The Evening was Passed Pleasantly

Have you ever wanted to travel back in time to 1889 Fall River and join an exclusive club for fifty cents? Well, you are in luck. I would like to present to you: “Conversation Class.”

In a time before radio, television, and other modern forms of entertainment, one would have to find novel and interesting ways to entertain themselves and others. In Fall River, the Conversation Classes were held on select Sunday Evenings at 7:00 p.m. According to the flyer, a paper was to be written on the topic of the week that would “introduce each conversation [but] are not to exceed thirty minutes in length and will be followed by a general interchange of views.”

As you can see, there was a plethora of diverse topics that could be discussed at great length. The Conversation Class was popular with the well healed, as the cost of membership was not cheap, excluding the average worker. Notice, too, the people on the list that hosted those “conversations” resided on “the Hill.”

If you were to hold a conversation class in 1889, what topics would you like to expand upon?