The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-06-07
THE ART OF CONVERSATION.
why Shouldn't People Prepare Them
selves to Talk as Well as to Feast?

why Shouldn't People Prepare Them.
selves to Talk as Well as to Feast?
Boston Gazette.
We remember reading in the Nineteenth
Century an article by Lord Ribblesdale on
1.-THE Art of Conversation" Just what was
in the article we do not altogether clearly re-
member. That there was some description
therein of the methods of certain friend of
the writer who had attained to some distinc-
tion in London drawing-rooms as a conversa-
tionalist, VIC remember very well This gen
tleman, it seemed, prepared himself for "tea-
fghts'' and "muffn-scrambles," as we have
heard them called in England, and for other
social functions where tea women, and con-
versation were the staple, much as an under
graduate prepares himself by "cramming'' for
an examination. Lord Ribblesdale held his
friend up to ridicule, laughed at his stores of
neatly-assorted anecdotes, pooh-poohed at his
collection of old magazine articles, and in gen
eral scoffed at the thought of preparation for
conversation. To those, however, who are
much dined and teaed, and drawn into the So
cial labyrinths where conversation obtains as
the main relaxation, the thought of prepara-
tion for conversaton-on the part of other
people-comes as very welcome suggestion.
When man goes to another mans house as
everything except his mind. But he goes oft
times as q whited intellectual sepulchre,
cleansed and shining without; dull, tired, eaten
up with worries within. Nor is he usually in
the least conscience-stricken to go thus men
tally naked into the presence of his friends.
just why one should not take fifteen minutes
or half hour in an easy chair to collect ones
self and to prepare ones self to drop honey
here and salt there, and thus do his share at
feast or function, we know not.
furnfa hat
the business of life could go on interminably
and thus be the staple product of conversation
wherever they met together, it were well
enough to trust to ''shop'' for all ones social
needs. But this is not so. 1t is not merely
agreeable to have change and rest, it is ne
cessity of human existence, and wherever and
whenever man or woman lifts the curtain
upon new scene, or provides new picture
of life, or leads one beside the still waters, or
into pastures fresh and green there is new
impetus given to life; and of the innumerable
ways in which such inspiration may spend it
self for the good of humanity, no one can cal
culate or determine. 1t may not be a heroic
part to play, but welding sword is not SO
eficacious in case of fainting as waving a
fan. just to give little freshness to the So
cial air is often enough to do very good deed
in tired world. No one need be ashamed,
therefore. we should think, to give himself a
little private coaching with this end in
rend and tear and chew and swallow,
but this is neither wholesome nor proper for
men and women. And yet in some house
holds the gathering together about the table
is sullen, silent affair, where no one feels
responsible for cheerfulness and where, in
consequence, the clouds and thick darkness
of dyspepsia settle down, without flash of
social lightning or roar of conversational
thunder to break the dull dripping of the
monotonous shower. We remember very
distinctly, on the other hand, an establish
ment where from ten to fifteen members of
q large family gathered daily at the table, and
where it was mark of infamy, almost, upon
each one who did not make an effort to add
to the general fund Of conversation. They
were busy people, too-the men busy with
affairs, sometimes of large dimensions, the
women busy with the care of large estab-
lishment and the demands of widely-varied
social life. They all had cares and disappoint-
ments, and some of them very real sorrows,
but when they met together they gave in,
each one, something to the store of general
happiness -