The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-01-16
THE ART OF CONVERSATION.
An Interesting Lecture on Takers and
Listeners.

airy, delivered lecture in New York re-
Gently before the members of the Ameri-
can Society for the Improvement o1
Speech. The society was organized tc
improve the common speech in both die
ton and delivery, and the greater part oil
Mr.. Johnson's talk was devoted to the
diction of familiar conversation, says the
Standard and Times.
Most OF you remember" he said
what Alcibiades did, for he lived only
$500 years ago. He cut off the tail of a
dog to give the Athenians something tc
talk about. 1 hope that my lecture will
serve the same purpose. Most of you
probably remember also the remark oil
the rhetorician who said: "A proposition
is bad word to end a sentence with.
Well, expect to make breaches quite
as frightful, for the teacher is rarely
gui1tless of the mistakes he would cor
rect. Strange it is that language, the
thing we use most, should be the last to
come to perfection. ......
Conversation has many different mean
ings. Sometimes it means that every one
in the room is talking at once while the
salad goes around; sometimes it means
that one old gentleman with long white
hair and countenance of great benevo-
lence is speaking while forty persons lis
ten with rapt attention to his ideas oil
philosophy. Conversation invaribly re-
quires a talker and a listener, and I lay
it down as general proposition that not
only should all takers have something
to say, but they should know how to say
it and they should be very careful not to
oversay it. s~.
"Of course you all know about the
takers who go on and on forever like
the brook. The trouble with some talk
ers is that they acquire a pretty good
stvle and they want to exhibit it. They
are like. the boy who graduates from a
business college and who thinks he can
go into practical business without any
further capital. There are learned men
and brilliant students who cannot talk
we'll because they have not acquired the
art Of editing their conversation.
Listeners should know how to listen,
but I am sorry to say that great many
don't. OF the latter there are three
classes which are particularly pernicious.
They are:
Il. The Bouncer.
*'2. The Booster.
g. The Forestaller.
"The bouncer may be described as the
man who bursts suddenly into a room
i'll which there are several persons and
begins to talk without reference to what
is going OH. The booster is he who as
sumes that you do not know just what
you are going to say and that it is his
duty to supply the proper words. The
forestaller has many traits in common
with his brother, the booster. He as
sumcs after he has heard you say three
words that he knows all the rest of the
sentence and he proceeds forthwith to
say it for you. He is like the little dog
who runs ahead OF his mates and turns
every corner, on the assumption that it is
the right one and that he has guessed ac-
curately the direction his master will
take
'The true art of conversation in its
highest aspect consists, like writing his
tory i'll telling the truth and in telling it
i,naginatively. The best talker is an i'm
aginative talker. 1t is he whose CONVEX
sation delights you. Concerning rapid
conversation, l would say that every wit
ty repartee consists in either denying a
premise you are expected to grant or in
granting premise you were expected to
deny"
In the discussion which followed one
of the members of the society asked Mr.
Johnson if the rule against ending sem
fences with a proposition was ironclad.
Mr. Johnson replied that it was good
rule never to end a sentence with prep
osition
How about the sentence Where are
you going tor" persisted his interroga-
tor III
THAT sentence is the same thing in
other words as the famous query Of the
Southern congressman: Mr.. Speaker,
where ars we att Z replied Nh. Johnson,
NH ths audience laus sss II 81 81