The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-09-07
BY ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.
Alone in a crowd!

Alone in a crowd!
This is common experience and
one pictured by the pen.
1t has been made the theme of nov
elists and the plant of poets.
You read of it in the papers as the
cause of suicide
Insane asylums witness to its bale
full influence.
And it has driven to desperate
deeds.
You find them OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
in the heart of a great city. Hermits in
thronged centers of population.
1t is one of the saddest phases of liv-
ing and a melancholy reflection upon
the futility of social intercourse.
The average human being cannot
stand the pressure of loneliness in any
environ beyond a given point.
Then his mental equilibrium is lost.
This is one reason why so many
farmers wives become insane and
men marooned in a wilderness go mad.
The human animal is naturally gre
garious.
He must have the society of his
kind. Whether he cares for it or not.
And he generally cares.
For it is only the occasional entity
which desires complete solitude be-
cause of dislike for men and women.
However much he may fancy he
longs for entire seclusion from the
"madding crowd" he gladly welcomes
the companionship of the least con-
genial after period of social sur
cease.
There's many a Robinson Crusoc
hanging on to some man Friday for no
reason on earth save that the latter
is human being with whom he can
hold conversation on those trivial mat
tiers which are yet interesting because
common to everyone.
1t is usual enough to pick up a pa.
per and read of lonely suffering cheek
by jowl with gayety and comfort.
One Of the most depressing aspects
of city life is the callousness of those
whose walls adjoin yours.
To be sure it might be regarded, con-
trasted with the feverish and micro
scopic interest taken by the neigh.
bors' in small towns, beatific state
For the prowling affection of those
next door is oftener than not more op.
pressive than the heat with the Their.
mometer at one hundred odd in the
shade.
You would welcome gladly the cold
and unrecognizing stare after the ex-
haustive and hilarious scrutiny OF
those along the block.
How gladly you'd HE to the busy
marts where you could talk as loud as
you wanted to about your own affairs
quite sure that If anybody heard they
wouldn't care nor know what it was
all about.
Bridget can tell you all about it.
How about the time she is comfort
her steady somebody in the adjacen,
porch turns on the electric light to put
something in the refrigerator.
And how, after listening demurely
to declaration of devotion accompan
panied by satisfactory demonstrations
she hears a shutter softly pulled te
above.
This is about the time Bridget wish
es she lived in the middle of deser
and gives notice next day.
She says he likes you all right bu
can't stand the neighbors prying int
her affairs.
She'll have to get another place
where the house is in the midst Of eX
tensive grounds and the back porch il
enmeshed in shrubbery.
Where, perchance, there may be ;
| hammock under the old apple tree ant
she can spend her evenings unmolest
ed by the search-lights and pussy
! footings of the amateur Sherlocl
Holiness next door.
In desperation you offer her the U.s.
of the front veranda.