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Show LONG-WINDED BORES FEW STORY-TELLER8 KNOW WHEN TO QUIT. General Forgetfulneas of the Faot That "Brevity It the Scul of Wit" Widow Dedott a Good Example. "A llttlo pmty of us tho other night nt one of the clubs endured nn Infliction Inflic-tion In tho shapo of n story teller who did not know when to quit," said n inrmber of ono of tho prominent New York cIiiIih. "If ho had boon nblo to mnko n serial of his nnrratlve, with tho thrilling points nt tho chapter chap-ter ends nml given It In broken doses, one or two chapters nt n time, his stoty might not hnvo been bo hard to endure, but tho ttouhlu was Unit ho bad to tell It nil nnd nil about It, mid us ho wiib n man whom no ono wimld caro to offend, his listeners wero outwardly plncld nnd Inwardly profane. "Memory for detnll Is an excellent thing to have If ou nro In a business Involving n Brent many Htnnll matters, mat-ters, nnd, Indeed, most callings nro of this chnrncter, btit tho innn or woman wliosu memory Is so tenacious that It brings up by nssoclntlon a host of particulars clustered inund nn ovent, nnd IiibIsIs on telling them nil, liono of tho worst nulsnnces known to society. so-ciety. In 'Plush Times In Mississippi,' Mississip-pi,' nn old bucik of southern river stories, sto-ries, tbero Is n chnrncter ondowed with such n momory nnd his ncqunlnt-nncea ncqunlnt-nncea sometimes Indicted lilm on n nowcoiner b Inducing him to tell tho 'enrthquaku story.' Tho principal fen-turo fen-turo of this nnrrntlvo wns tho fact Hint nobody bad ever heard tho end of It, for there were bo muny llttlo stories sto-ries hnnglng to It that bad to bo told first, nnd the nnrrutor wandered out of tho main road Into so ninny devious devi-ous paths nnd byways Hint something atwnys happened to break off tho story before the denouement was renched. Wlillo the ynrn wns progressing the company would slip out one by ono ami leave tho stranger to his fate. "Tho Widow Iledott Is a llrst-clnss oamplo of o.,e of tbso particular memories nt its best, or, rnthor, worst, for slio could not toll how tho Into lamented said 'Wo mo nil poor critters' crit-ters' without also telling about n thousand other things thnt occurred to her while Jogging along toward tho end of her Jo-irney. ".Most of us li.io Widow Ilcdotts In our own acquaintances, home of us huvo heard stories like tho earthquake earth-quake story, but nobody over listened long to n Widow Iledott or the teller of n never ending story without wondering won-dering how peoplo like theso ever got through llfo nt all, or how they succeed suc-ceed In telling anything. Tho fault Is o. of men'al perspective; to them all occur-ences nro of equal Importance, Impor-tance, nil objeclB are of tho samo size and so they find It Impossible, to mnko n (.election, ami try to toll over) thing." |
