The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-03-31
ABOUT TALKING.
Intelligent Conversation Declared TO be n
Lost Art.

| Intelligent Conversation Declared TO be
"Orestes and 1" have another charm
ing talk in the last Appleton's Journal
| about society this time, and especially
its conversational element. They in
quire into the reason why modern talk i:
mainly dull, frivolous and poor. "Orestes'
holds it to be the result of "half educa
ton, want of noble motives, and the
| decay of enthusiasm" He might have
added, the absence of responsive sympa-
thy and of genuine interest in our fel-
low-beings outside their immediate rela-
tion to self A French woman, with no
| education to speak of, will make herself
an interesting companion simply by the
interest she evidently takes in yourself
the real friendly interest in what you
are saying and doing, in your feelings
and affairs, which she will discuss with
enthusiasm. She will be quick to catch
clues of thought, and will understand
meanings and shades of meaning with
swift and subtle intuition. Such wO.
man makes a pleasant cofVersationalist,
even when uncultivated. When. she
speaks of herself, it is with such naive
frankness and charming grace that her
talk does not seem egotistical.
Orestes" further accounts for the
poverty of modern conversation by the
decay of politeness. Nobody listens
now -a-days; nobody has time, unless it
be those very unusually gifted people
who can be eloquent without Grating, or
witty without hurting anybOdy's feel
ings, or vivacious without being loqua-
ciotis. We may all know a few such
people-but oh! so very few"
Then he rejoices that the day of elO-
quent monolOgue is gone, and thinks
that modern society I" could not stand
Macaulay or even Sydney Smith" He
is perfectly right about Macaulay, but
surely even the money-loving, self
absorbed modern could not find it in
him to be bored by such fine spirit as
Sydney Smiths. Such brilliant percep-
tion, such rapid transition of thought,
such delicious swift, sudden,
spontaneous as a child's laugh-wOuld
surely find appreciation, though as a ma
tion we are destitute of fine sense
of humor, and only comprehend broad
caricature. If we could put more COM
edy into our everyday social intercourse,
we would be vastly more agreeable as
people, and would less often be COM
PEELED to fall back upon little mean gos-
sip, or upon comments on that thread
bare subject, the weather, in order to
save ourselves from yawning silence or
stupid staring into each others faces.
'FOrestes" suggests sameness as an
other reason for the dullness of modern
talk. Instead of conversation being an
orchestra in which all the instruments
take part" it is one-stringed fiddle on
which everybody twangs. L think our
one string is at present '' hard times" A
while back, it was the irrepressble col |
ored individual-his propensity to dodge |
the hoe and glorify his vocation of voter |
and office-holder.
at is an iron age" says Orestes.. 1t !
has few raptures of the stately,
respectful courtesy of old times. 1t is
all Tom, Dick and Harry. 1t is the
fashion to have no feeling-to be dull,
and to the nature unfor-
tunately freighted with some feeling, it
IS an insensible age in which to live, |
think"
In the course of the sprightly, natur-
discussion, "Orestes' y fe I
male interlocutor has her "say" about
the men that women talk about. She
says:
care little for; when woman can talk
about man, you may be sure that her
fancy is perhaps touched, but not her |
heart Women talk, of course, OF the |
abstract man-of the manners, or the |
tone, or the personal appearance, or the
learning, or the wit, of men; but If they |
are particularly interested in any one |
man, of him they never speak"