The Meeker herald. [volume] (Meeker, Colo.) 1885-current, 1914-10-17
ART BUG At PHONE BEFORE '0lD NAM
Pad and Pencil Microbe Turks In
Every Booth

While One Talks-What Do You
Drew While Waiting for Your
Mumbsr7 Asks Writer.
What kind of things do you drawf
or, are you one of the mineral or
word artistsf
Do you make wiggles7 Do you make
faces mot your own. that 1877 Do you
produce architectural or geometric
designs, or merely arabesQues?
Whether you answer or mot. re-
marks the New York World, It II =
dead certainty that you do one OF these
things. Probably you're unconscious
Of the fact. but you're one Of the mill
lion and more telephone booth artists
who are the involuntary slaves of a
thasterbug which lives in every tele-
phone booth In the city.
Just think moment and call to
mind ths last time you were in q booth
with pencil and bit of paper handy.
Don't you recall that you had to wait
while central was getting the num-
bert What did you do In the inter-
Vail
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 IL pro-
vided With pad and pencil placed in
the booths to facilitate notemaking.
but 1t may be that 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 duifks of the mind than DR.. Car
los r. Macdonald. the alienist He
recognised 1t at once. He even said
that he himself was a victim.
II firmly believe that nearly every
one who uses telephone" he said.
"is given to scribbling or writing or
drawing or figuring on bit OF paper
II It Be handy. always do 1t myself
II the conyersation be at all prolonged.
It's curious mental process. Really
its dual operation Of the mind.
When . man Is waiting, for instance.
for telephone number his conscious
mind IL directed attentively to waiting
for the answer at the other end. His
subconseious hand disengaSes itself.
and II the pencil and pad be there It
turns to them. There 10 no diminua
ton In the intentness Of the conscious
mind while the hand ID busy tracing
the figures or what not upon the pa.
per. It is Just that the mind il capable
Of doing two things at once and gives
demonstration of Its 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 a 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 zee. The mind-that is, the
subconscious mind, is focused on the
conversation and 10 far too intent 70
be distracted by the other operation.
Some persons draw, others merely
scribble. generally set down figures
II, 2, 3, 4. and then write them in re-
verse order. Often go to the very
edge of the paper with the string of
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.
~ 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 ar expert In handwrit-
ing think he could resolve the pro-
ducers into distinct classes, as 1t were.
I 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
Tho tnltxfnR lint II seayns IN ma that