The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1900-03-17

Oo1by tIcay0nc.
1t may be stated, on general prin-
ci:,les, that all of Us desire to be
adm ired and loved by our fellow
creatures. Not all. however, sue
coed in achieving popularity Some
fail from one cause, some from an
other, but by far the most failures
may be set down to the adherence
most of us have to being bored.
Every advantage in life, social or
otherwise, has its price, for which
the absent minded beggar must
sspay, pay. paw" and when we find
GU. that the cost of popularity is
submitting to being bored, We gen
orally decide that the game isn't
worth the candle. 1t comes too
high, and we decline to purchase il
at the price. This does not insure
anybody against the infection OF
tiresome people, and the trouble is
that we not only lack the courage
to absolutely refuse to be bored,
but the heroism to bear it when we
are with a grace that would reflect
distinction and credit on US. Thus
we fall between the two stools, and
are both bored and disliked for
showing that we are bored. On the
other hand, those who pay the price
and bear the infection like men real
ize heavy dividends on their invest
ment. There is no shorter cross
cut to popularity than the ability to
bear a boring without flinching, and
for the social aspiiant no other art
is better worth cultivating, since
many Of the high society gods, who
sit up aloft and distribute the prize
packages, are themselves bores of
quite phenomenal caliber. The
first requisite for the novice, who
would acquire the art of bearing
boring gracefully, is to learn to keep
his eyes fixed on the face of the
| bore. Never let them wander.
| This attitude is, in itself, most
subtle fattery, betra> ing, as it does,
absorbed and continued attention.
1t is also self-preservation. No one
can do two things successfully at
| the same time, and it is utterly i'm
| possible to catch fragments of a
| bright conversation on one side of
| YOU and listen to the bore on the
other. and maintain an expression
| of rapt delight. Never attempt to
| check bore when he mounts his
favorite hobby. Follow it whitherso-
ever it goes. and great shall be YOUR
reward. 1t is not necessary to un-
derstand the subject upon which
the bore holds forth. Indeed, the
less YOU know the more room tor
him to expand and expatiatc and
the better. Next in Importance is
learning how to utter the right ex-
clamation at the right time and
place. A great many people fall
right here, either by saying some
thing utterly iri relevant, or, worse
still, by trying to break into the
bore's monologue with something
about themselves. There is nothing
bore hates like that. He may
have been expatiating for the last
three hours on the state of his liver,
and how the doctor said he never
knew anybody before who could
take so much medicine, or about a
forty seven pound fish he caught
last summer; but he hasn't any in
terest on earth in the state of your
health, and if you had been another
Jonah, and swallowed a VIII ale, he
: wouldn't care to hear single par
| ticular For to the bore there Is
only one subject under the sun 81
general and pervadlng interest, anC
thu at is himself. Above all, the one
who aspires to eminence in This ar
must once and for all Danish any
1 distaste for hearing stories repeated
!. over again and again ad lib. HI
t can never even hope to be success
unless he can hear Major Genera
0 Eighteen tell over for the hundredti
I time how he sunk the Spanish flee
: in Santiago bay, and still preserv'
i an expression of thrilled attention
he must be able to beg for NOR
details when old Gotrox tells, as h
does every day of has life for fort