The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-09-04
THE LUXURY OF TALKING.
Some of the Substantial Benefits of Con.
VcrsatiOn.

Vcrsation.
There are few pleasures more keen or
more invigorating than a good talk in a
congenial company. The subject of the
conversation matters not in the least.
1t Is not the fox that constitutes the Joy
OF fox hunting: it is the excitement of
following him. So, in conversation,
no really good talller cares to run the
subject down; the quarry once started
the talker forgets everything in the
excitement of the chase, over hill and
dale, plowed field and fallow: and glo-
rles only in the bigness of the intellec-
tual fences that he clears in his course
So little, indeed, does the subject mat
ter, that it constantly changes shape
before the chase that follows, and they
who set out to hunt the stately stag
are very often well content, at the end
of many hours, to have run down the
humble hare. The pleasure, like most
of our pleasures, consists in the contest
OF skill, force and endurance, and the
hotter the contest, the fiercer its de-
light. Even in the exercise alone of
our faculties of the powers of memory,
| lN1oOAis anu WIN WHICH We
may have been gifted, there is a pleas
ure. But perhaps the best of talk is
that which takes place between old
friends who know each other and each
others language well. Such talk is
swifter, goes farther, and covers more
| ground than any other. Only few
words are necessary to serve as scanty
stepping stones by which friend may
nlmbly leap across a wide range of
ones thought; whereas for a stranger
it is necessary to build a substantial
bridge of explanation and argument in
order tfAt he may arrive at an under
standing of ones meaning. Many, too,
are the uses of conversation. Besides
obliging man to formulate his know
| ledge, and to exercise those faculties
| which would otherwise soon rust and
actually decay from want of use, it
helps to strengthen or throw doubt up
on the knowledge that he already
possesses, and also to enlarge its boun-
iairieS. 1t is by the process of contin-
ual experiment and sitting that mans
ideas are gradually crystalized into the
clear transparency and symmetry Of
real wisdom No school teaching would
ever make a man talk well. All that
is required of him is that he should be
patient in listening. DESTROYS and quick
to learn, frank and honest in his reply;
and then if providence has given him
weapons to defend his position, wit and
eloquencc sufficient to meet his oppon-
ent, he may taste the joys of combat
by the side of which all other con-
tests seem fiat and Improbable, and
! give as much pleasure to Il worthy adj
versary as he receives from him in re-
turn.
Let it not be supposed that we are
| igr )rant of the conversational bore. or
wish to ignore his existence. There are,
it is true, many people, who, like Thacll-
eray's friend, Mr.. Talbot Twysden,
possess lawful powers of conversation"
But, in connection with such people, the
very word conversation" is out of
place. They do not converse. Their
pleasrSc is to indulge in an endless
monolOgue; they care nothing for their
listeners opinions and very little of
heir own their delight is to hear the
sound of their own voices, and it is sim
ply for the pleasure of listening to that
sweet music that will always be talk
ing. Again, there is the man with the
hobby, who rides it with unfeeling
cruelty in season and out of season, and
can be made to listen to no other theme
Or the man who looks upon difference
of opinion as an impertinence, and a
contradiction as gross insult. Or
again, the mere babbler, who pours
forth a continuous stream of unmean-
ing imbecility; such an offender is gem
orally woman; in the case of a man,
it becomes kind of nervous affection,
simple incontinence of words. Such
people do exist, and when met are best
avoided. But because they exist, and
because they talk too much, there is no
reason why the rest of the world should
remain silent 1t does remain most
obstinately silent. Cricketers among
themselves will grow eloquent on the
subject of scores and matches; sports
men will draw not only upon their own
"reminiscences, but upon their magma
tions also, in dilating upon their favor
| lite theme, racing men will display
before each other the incest knowledge
of pedigree and record; women will his.
cuss dresses and wearers by the hour:
and yet, should any of these be invited
to share in a subjedt of more general in
terest, or to elevate their own subject
into a higher sphere of generalities,
they will Immediately be dumb. When
they meet together in general society,
and are forced to talk in uncongenial
surroundings, they can find nothing bet
ter to do than to mouth the well picked
bone of some public scandal, or repeat
the idlest hearsay of the idlest gossip.
Truly, conversation as a fineart is we'll
nigh dead-dead from sheer laziness
and Indifference on the part of the
world at large, for it is certain that
there hardly lives man who has not
something worth saying, if he would
only take the truble too say it.-Chicago
Saturday Evening Herald.
They Will Not Touch Castor Oil.
No sort of bird, beast or creeping
| ryxrill N, Ill l..