The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1906-01-31

o bsG%nss, rr5sG% ssIG yop to nGT' nim' ~inIs ins
grouchiness of yours is becoming a
habit. They say"
1t was at this instant that he leaped
upon his friend in a sudden access of
fury, spun him around, pinned him in
a corner of the room, and, thus holding
him in a vise-like clutch, eXuded the
following:
"They Say - that's the answer.
You've hit it.
"They Say is what's the matter with
me. I'm getting tired of being hound
ed, bully-ragge hectored, pestered
and bulldozed by They Say.
Not that | care the leavings of an
omelet souffie in the nethermost depths
of Tartarus what They Say. What
They Say doesn't concern me any more
than the boil weevil concerns the blub-
ber-hunting Eskimo or than the sum-
mary dismissal order concerns the
clerk who's got the good eye of cou-
pie of Senators who stand in. But, all
the same, They Say annoys and tantal-
izes me like a bunch of glOating house
flies on a gummy Washington day in
August.
when | say They Say, mean you.
You belong to the Universal Order Of
GarrulOus, Loquacious and Gabberif-
erous They Says, and I'm a-talking
to You!
what difference 10ns it make TO me,
or TO you, or to anybody else one
eightieth of one degree removed from
a shell fish in mentality or crusta-
cean in self-respect what They Say?
Hey?
Don't you know that They Say has
caused more trouble and grief and hui
man misery generally since the begin
ming of the world than strong drink
and jealousy and battle and murder
and the plague and fire and storm
and envy and cOvetousness and sloth
and the devil and all combined? If
You don't know it, why don't you?
They Say. hey? Well, what if they
do? Did you ever know member of
the Order of They Say TO possess the
brains of young turkey in a rain
storm? Did you ever hear Of one OF
the They Says who had enough of the
milk of human kindness and charity in
his system to make bread poultict
for the wounded fifth rib of a potato
bug? Were You ever personally ac
guainted with They Say who wasn't
himself mean enough to swipe the rug
out of swampoodle baby carriage il
the dead of winter?
Did you ever meet up with They
Say, male or female, who did not pos
sess the ysiOgnomcal lineaments OF
q Soudanese simian?
Aren't you aware of the fact that
the Order of They Says has got 6
perpetual charter, issued on the frs
day of the creation of the Garden OF
Eden and to endure until the last faint
echo of the crack of doom, and that The
They Says are irresistible, incapable OF
being extirpated or depleted?,
"And. inasmuch as the 1They Says
have always Said 1t, and will always
90 right on Saying 1t till the las
whistle has blown. what's the use?
Let 'em Say 1t! They Say? Who
says?
"They Say is always anonymou
collective vague, nebulous, and inevita
bly, liar.
They Say is always possessed OF
the Imagination of a hasheesh-eatel
and the pestiferous clackiness of al
unoiIed threshing machine in hollow
echoing valley.
"They Say is the dum-dum bullet OF
human speech.
"They Say is the rock thrown in the
dark.
"They Say is the intangible Mafi;
cankering the heart of civilization
the Black Hand that besmrches tht
outer hide Of human sweetness.
"They Say is the hooded cobra ot
human society.
They Say is the sneak that stink!
up behind its best friend and stabs hin
in the back.
"They Say is the hideous, discordan
buzz that foully slays the reputation
of decent men and destroys the goot
name of women.
Il never hear one of the They Say
giving the verbal office of his orde
that don't. iu the ear of the ina gina
ton, detect the yelping of graveyard
hyenas in the distance.
"They Say works while the rest o
the world sleeps, and They Say is 81
busy that no man may know when III
is liable to meet the askance ant
aslant glanccs of his They Say pois
cned friends.
IF l had the commiseration 70
human woe of that Siddartha wh,
was Buddha, the tenderness of Lin
coin, the grave stability of Washington
the chivalry of Chevalier Bayard, til,
knightliness of King Arthur. tire spii
ituality of st. Augustine, the unseliish
ness of Damon and Pythas-if l hat
all these things wrapped around. M
like nimbus or an aureole. dye s'pos
for one sixteenth part of a second tina
I'd be free from the Onnery little IN
derhand wallops of the They Says?
whats the answer? The answer