![]() Today’s pressures, its headlong speed and hurry, argue letter-writing to be an expiring art. But these are almost always single great letters they do not predominate with even the greatest letter writers. Less frequent, but alone able to be great, are the letters- moving, enveloping, enlarging-dictated by deep purpose or emotion, inspired by crisis, ignited by events. Such varieties of subject matter, which are the brawn and marrow of most good letters, often constitute one of the lighter forms of literature at its best. It is easy to see why: whatever their century, they can bring us very close to things can trade in lively chitchat and anecdote, go in for confidences, tell more about the writer than they meant to tell, and, if they reach us from far-off times or places, convey the picturesque and parenthetical details that are elsewhere so hard to come by. And most people, if they do write letters, dash them off or dictate them seldom take the time, or have the time, to be interesting in what they say or engaging in how they say it.īut, though the fashion of writing letters may have ceased, surely the fascination in reading them continues. Press, radio, and television now broadcast news that letters once did much to supply. Where people once wrote letters, they now make long-distance calls. I saw the Prestcold mouth open for another piece of snappy repartee, and forstalled him by rapidly re-starting the cross-examination.LETTER-WRITING is commonly bemoaned as a lost art, for which explanations abound. This repartee was obliging and critical at the same time, and pointed out in a delicate and witty manner the untruth of my compliment. I was saying, before the happy event that reduced our number from ten to nine we were permitted to address our friend Pedagog in any terms we saw fit, and whenever he became sufficiently interested to indulge in repartee we were privileged to return it.īe careful for the future, or I might on my side, and only in jest like you, throw at your head some repartee which you have every reason to fear, and thus repay you with interest. In these wordless exchanges of repartee with his officers, Herbert Cryer was never bested. What Lord George Bentinck appreciated most in a parliamentary speaker was brilliancy: quickness of perception, promptness of repartee, clear and concise argument, a fresh and felicitous quotation, wit and picture, and, if necessary, a passionate appeal that should never pass the line of high-bred sentiment. ![]() ![]() Victor Radnor disposed him to rank the gift of repartee higher than a certain rosily oratorical that he was permitted to tell himself he possessed, in bottle if not on draught. President Johnson, however, behaved as an ordinary political speaker in a heated canvass, receiving interruptions from the crowd, answering insolent remarks with undignified repartee, and lowering at every step of his progress the dignity which properly appertains to the great office. The cunning politician Gama took me apart, and remarked that my repartees were too smart, too cutting, and that, after a time, I would be sure to displease. Once seated at their table, he learned that Rob and Kat Hupp had a contagious happiness about them that drew others into their clowning and repartee.ĬHAPTER XI REPARTEE AND PISTOLS Loge dropped his gaze to the pistol, and the smile upon his lips slowly turned into a sneer. He had a good appetite, could tell a good story without laughing, was celebrated for his witty repartees and his sociable manners, but he spent his life at home, seldom going out, and seeing hardly anyone because he always had a pipe in his mouth and was surrounded by at least twenty cats, with which he would amuse himself all day.Ī fine wit, an amiable and learned man, celebrated for his quick repartees, Fontenelle could not pay a compliment without throwing kindness and wit into it. ![]() This repartee made everybody laugh, and the gentleman who had addressed me came and embraced me, not in the least offended.
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