A NEW STUDY

Evening Star, Issue 22004, 13 April 1935, Page 2

A NEW STUDY

[Written by Mary Scott, for the ‘ Evening Star.’J

A suggestion has been made that we should establish schools for conversation; nothing to do with schools for scandal —on the contrary, for the idea is that wo have fax-gotten how to converse without scandal or flippancy. We can talk; admittedly this generation can probably get more into a sentence and discharge it more rapidly than any preceding one. The trouble is, according to our critics, that we don’t talk about anything worth while. “ People aro always worrying about our accent, the impurity of our vowels, the nasality of our tone; but they never worry about the poverty of our talk. If oijr speech were richer, if we cared more for what we said, we would probably say it better.” Thus Mr Vance Palmer, the Australian novelist, and on the whole I’m afraid we can’t deny that there is something in it. We do not belong to the leisured generation that sat and “ conversed ”; our dialogue is snappy and smart, but of a purely transitory and topical interest. That would not matter if only we could keep clear of personalities. Have you ever had the misfortune to be present at one of those afternoon parties where people don’t play bridge but just talk and eat? I was unwilling witness of one such orgy the other day, but if I was bored, our hostess was much, worse, for she is one of those rare creatures who love to talk of things and ideas, not of people; who can, moreover, find good in everything, and, which is admittedly harder, in everybody. Such an audience would, one imagines, have cramped the stylo of the gossip mongers, but eventually they bore her down by weight.of numbers, by sheer garrulity and loudness of voice, so that she sat back exhausted and beaten while the waves of scandal broke over her small and humiliated head. Not being so kind and tolerant as she, I cannot pretend that I suffered as acutely, but I thought it an ugly exhibition and an extraordinary way to spend a lovely autumn afternoon. Not that I wish to assume such, gossip an inevitable accompaniment of tea and cakes, but I do think, we are all too prone to talk about people, and, once we begin, it is so much easier to be witty and caustic about out fellow creatures than to be merely kind. We have no intention of being cruel, but later, in silence and alone, in that chill wisdom and introspection that comes in the night watches, wo are often appalled to realise how our own words have added fuel to the flame that so easily destroys a reputation. “ If we don’t talk about our friends, what is there to talk about? ” a bright young thing protested to me lately. Really, quite a number of things. I have never been an admire* of heavy conversation at parties, nor do I teel that world subjects at the present moment of slumps, war rumours, and revolutions, present the light and palatable fare calculated to make your guests go merrily home. But one may talk of books without being learned, of pictures without being highbrow of animals without being rustic of Nature without being tiresome. Then there are the hundreds of topics of daily interest, little happenings that may all have their place in our talk; net that I am one of the conscientious _ who would exclude personalities entirely, rigidly banish all people from our conversation; I was never fond of a gallery of still-life pictures: a touch of humanity gives light rebef--provide<l always we remember to keep it a touui and to keep it light. Nor would I for a moment advocate a return to the “ conversing ot our grandmothers’ day; I don t like long sentences, neatly rounded periods, ex-cellently-worded phrases strewn about the drawing room; not that ye need fear such a revival, for the brave man who tried to talk like Gladstone would probably be exhorted to “ step on it, or even to “ spit it out, old man, in the irreverent way of our < young, moderns. Yet we might still improve our conversation very materially without reverting to the Victorian tradition, and this truth is brought home to ns when we are fortunate enough to meet, as we still may occasionally, a man or woman who is a brilliant and witty conversationalist. Perhaps we might discover enough of this almost extinct species to found those schools which one paper seriously advocates. They would be vastly entertaining places, these academies of conversation, and it is not only the younger generation that might profit from a. course there. I should love to see a classroom full of bright young things all being instructed in, table talk, in topics for the- drawing room, conversation suited to the vicar's call, to Great-aunt Anna’s visit, and to" the children’s hour. Some subjects, we imagine, would be thoroughly exploited, made the medium of numerous lessons; others would he entirely taboo. What would you personally like, of all the current coinage of conversation, to declare definitely illicit? We would all, I imagine, have our little list; personally, I would put illness first, for 1 dislike “ organ recitals,” detest operations, and shudder away from symptoms. Those subjects never encouraged any but unwholesome fancies and fears, nor ever sent any listener the happier to bed. Second on mv list I would put the slump and other" people’s admirable economies. I know all I ever want to about slumps, and other women’s excellent management only makes me irritable; my own is quite enough for me. Let ns put money back into the despised niche it occupied in grandfather’s time when it was “ a thing gentlefolk didn’t discuss in public, my dear.” Rolations-in-!aw I would put high on my prescribed list, admitting them only for occasional light relief. Cooking and recipes, appearances and film stars J would not absolutely forbid, but, like parsnips, I would have them served up only occasionally, remembering always that they are not to every man’s taste. Religion and politics were amongst the things not for public discussion ill our grandparents’ day, but I must confess to a plebeian interest in the views expressed on those subjects by a variety of people. Other women’s clothes may be touched on—will certainly he until all that is left to talk about is the cut of an angel’s wing—but not minutely dissected, seam by scam, nor priced, whether as exclusive models or as remnants; and the same discretion must bo applied in the discussion of such cults as vegetarianism, hnmanitarianisrn, nudism, and spiritualism. The weather remains a present help in time of trouble, but the rule should be laid down that it must he handled with an apologetic and humorous touch. Ancestors must not be considered “ comme il faut ” for anecdotal' purposes, unless they ' are amusing eccentrics or have committed some really picturesque crime. Rrohloms there would, of coarse, be for all the pupils to solve. “How to discover, oh first meeting a perfect stranger and without asking one direct question : (1) Occupation ; (2) income; (3) religion; (4) domestic circumstances; (n) intellectual leanings, if any.” “ How to refuse a pressing ,but