Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-09-13


written for the Times Republican.
The reason why people s.talk shop 10
;becauee they can not Itelligently talk
anything else. and because the shop.
italker as a rule knows enough to keep
still till his turn comes Still, 1t makes
"a dreary world for one to have to wait
for the wheel to revolve and our par s
ticular life object OF interest to be
mentioned. And the lines are closely
drawn that an outsider al ter one or two
feeble attempts to get into the CONVEX
sational boat goes ashore, hardly know
Ing whether he is more ddsgusted with
himself than the crowd. To illustrate:
Here are a thousand men at work on q
railroad Night comes and they sit
around and talk. Talk what? OF the
events Of the world? No; three-quar-
tiers of all the conversation is right on
the subject of railroad work. In words
they continue the toll of the day.
H. And when it comes to the professional
walks of life it's the same. Shop"
talk Is the rule. whether 1t is doctors.
lawyers, merchants or priests that meet
together. The American is always sup
posed to carry mis- business to bed with
him. He does. but on the way to the
bedroom stop him and he will give you
an hours essay on the business or pro-
fession he follows. Some one has said
that one of the arts of entertainment
consists in introducing subjects that
your visitor can talk about-is posted
Ion. Perhaps this explains why SO lit
tile real conversation, Intelligent, at
| tractive conversation is INDUCED in by
the American people. We want to
please the caller. SO we adroitly intro
\ duce the subject of music to Professor
Uppergee. And then we get it from
IRA gtime' to Mozart His wife is
with him, and after the professor has
had his innings, the baby question
comes up, 1t being understood that Mrs.
| Professor uppergee has a 4-nlont hs-old
hopeful. Now for thirty minutes of
baby talk, during which the professor
and all the males present keep IAN
4 audible silence. OF course after one
friends have all called there is sur
Uprising amount Of Information gathered
lfrom Rev. A., who exhausts the higher
Icriticism. from Politician b., who runs
1.-THE gamut from free silver to imperial
ism, from Merchant c., who is up on the
--latest fall styles (Mrs. BiTdseye always
lis a brilliant conversationalist right
here), from Farmer d. who gives US
4 the latest points on the raising of Red
4 Duroc hogs, from Newspaperman E.,
\ who tells US what the yellow journals
Iare doing, from Banker F. who explains
4 why we are now creditor nation, from
4 Dr. G., who explains anti toxin and Its
effects. and from Attorney H, who tells
3lus of the Unconstitutional clauses in the
1 bankruptcy law But be careful. Rev,
a. must not undertake to engage in
baby talk with Mrs. Professor U. It's
\ out of his line.
And it's very much of question If
4 there's possible future Improvement
lin the line of conversation. Monologue
| must be the order of the day. The all-
around man is disappearing not only in
i conversation, but in business, in the
4 professions and even in manual labor.
4 We are in ruts-ruts so deep that we
can not turn out. The matchmaker al
4 Waltham makes wheels and nothing
A;else until he has wheels in his head. Hs
q makes wheels year in and year out
\ What does he know about watchmak
! ling? Talk wheels and he will tell yo,
SImore in five minutes than others can II
la lifetime. Noah Webster is supposed
4 to have made a dictionary some year:
1 ago. Today the encyclopedia diction1
J airy makerenploys 10000 persons TO tel
lus what each of 10000 words mean. Az
i asconversationalist Noah Webster was
sls.a success But Professor Norman
9lwho received $500 for what he wrote II
4 the Worlds Encyclopedia, calls only
4 talk on the word "electricity.