Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1918 — THE ADMIRABLE HOSTESS. [ARTICLE]

THE ADMIRABLE HOSTESS.

Tact and talent are required to be a good entertainer. The qualities essential to make an admirable hostess are various, and it would be difficult eo say which is the most essential one. One indispensable quality of a good entertainer is to appear, and if possible, really to feel interested in the things that her visitors discuss. This quality is also a requisite of the fascinating and popular woman. However entertaining you may be, you should not lose sight of the fact that others may also want to air their talents in the conversational line, and you should give them a chance. There is nothing more exasperating, besides being downright bad form, as to listen in an abstracted, slightly Impatient manner, and begin at once your story before the words are fairly out of your visitor’s mouth. Listen attentively, interestedly, and do not show that you are waiting for one to finish. Another phase of impoliteness is to anticipate the point of an anecdote or to announce that you have “heard it before in a different way.” Such breaches are really unkindness, and would never be committed if you cultivated the faculty of putting yourself in the other’s place. You like attention; you like time to tell your story, and draw your point; you like appreciation of your stories, Why not accord to others these privileges? x While assuming an interest in others, do not also assume that others are interested in all that appeals to * you. If everybody followed this suggestion, the problem would be solved in a trice. It requires much tact and discrimination in selecting topics for all degreeis and shades of thought. Do not talk above the heads of people just to air your own ideas or display your language.. Many people do this to make an impression, but the impression they do make Is usually just the opposite of the one they expected to make.