Wichita eagle., 1888-02-02
NATIONS AS TAKERS.
LEADING CONVERSATIONAL CHARAc.
TER!sTlcS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE,

The English PEASANTS Gift for Empty
Meditation - Irish and Scotch - The
Chattering Nations of Europe-Biling-
ual Races-The Jew-Teutonic 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 SO does the
Bengalee, who knows hardly more than
the animals around him. The latter in
deed, talks frequently and with anima-
ton, though almost always on single
Subject-money. 1t has been said by one
who wrote after years of observation
that if two Bengalees talk for five minutes
the word paisa pence will always be
heard; but talk they do, with remark,
answer, reioinder and repartee. What is
the cause of that difference?
Professor Mabaffy 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
primeval; they do not depend directly
upon climate or atmosphere, and if may
quote the opinion of a 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 200
or 800 words of a very rude provincial
dialect Of English, and therefore COM
mards neither the words nor the ideas of
the outlying provinces"
4 theory of that kind should explain the
facts, and this does not explain them. If
it were true, the women would be as 81
lent as the men, having even less of Gull
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 1arrate:
they discuss and are capable even of
rough badinage, which helps the argument
directly on. Moreover, the chattering
peoples-the NeapoEtans for instance
are not bilingual; and the best takers in
the world. the born Parisians, spring of
ancestors who knew no language but their
own. The border peoples, too, are not
exceptionally talkstive, as we see in
Wales: and the Swiss peassntry, for all
their linguistic requirements. are ex-
ceptionally tacturn. Nobody would say
that an AlSatian. accustomed from child
hood to two languages, and those among
the richest in the world. was more oon-
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 a larger
command Of words; but is the command
of words the key to the secret so, why
do the women, as we said before, talk bet
ter than the men, and why are not ali the
cultivated equally capable Of CONVERSE
ton? How often can q professor COM
paratively ignorant wife talk well while
the learned husband is incapable Of con-
versation. And, finally. if the difference
is question OF knowledge of any sort,
why does wine 50 often. and up to point.
brighten talk and takers, 1t cannot adj
thoughts. or increase limited repertoire
of words. AT most, alcohol, ia any
form, can but irnpart courage, and per- |
haps little speed to the movements Of |
the brain. We should say that the power /
of talk, in the sense Of conversinz, 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 |
PECULIARLY. Nothing runs more eom- |