The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1891-07-18
WHAT THE TRAINED eye SEES.
Little Things That Make the Panorama
of LII. Interesting.


Little Things That Make the Panorama
of liz Interesting.
Robert Houdin, the sleight- of-hand
man, once said that he owed much Of
his success TO his persistent cultivation
of the faculty of observing ordinary
things. He cultivated this by watching
people as he passed them on the street,
by noting the details of difference. He
said that he finally got so proficient that
he could glance at shop window on
passing it and tell everything in it.,
even to details of construction of the
small articles, as the pattern of chain
in % jewelers. window for instance.
In addition to it's mental training this
observing of details has more attrac-
tive side. 1t furnishes amusement and
makes an ordinary going forth for bust
ness or pleasure a voritable trip to won.
derland. If you will take the trouble
to inquire into the matter you will be
surprised to find how little people,
even women, observe what is going on
about them. Women are always men
toned as alert and infallible observers.
AS Il matter of fact they observe very
little outside of the detail of other
womcn's hats and gowns And they
do not observe these as lnuch as they
get credit for doing, as any dressmaheI
or milliner can tell.
You will notice this differcuce in oh.
servation in the conduct of people in the
elevated trains. One man, sitting in a
corner peering over his newspaper, will
ct1l1nn1Nr ln,rrl, H. Lng
thing to amuse him in some person in
the car or in some window the car has
just passed. Now, others have been
looking in the same direction as he but
have seen nothing to laugh at.
The truth is, they did not see what he
saw. They were looking at it. But
they were looking with eyes unframed
for details. The small, incongruous
elements which make up humor had
escaped them. But if the laughing man
had told what he saw the others would
have laughed. 1t was not lack of u
sense of humor, but simply lack of
observation.
In any crowd that iostles along the
sidewalks of Broadway there are a
thousand peculiarities of dress and
manner, d score of incidents full of
humor or of that gentle melancholy
which refreshes like tears shed over a
novel. The people who are fond of
parading and seeing what is going on
are conscious of this crowd in only u
dim way. They do not think of sep
arating it further into details than
pretty or ugly, handsome or unattrac-
tive. And in that way they miss almost
all the life and beauty and intere ST.
They see, but at the same time they do
not see. And they forget that all the
fun and all the shadows that writers
put into print for them to read are but
faint reflections of the fun and shadows
of the panorama of life which is around
everybody
The color of bootblaclts shirt, the
cut of working girls gown, the ways
in which women do their hair, the kind
of eyebrows and eyes, expressions of
faces-all these things may be observed
and noted in such a way that score of
other things, unnoticed before, will be
opened to view. The more this minute
and careful observation is cultivated
the more entertaining, and profitable,
too, it becomes. N. Y. Sun.