Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-10-12
The Man Who Knows Everybody.

EVERY one, we presume, knows man
who knows everybody. BY affinity, it not
by blood, he is own brother to the man
who knows everything; but he is vastly
more entertaining and companionable fell
low; he is pound to be clever and agreea-
BILE, and, above all things, sympathetic, or
he would not know everybody, To know
many people argues the possession OF sew
eral excellent qualities, such as tact, anna
bility, unselfishness, magnetism. A man
may have these, to be sure, and yet not
know everybody To do that he must
have sort of genius, genius for socia-
bility. This is not perhaps lofty gilt,
and we should say not rare one, but
under most circumstances 1t Is pleasant
gift.
The man who knows everybody differs
in one respect from the man who knows
everything; he is not dispenser Of what
goes under the head of useful information !;
he is not eternally setting his fellow-man
right in the matter of statistics, history,
geography and philology. He is not nee.
essarily well-read man; his gossip is not
born of books; people and not things are
his specislty. He is generally person of
middle age, for his knowledge is of kind
| which is gained only by time and expert
ence; he has Travelled much; indeed, he
is travelling perpetually. The Wandering
Jew Of the legend is not more uneasy
spirit. You will find him--we are speak
ing of the American type-at Baden Ba
den in the height of the season and after
the season is over; he is smoking chi
boque in Constantinople he is stopping
temporarily at the best hotel In London !;
he is at every well known watering place
in the world; he is on all the trains and
steamboats, going everywhere, and never
misses being passenger in every old stage
coach that is numbering along some out
of the way road. If chance takes you to
an unheard of, one horse hotel in the lone
liest part of New England or in the
Southern States, you will find the man
who knows everybody sitting on the porch
waiting fol you as if by appointment. He
is the first person that salutes you on your
like Robinson Crusoe, on an uninhabited
island, you would discover his footprints
on the beach before you had time to dine
upon the toothsome varieties of mollusks
which always throw themselves providen.
TALLY and with remarkable precision at
the feet of shipwrecked mariners.
AS general thing he is a pleasant per-
son to meet His varied knowledge of all
your friends and their antec dents render
him especially agreeable if you encounter
him in foreign land. To say he is like
letter from home is to describe him feebly.
He is like whole postoffice of letters.
BY virtue Of his familiarity with persons
and affairs connected with your own
sphere, he becomes in a few minutes an
old old friend of twenty years standing.
But though he is communicative to the
last degree, and seemingly as open as day.
light, certain sort Of mystery invariably
attache itself to him. It is not clear how
he has had the time and opportunity to
know such multitude OF people. A man
IN mercantile or professional life is neces.
sarlly brought in contact with numerous
persons; but, after all, he moves in mar
row circle; he is constantly meeting the
sane or the same kind Of man. H docs
not get out of his own SCI. Like the so.
ciety OF small town, the society Ct the
great world is divided into cliques, innu.
merable circles revolving around each
other, but seldom or never touching. Now
the man that knows everybody DOES not
appear to be under the same limitations
IS other folk. He has managed somehow
to swing round many circles, counting his
acquaintsnces in every grade of life, from
the humblest to the highest Our friend
is not o be COMPOUNDED for an instant with
Che social bore who thrasts himself in
everywhere, and is only tolerated. The
man who knows everybody is welcome,
And, indeed, he deserves TO be cheris she'd.
lie is proof that human ma ure is better
than we think it is. He either sees il with
clearer eyes than other men, Or else he
brings to the study heart full of Chris
tian charity He knows everybody and is
not disgusted.-Eoery Saturday.
NEYT To Rafheah;ld Al