The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-09-25
MEN ARE NOT ENTERTAINING.
They Talk About Themselves Only-Thsy
DOn't Know ANY thing.

Boston Journal
There are three causes which go far to
explain the non-entertaining character of
the average young man to the average
young person OF the opposite sex. The
first Is that he is too much engrossed in
himself and the things which interest him.
The finest point of courtesy in
conversation is to seek those subjects
which will interest the people with whom
We talk. The young man who goes into
the society of cultivated young women and
has nothing better to offer, as his contribu-
ton to the conversation, than baseball talk
or "reminiscences Of college scrapes. will
make himself entertaining. if at all. only
by making himself ridiculous. and that. It
is safe TO say, is not what he is after.
So with the various other subjects, either
Of business or of pleasure, which are
chiefly the concern of men. They ought
not to be forced into conversation with
women. If the latter want to know about
them, very well, but the information
should be given as brightly and Interest,"
ingly as possible and without any appear
ance OF a condescending enlightenment.
The true gentleman, who enters the socie-
ty of women with the Difference which he
should feel, will study them sufficiently to
know what things are likely to int crest
them and what are not.
Another difficulty is that the average
young man is likely to make q mistake as
to the things which will interest young wo-
men, even when he makes q sincere at
tempt TO adapt his conversation to them.
Old notions die hard. There Gre still a
great many young men who cannot under
stand that the young women whom they
know, some of them at least, have
minds which are capable of some
thing more than small talk.
OF fashion plates os society gossip.
Nevertheless. this is true. Nothing is more
CALLING to young women of cultivation and
inteliigence than to be persistentiy talked
down to by the men OF their acquaintance.
Let the average young man realize that the
average young woman with whom he talks
Knows probably at least as much as he
does. and he will make his conversation
better worth while by putting q little more
intellect into il.
third difficulty is that the average
young man Is in serious danger of being
left behind, intellectually, by the average
young woman. We do not expect that
this alarming statement will be accepted
without dispute. But we commend to the
solemn consideration of young men the
question whether a young man who in
college gives his chief thought to athletics.
and after he leaves college is engrossed
with business. is likely to keep up with his
sister. or some other fellows sister,
SNs>A NCA WIN Hiifu 1T least as
bright as his. has had equal educational
advantages, and has both time and DISPOSE
eon TO improve herself. We maintain that
no young man can afford to deprive him
sen Oh the broadening and elevating infiu-
ence OF good books. The newspaper has
lis place, but it is not the place of Shake
speare or Milton, of Addison or Ruskin, or
any other of the great masters of English.
business has its exaeting demands, but they
can best be met by man who
relieves the tension upon his mind
oy occasional excursions in stand.
ard and current literature. If the Young
man OF the period is to converse to the
edincation and entertainment of Young
women. he must ill his mind with some.
thing besides baseball. or stocks. or politics.
inese may enter into conversation. but
they must net be its staple. To restore
the proper conversational relations of the
sexes, the average Young man must i'm
prove his habits of thought and speech in
more ways than one.