THE ART OF CONVERSATION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 372, 24 June 1911, Page 2

THE ART OF CONVERSATION.

Many a girl, intelligent, educated, as our ideas go, is mortified by her lack of ease in conversation. She finds other girls, inferior in actual ability, ever ready in the shifting round game we call small talk, and is forced to the conclusion that shallowness is the passport to social favour. But she is mistaken. There is one great reason for this lack of conversational power ; in too many cases the art is never practiced inside the home circle. No attempt at pleasant converse is ever made save when visitors are present ; the various members of the family may gossip a little, or discuss purely personal affairs ; but they make no attempt at entertaining talk. In point of fact, the art of conversation is like a game of battledore and shuttlecock, one needs the quickness and dexterity of constant practice. Ir many busy households the only general gathering of the family is at mealtime —a time above all othen when worry should be banished, if only for the sake of physical comfort. Yet this is the very time when the mother will complain of domestic worry, the father of business cares, and the daughters of shabby frocks. All this should be changed ; it ought to be a rule in all households that disagreeables are to be banished at mealtime.

If complaints must be made let them come at a proper time ; but do not imperil your digestion by eating while you are in an irritated and discontented frame of mind. Pleasant talk,, relieved by an occasional laugh, will be more beneficial than pounds of pills. In the household there should not be only an avoidance of unpleasant topics, but an attempt to find agreeable ones. Each member of the family should come to the table prepared to say something pleasant. Any little story or merry joke, or any bit of the world's news that will loosen the tongues and cause animated talk—how it will increase the brightness of the working day ! Let the girls talk just a bit about gowns and chiffons if .the will; let the boys talk athlatics, for in this family Parliament everyone should have a right to be heard. But let the general range be of the newspaper order —what all the world is doing. It is far better to discuss the delinquencies of powers and potentates than of our neighbours ; and she who keeps herself acquainted with the doings of all great peoples and places cannot be provincial, however narrow her horizon. Now, there is one fact to note especially : the girl who wants topics for conversation must read the papers. The information thus gleanec is both timely and popular—just what ons needs in society. General information ftf a popular type is the prime requisite for easy conversation and when to this is added good temper and the ability to appreciate a joke, there should be no complaini of inability to talk with fluency and ease.