Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1886 — Don’t Overdo It. [ARTICLE]

Don’t Overdo It.

A glib tongue is not one of earth’s rarities, yet it is not every possessor of it that understands how to manage the jolly proprieties of table talk. To rattle through it with credit to himself and profit to his fellow-guests, he must know what and when to speak and how to take graceful advantage of any gap in the conversation—indeed, to prevent the occurrence of any. To do- this ■without the appearance of obtrusion or vanity or risking the reputation of a chatterer, constitutes the art of tabletalking. The dinner-giver—wo mean him who selects his guests with the knowledge that the success of his dinner will depend in a great measure upon their conversational powers—understands that it is not essential that all the company should be accomplished table talkers. Expedience does not always allow this, and, if it did, the result would not be entirely desirable. Good listeners, whether at the table or elsewhere, are as indispensable as good talkers, for, the jest or the story owes the life of its success more to the ear of him who hears than to the tongue that speaks it. ’therefore an overabundance of good talkers at a banquet would result in their being in each other’s way, and, like trees too thickly planted, the luxuriance of all would he lost. In a company of twenty, five ought to be sufficient “to set the table in a roar” and keep it there. —The Caterer.