Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-06-06
CONVENTIONAL sHAMs.

CONVENTIONAL SLAMS.
Oaasanulaassa which Keeps the Social
weird IN state u Peaoe.
Nobody likes to be charged with in
sincerity; Jet who Is entirely sincerel
It Is one Of the conventionalisms Of So
ciety that IT. members shall seem TO
believe statements and professions
which they know or suspect to be
false II Il another that they shall
pretend not 20 SEQ and hear . thou
sand things of which only the blind
and deaf could be really unconscious.
This general discrimination comes from
q tacit understanding. whereby the
world consents. for the sake Of peaos
and quietness. to recognize false pre-
lenses IS part and parcel Of the
amenities of social life. A man abso-
lutely and Internationally sincere is q
very rare specimen of civilized hu.
mainly. and, had We moral museums.
would deserve the same prominent
position in one of them that is &C
corded to q calf with two heads, or a
sheep with an extra leg, in a collec-
ton of natural curiosities. Such
man, going at large. is looked upon
by his more polite fellow-beings with
disgust and horror. as q boor and
brute; and really. in the existing state
of things, he is nuisance.
1t is not necessary at all times to be
vociferously candid; though it is wrong
to be at any time positively untruth-
full. Silence is natural privilege. and
if teller of incredible stories chooses
to consider it token of assent, that
is not the fault of the courteous listen
or who keeps his opinion to himself
Although it might be wrong to tell the
Munchausen you believe him, it is not
the part of a Christian gentleman to
give him the lie direct. To seem not
to hear remarks which are intended to
annoy you. is species OF negative in.
sincerity which is in many cases COM
mendable. 1t disappoints and battles
the insulter, and prevents a profitless
war of words. Such discrimination
may be the means of preventing
breach of the peace; and the ''easier
way is the best when the other way
is not imperative.
Were we all to express freely and
without reservation our views of each
other, the world would soon be one
wide battlefield. and mankind in the
anarchical condition which we are told
is Immediately to precede the end of
all sublunary things. 1t is. therefore,
essential to the preservation of peace
and order-nay, to the very existence
of the human species that we be not
over candid Sometimes, however,
outrage draws the cork of ones indig-
nation, and fierce torrent of sharp
truths comes Kissing forth. This. too,
is according to the eternal fitness of
things" In the social as in the physic-
al atmosphere. thunder and lightning
are indispensable now and then. The
best feelings of human nature would
utterly stagnate in a perpetual calm
of conventionalities. An occasional
row is therefore wholesome.
But such explosions, whether indi-
vidual or general, are after all excep-
tional. The normal condition" of
society is condition of peace, or per-
haps it would be more proper to say of
suppressed war-the suppressive agent
being that kind of prudence which in
duces us to play blind and deaf and
dumb. when to see and hear and speak
would set us by the ears with our
neighbors Not one of us, from the
minister to the hardest Christian OF
the crowd, says all he thinks. In fact.
it is only occasionally that one finds a
man who thinks all he says.-N. Y.
Ledger.