The Gentle Art of Gossip.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVII, Issue XXII, 30 November 1901, Page 1039

The Gentle Art of Gossip.

Mr \V. I). Howells recently declared that reading lias become for many p.ople a craze, even a vice, rather than an intellectual gain. Tiny read too much, too fast, too promiscuously, and they think and talk to i little. Such reading replaces u i dcsi i:' »l \ even gossip, which may be. and often is, a bad thing, but ought to I e. and can be, a good one. “Hood fiction.” Mr Howells asserts, “is only an exquisite distillation of human facts, which biography and history more and less attractively embody; and all three art* gossip <|c personalised by remoteness of time or place.” He adds that there is no reason why our own spoken gossip might not be such as to produce the effect of “all that is charming and edifying in these forms of literal ure.” Here is the opportunity for a new' fine art! Since we do, naturally, talk about our neigh bon rs. win not study how to do so fitly and finely, rather than intrusively and pettily? No manual of gossipry is yet published, but when “The Perfect Gossip” does issue from the press it will contain some advice quite easy to anticipate. Its first page will forbid prying, depreciation. malice and mockery. It will rccoimneiid the cultivation of charity and a sense of humour, the study of character, and of graceful and unexaggerated expression. < Titieisni it may tolerate as a wholesome social influence, but criticism will itself be criticised and discredited at the least suspicion of haste or ha rsh ness. Good and graceful acts. noble, charming or odd cha fact et s graphic ally pourt rayed, will be acclaimed among graduates in the* Gentle \rt; wise interpretation, generous excuse, delicate anpr: < mti- u will enrich their con\ ration. Light and worthless reading about imaginary people will have given place to bright and worths talking about real ones.