The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-03-18
EVENING CHAT
BIZ RUTH CAMNRoN.

lNarrowneSs. of Some Cultured Folk.
/ Ignorance and rrow-mindedness
are Two conditions that one naturally
associates.
Whereas education and narrow
mindedness are conditions that one
expects to find at exactly opposite
poles.
And yet it seems to me that great
many well educated people-cultured
aai peleVe they like best to call them
selVes-are surprisingly narrow in
pathies.
Their conception of the world is a
pace chlefly peopled by folks exactly
are built on that conception. Their
conversation is usually uttered in a
peculiar accent almost as far from
pure English as the most vulgar dia-
Iect; They abhor slang. but they have
siang OF their own, consisting of
words and phrases used in peculiar
ways, which the ordinary ear would
not appreciate. They would find it
almost impossible to talk interesting
class
me first question such people US
uaI!y ask of a new acquaintance is.
what is your college? ?" They use the
names or the latest high-brow books
as symbols to conjure with, and if
you nave not read them thew turn a
1lshy eye of cold surprise upon YOU.
Ihey seldom read newspapers. and
pride themselves upon this as upon
abstinence from something degrading
me fact that the newspaper is an in
valuable mirror of real, pulsating life
ooes not appeal to them. Thew prefer
tnelr Hfe diluted and strained through
some ultra-conservative magazine of
mment- They are like the Lady of
Shalott who must die if she looked
directly at the world outside of her
window, instead of being content with
the reflection in her mirror. And like
her, they are abnormal
Now the world is full of r,anv Lr;,5s
OF people, and after all, thew are the
most important thing in it. Therefora
TO act as if there were only one kind
70 De able to understand and take an
interest in only one kind 10 +ba
qulntessence of narrowness
Your education along the 1inas of
theory and book learning, your cuI-
ture in an artistic or literary sansa
may be as broad as you please. but if
you cannot realize that there are
many kinds of people besides voI1r
Rlnd, and that they are worth know
ing about and associating with. vo,,
are stlH very narrow-minded,
AS L nave said elsewhere, there is
an intellectual snobbery as well az
snobbery of wealth or birth, and since
by It's very nature it ought to he sole
destroylng, l think intellectual snob-
Dery Is the least excusable of all.
Family Customs.
Did 1T ever occur to you that tho family
81 tooay does not have so many of those
9 6iS1tlnetive little family. customs that
helped to strengthen family feeling in fbe
homes of a generation ago?
may be mistaken, but that is tho r,av
1t seems to me- and 1 am sorry. because
think home cannot have too nsn1, sc
these little customs. Just as nationoi
f customs Sand and ceremonies strengthen ma
eloE a. 1eenng' so family customs strength
en- the home feeling. And in these dsvz
when there is so much outside the hons
70 attract ira our young folks, we need all
them to the home life
. IN cetrain home in our neighborhood
II mas always been the family custom to
fore the open fire on the night before
Christmas. Each member of the family
Tax h,a his us turn n at reading big Yue
apples are on the hearth Sometimes
nelgnncrs who do not have Christmas Eve |
Customs Of their own, join the family |
mas this ceremony been omitted ana that |
was the year the children had scarlet |
any member of the family been wiifuIly |
absent, and these occasions wer, during |
me m nat: season. In the last four years |
Two n-laws and three grandchildren |
year the third son, who is a travelling
salesman, reached home at o'clock on |
Ire gay before Christmas iva worked /
days and Travelled nights for the last five |
days to make it," he said.
That's the kind of home feeling a be-
loved custom c@n foster.
Just around the corner from this home |
Is another, handsomer and more pre-
Lentious home, but it is without the spirit !
that expresses itself in customs like this !
Last year on Christmas Eve, the mother
Of four grown children sat alone in her
handsome living rooms in this house Two
Of the children were at theater party |
0ne mad gone to house party for the
soEdays. and one was at this very neigh
1or's.
When the years have added their
~lamour. the tenderness with which we
'emenber the simplest and most prosaic
home customs would be amusing if IT |
we're not something better.
AS l was walking through the market
stalls with a friend of mine, she stopped |
suddenly before stall in which strips of
ripe were artistically displayed s"Tripe"
Meeting a long-lost friend, well, that's
he first time I've seen any tripe in years
When I was a child we used to have it
very other Sunday morning, alternating
With fish balls. We never had it at any
'ther time. In our family 1t belonged to
sunday morning. just as salmon and
,reen peas do to the Fourth of July.
Well, If that doesn't carry me back and
make me almost homesick."
Triple is a most unromantic thing IN
tself but when it became a family Gus
ON it was glorified. Such is the power
# even the simplest and most prosaic
ustom to wind itself around the heart ;
nd strengthen the home feeling.
Surely, we cannot be too careful not TO
ose these from our home life.
INHERITANCE