The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1880-11-20
A TALK ABOUT TALKING
AMERICANS AS CONVERSATION
ALISTS.
Conversation as Means and an Effect Of
Culture-Its Neglect in the Old
World and the New.

World and the New.
If, according to old beliefs. the fairies
still bestowed gifts upon children at their
birth, \ parent could ask few better
things for his offspring than the power
Of conversation, since, like oratory, this
is not one power alone, but sum total
If powers, and brings to its possessor
| unceasing pleasure and triumphs. 1t con-
| rrols the minds of men and wins the
| hearts of women: it insures friends and
turns strangers into acquaintance: it is
| the open sesame to all grades of social life
| the guarantee of success in all diploma
cies; and if it fails to bring fortune, it is
in itself. to philosophic mind. one of
the amplest of compensations.
For want of this power how many no.
BILE natures have been misunderstood:
how many great thinkers have been I'M
derrated: how many deserving schemes
have come to nought. In its perfection
it is almost as rare as oratory, and for
some centuries at least history has de-
| lighted to preserve the traditions of the
| few men and women whose converse
tional powers brought them to the front
rank. Yet even among these there is no
instance in which it was an inspiration
a mere triumph of genius. Those who
are most generously endowed in this di-
| lection receive from nature nothing more
than the power to become good convers-
ers. Culture and experience must do
the rest. This is perhaps why we are
disposed to rate fine conversation so high
ly. 1t costs much. and proves much. 1t
is no less the product of talent than of
time and industry, and differs from SIM
pie gift of CAB as gold differs from
mica.
No period has ever presented such ma
terial for conversation or such real neces-
>ity for its cultivation as the present.
And yet it has fallen so thoroughly into
disuse that we might almost call it a lost
art. The Europe of to-day, c. g., is eau
tious and retcent. Its active life, its life
of acquisition, is terribly earnest, whilst
as to its amusements, if their sole mo-
tive were the suppression of talk, they
could scarcely be better contrived. From
| st. Petersburg to Lisbon society likes to
| laugh, to behold and to listen-to any
sounds but the public expression of opin-
ION. 1t is more than century since the
| palmy days of conversation in France
and England. They waned as the adj
| vancing shadows of the Great Revolu-
ton fell over them. We could give many
examples to show that conversation has
most tlourished in separate nations when
they were tranquil in real Or supposed
power and safety. Social security de
ponds upon political security. To-day
there is not a secure nation in Europe.
| What, with nihilsts. socialists. Jesuits
| legitimists, and republicans, with confer
ences, secret treaties and rumors of
treachery, the Continent suffers from
perpetual nightmare. To have opinions
is dangerous; therefore men speak sub
rosa and in whispers. 1t would seem
| that national conversation is one of the
great side issues of politics.
This incubus Of political peril does not
rest upon US to restrain our freedom of
| speech. Since the war of 1912 we have
had little anxiety about our independ-
ence. Our isolation from strong nations
and our growing power gives us to-day
| tranquility which all Europe envies.
| Nor are we afraid of ourselves. We
may speak at will about any public man
or public question, needless of spies, de-
| tectives or arrest. And yet we are not
conversational nation. Some of the most
| cultivated F. F. VS. and few Of the
charmed but limited circles of New Eng
| land are the only classes of Americans
who have earned reputation for ele-
CANT conversation The West and the
| wide South have given us romance and
| humor: but border stories, though enter
| tanning, are only a limited part of con-
versation, if, indeed, they can be called
| conversation at all.
1t is true that until lately we were en-
gagged with the problem of all young ma
tions the founding of fortunes and fami-
lies. This was against conversational
culture, which requires not only tran
| qullity but leisure. Madame Bonaparte
writing from Baltimore in 1S49, regret
| ted having been born there, and added:
''Society and conversation belong to older
Countries This last remark is true,
but her regret could not now be so well
founded, for leisure is abundantly en-
joyed by large classes Of people in every
well-grown city of the Union. There are
almost millions young men and women
who have reached the age Of twenty
without having to bend finger towards
the family support. This very fact, how
ever, might now give new bitterness to
Madame Bonaparte' cynicism, especially
when she learnt that among these young
folks it is a positive rarity to hear well
sustained and elegant conversational
banter, of chatter, of slovenly English.
of cheap opinions, adopted rather than
evolved, they give us plenty. The young
men of foreign birth and education, with
a brief American experience, put our own
to shame. Negligent as Europe is in
this matter, few young Americans who
go there win favor merely by their con-
verse. Proud and independent, polite
ally, they have personally feeling of
being only second class. Strange to say,
instead of ending this humiliation they
give way to it. They avoid the lion
which should be fought. Hence, per-
haps. their continued devotion to cards.
billiards, dancing. noisy parties and the
atricals, which they love not for the art
but for the diversion. Nor is this fail
ing confined to the young Clubmen
who have grown heartily tired of the
eternal tritling of miscellaneous parlors.
say that the circles are few in which con-
versation is worth the time it costs.
almost every where" said one of them
to me, II find that if people are not
talking dollars and cents, i: is ten to one
they are talking gossip. They do not
cultivate that which lies between bust
ness and frivolity. How refreshing it is
to escape from these fashionable houses,
elegant mansions, places Of WEAKNESS or
inanity, to the breezy company Of such