The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-02-13
PEOPLE YOU KNOW
They May Not Be Quite So Mt
merous as You Imagine.
GUESS AS TO THEIR NUMBER.
Then Do Some Thinking and Figuring
and See How Far From Your Guess
You Come and incidentally Learn
How Many Folks You Don't Know.

IOd SoHc inSluSHIdhJ GCdTn IL
How Many Folks You Don't Know.
Did you ever have the experience of
walking down Main street with a man
who is running for office? All the time
he is bowling right and left to people
you meet Several times in block he
will stop to shake hands with an ac-
quaintance.
"You seem to know every one" you
say to him almost enviously.
That's right" he replies, not with
out some pride. Il guess l do know
everybody worth knowing
Yet how many people does he know?
How many people do you know your
self? Did you ever try to figure it out?
What proportion of the people in the
United States do you know? Certainly |
you don't know the hundreth part |
of them. Even the president of the |
United States doesn't and couldn't if |
he kept travelling all the time, making |
| a host of new acquaintance every day. |
To know the one-hundredth part of
the people in this country would be to
know in the neighborhood Of a million
persons. No; it is perfectly safe to say
that there is no person in the whole
world that knows a million other per-
sons well enough to call each Of them
by name. Think what million means!
Suppose you said the names Of all the
people you know as fast as you could.
If you could enunciate twenty names
a minute you would be doing marvel
| Ill hot ABB yfrafr
steadily eight hours a day, it would
take you nearly four months just to
name the people you know There isn't
a memory in existence that would hold
q million names.
Well, do you suppose you know a
hundred thousand? Let's see; that
would be about one-fifth Of the popu-
) lation of Rhode Island. Imagine your
self sitting in the railroad station at
Providence watching the people come
through. No; that is hardly a fair
test, for unless you live in Providence
you do not know as many people there
as in the city in which you live. Sit
: In your own railway station and count
the people coming through. No matter
how well known you are or how many
, people you know, you cannot help but
|. be impressed with the fact Of how
many people there are that you do not
; know. If you know one in hundred
persons you know far more than the
, average.
Let us try to get at 1t in another
S way. You make on the average, say
: two new acquaintance a week. OF
;. course there are weeks and weeks that
you make no new acquaintance at all
= and then there are times, such as pic
mic week and vacation week and
church fair week, when you meet a
q lot of people, so that two week is q
q fair average. You have been meeting
people, say, for twenty-five years
That's $500 isn't it?
Is it possible that you know only
$500 people? You thought the mum
Der would be far more than that
But hold on You don't know nearly
that many There are lots and lots
of people whom you knew twenty
years ago that you don't know now
e You cannot even remember theil
le names or what they looked like.
u Just sit down and try to remember
the names of all the boys and girl:
that were in the same room in the
e public school with you. You cannot
remember half of them or a third Of
them or a fifth of them. 1t is safe t.
a. say that of every two persons yol
,, met in all your life You have forgotten
one. The chances are that the mum
IL Der of people you know by name IL
t. nearer 1000 than it IS 1000.
I'd OF course a preacher with a thou
H. sand members in his church is expect
s ed to know them all by name Blu
all the same you will find him saying
= to his WIFE
~ "My dear, who was that young lad!
sc who spoke to us just know
/; 1t is business, too, for merchant t
RS remember all of his thousand custom
~ ers, but very few merchants are able t.
% do it. Possibly some of the politicians
:, and public lecturers may know a cou
~ pie of thousand persons by name, bu
very few other persons know tina
or many.
OF If this estimate seems too low it Il
>" easily disproved. All you have to d.
Is to take pencil and paper and begil
putting down the names Of your &C
quaintances. Start with your owl
a. family and then put down your cousins
Is and your second cousins and you
of wires relations. Then put down thu
b names of the people you know in TIL
70 town you used to live in and the PEG
pie you know socially. Follow that III
. with the people you know in business
u then
But you can't dispute these figures
1t is too much trouble to think of al
the people you know. You'll never do II
IN. New York World.