Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1896-03-05

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fail in San Francisco or st. Petersburg
or on board the ocean steamer id the
course Of your trip around the world.
In all these places you will find the
same social traits upon which to play,
and, alas, the same obstacles to en-
counter
Having glanced at the amenities Of
conversation. let rs indulge in word
about the obstacles, by which I mean
certain types Of people hard to get Oh
with. suppose every one has his or her
own list Of pet aversions in this line,
yet there are certain widespread species
for which I think we would all agree
it il difficult to be thankful Conspicu-
Qua on the list are the takers a let con
tinu, exhansiing, yet inexhaustible.
Men may come, and men may go-tbev
usually go as speedily as possible-but
they talk On forever. They are like the
philosopher who discoursed by the hour
in praise Of silence, Only you furnish
the silence, they will attend TO the rest.
AS a 1ule, ID order TO get grist for their
ceaseless mills, these extraordinary peo-
pie borrow ideas, phrases and argu-
ments right and left, 50 that they are
not speaking in their own character at
all, but merely composite tumble, and
even if you do manage now and then to
get in a word edgewise it is about as
satisfactory as eonversing with a phono-
graph.
Talleyrand averred that the purpose
of language was to conceal the thought.
I am sure great many persons use it to
cover up their want Of thought
We have all met the man OF woman
who "can converse on any subject"-
and Interestingly on none, The opposite
type is somewhat rarer-though not too
rare. / mean the person with sin
gle topic, which be is bound to Iug in,
apropos Of anything or Of nothing. Let
the subject Of your conversation be
prules or prisms, universal suffrage or
the ratio of probabilities in betting on a
horse race-it matters not what-he is
going to wrench it around to that fixed
idea Of his at all hazards. "A we'll
known American Htterateur was once
brought to bay BY faddist Of this sort,
whose specially happened to be sun
myths. After two hours Of sun myths,
served in every style, the literary man
concluded that he had had enough, SO,
turning upon his tormentor, whose pa
tronymic chanced to be Smith, he said,
with an air Of profound deliberation: 81
am quite convinced, sir, by your argu-
ment as to the universal spread of sun
myths. Your own honorable name,
Smith, which is borne BY 50 vast a pro-
portion Of our fellow creatures through
out the inhabited globe, il itself obvi-
ously derivation from the sun myth.
Mark the transition: Sun-myth,
Su'myth, Smyth, Smith-and there you
are. Good nightp
Then there are the poseur and the
poseuse, who constitute perhaps the most
numerous class of obstacles. In their
conversational posing they assume an
infinite variety of roles. bat seldom by
any chance their own natural ore. M.
Paul Bonrget, the French novelist, who
visited this country last summer with
the avowed purpose of making stndies
from life, was naturally besieged by
possesses at Newport and elsewhere. 1t
is amusing to discover the traces Of
them in his ''Outre Mer " Some Of
them would conclude their performance
with the naive exclamation ooh, NJ.
Bourgetl shall be so curious to see
what you viii write about me in your
book" One enterprising young lady
prattled on in this strain: "Of course ]
shall marry money. My husband cannot
be too rich OF too old. Then be would
necessarily die within a reasonably
short time. just think Of being left an
interesting young widow with fabulous
wealth That is my ideal Of perfect
bliss" But our French guest was not
to be so easily taken in as all that. So
he simply studied his models for what
/ they were-extreme types of the poseuse
species.
4 One virtue of these talkative obsta-
cles, however, is that they make us ap-
preciate the more BY force Of contrast
\ that golden quality Of the true CONVEX
4 ationalist.--silence. Du Maurier, whose
genius for piquant sayings is to my
thinking displayed in the legends Of his
I Punch pictures even more brilliantly
/ than in ''Trilby states the case ex-
actly in that drawing of his which rep
resents an admiring group discussing
commonplace looking youth who stands
I pnobtrusively in the middle distance.
"Who is he anyway" asks one. "Why,
\ don't you know? He is the lion Of the
III season. N But I can it sec anything ex-
traordinary id him" That's Just it.
He doesn't write, doesn't paint, doesn' u
sing Oh recite, can't dance. just sim
py makes himself agreeable. They say
he is irresistible and makes hosts Of
friends wherever he goes"
The most effective weapon, whether
of attack or defense, to be used against
the obstacles in general is skillful rep.
artee But bewarel 1t must be fine,
bright, tempered and keen as Toledo
blade, and then only drawn in case Of
irresistible provocation. a leading ac-
tress at the-well, at a theater in New
York-whase self esteem kept always
far in advance Of her artistic achieve
ment, one evening patronized little
chorus girl with. My dear. do you ex-
! pect some day to become a great artiste?"
"No, replied the miss pertly. do
you?"
The best advice, dear debutante, that
I can give you about conversation is,
don't depend upon advice. Take counsel
rather Of your own sweet and gentle ma
ture, talk naturally and frankly, yet
lightly-that j., 50 long a. you are not
in love nor answering proposal Of
marriage Above all, bear in mind that
good conversation, like good manners, is
a matter OF heart, not art.
|4z@~<9 /
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