|
How did Shakespeare come by the incident of the ship boy sleeping in the crow's nest during the storm? It can only have been in one of three ways. He read of it, or he heard of it, or he saw it (Shakespeare, Harcourt, Brace and Co., p. 5). That is the key to conversational background: one reads it, hears it, or sees it —- whatever explains or describes man and his world and all that creeps, swims, and grows in it. Where one gets it does not matter, but if one has much of it, one has the background for good conversation. The first symptom of a good conversationalist is that he knows a lot about his own vocation. He knows not only its skill, but also its history and lore. In Dallas, Texas, on the direct route to Little Rock, I asked a gasoline vendor the distance to the latter place. He did not know. Offering to look it up, he was overheard by another attendant, who said, "It's 340 miles. You'll be going through Tex-arkana, halfway between. There you will be farther from El Paso than from Chicago." He knew not only the price of gasoline at his station, but also his geography. A good conversationalist can always be depended upon to know a lot of assorted facts about his job, his place of work, and his associates. |
|||
|
