The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-05-31

Apply this hardly won information
about others to yourself Don't feedI
people upon your society, but always
keep them asking for more. concerns ii iE
teresting and unusual into one SINAI
compact bomb, and, having hurled IL
into the conversational midst, beat IL
away from thu spot. So shall you gam
the reputation of being entertaining ana
be sought for for dinner parties AND
at any rate, people VII forgive you
even II you do not scintillate, II you are
not a slayer and long winded.
The second precautionary measure
against becoming a bore is to avoid the
monologue habit. There are none whom
we hate and dread so much as those
listen enraptured to the sound OF their
own voices, while all the balance OF US
sit on pins and needles waiting Tor
chance to break in and try out our oYn
vocal organs.
Never forget that conversation Is
never a one man, or one woman, per-
Torrance, be the talker ever so learned
or have ever so interesting a thing to
relate. The conversation that everyone
enjoys is a game of give and take I'M
which each has share, for his oplnton
Is as dear to the dull man, and he lives
to air his views as well as the brilliant
man does.
If you would not be bore do not be
a conversation hog any more than you
would be road hog. Give way to the
other fellow And don't forget that in
any popularity contest the medal always
goes to the silent. The monologuist
hasn't a look-in.
Finally, if you would avoid being a
bore, refrain from talking about your
self and your family. This takes cour-
age, and an amount of heroic self-saC-
rifice that few people are capable of,
but it's the price of keeping out of the
class of those whose society makes us
very tired.
OF course, we are so thrillingly inter-
esting to ourselves, and everything that
happens to us is so much more impor-
tant than any other earthly happening
that we never really understand how it
Is possible for other people not to hang
with baited breath on the details of
JOhnnys Group. or the last bulletin from
the front in our perennial conflict with
the cook
Still many things exist in nature that
we never comprehend. and we may aC
cept it as a fact that no other human
being except our mothers takes more
than casual and languid interest in
our personal affairs, and that the sur
est way to become champion bore is
to discourse about them to others.
All of us know people who never see
us il we see them first, because well
we know that if W. meet they will fix
us with their glittnring eye while they
maunder on and O. about what wonders
their children are or what paragon of
a car they have got, or what phenOm-
email sweet peas they have grown, or in
flict upon us every detail Of whatever
business they are in, and what they
said to the boss and the boss said to
them.
And while we writhe in the clutches
Of such bores we marvel that they %
not know how much more wonderful ana
interesting are our children, and our
sweet peas. and our business and we
Just wait for a pause in the talk to chip
in with our story and to qualify in the
bore race.
For it takes great wisdom for us to
realize that Smith is more interested in
telling about his 40-mile railroad trip to
Suueedunk than he Is in hearing about
our trip around the world
But when we reach the point where
we put the lid on our own personal ex-
perienCe, and invite others to tell US
the stories of their lives, we are past
all need of worrying over the danger of
being bore. We have become a lis
tener, and no sympathetic listener was
ever a bore He, or she. is the one alb
sorhingly interesting companion OF
whose society we never get enough
Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler Syn.
dictate, lnCO