--
* I have never been a smoker and have always eschewed tobacco,
cigarettes, etc.; though for a short while to oblige friends
I occasionally accepted a cigarette, now I firmly refuse
everything of the sort.
--
Pleasant conversation at the dinner table is always enjoyable,
and a good talker is always welcome, but I often wonder why Americans,
who generally are so quick to improve opportunity,
and are noted for their freedom from traditional conventionalisms,
do not make a more systematic use of the general love of good conversation.
Anyone who is a witty conversationalist, with a large fund of anecdote,
is sure to be asked by every dinner host to help to entertain the guests,
but if the company be large the favorite can be enjoyed by only a few,
and those who are too far away to hear, or who are just near enough
to hear a part but not all, are likely to feel aggrieved.
They cannot hear what is amusing the rest, while the talk elsewhere
prevents their talking as they would if there were no interruptions.
A raconteur generally monopolizes half the company,
and leaves the other half out in the cold. This might be avoided
if talkers were engaged to entertain the whole company during dinner,
as pianists are now sometimes engaged to play to them after dinner.
Or, the entertainment might be varied by engaging a good professional reciter
to reproduce literary gems, comic or otherwise. I am sure the result
would bring more general satisfaction to the guests
than the present method of leaving them to entertain themselves.
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