Mower County transcript., 1890-01-29
the ART or .T TALl<ifC.

THE ART 81 ;T7ALl<INo. n ..
Modern Conversation an Improvement on
Old-Tlme Talk.
There is not little talk nowadays
about the art of talking, and the ques-
ton whether it is disappearing is dis
cussed with considerable emphasis, and
marked tendency to take the aftlrma-
et *t..ee->,:.e.tt~. ia - It -Aa
laid down as a general principle that
nothing Is at its best when 1t is much
talked about, and this is especially true
OF social gifts and graces. The people
nowadays talk about talking is proof
that they do not talk as we'll as when
! they dld not discuss such theme at all,
out simply talked without concerning
themselves over question which could
not be seriously taken in the negative
when actual experience proves every
day the affirmative. '"That converse
tion Is lost art" observes a recent
writer In an English review, 'is one of
the commonplaoes of social criticisms. -
! ls perhaps the case, however, that
In this as in some other things it is
rather change of form which has taken
place than disappearance of the thing.
The old time monalogue, which if any
one now were compelled to hear often he
would straightway go out to hang him
self, has pretty largely disappeared, and
praise be to the powers who rule over
speech and social customs that it has.
There are takers in our own day who
chatter on necessarily, but they at least
SO tar conform to the taste and custom
OF the age that they change their sub
ject, and make no attempt to talk ex-
haustively upon one topic. We no
longer have those dreadful creatures
who won the admiration of our ances-
tors by the mere physical feat of talk
Ing every body in room deaf. We
never hear nowadays of individuals who
are not only allowed, but expected to
monopolize the talk wherever they
chance to be, and it may be that it is the
disappearance of these things which
many people mean when they talk of
the decay of the art of conversation.
In our day, however, people in gener-
al are better informed, at least in su-
perfcial way, than was the case of old,
and this certainly makes conversation
both easier and on the surface more
sparkling. IT. is so easy to bring in an
Illustration, an allusion, or reminis-
cence, so readily do most people take
them. Every body reads the novels of
the day, at least, and the condensations
or history and science with which the
journals and the publishers 80 literally
supply the land, and thus every body is
supplied with the material with which
to enrich their talk. The fact that wom-
en- to-day are admitted 80 much more
fully into the affairs of the world and
ct mankind gives them an imme ense ad-
vantage in conversation over their sis
ters of hundred years ago. All
these things should, and undoubt.
edlrndo, make talk easier than of old,
allSsit that by the same token they tend
to make it more superficial. The talk
OF the present skins over the surface Of
hany things and goes deep into few or
none. This could hardly have a better
illustration than in that clever book
which one hesitates to mention, somuch
has it been discussed, Robert Elsmere. -
The cleverness with which the talk OF
that book initiates the talk Of the pres
cnt day isseally one Of itsc chief merits,
f1f fanet5 its highest claim = ) literary CON
| gsideration. The conversations Of the
novel are bright, shallow, wide in their
reach, full of bits of learning which does
duty for profundity, and of precisely the
sort which one may hear any day among
clever people of the sort Mrs. Ward de-
picts. They are never profound, but
they would not be true to life if they
were.
Modern talk is, above every thing
else, vivacious. 1t must sparkle, whether
it run anywhere or not. 1t is bright,
full of adroitness, it hesitates at moth
E ing, having fewer reserves, and of these
"a lesser number every day, and as a
whole it pretty we'll fulflls the condi-
Etion recently laid down that ''conversa-
tion IS like lawn tennis, it requires alac-
rity in return at least as much as vigor
in the SERVICE" We have fallen much
in} the habit, moreover, of saving things
to put them upon paper, and not vast
ing them3in conversation, and yet, after
all, we, such as we are in this age, would
fndNany other style of conversation than
that which we have worked out for our
selves infinitely tedious.-Boston Cou-
riers S#