THE PASSION OF TALK.

Evening Post, Volume VIII, Issue 310, 4 February 1873, Page 2

THE PASSION OF TALK.

Everj now and then a man who may be dull enough prevailingly has a passion of talk com© over Mm which makes him eloquent and silencs the rest. I lia\e a great respect for these divine paroxysms, these half-inspired moments of influx, when they seize one whom we bad not counted among the luminaries of th« social sphere. Pnt th -» tuan who can give us a fresh •xi '»'uc? on anything that can mii ten- hus overrides everybody else. A great, peril escaped makes a great stoty teller of a common person enough, I remember when a certain vessel wni

wrecked long ago, that one of the survivors told fche story as well a* jOt-foo could have told tt. ' Never a word from him before ; never a word from him since, • Bat when ifc cotnes to talking one's thoughts — those that come arid go as the breath does ; those that tread the mental areas and corridors with steady, even footfall, an interminable procession ¦of overy hoe and garb — there are few, indeed, that can dare to lift tbe curtain which hangs before the window in the breast and throw open the window and let us look and listen. "We are all loyal enough, to our sovereign when he shows himself, but sovereigns are scarce, >I never saw the absolute homage of listeners but once, that I remembety tq a man's common talk, and that was to the conversation of an old man, illustrious by his lineage and the exalted honours he had won, whdse experience had lessons for the widest, and whose eloquence had made the boldest tremble, — Oliver Wendell Holmes,

The Nouyelle 'Press© 'Libra has an advertisement; which runs; a» follows : " A young man of twenty-five, well brought up, and of good family, wishes to be adopted as a prince by a for Sign or natire prince. ' AcUlress/ Filis adopfci, &c," : , .-.,,,., " What is the meaning of ex nihilo nihilfit 1 ?^ askect a; Highlandm* of a village schoolmaster, " Weel Donald" answerecrthe domine, "I ctinna mind *• the literal translation,; .but it just 'means that ye canna tak' the breeks ofFV Highlandman/' '•'-¦¦ If yon don't want the soot, don't you go up the chimney, was the reply of a New York.eclitor ,to respectable parties who requested him not to mention the fact that they ' had been arraigned in the police courts. Division* of Labor, — Grandmamma \ " Yes, I've taken 3STeli out for a nice walk to the pastrycook's — and what did grandmamma • give ydtx, 'Nelly, dear 1 ?" Nell ;. "A nice Bath bun," Oraiidr.* .emma : " And what else 1 " Nell . . "No •.>: ag/' Grandmamma : " Wlmt, nov some nice cherry brandy?" Nell: " Well, I Bad the cherry and you had the brandy."