TALKERS GOOD AND BAD.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7357, 9 July 1889, Page 2

TALKERS GOOD AND BAD.

By James Patn.

It is not unusual to find persons die. tinguished in other paths of lite—nay, even those who are justly recognised »s men of genius—very poor talkers. They hive up their sweet thoughts to put them in their books, and have no honey to spare for their companions; or "teaching the stare with their heads," the* are inconvenienced by stooping to us, and like a tall man walking with his little boy, abstain from conversation for that reason. Some of them, on the other hand, talk a *good deal* bet not well, though I have always though* that description of Goldsmith, "He wrote like an angel, bufc talked like Poor Poll," most have been an exaggerated one; he could never have been so very dull, for even In the deserts of talk in those at whom I am speaWng. there is generally an oasis or two, which betrays the real great, ness within, them. It is only that talk is not their forte, just as among whist-plajrers it is rarely the ablest- in general intelligence who playa toe best rubber. There are, of course, exceptions —men who ran through every mode of the lyre and are masters of •H. Charlea Dickens, forexample, w»* not only one o<

thft leaders, letter-writers, speaker"""" , , H best actors of hts time, but also acWn? 1 * H conversationalist. Considering S£?*« IP accustomed he was to take the M his confidence, and the immense temllr , «i ttons to which he must have been ffk 4 to address himself to the "gallery* &? talk was singularly natural, and when nn the theme of human life, unrlvallM ?* ty£»" Its interest. It is possible, however Vi & he would not have made a favourable lm '' pression on a five o'clock tea party. |* Women, Indeed, although they ha»« great reputation for " lifting " converL* :' tion, are torribl,' handicapped at It . "r have known only chree of the gentler *« \ who could honestly be placed in the fIS rank of talkers; nor is this to be WnJ dered at. I was once commissioned h» '■ very liberal and honourable firm to »3» $ a boys' story. It was not, at that Mm* i ' my line, as I confessed to them, but 7«? taiu persuasive arguments were medT which I yielded. Unhappily, aftwTiS consented, they wrote une a letter to warn mc that love, crime Hf * stage, reflections upon things in genera the supernatural, ana a long cateaorvT) § all the " properties " which had h?th«rt * formed my poor stock in trade nuwtK. $ carefully avoided. Never since th * Israelite was requested to make his brioS J without straw by his Egyptian mtatS * was ever employe so put to it Ti: \> bound to say that, though amply remind: - ; rated, that story did not turn out . % literary success. It was a dance— and In deed a " breakdown "—in fetters, i have always felt a great remorse as wt gards my relations with that admlmhW firm, but 1 also dropped a tear or two fn, myself. Think of "Hamlet" with not onW the Prince left out of it, but the effi My position on that unhappy occasion seems to mc similar to that of woman In conversation. Almost everything that h really interesting is tabooed to her Tn the '* best circles ' (which, thank Heaven I rarely enter) she is said to talk polities! I shall now go to ruy grave without heart mc her discourse upon that topic, butlfe will add no terror to death. Yet excent politics, how limited, as compared with man's view, are the topics of talc open to her. " Hear the ladies how they Walt pittle pattle, pittle pattle; hear the ladies how they talk, tittle tattle, tittle Ut&»!? writes a poet who treated them an In. famously m real life as in his verses; but how are they to help It? Suppose thfee" fourths of the subjects on which that cynic discoursed to hie trembling audience lv the coffee-house had been denied to Mm. what reputation as a talker would have survived him? I am not eoah boor, I hope, as not to have ielfc I the charm of woman's wit and geatiei ness and refinement; bat from Ike very nature of things woman is unable to speak with man with the openness that men use with one another. The meat ® interesting subject in the world, that oi % human nature, is to a great extent debarred from them, and religion is a mattet I their reverent natures shriuk from eH» I cussing. There is a cynical saying ttiat 1 women are not worth looking at after I forty, or worth talking to before; but as I regards freedom of con venation (a phrase I lam not using, I need not say, in its I coarser sense), a woman is generally much 1 older than that before she uses U with I mankind. Indeed, the most delightful f female talkers I have ever known have j been old women who have mixed, rnoeh i with the world, and whose sympathetic 1 nature has attracted the confidence of ; both nexes. A young man who has the intelligence to understand them and the I Elm, will prise such talk, and jUeuv, j above all others. ,

The raconteur is often described as a conversationalist, which however, hi either tnay 1 be or may not be. The man who is always saying, "That remlniiffjno of an anecdote," and proceeds to tell It, ie generally one to be avoided. Butt c story chat is short and well told and & prapet U always welcome; and thongh not the Halt of conversation, seasons it very agreeably. I have know excellent talkers of tn is kind, I and when they have been good liateueW, they were, to use an old-fashioned term, the best of "company;" but it is JuSrawback to many of these story-tellers tfcat they are inclined to monologue. Excited I by applause, they endeavour to cap their own anecdote, a most unnatural proceeding, by another, perhaps averyinferiorone. Indeed, it is quite amazing how often even ' a well-practised raoonfeuris dettituteofthe ! sense of proportion, and does not andw j etand the difference between what is I very good. The true possesses this sense in perfection. Hβ la j delicate and sagacious in the manner he ** handles those with whom he is broaah' into contact, as in his own behaviour. He persuades the diffident, if they are wortb hea.ring,_to speak, of their own subjects j he dexterously efcbpi the bore; b9 * TMtoer* ceptibly steers the bark of conversation from the shallow and the rapid, from the froth of email talk, and from; the breakers of argument. Yet no one Jriiows that he is the pilot. The gift, bo doubt, is born with him, and, like most other natural gifts, • can, be improved by practice far more than a generally imagined. On the other.hand, ft can be almost utterly lost through disuse. An Ariel can never, of coarse, become a Caliban; but I have known more than one bright spirit, through dull surroundings, to lower to the common level, till at last it has seemed to "sympathise with clay." So far as lam concerned, alas, they might all be clay—or dost

To some people It may neem c im&L thing to know that they shall never again hear a bird sing, or even ft strike; or to lose the conversation of their friends. But to mc the reflection H awry gad one. People who, like the old Marouta of Anglesea after Waterloo, have "one leg in the grave." can get on *«£ w«j with a cork or even a wooden one; butU Is not so when ones ears axe tnew. I Am thaiikfal to cay I aeTar ma a great play-goer, or I ehould _Iml another of the few pleMuree_left # ta those of my time of life cut oft, -iJW want toeee a play now (and how appropriate, alas, is that word see !} I must nave a seat next the orchestra, so that my com* panlon Iβ made almost as deaf a§ WmL Siren then, In five cases out jo£ stZj wn the honse fa " convulsed " I cannotJO£ Wβ life of mc understand what it is laugßJag about. People seem to be madotowtign much more easily than they urea tem> Some in the same unhappy po»ltioo~aamyself insist upon It that it I*s%** buffoonery" that tickles them so, befclag not so sure of that. Heavea knowe JJJO not grudge them their mirth. ButfttteUM to have to ask my patient, »**«„*>]•£ panion what has been said, and, wbil»JH» is telling mc, to the great|dlsconeenfc.« m neighbour, we lose the next epeeea &w perhaps the thread of the play.. A<te« man is always one speech at least behind the rest of the world; and to mc, •*!»»?' It makes a great difference. W » hope we get our hearing back, wftn su otfier good things we "»»•»♦ JjMjg: By the by, I wonder who ha* gotmj J*sr* Ingt Force of any kind, men <rf science teu* us, is never lost, but must BeeflMO somewhere or other. I hope "hfsoeTtf has my hearing, will have the came opportunities and make as good use of JM** did. What bright and genial ojtoggj what assurance* of love and ™WJ£ what wit and wisdom have *gggjs than "silver/and compared wiffi the silence that has befallen mc te toM* deed from "golden;" and shall never hear it more, how *nf g®*gs it seems! As the man who hMjwftJS sight pictures with thei mental eyes tMJ faces of his dear ones, so I oWjJ with the same tender sense rtj*fc~2 melancholy joy the convereation « m friends. • •■ l -' t Though depressed have no wish to depress others, 1 TO" always been for the smile agalnefc thf m> and do not grudge the world that UW may find jocose Tn my <^ mlt fc™ri£ the blind, the deaf ject of mirth to their just as the gout (to those wtoh-JJ* It> is a matter of neverfalUng latest humourous anecdotes ■&£*£%£ with my little drawbaclThftve been written out for mc by a Meoi .I» • g»£ he sometimes P™t«ided tobe, w^§f P » ~ to by a friend for »Jo»n. .JlSyfVilend mc half a eoverignt .„*,?%®J. "WUlyelend mc a said, just now, half a sovereign. -?«""■