The herald., 1898-08-28

BILE, but of which the possessor is abso-
lutely unconscious. Just study your init
mate friends for a little while and you will
find that they all have absurd peculiarities
Of speech. Some women begin all their
sentences with well or 'now'-some fill In
all pauses with and Some talk alto
gether in superlatives and don't seem to
be acquainted with the positive degree.
Some do not finish half their sentences, but
leave them hanging in the air. Those are
'all little things, but there are hundreds OF
such little things and they all detract from
the charm of conversation.
1.-THE first thing 1 do with a pupil is to
teach her how she must not talk. After
that try to teach her to talk. The Amer
lean voice is, as a rule, ddsagreeable, and,
to be a success in conversation, one must
have a pleasant speaking voice. Care and
patience will accomplish that, and lay
great stress upon that part of my work.
Then, many women seem to think that
they cannot use pure English without be-
Ing priggish, and they abuse the language
shamefully. Not one girl In a thousand
finishes school with thorough under
standing and mastery of the words in her
vocabulary. I seldom find pupil who
doesn't need thorough drill In precision and
choice of words.
II never teach classes. Both girls and
women are self-conscious In class, and
find that accomplish better results by
taking my pupils individually. spent five
hours a day with the wife Of one western
congressman during one summer" The
reformer's eyes twinGled and she smiled
reminiscently.
II never had such an opportunity to test
my system as I did that summer" she
continued. when went to see that pupil
the first time 1 felt that had met my
Waterloo. She did all the things she ought
not to have done and left undone all things
she ought TO have done IN conversational
way. The case really seemed hopeless;
but the woman was good natured and sem
sible and ambitious, so we went to work
and worked miracles. Naturally, couldn't
give her an education and broad fund Of
information. but 1 softened her voice and
accent, Gid away with her faults In gram
mar. struck out the coarse words In her
vocabulary. corrected her mamner isms.
taught her not TO talk about her ailments
and children and servants. You wouldn't
have known her when she went on to
Washington In the fall. She asked me to
make out list Of the don'ts and took 1t
with her for fear Of a lapse from grace.
There's long list Of don't In conversation,
and great many things dear to the heart
of the average woman should be black
listed.
THAT western woman of whom spokA
developed a positive genius for telling
funny stories, and I made the most Of il.
or, rather, taught her to make the most Of
it. 1t is usually very difficult to teach a
woman to tell funny story we'll : fail
there more often than in anything else,
Some persons really can't recognize a joke
when they meet it,
After have finished the 'donts' and
given some attention to voice training. !
converse with a pupil on certain subjects.
| Perhaps he goes to see a new play. In my
| next lesson 1 ask her for her Impressions
of the play, the plot. the costumes, the
| characteristics of the actors. 1 show her
where the weak points in her description
lie, where she has failed to be interesting.
where she hasn't expressed her meaning
clearly I cut out the intensive and super
| latives, and then ask her to tell me the
story again and see. how she can improve
upon it. Sometimes we discuss book in
stead of play; or, at one lesson, give her
a subject to look up for her next lesson, OF
I ask her for vivid description of SONS
person whom we both know. I draw out
her opinions upon current topics and train
her to putvague thoughts and theories into