The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-05-30
The Art of Leaving.

The Art Of Leaving.
1t is Disraeli, who, in " Lothair," puts
into the mouth of Theodore the senti-
ment that no one should ever say good
bye, but in departing should fade away
like summer cloud. We have often
been constrained to wonder whether the
Earl of Beaconsfield wrote this after an
interview with friend who understood
not the art of leaving. For in the mar
rowest and choicest circle of friends
and acquaintances there are usually
some persons whose visits or calls,
whether of business or of pleasure, are
marred by the fact that they do not seem
to know how to go. @
Schiller wrote to Goethe concerning
the visit of Madame de Stael to the Court
of Weimar, " She ought to know when
it is time to go;" and from what we can
learn of that good lady's departure we
infer that ut the time of her going she
still further bored the great poets by her
tedious farewells. For when a friend
departs we are either glad, sorry or in
different. If we are glad, we desire to
be brief; If we are sorry, the quicker
the painful scene is ended the better; If
we are Indifferent, we grudge the draft
upon our time if we are busy, as the
most of us are, with the pressing affairs
of life.
The art of leaving is less understood
by women than by men. The habits of
business, the recognized fact that to q
business man time is money, the throng
and press and exactness of business life,
all tend to make men the best possible
exemplars of the fine art of leaving, and
leaving at once. A business mans call
is usually model of good manners in
this respect. When he has said what
he has to say, he takes his hat, says
"good evening"" and is out of your
presence without giving any time or
chance for the too often tedious and
embarrassing commonplaces of mutual
invitations to call, which seem to be a
kind of necessary social formula.
In striking contrast to this neat and
skillful method of cutting short an inter-
view is the too common social practice
of visitors who, commencing to leave,
seem temporarily to abandon the pur-
pose and then follow it up by number
of unsuccessful attempts to accomplish
their intention; as though it were kind
of compliment to the person visited to
appear 10th to part company. Who
can not at once recall the visitor who
starts, then thinks of something else to
say rises, and thinks of another subject
of conversation; gets nearly to the door
and receives another revelation; reaches
the door, and, most probably, holding it
open, is aroused to degree of mental
brilliancy that threatens his own health
and that of his host by long detaining
both ina cold draft while he discoursesp
What tax on the patience and polite
ness of the listener who vainly strives,
by asserting instantly to every PROPOSE
ton, to end the interview and break the
restraining bond of polite attention.!
Occasionally, indeed, business men
and business hours are robbed of work
and complacency by the advent of the
visitor who fingers. The busy lawyer,
having been made the recipient of the
confidence of his client, not unfrcquent-
ly finds that, business attended to, his
ear is made prisoner by the parting re-
marks, discussions and observations of
his unsophisticated patron. The editor
who has in an unguarded moment &C.
cepted an article from new contribu-
tor may deem himself fortunate, and
Judge the contributor to be possessed of
rare good sense, if his act does not pro-
cure for him a lingering interview.
Clergymen are perhaps the most i'm
posed on of all classes by visitors of this
sort; and few have the courage or the
confidence to inquire of the caller, as
was the custom of a celebrated arch
bishop, "Have you any thing more to
say to me?" and on receiving mega
tive answer to reply, "Well, l have
nothing more to say to you; let US be
about the lords business; good even
ing"
The speaker who ends his address
suddenly, while the interest of his audi
ence is at full, without any "lastly,"
ssfnally," Sin conclusion" or "one
word more," always leaves the best i'm
preston, and the caller or visitor,
whether on business or for pleasure,
departing leaves behind him grateful
sense of relief and good will who under
stands and practices with skill and ex-
pedition the fine art of leaving.-S.
Louis Euening Post.
THE Cullman (Chicago) colony in
North Alabama has just celebrated its
fifth anniversary, and laid the corner
stone of q new courthouse. The Nash
vile American's correspondent says !:
I" The inhabitants of the colony are al
most exclusively German, who have
come here under the auspices of the
North and South Railroad, and are a