San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-10-10
Pe0SQu| People.

There is no dearth of smart people.
Every family, every little c~oterie, ev-
cry social group, every church associa-
ton, every club, every almost-anything
has it's smart member. The distinc-
ton is given to them without question,
if it be a distinction, with whatever OF
notoriety or honor attaches thereto
They are expected to say smart things
and keep up the reputation of the par
ticular clique to which they are attach
ed for smart sayings. This seems 10
be their particular mission in the world,
to make others laugh, and when they
have accomplished this they have full
filed their destiny. For a time they
are the life of their society, but after
a time they grow exceedingly tiresome.
1t is no easy role to assume, much
less is it an easy one successfully to
carry out. 1t is no light thing to be al
ways ready to say a smart thing, re-
CARELESS of your own moods and lenses.
A sober mood cannot be INDUCED in,
hardly a reflective one. Ones wits
must be eternally strung to the keen
est point of vibration and kept there
and like an overstrung harp, it soon
loses it's vibratory d~aintiness. To know
that you are expected to say the most
brilliant thing in a crowd is in itself
disheartening. The very feeling handi-
caps you. You are not permitted that
spontaniety and naturalness that is al
lowed your more common place chum,
and if you fail to rise to the level of
the general expectancy and come out
brilliantly they wan to know what ails
you.
Not only is it dispiriting, but it is de-
moralizing. This expectancy breeds
pertness. The smart child, whose say
ings are always repeated learns to look
for the praise that follows a sharp say
ing and studies to say them. Pertness
and sharpness in a child lie so closely
along the same parallel that it is hard
to draw the line between them. What
was sharp in the child of three or foul
years, is pert in the child of double his
age The habit grows on the little one
as the ear grow and the child is the
worse for it. Eating razors is not
wholesome. Sharp things prick and
wound, and sharp sayings are no ex-
ceptiOn. The weapon once recognized
and its power the temptation to use it
is increased. First on an enemy, then
too often on a friend.
There is a power in a sharp tongue
1t erves a thousand purposes. The
answer that shuts the lips of an enemy
or a reprover, leaving nothing to bt
said, is naturally coveted. 1t does no
take long for a child to learn hat PEG,
pie are afraid of it's tongue. The more
they are afraid the more that unrulJ
member is used. Then it is a conven
lent thing to have in school, when the
teacher calls to account, or a rival in
study or play is to be set down upon
hard. The young ladies grow to cul,
tivate its use in putting a smart-alicb
of a boy in his proper place and ther
continue its use, because it sounds cute
1t is a sign of verbal quickness, gen.
orally associated with quick perceptions
n superficial observation. 1t is no
a desirable attainment. .
But desirable or not, it is the posses.
sion of a few and not of the many
1t serves important uses if properly
hdAulCu. IL 10 like water OF HIe, q
hard master but a good servant. But
at its best estate, or at it's worst, it is
the endowment of the few, not of tho
many. To find two smart people il
any one group is like the proverbia
three, when two are lovers, one tee
many. Then a trial of wits occurs, q
battle Of words, a fusilade of smar'
things, a rivalry in CAB, that is any.
thing but agreeable to cultured ears OF
eine tastes. The everyday asso.
ciates of such people have the Language
of the litany on their lips whenever
they see two of them in the same room
The prayer is, from their smart saying
n their smart CAB and their repartee
good Lord deliver US.
The only antidOte and refuge from
this class Of smart people, is in the so,
ciety of those, who, having no ambition
to be smart are only pleasant. This
being pleasant is in itself a gift as rart
or rarer than that of being smart, bu
unlike it it is capable of greater cult,
walton. 1t is only the province Of tn,