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bye."
Dynamite the "I" out of your conversation. Not one man in nine hundred and seven can talk about himself
without being a bore. The man who can perform that feat can achieve marvels without talking about himself,
so the eternal "I" is not permissible even in his talk.
If you habitually build your conversation around your own interests it may prove very tiresome to your
listener. He may be thinking of bird dogs or dry fly fishing while you are discussing the fourth dimension, or
the merits of a cucumber lotion. The charming conversationalist is prepared to talk in terms of his listener's
interest. If his listener spends his spare time investigating Guernsey cattle or agitating social reforms, the
discriminating conversationalist shapes his remarks accordingly. Richard Washburn Child says he knows a
man of mediocre ability who can charm men much abler than himself when he discusses electric lighting. This
same man probably would bore, and be bored, if he were forced to converse about music or Madagascar.
Avoid platitudes and hackneyed phrases. If you meet a friend from Keokuk on State Street or on Pike's Peak,
it is not necessary to observe: "How small this world is after all!" This observation was doubtless made prior
to the formation of Pike's Peak. "This old world is getting better every day." "Fanner's wives do not have to
work as hard as formerly." "It is not so much the high cost of living as the cost of high living." Such
observations as these excite about the same degree of admiration as is drawn out by the appearance of a
1903-model touring car. If you have nothing fresh or interesting you can always remain silent. How would
you like to read a newspaper that flashed out in bold headlines "Nice Weather We Are Having," or daily gave
columns to the same old material you had been reading week after week?
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Give a short speech describing the conversational bore.
2. In a few words give your idea of a charming converser.
3. What qualities of the orator should not be used in conversation.
4. Give a short humorous delineation of the conversational "oracle."
5. Give an account of your first day at observing conversation around you.
6. Give an account of one day's effort to improve your own conversation.
7. Give a list of subjects you heard discussed during any recent period you may select.
8. What is meant by "elastic touch" in conversation?
9. Make a list of "Bromides," as Gellett Burgess calls those threadbare expressions which "bore us to
extinction"--itself a Bromide.
10. What causes a phrase to become hackneyed?
11. Define the words, (a) trite; (b) solecism; (c ) colloquialism; (d) slang; (e) vulgarism; (f) neologism.
12. What constitutes pretentious talk?
"1_1_32">CHAPTER XXXI. MAKING CONVERSATION EFFECTIVE 204
The Art of Public Speaking
"1_2">APPENDICES
"1_2_1">APPENDIX A. FIFTY QUESTIONS FOR DEBATE
1. Has Labor Unionism justified its existence?
2. Should all church printing be brought out under the Union Label?
3. Is the Open Shop a benefit to the community?
4. Should arbitration of industrial disputes be made compulsory?
5. Is Profit-Sharing a solution of the wage problem?
6. Is a minimum wage law desirable?
7. Should the eight-hour day be made universal in America?
8. Should the state compensate those who sustain irreparable business loss because of the enactment of laws
prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks?
9. Should public utilities be owned by the municipality?
10. Should marginal trading in stocks be prohibited?
11. Should the national government establish a compulsory system of old-age insurance by taxing the
incomes of those to be benefited?
12. Would the triumph of socialistic principles result in deadening personal ambition?
13. Is the Presidential System a better form of government for the United States than the Parliamental
System?
14. Should our legislation be shaped toward the gradual abandonment of the protective tariff?
15. Should the government of the larger cities be vested solely in a commission of not more than nine men
elected by the voters at large?
16. Should national banks be permitted to issue, subject to tax and government supervision, notes based on
their general assets?
17. Should woman be given the ballot on the present basis of suffrage for men?
18. Should the present basis of suffrage be restricted?
19. Is the hope of permanent world-peace a delusion?
20. Should the United States send a diplomatic representative to the Vatican?
21. Should the Powers of the world substitute an international police for national standing armies?
"1_2">APPENDICES 205
The Art of Public Speaking
22. Should the United States maintain the Monroe Doctrine?
23. Should the Recall of Judges be adopted?
24. Should the Initiative and Referendum be adopted as a national principle?
25. Is it desirable that the national government should own all railroads operating in interstate territory?
26. Is it desirable that the national government should own interstate telegraph and telephone systems?
27. Is the national prohibition of the liquor traffic an economic necessity?
28. Should the United States army and navy be greatly strengthened?
29. Should the same standards of altruism obtain in the relations of nations as in those of individuals?
30. Should our government be more highly centralized?
31. Should the United States continue its policy of opposing the combination of railroads?
32. In case of personal injury to a workman arising out of his employment, should his employer be liable for
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