The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-29

The innocent bystander has so often
found himself the victim of untoward cir
cumstances that it would be no wonder IL
Outstanding were soon to become a lost
art. Indeed, it cannot be said that the
temper of our civilization has ever ia
vored so idle a process as this apparently
is-not. at least, sinoe the days of the re-
doubtable Wouter Wan Twiller and his
eauable existence, divided among the I'M
exciting occupations, of eating, smoking
and sleeping.
The hero of our times is the man with
the longest list of achievements; not what
you are, but what y@l have done is what
counts. So many cups as proof of your
skill on the links; this ribbon won at
dog show, that medal reclting your
periority OF that of your dogs; these are
the things that writetyour name high on
the roll CT fame. Ton be content to look
on is to confess yourself so mean spirited
that you feel compelled to accompany the
admission with an apology in tone and
expression if not in word. How many
society women do you find, today, for in
stance, who are not practically interested
in scores of things, who are not really
hard workers in some branch of philan-
thropy, or, maybe, literature?
And yet, with all this you are a lucllless
individual if you do not number among
your acquaintance mere bystander
who, for genuine charm is worth half
dozen medal winners. He may have alb
solUtely not hing to his credit-he may not
even have invented new dance. Always
genial, he is never enthusiastic If he is
apt to mock Va little where you praise I'M
reservedly, he surprises you again by the
gentleness of his comment upon some
thing that everybody else is condemning
utterly. He doesn't stand aloof from life:
on the contrary, he would be lost away
from it's centers of activity. But at the
same time you feel certain detachment
in his attitude which in your thoughtful
moments arouses your wonder and your
respect. You hesitate to call him lazy
though perhaps taking refuge in its softer
equivalent "unambitious'' Even this,
though, is an unsatisfactory epithet when
applied to person who, however inactive
in the strenuous things of life, like bridge
and golf, somehow gets whole lot out of
life and unquestionably knows life from
beginning to end.
This is partly thee source of your slight
irritation at home. Why should he, with
his kid glove handling of it, have a keener
understanding than you, with your de-
cades of close grips with it? The clever
writer of that delightful journal, Spur"
who had few lines not long ago on the
part played by the unruffled bystander in
the game of life, answered that question
with the statement that achievement is
less than accomplishment, and that being
a bystander is an accomplishment. Mean
ing that you cannot be a bystander SIM
ply by resolving to be one; that you can
look like a bystander, assume-in meas
ure--the pose of a bystander, and deceive
yourself and the less alert of your friends
into thinking that you are a bystander.
But all that does not make you one. The
true bystander is an active not passive,
spectator. His hands may be In his pock-
cts his face may be impassive, his att-
tude one of apparent Indifference; but
upon his mind the passing show which he
seems to view so farelessly is making i'm
pressions that he may voice sometime