Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1892-02-18
BRIEF AND STRIKING STORIES.
Some are Funny and Some are Not.
SMALL TALK.

Boston Courier.
II do not make calls" a gentleman
said to the Editor recently, because l
have grown so stnpid that 1 am no long
er able to talk. go and sit in stupid
silence, gazing at the hostess, as if had
come merely to pass some minutes in
silent admiration of her charms, and the
situation is far too awkward to be pleas
ant for either of us; so that have about
given it up"
The Editor, of course, discoursed
wisely upon the subject as is his won't.
ut is not in the least question of
stupidity" he said, ait is partly a mat
ter of habit and partly the lack of con-
tinuity. To talk small talk one must
keep in practice, just as one must keep
in practice playing the piano. You can
not take it up and lay it down at will.
You must keep the mind and the tongue
timber, and if you really wish to be an
expert l am not sure that it is not nee
essary to keep up the practice alone at
home"
He smiled little at the conceit, and
went on celebrating the idea.
at might be good idea," he said,
''to have a dummy sort of lay figure
of the kind that artists have standing
lopsidedly about their studios-and to
take so much time each day to talk to
it. 1t could come about as near giving
an intelligent answer as many of the
persons to whom one is expected to talk
in what is called society," and it would
accustom one to getting on without help.
At any rate, whether this seems to be
the best method or not, one must keep
his hand in"
"But 1 have nothing to say" the other
protested. 81 do not feel shy, and l do
not know that age or disuse has greatly
stiffened my tongue, but find that there
is nothing in the world that l am in
clined to talk about"
THAT, too, is partly the result of
lack of practice" the Editor went on in
his oracular manner, since it is the re-
suit of being out of the current of small
talk. Small-talk is very largely made
up of the little nothings of the day, and
still more it is composed of the little
nothings of society aforesaid. There
is about it something of the nature of the
dust collected from the rug and the car
pets by the broom of the housemaid;
ii is made up of threads of different
hues brushed from each figure in the
pattern. Small talk is the fuZz brushed
from each figure in the social fabric.
II. is largely made up of scraps of trivial
information, comment or speculation in
regard to the persons who make up
given set. To keep up with this is es
sential to being well up in small-talk."
"In other words" the speaker said,
sit is largely gossip"
"That is not at all what l mean," the
Editor responded. "Of course gossip
comes into it, but for the most part it is
of nature too trivial to be called gos-
sip. 1t is of the most airy and trifing
mention of this, that and the other.
What one has said about nothing, where
another has been, how still third look
ed on a given occasion, the health of a
and the plans of fifth. 1t is
not in the least ill-natured, as a rule, it
is not even in the smallest dgree imper-
tinent or over-curious. 1t is only to the |
outsider hopelessly futile and impossible |
Of imitation"