Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-10-25
TO TALK WELL IS AN ART.
Unfortunately Most Peoples Stock OF
Conversation Is Quickly Exhausted.

"a Z l. l., 1t seems to me the Pottses are
lFAvA queer people. They always have so
x hHnuch to say to one another. What I
f.l\k mean by that is that there is always g
49, lively conversation going on in the Potts
fanny when no outsider is present. never
fail to find them laughing and talking together
when drop in upon them OF an evening Now,
what puzzles me is to imagine how people who
have lived for years in company in the same
household can have anything left to say to
each other"
Such was the remark made by Timpkins at
the Platypus Club one afternoon this week TO a
representative o; TIE STAR. 1t gave rise to
some discussion.
my observation has been" said the only
bald-headed member, that very few people
have anything to talk about in their own fam
lies. Ordinarily they have long ago exhausted
all their ideas In conversation and have no
further thoughts TO interchange. At the din
ner table or i'll the drawing room they are ST.
lent. unless guest comes IN and introduces
fresh material for discussion, thus making the
sluggish stream Of discourse flow. / will go 30
far as to say that the average person of so
called intelligence and good education does not
really have ideas. By that / mean that this
typical individual does not observe what goes
on about him In life with the eve Of the intel
lect nor receive any original impressions from
what he sees and hears. His stock of informa-
tlon Is just SO much and is not added to very
greatly after he has attained manhood; of
thoughts to express about things he has given
supply, and, lnasmuch as he does not often
form a fresh one, he soon uses them up in con-
versation and has nothing to say after that TO
the same individual There is many a young
man that passes for being very clever CONVEX
sationally who in reality only keeps up the APP
pearance of being so by careful use OF the half
dozen topics on which he has any ideas to ex-
press. You have him In your house for the
second day and he ceases TO be interesting.
having talked himself out i should think that
the average married couple would bore each
other to death almost before the honeymoon is
past"
EVEN LOVERS
In response to these suggestions an excep-
tionally fat member, whose pessinistic ideas
are well known. remarked:
Not merely that, but the mystery to me is
that even lovers do not bore each other to the
verge of insanity. So far as l have observed
the average billing and cooling pair have moth
ing to say to one another after the first DAYS of
courtship, beyond endearing phrases. perhaps
In the lower orders of society you will find that
keeping company, so called, means simply this:
The young man spends certain prescribed
evenings with his lady love, during which it il
understood that the counting is not TO be dis
turbed by the presence of any third person.
He ana the young woman sit in the
same room together for several hours at
stretch on each such occasion without
exchanging word. unless at long in
tervals one Of the two says some such thing as
that 1t looks like rain tomorrow and the other
responds with an acquisscence. That is social
intercourse reduced to its lowest possible
terms. myself once knew . country lover
who went to see his sffianced Tuesdays, Thurs
days and Saturdays. He ALWAYS arrived al
and stayed until midnight. Having
nothing to talk about. they both invariably
went to sleep, and at IL o'clock they were
slumbering in the parlor, the young woman on
the sofa and her beau snoring in a chair a few
feet away. This the mamma took quite as a
matter of course, her duty being to
awaken her daughter and the somnolent
swain, the latter thereupon making his
adleux. Conversational ability is not an in
fallible index of intellect, for many men with
great minds have not possessed il in a high de-
gree. but it cannot be denied that the faculty
Is most neutrality-suspicious. the most widely
valuable Of all faculties. To its possession a
well-stored mind Is essential, but much more
important Is the power Of observation, which
may be cultivated, and also originality of
thought. Really clever people, believe. have
rs much to say to each other in their own
families as to outsiders, and things better
worth saying, too. That 10 because they are In
intellectual sympathy and always have fresh
observations to interchange about life as they
see 1t going on around them from day TO day.
Those, at all events. are my notions on the
subject"
ple," sighed Timpkins, squirting some seltzer
water from syphon into his glass. But |
often wonder where they get SO much to say. l
do mon me honor