_Conversational Hints_

 

Choose some subject that will prove of general interest to the whole group. Do

not explain the mechanism of a gas engine at an afternoon tea or the culture of

hollyhocks at a stag party.

 

It is not considered good taste for a man to bare his arm in public and show

scars or deformities. It is equally bad form for him to flaunt his own woes, or

the deformity of some one else's character. The public demands plays and stories

that end happily. All the world is seeking happiness. They cannot long be

interested in your ills and troubles. George Cohan made himself a millionaire

before he was thirty by writing cheerful plays. One of his rules is generally

applicable to conversation: "Always leave them laughing when you say good bye."

 

Dynamite the "I" out of your conversation. Not one man in nine hundred and seven

can talk about himself without being a bore. The man who can perform that feat

can achieve marvels without talking about himself, so the eternal "I" is not

permissible even in his talk.

 

If you habitually build your conversation around your own interests it may prove

very tiresome to your listener. He may be thinking of bird dogs or dry fly

fishing while you are discussing the fourth dimension, or the merits of a

cucumber lotion. The charming conversationalist is prepared to talk in terms of

his listener's interest. If his listener spends his spare time investigating

Guernsey cattle or agitating social reforms, the discriminating