Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1888-05-12

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 200
or BOO words of a very rude provincial
dialect of English, and therefore COM
mands neither the words nor the ideas Of
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 Neapolitans, for instance
are not bilingual; and the best takers in
the world, the born Parisians, spring Of
ancestors who knewn o 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 q
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 Is bilingual, either in fact
or by tradition, has no doubt q larger
command Of words; but is the command
Of words the key to the secret ESQ, 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,
ton? How often can a professors com,
p%aratively ignorant wife talk well, while
the learned husband is incapable Of con.
I %versation! And, finally, II the difference
is o question Of knowledge of any sort
/ why does wine 80 often, and up to a point
brighten talk and takers! It cannot ado
| thoughts, or increase a limited repertoire
of words. At most, alcohol, in any
form, can but impart courage, and per
haps a little speed to the movements o.
the brain. We should say that the power
of talk, in the sense Of conversing, cam,
first of all from the wish to talk, the de
sire to manifest ones self to others, ant
that this was in the first instance exactl,
what the professor says it is not-a rac'
popularity. Nothing runs moro com
pletely in families than the habit of con
versing much, and a race is nothing hut
big family. Did MI. Mahafy, in hi
whole life, ever meet a Jew who could no
talk, or who did not wish to talk, or who, /
circumstances favored him, did not talk
little too readily Persians and Arabs
who know nothing, chat twice as readil,
as Scotch farmers, who know much; ant
the populace of Naples, men as ignoran
as the fishes of their bay, talk, and tall
well all day. The Greeks have been chat
terboxes for 5000 years, and have livet
for 800 Of them side by side with Turks
who in the lower classes scarcely convers
at all. It is not even true, so far as GU
observation goes, that, outside the leu
tonic race, class makes any perceptibl
difference, an italian OF Greek or Frencl
workman talking quite as readily as hi
superiors, and enjoying talk quite a
much.
We fear that the truth is one whic
Professor Mahafy's courtesy induces hir
only to hint, viz, that the Teuton of a
three branches-German, Englishman an
American-thorgh he is filling the worlt
and may possibly master it, is a slo,
witted being, who does. not by natul
enjoy talk, but rather feels it a worry t
be called on to understand words IN
make a response to them so quickly. II
does not take in readily, and therefor
has little pleasure in hearing talk; and
cannot give out quickly, and therefor
suffers in uttering it. AS to the cause
such a popularity of race it is tiresom
or ut all events useless, even to speculate
Spectator.