The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-08-29
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman wntsr.
A Conversational Repcrtoirc.-1.


A young girl writes me that when
she is in company she finds herself
stricken dumb. She Is bankrupt in
ideas. She cannot think of single
thing to say, and she asks me if I will
tell her what to talk about.
1 am sorry that cannot oblige her.
but no one can furnish list of topics
suitable for bright and airy chit chat
at an evening party. No-one can teach
another the quick give and take that
keeps the conversational ball always
in the air. The gift of CAB is one of
the most useful and delightful talents
that nature can bestow upon a human
being, but 1t is a gift, and 1t is a talent.
No amount of study or of taking pains
can turn one who Is slow of perception.
dull OF wit, awkward of expression in
to good talker.
born, not made. He or she is a Great
ure of fire and tow; of quick laughs
and tears; of intuitions that are divina-
lions of sympathies and understand
ings. He or she is a juggler who can
take any threadbare topic and turn it
about untilDwe see it new and interest,"
ing; he or she paints in words as an
artist does with colors, and the ability
to do this is not to be acquired by
much striving. 1t is a prize package
dropped into the mouths of the lucky,
straight from the hands of the high
gods.
T But while I cannot tell my cores
pendent how she may become a SPELL
binder, 1 can do the next best thing.
I can tell her how she can prevent her
self from becoming a bore. And this
is mainly a matter of don't and hero
ism, elf-denial and self-control.
What topics one may converse about
h. ft,,,A he he
place and the general trend of talk.
But the things one must not talk about
are eternally the same. They never
vary, and while their observance may
not turn mute young woman into a
thrilling conversationalist, 1t will make
of her soothing companion whose So
ciety will be in great demand among
| her acquaintance.
The first conversational don't Is
don't talk about yourself. Don't re-
cite the litany of your likes and dis
| likes. Don't repeat what you said to
Name and what Name said to you
Don't tell the story of your life. Don't
recall your adventures when you went
| on your last vacation and omething
almost happened to the railroad train
or tell how you would have been run
down by an automobile If the driver
| hadn't stopped just in time.
1t is blighting blew to our vanity
to realize that not a human being on
| earth, except, perhaps. our mothers
| takes the slightest personal interest
in what has happened to us. nor yet
wants to hear about 1t. If you wish
| to get a line on Just how thrilled
other people are over your personal
narratives, reflect upon your own feel
ings when you have to spend two OF
| three hours listening to the dreary
| autobiogra ply of some other utterly
| commonplace person.
The second conversational don't Il
| don't talk about your family. People
take even less interest in your broth
ers and sisters, your cousins. aunts
and little nieces and nephews. whom
they have never seen and whom they
| pray to heaven they will never see
than they have in you
| Bores there are in plenty, but tht
greatest among them all is she who
tells perfect strangers all the detail,
| of her Aunt Maria's second husband.
Cousins stepdaughter's last illness
and how she left her PATCHWORK
| quilts to her Cousin AIMS Lucinda
when everybody knew they ought t.
| have gone to her brothers daughter
| Hannah Jane. or who draws upon g
! never exhausted stock of anecdotes OF
the cute things that her little sisters
| and brothers and nephews and cousin,
said and did. 1t is sheer brutality tc
! try to force them down the threats OF
| innocent and unoffending bystanders