The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-06-29
WHAT THE TRAINED EYE SEES.
Little Things That Make the Panorama
OF Life Interesting.

Little Things That Make the Panorama
OF Life Interesting.
Robert H0udin, the Straightforward man,
once said that he owed much Of his success
to his persistent cultivation of the faculty
of observing ordinary ,hngs. He cultivated
this by watching people as he passed them
on the street, by noting the details of diff
ference. He said that he finally got so pro-
fcent that he could glance az a shop window
on passing it and tell everything in it
even to details of construction of the
small articles, as the pattern of a chain
in a jewelers. window, for instance.
In ad ditlOn to its mental training this OBJ
serving Of details has more attractive side.
1t fu finishes amusement and makes an or
binary going forth for business or pleasure
veritable Tip to wonderland. III you will
take the trouble to inquire into the matter
you Will be surprised to find how little psO-
pie, even women, see what is going on about
them. Women are always mentioned as
alert and infallible observers. As matter
of fact they observe very little outside of
the details Of other wOmen's hats and gowns.
And they 90 not observe these as much as
they get credit for doing as any dresSmaker
or milliner can tell.
You will notice this difference in obser-
walton in the conduct of people in the eleva-
ted trains. One man, sitting in corner
peerlng over his newspaper, Will suddenly
laugh. He has seen something to amuse
him in some person IN the car or in some
window the ear has just passed. Now
others have been looking in the same direc-
ton as he, but have seen nothing to laugh
at
The truth is they did not see what he saw
They were looking at il. But they were
looking with eyes unframed for details.
The small, i0cOngruouS 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 sense of humOT, but simply lack Of
observation.
In any crowd that jostles along the side =
walks of Broadway there are thousand
peculiarities Of dress and manner, a 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 dim way.
They do not think of separating { further
into details than pretty or ugly, handsome
or uDattractVe. And in that way they miss
almost all the life and beauty and interest.
They see, but at the same time they do not
see. And they forget that all the fun and
all the shadow that writers put into print
for them to read are but faint reflections of
the fun and shadow of the panorama of life
which is around everybody.
The color of bOOtblack'S shirt, the cut of
a working girls gown, the ways in which
women 90 their hair, the kind of eyebrows
and eyes, expressions OF faceS-ail these
things may be observed and noted in such a
way that score of other things, unnoticed
before, will be opened 20 view. The more
this minute and careful observation is cul-
uvated the more entertaining and prOfita bic
too, ii becOmes.-N. Y. Sun.