Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1875-04-01

Al the ne" ~paberS are publishing. in Il
httIr paragraph the large tact that a Ger
tain Baron ia Paris. - rs anonymous, or
irr> by advertisement Ia Civ" lessons In
Conversation. Terms, s. a month. More
OYER. ourbtroniil fri-ul wtll accept invita-
lion. 10 dinnrr-hnited. since tile human
stomach i>-aud at these banQuet> he will
ilsul-h talk a the cook docs the courses.
Better than all, our laxative uObleInln
ht- perfected a cOlloqnal - stem in which
Ii"t> are nrt necessary. lou 90 on chat
fcriu- vnlubly. YOU anu-c, you entertain.
You ruchant you seem To be learned WISE
philosophical, witty. all-~iled; and all the
while you are only delicious driu>lOn and
facinafing fraud. ! a., we know several
persons. more, indeed. than several. who
are All ~ 10 th, mystery. and " h. have
never hid even 81 worth OF instruction
from the Baron or 80 many a. six lessons
from any ma>tcr-iord, OF ,loquacitv aud
lalt", OF rl1narolr who Will talk 10 ynu
by The hour and a half Of things which
YOU understand and which thev do not as
Il they were the enlightened and you were
Ia" i4noramu>. The secret aud il is the
Blron'> i that very little goes To gabble
-Ouly a little techmcality and nolnencla-
ture with few names and dates. and from
>iN To twenty phrases. l. it Of music that
Thalberg. sympathetic and symphony tim
bre. Lucca, and tol-de-rol. OF art: The
Venus de Medici and Miss Iios,ner, the
religion Of Raphael, and majesty of
Michael Angelo-it will be great hit
and will bother the other side if YOU cell
tins la,t-named parsonage Buonarotri and
mention his admiration for the gate Of
Ghiberti or science? Cosmo.ony. Tyn-
dali, Hugh Miller, and the Old Red Sand
stone. OF the dramaS Billy Shakespeare,
/ Dion Boucicault, Joseph Jefferson. Char
| lote Cushman. And so on and so on ,
All topics are trivial and easy 10 the mas
| ter uf his resources. As for the resources
Themselves. are they not upon every book
| shelf-dictionaries. encyclopedias COM
| pend utns, manuals-One universal swash
! OF all he elements?
/ The secret of great talker is n his
/ courage and presence of mind. The God
OF gabble helps those who help them
1 selves to our ears and time. o tongue
| tied friend, what fool you are, with your
s'ammcring and your rush of blood to the
/ cheeks, your mistimed modesty and mis-
cradle struggles to be accurate Shall
we tell you little anecdote? The scene
| IS a library. The subject is an edition OF
| the Greek Testament just put out. The in
terlocutors are two gentlemen who have
written for newspapers until they have tor
gotten all their Greek, and another gentle
man just from Oxford and dreadfully fresh
in his Alpha-Beta- Gamma. He at once
points out an error in the teXt-a wrong
particle and not OF the least consequence,
so far as the salvation of the world is con-
cerned. lie wakes indignant at the GRIM
inal carelessness OF proof-readers. The
two also wakes indignant. Good
heavens they cry, 'what are we CON-
ing to?" So the Oxford man goes away
with great respect fer their exegetical
powers, and then-they look into each
others faces and laugh. awful care
lessness'' they say as they smoke over ii
baskerville would never have 10 ade "a
typo like that" aud then they smoke and
laugh again. There is nothing like as
suming erudition. though you have it
not. Besides, it is usually safe, especially
IN this country. to take the ignorance ol
the other party for granted, unless you
happen to know your man too well to try
it on. 1fyOu are a fool, you will some
times get caught; but, being a fool. you
will not feel it. Accurate knowledge OF
anything is the rarest acquisition Of this
! superficial time Don't be scared.
When we are excessively dignided and