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Show natural for the people to concentrate on con-venation con-venation as an outlet for their craving for self expresslon.Conversation became an art, despite Its conventional formality. Then, too, there were no entertainments such as radio and movies In those 1 days; Books were scarce, newspapers and magazines few. People Peo-ple didn't have much to do, except talk, In spare time. News and exchange of ideas had to be mostly by the talk route. Small wonder they were able to become conversational artists. The voluble talker is rarely Interesting, but he at least can distribute words like the spray from a bug gun. As time goes on conversation In America Is doomed steadily to become less and less an art. Speech itself also will steadily drop out of use. This Is Inevitable because modern means of communication are making It easier to communicate com-municate by the eye than by the ear. Where a manager used to open the door and call out Into the factory, he now turns to his stenographer stenog-rapher or talks a "memo" Into the wax record machine. - ' Some critics think we write too much, in average life. But they are wrong. We have to write as much as we do (nearly, at least) because we talk less. Then, too, average mentality Is rapidly becoming keener, and fewer words, either printed or spoken, are necessary to conevy an idea and make it comprehensible. In days not long past a man would say to his friend.?-'Did you-observe. when we were talking to William, right after I said so-and-so, he did a peculiar thing?" . , etc., etc. ; Now the man raises one eyebrow and says to his pal, "Did you get that?" Telepathy thought transference by a semijadlo route is coming Into general use, crude and limited at present, but the .forerunner .fore-runner of something greater to come. . j . Rag Chewing . r0 YOU talk entertainingly? When you U begin speaking do the others v"hush up" and listen with Interest? Ed Howe, Kansas country town philosopher, thinks the only reason rea-son any one ever listens to- other people's talk is because he knows ItH be , his turn next The art of good conrersation Is waning in our country, says Dr. Henry Van Dyke, professor pro-fessor of English literature at Princeton. He blames, principally, fast talking. The early white generations In America developed conversation into an art It wu a natural development To start with, few of thert could read fluently or write legibly. Io remote communities In particular the clergyman clergy-man did the writing for his flock, keeping the social records. The storekeeper and schoolmaster school-master helped make out the business records and wTlte the occasional . letter to relatives and friends back in civilization. , With writing and reading difficult it was |