The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-08-31
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.
Conversational Repertoire.-2.

NOhNcTSdtEOildt
The third don't is don't talk
about your ailments Of course, the
real compensation of i'll health is that
it gives the. sufferer perfectly fasci-
mating subject to talk about. while an
operation sets one up in conversation
for life. But, as you are strong be
merciful. Just try to remember that
you are not the first and only person
who ever ran a temperature, or wres-
tied with a trained nurse or had an
appendix taken out, or was told by
doctor that yours was most remark
able case, and that you would have
died if he hadn't done so and so just
Most of us have been in hospitals,
and all of us have listened to tnvalids
and semi-invalids' monologue about
their symptoms until we were fiiied
with a burning and passionate regret
that they hadn't passed away while
under the influence of the ether. Just
remember that nobody cares anything
about the state of your liver. your
heart or your lungs. except yourself
and your doctor, and the doctors in
terest is purely mercenary. There
fore keep silent about them in gen
eral company. When you must talk
about your organs, tell 1t to your
physician. He is paid to listen and
will charge it in the bill
The fourth conversational don't is
don't tell your troubles. Nobody
| wants to have your grouches and com
plants unloaded upon them: Nobody
wants to hear all the details of your
quarrels with your friends or to listen
while you reel off the dreary story
of your fears and worries. Every
body has got their own STARE of mis-
fortune, worries and gloomS to think
about, and it doesn't add to the cheer
of the occasion to have yours saddled
on them, too.
eafd h0f t1ar
people lose their money they lose their
friends also, or that people are
dropped by their acquaintances when
bad luck comes their way. This is
attributed to greed and self-seeking
on the part of the false friends. But
| that isn't the real explanation. The
| real reason that people who meet with
financial or other misfortune are
dropped by their friends is that they
make themselves such bores. whining
and complaining over their personal
sorrows that their friends can't stand
them. and flee in self-defense.
The fifth conversational don't is
don't talk too much. Brevity is the
soul of wit and the secret of being con-
sidered a good talker. The most in
| tiresome If he or she talks too much.
The monologuist is. the prince of bores.
Conversation is not a solo. 1t is a
duet, a concert. in which every voice
present should be heard
Just remember this: that to every
human being alive the most interest
| ing person on earth is himself or her
| self. Each is more thrilled byNhe ac-
count of his or her smallest adven-
| ture than by the most romantic and
marvellous thing that ever happened to
anybody else. Each is more con-
| vulsed with mirth over the story he or
| she tells than by the most humorous
| joke perpetrated by another. There
| fore, give each his or her chance.
Hence, when in doubt in the CONVEX
sationai game, always lead trumps
Talk to every man and woman about
| themselves. and you can't go wrong.
Thus shall you acquire fame as an
| entertaining conversationalist.