River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-04-02
POVERTY or TALK.
Tho Art of Conversation In Danger of
Becoming Lost.

Tho Art of Conversation In Danger of
Becoming Lost.
1t has been third of a century since
the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
taught us the value of talk as promo
ter and shaper of thought and as an
intellectual stimulus necessary TO the
general prevalence of high thinking.
Yet as a people we have steadily refused
to learn to talk. and the art of CONVEX
sation is scarcely known among US, says
a writer
We are too hurried at home and in
our offices to indulge in conversation
worthy of the name-conversation 10
which the best that is in us is made
tributary. In what we call society we
are too formal, too self-conscious, too
exclusive and much too rigidly bound
h. conventions.
For conversation to flourish as it
should must be free To range at will
over all subjects of human interest; but
our formalities of convention frown
upon the introduction of any but trivial
topics at social gatherings.
If there is to be free and worthy con-
versation, with the sparkle of cham
payne in it, but with the substance be-
meath, there must be time and place and
the right people for it. while in society
we deny il all three of these conditions
We do not get the right people to-
gether because they belong to different
sets" so jealous of each other that
they will not mingle. We dc not give
time or place for il, because we have
foolish habit of free interruption and
constant moving about in drawing
rooms, and because il is our custom to
remark" any prolonged conversation
between the people as significant of
something.
For real talk, of course, large MKT
ure of the woman element is necessary.
Men do sometimes talk well in the abb
sence of women, but they are apt to
argue instead of conversing, or to preach
or lecture, which is worse. Besides,
there is no talk so good as that of
brilliant woman, with her incisive per-
ception, her quick wit, her delicate,
artistic touch; and conversation never
really hourishes where women do not
do large part of it-and listen TO the
rest,
And while men do sometimes talk
well in the absence of women, women
never talk at their best except in the
presence of men. They are not moved
to do so. They do not appreciate the
appreciation of women. They are not
stimulated with women as they are with
men.
Yet our social arrangements afford
scarcely any opportunities for the real
association of men and women. They
bring them together in full dress, usu-
ally in herds, and surround them with
conventional restraints fatal to CONVEX
sation of kind above the level of mere
clatter
All this reacts upon the women them
selves. Knowing that they will never
have occasion ropportunity for the ex-
erctse Of high conversational powers,
they do nothing to cultivate them.
Their reading is mainly for mere enter
tainment Their thinking is merely a
desultory meditation. They do not
learn how to talk and they accumulate
none of the materials of talk.
The effect of all this is seen in the
character of what we call conversation.
1t is chatter about the theater or about
persons-chatter as void of significance
as weather remarks or bewailings of
the depravity of servants. Go to a re-
eeption or dinner party and listen. If
you hear anything said that is worth
saying, anything that the sayer wishes
TO say or the nearer cares to hear, your
reception or dinner party is well above
the average.-N. u World.