Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1877 — A Dinner-Party Offense. [ARTICLE]

A Dinner-Party Offense.

At a moderate-sized dinner-party, offense is usually given in the following manner: Usually it is wished that each man should converse as much as possible, and do his best to make himself agreeable; but should a lion have been invited, the talkers are expected to convert themselves into listeners for the occasion. Wo to them if their blabberings, usually so welcome, should have the effect of smothering the wise utterances of the great man! Lions have a tendency to become taciturn unless they can monopolize thp conversation. At London dinnerparties, where so many new faces are constantly met with, it is very possible to be ignorant of the presence of a lion, since the exterior of these animals is frequently commonplace in the extreme. But should the unhappy diner-out, having discovered on»such an occasion that his rapid flow of small talk was extremely unwelcome, proceed, the next night, at another party, where no celebrity is present to behave as he ought to have done the evening before, he will find to his cost that he has just jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire, and a bad mark will be set against his name at both houses. Still, on the whole, perhaps at most London dinner parties, the curt saying of St. Francis de Sales proves true, that “there is nothing so like a wise man as a fool who holds his tongue;” especially, let us add, if he tastes of every dish and drinks of eveiy wine.— Home Journal.