Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1888-03-14
NATIONS AS TAKERS.
LEADING CONVERSATIONAL c1ARAc'
TERlsTIcs OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE.

LEADING CONVERSATIONAL cHARAc-
TERlsTIcs OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE.
The English Peasants Gift for Empty
Meditation - Irish and Scotch - The
chattering Nations Of Europe-Biiing-
ual Races-The Jew-Tcutonic Peoples.
The Scot, even If he will not converse,
will usually argue, and the Londoner will
tell anecdotes; but the English peasant Is,
as a rule, person with gift for empty
meditation. The Irish peasant, on the
other hand, talks readily and pleasantly,
in short sentences usually full of express
sion; SO does the Italian, who knows less
than the Englishman; and 30 does the
Bengalee, who knows hardly more than
the animals around him. The latter, in,
deed, talks frequently and with ANNA
ton, though almost always on q single
subject-money. 1t has been said by one
who wrote after years Of observation,
the word paisa (pence) will always be
heard; but talk they do, with remark,
answer, rejoinder and repartee. What is
the cause of that difference?
Professor Mahaffy suggests an answer
which seems to us to SAVIOR Of artificial
profundity, and therefore to be very I'M
like Professor Mahaffy, who usually says
his true thought, even il it is little OUT
of place: 81 fancy the causes Of these So
cial differences are rather recent than
primeva1; they do not depend directly.
upon climate or atmosphere; and il may
quote the opinion of q wise friend on this
large question, should say that one chief
cause of the talking or social ability OF
some peasantries over others, is the fact
that their proximate ancestors were q
bilingual people. Thus the great major
ity of west Irish and north Scotch peas
ants are descended from grandfathers
whose talk oscillated between Celtic and
English, and who were, therefore, con-
stantly educated in intelligence by the
problem of translating ideas from one
| language into another, not to mention the
distinct inheritance Of the special ideas
peculiar to each and every language.
| This is an education in expression, in
thinking, and therefore in conversation,
wholly foreign to the English midland
boor, who has never heard more than 2OG
or 800 words of a very rude provincial
dialect of English, and therefore COM
/ 1uduuS uCltUCG bu0 "OAub 11V1 VA0 kAO0S Va
| the outlying provinces.
A theory Of that kind should explain the
facts, and this does not explain them. II
it were true, the women would be as 81
lent as the men, having even less Of cul-
ture, but they are not. On the contrary,
the wives Of those silent rural folk can
often chat agreeably, and give and take in
conversation. They do not only narrate;
they discuss and are capable even Of
rough badinage, which helps the argument
directly on. Moreover, the chattering
peoples-the NeapoAtans, for instance
are not bilingual; and the best takers in
the world, the born Parisians, spring Of
ancestors who knewno language but their
own. The border peoples, too, are not
exceptionally talkative, as we see in
Wales; and the Swiss peasantry, for all
their linguistic requirements, are ex-
ceptionally taciturn. Nobody would say
that an Alsatian, accustomed from child
hood to two languages, and those among
the richest in the world, was more con-
versatile than q Lyonnais, who hardly
knows of the existence Of two, while a
Partisan seems nimble in talk by the side
of q Bruxellois, who is never for an in
slant out of the hearing Of two tongues.
The man who IL bilingual, either in fact
or by tradition, has no doabt q larger
command Of words; but Is the command
of words the key to the secret nso, why
do the women, as we said before, talk bet
ter than the men, and why are not all the
cultivated equally capable Of converse
tioni How often can professors COM
paratively ignorant wife talk well, while
the learned husband IL incapable of con-
versationl And, finally, q the difference
In a <rs,Ask{nyS - hnOxvNAAaa - axnx1 -aCrk
l why does wine 80 often, and mp 60 point,
brighten talk and talksrsi It cannot add
thoughts, or increase limited repertoire
of words. At most, alcohol, in any
form, can but impart courage, and per-
haps little speed TO the movements Of
the brain. We should say that the power
Of talk, in the sense Of conversing, came
first Of all from the wish to talk, the de-
sire to manifest ones self to others, and
that this was in the first instance exactly
what the professor says IL is not-a race
i popularity. Nothing runs more COM
pletely in families than the habit of con-
versing much, and race is nothing but q
big family. Did Mr.. Mahaffy, in his
whole life, ever meet Jew who could not
talk, or who did not wish TO talk, or who, IL
circumstances favored him, did not talk o
little too readilyi Persians and Arabs,
who know nothing, chat twice as readily
as Scotch farmers, who know much; and
the populace Of Naples, men as ignorant
as the fishes Of their bay, talk, and talk
well all day. The Greeks have been chat
terboxes for 5000 years, and have lived
for 500 Of them side by side with Turks,
who In the lower classes scarcely converse
at all. It Is not even true, so far as our
observation goes, that, outside the Teu-
tonic race, class makes any perceptible
difference, an italian or Greek or French
workman talking quite as readily as his
superiors, and enjoying talk quite as
much. z'
i We fear that the truth is one which
/ Professor Mahaffy's courtesy induces him
only to hint, viz, that the Teuton Of all
three branches-German, Englishman and
American-though he Is filing the world,
and may possibly master 1t, is slow
witted being, who does not by nature
enjoy talk, but rather feels It O worry to
i be called on to understand words and
make response to them so quickly. He
does not take in readily, and therefore
has little pleasure in hearing talk; and he
cannot give out quickly, and therefore
suffers in uttering It. AS to the cause OF
such O popularity Of race It Is tiresome,
or at all events useless, even to speculate.
Spectator.
Il Peculiaritles Of Lichens.
/ The lichen is remarkable for the great
age to which 1t lives; there Is good ground
for believing that they endure as long NJ
4 100 years. An authority states that some
i plants have been found by actual observa-
ton to endure as years. Their growth il
exceedingly slow, indicating that only, o
little nourishment serves to keep them
j alive. In dry time they have power Of
suspending growth altogether, renewing
IL again at the fall of rain. In time Of