Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1914-01-09
Pad and Pencil Microbe Turks in
Every Booth.
Few Persons Arc Immune; Works
While One Talks--What Do You
Draw While Waiting for Your
Nunrber7 Asks Writer.

y What kind of things do you drawn
Or, are you one Of the mineral or
word artists?
Do you make wiggles? Do you make
faces (not your own, that isl? Do you
produce architectural or geometrtc
designs, or merely arabesques?
Whether you answer or not, re-
marks the New York World, 1t Is
dead certainty that you do one of these
'hings. Probably you're unconscious
Of the fact, but you're one of the mil
lion and more telephone booth artists
who are the involuntary slaves OF
masterbug which lives In every tele.
phone booth in the city.
Just think a moment and call to
mind the last time you were In booth
with a pencil and bit Of paper handy.
Don't you recall that you had to wait
while central" was getting the num-
Der? What did you do in the inter
val7 go
You needn't answer; you took up
the pencil and began to draw or to
make curlicues or figures. perhaps to
write name You Do 1t every time
you get into a booth. In nine cases
out Of ten you continue the art work
during your conversation, too.
Whoever is skeptical need only go,
for example, to the Hotel knicker'
booker and watch the people In the
booths there There are eight tele-
phone compartments and each is pro-
vided with pad and pencil placed In
the booths to facilitate notemaking.
but it may be that a farsighted man
agement was aware of the bug" and
promptly supplied the means for Its
culture.
The matter of this telephone bug
was referred to no less an authority
upon quirks Of the mind than DR.. Car
los F. Macdonald, the alienist. He
recognized it at once. He even said
that he himself was victim.
II firmly believe that nearly every
one who uses a telephone" he said.
lis given to scribbling or writing or
drawing or figuring on a bit OF paper
IL it be handy. ! always do 1t myself
II the conversation be at all prolonged.
It's a curious mental process. Really
it's q dual operation of the mind.
When a man is waiting, for instance,
for a telephone number his conscious
mind is directed attentively to waiting
for the answer at the other end. His
subconscious hand disengages Itself,
and if the pencil and pad be there 1t
turns to them. There Is no diminua
ton In the ,intentness of the conscious
mind while the hand Is busy tracing
the figures or what not upon the pa
per. 1t is just that the mind is capable
Of doing two things at once and gives
demonstration Of It's ability.
THE things persons produce on pa
per at such time may be most care
fully executed, but the execution does
not in any way hamper thoroughly
rational attention to the conversation
or communication taking place. The
drawings really make practically no
impression on the mind, and I'd ven
ture to say that not one man in hun
dred could tell you after leaving the
booth what he had drawn or written
on the pad. 1t does not register on the
mind, you see. The mind--that is, the
subconscious mind, Is focused on the
conversation and is far too intent to
be distracted by the other operation.
Some persons draw, others merely
scribble. generally set down figures
Il, 2, 3, 4, and then write them in re-
verse order. Often I 60 to the very
digits. It's mental process which
rarely has anything to do with the con-
versation-that Is, the figures or
scrawls or drawings bear no pictorial
relation to the subject of the talk.
Il believe, however, that these sub
conscious deductions bear some rela-
ton to the character OF the Individual,
Just as does handwriting. If, say, 500
examples could be collected and placed
in the hands of an expert in handwrit-
ing think he could resolve the pro-
ducers into distinct classes, as it were
| think that the traits of the individual
might be found to show In the draw.
ings. They are produced with even
less thought than one must give to the
formation of characters in writing, be-
cause the conscious mind is busy with
the talking, but it seems to me that
they might show the characteristics Of
the makers"
The care with which some are exc
cuted Is indicative Of the care with
which the accompanying telephone
conversation was carried on, because
1t has been found that the more i'm
portant the talk the more carefully the
subconscious mind worked.
Now, the next time you go into a
telephone booth just see If you don't
grab the pencil and get to work.