The newspaper is probably
responsible for making current man,
words with which the general reader il
unfamiliar, but which he rises to in tb'
flow OF conversation, and strikes at will
a splash, and an unsuccessful attempt a
appropriation the word which he per
tectly knows, hooks him in the gills, anC
he cannot master it. The newspaper il
thus widening the language in use, and
vastly increasing the number OF word
which enter into common talk. Th'
Americana of the lowest intellectual
class probably use more words to express
their ideas than the similar class of AM
other people; but this prodigality ii
partially balanced by the parsilnony o
words in some higher regions, in which
few phrases of current slang are mad'
TO do the whole duty of exchange o
ideas-it that can be called exchange o
ideas when one intellect flashes forth L
another the remark concerning some re
port, that "you know how it is yourself,
and is met with the response Of "thati
what's the NATTER" and rejoins with tn,
perfectly conclusive "that's So" It re
quires high degree of culture TO Us,
slang with elegance and effect, and W,
are yet very far from the Greek attain
| mani