The Saint Paul globe., 1896-11-30
SHORT TALK ABoUT TALKING.
Art OF ConyersatIon Not Decaying,
but Nc Sls Cultivation.

st. Louis. Mirror.
In several papers recently editorials have
appeared dealing with the decay Of the
art of conversation They were not written
by ironists or humorists, either They are
serious productions so serious to excite
the risibilities of people rightly constituted.
Truth compels the statement here that the
curse of this time is too much conversation.
Everybody talks, and the worst Of 1t Is that
everybody will listen. People are actually
getting into the habit of talking to themselves
on the street. II there ever time when
talking was more of an occupation no man
remembers 1t. The ta1kster is on top every
where We have a man running for presi-
dent upon no other plea in the world than
that he puts up good icon" talk, con"
being an abreviation for confidence game.
An art that can elevate a man to that high
honor is certainly not in decay. Look at
the newspapers. They are full Of what Tom
Dick and Harry wise or foolish learned or
unlearned, decent or indecent say upon
all sorts of subjects There is no one too
puny and insignificant to be interviewed or
to have his talk printed.
No; it's all mistake to say that the art
OF talking has decayed The art has been
refined to such a point that it is all art and
no nature. Human conversation is becoming
almost as meaningless as the patter of par
rots. Men talk Of everything-and of nothing.
Reticence is a thing unknown. Everything
is discussed. Our talk grows as loose as
some OF our popular literature. People talk
to be interesting. Men say things they do
not believe, that are not true, in order to
attract attention to themselves. They are
that ought not to be talked Of This fills
the papers with idle and malicious gossip.
There are too many people who talk for ef-
feet, not for truth; who talk to crafty their
own vanity, not to instruct Others They
waste their own time and time of those who
have to listen to them. The art that has de-
cayed in this country is the art of correct
thinking upon things worth thinking about.
The people are enamored of words not of
ideas. There Is a decline in the number of
people who have anything to say worth say
w soft ion 10
orally a bore. 1t has come to pass that ones
dearest friend is not the man upon whose
words one would hang breathless The per-
son one likes to be with is the person to
whom he does not have to listen, and who
does not expect one to talk
The man | can walk with ride with for
an hour, without feeling the necessity of
keeping up gable, is the man who will
say something when he does speak, and who
will make me think I'm saying something
when he listens. The trouble with the con-
verser is that he rarely has more than one
subject That subject is generally himself;
his merits. or worse, his troubles. Conver-
sation, as we know it, is the escape valve
for egotism. The zeonverser deals in half
truths, which are worse than lies, and he
puts you to the trouble, if you're man of
any moral sense, of correcting him. You
don't have to do this with liar A lie is
clumsy thing that defeats ITSELF You can
let 1t CO." Men talk about themselves:
women about each other. The former may
discuss women. but always with that air of
being invincible with them. The women
talk of men as if they wearied of their wor-
ship
When men and women should talk best
they talk worst-when they are in love-
The talk of lovers is absolute vacuity in
anlty. They develop what DR.. Allen Nc
Lane Hamilton says, in recent issue of
Harper's Magazine. is sign of mental de-
generacy; They deal In diminutives and
what Is known baby talk" Men swear
in their talk. That is sign of poverty of
words or ideas. Women gesticulate for the
same reason But men and women are alike
satisfied with the result-themselyes Re-
suits are everything. we are told An art
that produces satisfactory results cannot be
in decay. Conversation is not an interchange
OF ideas. 1t is an elaborate device for the
concealment of their absence. Takers are
agreeable. The man Of ideas makes one un-
comfortable. woman ought not to have
ideas. Men will not give heed to them. any
how, and if they do they will forget she's
woman This is what a woman does not
want. The real art of conversation is in
brilliant flashes of silence.'' in knowing
when and how. to remain silent. In this
sense one may admit that the art of conyer-
sation has decayed, but in this sense only.