The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1892-02-19
coNyEaSA1IoN A LOST ART.
People Nowadays Appear to Meet tn Do
Almost Everything but Talk.

When any number of persons wish to
combine for social purposes nowadays
they form a club. The club, however,
is by no means a social organization.
The pretext is some sort of mind culture.
an arena for the discussion of some sub
ject. Shakespeare's plays, Browning,
Dante, the stage, indicate the simpler
range of topics. Or if nothing better
offers, the members set up a man OF
straw and have SHES at him, a sort of in
tellectual game of Aunt Sallie.
The town is h~oneycombed with such
clubs. They are superseding dancing
and the natural diversions of the young
and conversation and cards of the more
mature. The common pleasure in meet
ing one another in good clothes and off
duty no longer exists. No have the So
cial affiliations that used to be found in
the church and in the mission school
any remaining power of social cohesion.
1t is a curious development, and is ma
turally in a more vigorous state among
people from other parts of the country
| who have come here to live, and must
| find excuses for social organization out
| side those that exist in older and allied
| communities of people. An inherent
| craving to know and to commune about
Plato or Renaissance art will furnish a
preteXt for social advances that no one
| can possibly mistake for bumptiousness
or any undue social aspiration. When
a sufficient number of persons with Il
kindred thirst is discovered it's satisfac-
ton takes place at intervals in one an
| others drawing rooms. This climbing
of staircases, ascent of elevators, ia
miliarity with one another's surround
ings and subsequent waters and cups of
tea after the main business is concluded,
furnish as solid and as quickly riveted
bonds as are welded by society in any Of
it's older forms.
The regret is that conversation, the
politest, the most spiritual, evanescent,
the most agreeable of all arts, has no
greater chance in the mind culture clubs
than elsewhere. Where discussion and
information flourish the fame of conyer-
satiOn fiickers and goes out. Perhaps
the speaker must rise to speak, or there
is a moderator or president who clings
to the main issue, or with great indis-
erection allows each person three minutes,
watch in hand, perhaps, to say nothing.
Or there may be a thirty minute paper
on s"The influence Of Russian Thought
OH the Accommodations of Wealth" which
settles down over the assembled intel
lects like pail and calls for maids with
tea to the rescue. =
Conversation has long since been
driven from more fashionable gayeties
where wit, wisdom and repartee are cut
off at some vital, blood letting point by
the hostess signal to listen to the song
or story of the professional entertainer,
and where the guests think themselves
happy if they are not forced into serried
ranks of camp chairs. Conversation is
no longer permitted except at the dinner
table, and then the amateur OF profess
sional story teller is apt to have the first
fork, and seems only to precede the
Jester yet to be found behind his mis-
treSs' chair. -
Regret, however, is only a faint sigh
for the SHOWS of last year. The wise
person does not quarrel with what is but
accepts it as the outcome of circum-
stances, or the result of tendencies toe
wide reaching or too deep for us to grasp.
If we are all under the pressure of mind
culture it is doubtless for some good end.
and if everywhere the more familiar
wagging of our tongues is checked there
are passages of scripture that will arise
in explanation and consolation to the
silent member New York Evening san.