Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-19

| the why thereof, the other chimes in
with a rebuttal or opinion, as the case
may demand. and the first thing they
know they are in the midst OF real
talkfest.
| Only by the expression of opinion on
both sides can any two persons hope to
get either benefit or real enjoyment out
of talking to each other. A book is es-
sentially a monologue: one had better
/ read well written article than talk to a
one-sided talker. 1t is with n book as
with a radio address, there is no come
back at the time, but only by cor
respondence later.
When two persons are talking face
to face, however, If they are doing 1t
| in friendly and normally civilized
manner, 1t is incumbent upon them,
! by all the laws of friendship and civili-
cation, TO listen gravely to what each
has to say.
Therefore persons who know them
selves to be addicted to the form of
conceit under discussion ought by all
means, it would seem. to restrain their
urge to do all the talking. They might
| learn something! There is just bare
possibility that the misguided soul be-
| fore them might have picked up a
few crumbs of information, or have
worth putting into words.
X X *
| 1t will be found that these piglike
takers usually have set of stock
opinions on various subjects which are
| by no means subject to amendment.
Just how or where they got them is
often mystery. But somewhere in
the course of life they have seized and
card-indexed ideas, many of them
crude. some of them silly. some of them
half-true, some entirely false, few
quite true.
These they parade forth with pride Of
ownership, as If daring any one to at
tempt to brush the dust Off them, or to
notice their of color. Yet in their own
hearts they are not SO sure about the
appearance of their darlings as they
seem, so they find 1t expeditions to
cover up as much as possible, and this
| they do by darting from one image OF
thought TO another as fast as they can
go. pell-mell. heller skelter and hell
nt-for-election, as the good Ameri-
canism has 1t. (The recent election
gave added meaning to the phrase.)
Perhaps the queerest thing OF all
| about this ne-sided talking which mas
querades as conversation is that all too
oiteI the HOW OF VerDlage is entirely
trivial. 1t glides from one topic to an
other too easily to pick up anything as
it goes along. and since 1t has been run
ming on for so long 1t has worn away
the few sturdy angles which it once
had. Now 1t is refined to the point of
| facility where it has lost most of It's in
terest except to the expert in charge.
| Mostly 1t Is old stuff.
1t is like Gilbert and Sullivan's min
strel, thing of shreds and patches.
made up of all the outworn ideas and
creeds which sensible people have for
gotten about.
When one Is bent on perpetrating a
joke one takes third person into the
secret, selects a number of topics, in
forms this third person just what the
answers will be and then starts the
| conversation with one OF these con-
versation hogs.
He will respond as an automaton
might through the pressing of certain
buttons. Gayly he shows his PAGES.
happy in the belief that he is creating
wonderful impression, when all the
time the other two are secretly laugh
ing ct him.