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Not only must a good conversationalist avoid these himself, but he must not tolerate them in his company. His attitude ought to be that of the fellow who, when someone suggestively asked preparatory to his story, "Are there any ladies present?" answered, "No, there are not, but there are some gentlemen present." Samuel Johnson, asked why he often was so brusque, said that he found that the best way to squelch motions toward indecency in speech. I would beg the reader of this book, if a man, to make his standard that of fitness for his mother's ears, as brought out in the following anecdote, and if a woman, to hold her menfolks to this same standard. Joe E. Brown, according to his book, Your Kids and Mine,1 after entertaining in New Guinea with stories and jokes finally said, " 'That's all I know.' " Then there was "a little slit of silence and way back on the edge of the crowd a youngster shouted, 'Hey, Joe, tell us some dirty stories.' " Joe E. Brown continues: |
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