The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-09-04
Yielding Noble Service Or.
w. w. Moore Ranks
High.
Continued from Fifth Page.)

real lover of good literature IMAM any
half dozen of the best OF the New
| York illustrated monthlles noW-the
editor says sit is generally agreed that
society nowadays lacks conversation.
! Chatter. badinage of a feeble sort, re-
| tailed anecdote make up poor sub
/ stitute OF charm and courtesy OF
| conversation contemporary society
! knows too little.' 1t seems that a
gifted American woman in England,
now Mrs. West, but who married first
Lord Randolph Churchill, nobleman
of parts, and once prominent in the
| British Parliament, who died, has
moor opinion of the conversation, So
called. that prevails in English So
ciety. and says that in fact conversa-
ton in a proper sense lis thing un-
known" That will apply all over the
United States. She writes, Tor IN
stance, in the New York "Cosmopoli-
tan:
"At a dinner people converse most
lv With those on either side of them
and it requires great effort on the
part of the hosts to keep an omen dis
cussion of any subject After dinner
if is worse AS soon as the men have
ioined the ladies the whole company
pair off. and the man who is bold
! enough to approach couple often re-
tires hastily with the feeling that ne
| is not wanted. nv - ="
tendency in the present day to dls-
cuss finance and money matters, in
rather too sordd manner. To he2%
beautiful women quoting stocks ana
shares and expressing their admlra-
ton for riches, to the exclusion some
times of every other topic, is unpleas-
ant. not to say ugly
| Mrs Galloway writes:
.Tn a real conversation we draw
~ IN
spirit. and as we exchange treasures
of mind and heart, we give ourselves
to our friends in the richest and truest
sense of the word.
What | have heard in the last TWEEN
ty years in society conversation mas
been destructive rather than con-
structive. She has this. and it is worth
| considering:
1.-THE great crime of conversation to-
day is thoughtleness. ana with
thoughtlessness is too often associated
that weakness of character which
through fear leads to suspicion and
from suspicion to evil reports, in
situations. whisperings that cut men $
threats. and all manner of scandals.
One of her essays is on Polite Ly-
ing" Can such things be? What!
Living in social life? Are they white
or black lies? There are several 9TH
| er topics presented. she feIerS 10 lle
"shrill and harsh uncultivated voice
and the unpleasant impression 1t
makes: of the. evil effects of talking
in a hurry, of the trials of diffident
man." If she can do good with her
book then God speed its sale. To be
gifted in conversation with cultivation
and agreeable manners and pleasant
voice is indeed a comparative rarity.
The critic says of her book that while
there is little given to help ito acquire
the art of conversation" there is on,
the other hand, "a great deal in it
we'll designed to make careless. selfish,
uncultivated takers ashamed OF
themselves" There are some good
takers and there are some good lis
lteners, but how rare 40 both gifts
unite in one person? S. L. Coierldge
was a magnificent talker-a solilo-
uuist, but he hardly conVersed. so
with the great old DR.. Sam Johnson,
Lord Macaulay was marvellous, but
whether or no he could listen | do not
remember to have seen stated Pos
sibly that most admirable biography
of him by his highly accomplished and
able nephew, Sir Otto Trevelyan, may
tell Witty Rev. Sydney Smith was
met one day by friend who asked
him whittier he had been? He re-
plied-"With Macaulay. and he had a
brilliant flash of silence"
There is an English woman of abilf-
ty and gifts of whom J. have heard
but little. 1t is Miss Alice Brown,
poet. critic and novelist and she is
praised and admired. Clement
Shorter writer in London Sphere" Of
her last book, High Noon," volume
of stories. For a purpose. to get a
contrast, / quote as follows from
what Mr. Shorter writes in apprecia-
ton and criticism:
: Here is a woman of genius with a
fine romantic spirit free from that
note of vulgarity and self-assertion
that is so marked in so much of the
fiction produced today alike in Eng
land and in America. There is little
possibility l admit, of Miss Brown be-
coming a popular author. She is too
analytical for that Her interpreta-
ton of the action of the average man
is too relentless. She loves too much
the woman on a pedestal as docs
George Eliot in "Romola' and Mrs
Humphry Ward in many a serious
volume. She has not always at COM
mand the right phrase. In "ThC
Mannerins,' for example, that terrible