The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1891-09-12

-AAA-E19 LA1s5A llIAllsS lAsAN I'LL
! THE LUXURY OF TALKING.
Some Of the Substantial Benefits of Com
There are few pleasures more keen or
more .nvigorating than good talk in a
congenial company. The subject of the
conversation matters not in the least.
It is not the fox that constitutes the JOY
of fox hunting: it is the excitement Of
following him. So, in conversation,
no really good talker 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-
ries 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
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 it's de-
light. Even in the exercise alone of
our faculties. Of the powers of memory,
reason, and eloquence with 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 we'll. ri Such talk is
swifter, goes farther, and covers more
ground than any other Only a few
words are necessary to serve as scanty
) stepping stones by which friend may
nimbly leap across wide range of
ones thought; whereas for stranger
it is necessary to build substantial
bridge of explanation and argument in
order that 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 it's boun-
diaries. 1t is by the process of contin-
ual experiment and sitting that a mans
ideas are gradually crystalized into the
clear transparency and symmetry of
real wisdom No school teaching would
ever make man talk we'll 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;
i, and then if providence has given him
weapons to defend his position, wit and
eloquence 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 unproftable, and
give as much pleasure to a worthy ad-
: versary as he receives from him in re-
; turn.
Let it not be supposed that we are
! ignorant of the conversational bore, or
wish to ignore his existence. There are,
it is true, many people, who, like Thack-
: 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
! pleasure is to indulge in an endless
monologue; they care nothing for their
listeners opinions, and very little of
their 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 gen.
orally woman; in the case of man,
, it becomes a kind of nervous affection,
a simple incontinence of words. Such
J 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.
tie theme, racing men will display
before each other the incest knowledge
Of pedigree and record; women will dis
cuss dresses and wearers by the hour
and yet, should any of these be invited
to share in a subject of more general in.
terest, or to elevate their own subject
into 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 fneart 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
OF, 1o1y Eror;~o.