Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-05-31
HOW TO AVOID BEING A BORE.

While listening TO the tedious converse
ton of some dull and stupid individual
did YOU ever experience a chilling OF your
extremities, accompanied by a gone
feeling at the pit of your stomach, as you
suddenly wondered If you were as great
bore to other people as he, or she, is to
you?
1t is fearsome thought and one calcu-
lated to blanch the cheeks of the boldest,
for there is not one of us who, IN our
secret souls, would not rather be arralgned
at the bar of public opinion for any crime,
from murder TO chicken stealing, ra,her
than to be charged with being bore.
Moreover, the mischief of the matter IS
that we can never, really be certain
whether we are bores or not. We may be-
believe. and trust, and pray that we are
not borcs but we can not positively know.
We cannot make personal test for we are
all sreil-binders and fascinating to our
selves.
Nor can we accurately gauge our reac-
ton on Others because convention has
taught us TO do the Spartan boy stunt and
emile, and smile, and appear diverted
while our very vitals are being gnawed by
BY the tedious, and we are suffering IN
credible agonies of ennui.
We have even been taught to camou-
ffsge our sentiments so well that when az
last, IN answer to our fervent, silent peti-
tions TO Heaven for deliverance, the bore
finally rises to depart we urge HIM, or her
to stay longer and 10 come again and re-
peat the torture.
Therefore, unless people actually yawn
In our faces, we have no means of knowing
whether they are weary unto death of us,
or are hanging enraptured on our words.
This being the case the only safe thing
to do is to regard ourselves with suspicion
as ono who might, could, or would become
bore, and to take every possible precau-
ton against being innocently betrayed
into becoming one of these dread scourges
of our fellow creatures.
The first, and one of the most important
prevention measures to be taken Is to
make short visits, and TO administer our
sociery TO our friends and acquaintance In
broken and homeopathic doses Per-
haps in this one thing is comprised the
whole of the law and the prophets as re-
CARDS not being q bore.
For human nature is so constituted
that it can stand almost any affection for
short time. II is only when the suffering
is long drawn out that it breaks down
nerves and becomes uncomfortable.
Hence as long as we stick to the pop
in-and-pop-out method Of calling, we need
never fear but what we will be welcome
guests. The individual everyone breads
to see is he who stays and stays and
presses along until you feel like screaming
with boredom Brevity is said TO be the
soul Of wit 1t is certainly the secret OF
popularity, and first aid in the prevention
Of boredom.
II is literally true that anybody can be
entertaining for half an hour, and nobody
is brilliant enough to be entertaining for
three hours on stretch. ones own expert
ence abundantly proves this. Think Of
how merrily the first part Of a dinner party
goes. and how drearily the last part Re
member how you chartered away at high
speed with Jones for the first hour Of his
visit, and what hard going the secondhour
was to find something to talk about! Re
call how interesting you thought Mrs.
Smith WAS when YOU first knew her, and
how dull you consider her now'
Apply this hardly won information
about others to yourself. Don't feed .peo-
pie upon Your society, but always keep
them asking for more. Condense what
ever You know that is amusing, interesting