The Placer herald., 1874-06-13
ABOUT TALKING.

with each other, and that the denzens of
the air have a language of their own; but
only human beings can talk 1t is Incredible
that the whistling calls and trilling responses
of two lately introduced canares should be
the n,erchanging of their past histories !;
nor did the most grotesque Imagination ever
conceive that two dogs sitting demurely OPP
posite each other, and loing out their red
tongues, were gossippiug the secrets of their
respective masters. The nestimable privi-
lege of diating upon You're affairs, and
specializing upon your neigbbors S business,
is bestowed only upon human beings. Per-
baps, as the lowest order of taker we
onght to consider frst-the male gossip
This specie is to be found everywhere on
streetcorners; and in small towns its
habitat is beside the stove of flourshing
grocery in Winter, and in Summer it may be
found in a chair tilted back on the "tavern"
piazza, or swinging his legs ON an empty
dry goods box on the main street. From
these commanding points the Male Gossip
surveys the passefs-by, and has some re-
marks apropos Of whatever comes in view.
He knows about the love-matters of every
young lady in town. He knows all the do
mestic secrets of every housewife. He is an
oracle about the affairs of all the men. No
business defalcation, or embezzement, or
failure takes him by surprise. In fact,
nothing in the way of human weakness or
crime seems to astonish or grieve him. His
only sensation appears to be one of triumph
as he nuds his head and calculates, 81 told
you sol'' 6" | knew it all the time" etc.
He knows something detrimental or ridicu-
lous about every one in the town. and moth
ing can so disgust one with himself and bis
fellow beings as an hours eompanonship
with the Male Gossip. Unlike the feminine
gossip, he employs no aids to talking. He
lounges Oh his dry-goods box or in his tilted
chair, or stands with his back to the fence
and his elbows thrust back among the pickets,
and makes no pretcnse to any employment.
The feminine vender Of news has her knitting
in her pocket when she runs into her neigh
boris for a call, or she makes a faint of car
ryng a dish, empty or full, as an excuse fer
five minutes errand. She stays two hours,
sitting on the edge of her chair, or standing
doorknob in hand. 1t Is curious contradic-
ton in women, that, while they lift up their
never done, not one in hundred of them
will sit down with folded hands for "a friendly
chat. Even the young lady who never does
stitch of useful sewing for herself has a
piece of canvass with pnk-eyed dog, or
bouquet geometrically laid off in squares,
upon it, which she produces when she desires
conversational stimulus. How many a
lover has fumed and freted at the "fancy
work" which engaged his companions eyes
and hands, and admired the industry which
utilized even the hours of idle courtship
He had yet to learn that certain kind of
industry is born to idleness.
The best time to pursue the study of char
actcr is while the subject is talking 1t is
true that there are some perfectly-iraned
faces, which, to the unintiated, seem as ex
pressonless as a plaster cast. TO the daily
observer of such face in all its various
changes, however, there is no change more
Ineligible than the very blankness itself,
which comes over it like vail when its
owner approaches some important topic. To
the keen eyes of affection no change on a ia
miliar face can long remain unread. Then,
too, as one grows older, he insensibly begins
to classify people by the facial expressions
and the similarity of their gestures. There
are the men who have their eyebrows raised
ro the mi iddle of their foreheads and whose
conversation never leads to anything dein-
ite; and their lives are full as indefinite as
their talk. Those are the men who, with
the best intentions in the world, never get
along in it. There are the gentle hammered
al, I,,, Eoorl, o.J L,l e l..
ing them down softly and slowly when they
talk. Very pleasant men they are, and very
much liked by the ladies; but they never
make any money, and consequently their
wives, who were so much envied the first
year or two are very much pitied afterwards
Then, there are the men of silent, rock- ike
obstinacy who have little tell-tale muscle
in their jaws, whose unconscious working
betrays them to a close observer. Every
body knows the aggressive men, who shake
their heads defiantly, and nod them deci-
sively, and five minutes common place con-
verse with whom will leave one as uncom-
Portable as a cat with her fur rubbed the
wrong way One enters into converse with
such man very much as he would into a
powder factory.
Considering how much talking is done, it
may be well to think what we talk about
Generally, the speaker chooses topic in
which he himself is interested, regardless of
his listeners tastes. A talented Iady-lec-
turer was heard to complain that, while
fresh from her Europeon travels, she met,
at an evening reception, an eminent Pro-
fessor, who, regardless of the fact that her
spnsterhood would probably debar her from
feeling any deep interest in the subject, pro-
ceeded to favor her with most minute and
prolonged account ofthe passage of his eldest
born through the measles. Who can ever
forget the hours spent in listening to the pro-
lix recitals of some widow or widower, who
was never happy unless boring somebody
with personal "reminiscences of the dear de-
parted? This style of conversation is parlic-