The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-05-20
The Fine Talker.

The fine talker In city runs but a
brief career. He is as short-lived as the
race-horse, or the man who swings by
one leg on the trapeze or hoists cannon
balls, or in any other way wins applause
by forcible spurts of display. In year
or two the jokes begin to look thin and
the capital stories give signs of having
been turned and patched much too often.
The talker then usually throws them
into lecture or two, and is apt to earn,
nor State dinners, but daily bread and
beef with them while he delights provin-
cial lyceums. Outside of i1e large
cities your fine talker is seldom w.t.
The bucolic mind distrusts the funny
as the oracle the ready but weighty
speaker, the man of general research
into encyclopedias and magazines, who
can give you an opinion off-hand on
beet sugar, or Russian politics, or pre-
destination, or the chances as to the
Presidency in 1884, with fuency and au-
thority. He keeps his wits on tap, so to
speak, ready for all corners. To be sure,
even in the slow eddies and currents of
thought in provincial life, the opinions of
this leader of intelligence and converse
ton sometimes appear stale and second
hand, and his audience wonder whether
they have elected their ruler wisely. But
they generally wonder in silence, and he
talks on his way triumphantly.
The female of this species is marked
by the same characteristics She is
usually more ELUSIVE, however. She
takes her audience more into her conf
dence. A gushing sympathy and per-
sonal interest are her capital, instead of
the good stores and the quick humor of
which most women are destitute. Hay-
ing claimed you as her friend, she pro-
ceeds to show you what an acquisition
you have made. She is ready to exhaust
and settle forever all questions upper
most in the community; whether it be
the Indian problem, embroidered tides,
or universal salvation.
The salient point to be noted in the
men or women who are popularity known
as fine takers in this country, that their
material is, as a rule, stale and second
hand. They have verbal expertness
in handling thoughts; they give them
out as literally as the plowman throws
down the chopped fodder to his herd.
But the thoughts are chopped fine and
dried; they bear the same relation to the
simple utterances of genuine thinker
that the dry cut stubble does to the green,
live, growing corn in the field. The
men and women noted as conversers in
English society Of the last century were
those gifted with dramatic powers or
dashing wit. They were the rGconteurs
or wits whose stories and repartees have
come down to us. But now we Ameri-
cans want facts and opinions from the
men whose talk would satisfy US, and we
are not particular as to whether the facts
are the fruit of real knowledge, or the
chance scrapings of reyiew-reading. We
have not yet grown up to the old French
idea OF great cduscur-the man or
woman who says little and listens much,
who never makes display; but all Of
whose knowledge, magnetism, and tact
are used to bring out his companion and
place him at his best.-Neao York Iri-
bane.
JOHN BRoADHoUsE, an English writer
on music, says: 1.-THE average young
lady, of course, knows nothing at all
about key relationship. This may be,
say the California Alta. After she gets
married, however, she will learn all
about the night key relationship TO
morning headaches,