Evening star., 1932-04-29

One is not called upon to reply to
every remark made to him. Nor To
every question.
! This apparently simple fact is bit
of wisdom which thousands OF human
/ beings have never learned.
And mostly these persons are pre-
! cisely those who would benefit from
! such knowledge.
Their stumbling block has been ordi-
nary. every day politeness.
I Members of an older order of society
/ they we're taught years ago to respond
at once TO questions and to make every
! legitimate effort to keep conversation
going.
How the world has quailed before
| silence
II It is golden. as has been said. it is
so Cnly in the abstract. The ajority
OF men and women fear nothing more
| than a good. resounding silence. espe-
! ciaily when interposed between lively
! plays Of words
The moment a pause develops, every
one begins to feel i'll at eese. All look
at each other. not knowing what to say
but wishing that some one else would
say something, anything, TO break the
dread silence.
The moment tongue begins to clat-
| ter, though on matter Of no conse-
| quence at all, the party becomes ami
! mated again. and the dread feeling of
few moments ago disappears as II by
magic.
Yes, the human voice is magic, after
all.
! Not only has the orator been a ma
g!cian all these years. but the ordinary
man has been a sort of magician. too
in the Use of voice
He has been able to diSsipate by q
few words, that feeling of uneasiness
which besets body of people gathered
together. the moment silence falls.
| This is magic.
Is 1t because human beings are afraid
OF each other, while silent not knowing
| what may be brooding behind those
eyes. or is it simply because mankind
has talked so much that talk alone
seems natural to him?
1t is an excellent thing that oratory,
OF the old-school type, which used the
arts and artifices of the business. is not
| being permitted to vanish from the
earth. Several years ago a decided at
| tempt was made. in some quarters. TO
put forth the idea that talking over
| radio should be reduced to q sort of
monotony OF utterance, In which there
was TO be no rise or fall Of voice. no
attempt to influence hearers by an ap-
peal to their emotions.
Happily this influence has not been
widespread. and even over radio speak
erS seem to feel that the old human
spirit Is very much In evidence there
in the homes Of a million listeners;
that while theoretically 1t may be ad-
visable to put all speech making on the
cod. high plane of pure reasoning.
there still is legitimate place in the
world for the orator OF the old school
that grand old school which comes
, Gown to us from Demosthenes and be-
yond.
Often 1t takes a man till middle age
to learn the simple truth that some
times he is better of. and others are
better off, If he refrains from answering
| many remark.
That no doubt, was what the an
clents meant when they said, Silence
is golden
They also said that a soft answer
turneth away wrath: they might have
declared that no answer at all, in many
| cases, is an even better prescription.
There are several well known cases
In which every one realizes that no an
| swer is the best answer
In the first place, when the remark
comes from one Of these fellows whose
main ambition in life seems to be to
get something on" their fellow human
beings.
Often this happens under the barbed
guise of Joking" Such people have a
real ability at turning the remarks Of
others to their disadvantage, even If
they must go to the extent OF creating
that very disadvantage out of thin air.