Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-07-21
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! IN Iz1Rll 80 :e!!:!X'>>

! Ny friend made a note In his little
book.
Thank you. my fine fellow" he
said. If you were a bit younger you
would make your mark some day.
And he walked off.
1 think it is a real privilege TO be
obscure, to be able to talk without
being recognized by the hall-marks
of personality.
! Notable men must take on an In
cognito.
Some months before he died, and
after he had grown thin, friend OF
mine met Me- Cleveland informally al
a little village in the east. They got
to talking, and Mr.. Cleveland un-
breasted himself to the stranger who
did not know him, on many matters
which revealed his deeper feeling.
After they had separated, my friend
found out to whom he had been speak
ing, but he honored the confidence.
And if you are a stranger, how
much difference your dress and man,
ners make in the attention YOU get,
and in the way men address you;
| And, in the contact between the rich
and the poor, ones real courtesy is
tested, and the others independence.
| My garden lot acquaintance had a
| patrOniZing air which under some
circumstances might have resented;
in my garden it is not offensive to
me.
And l have found that in my talks
with the soldier boys, the way | am
dressed makes a difference. On &C
count of my age and good clothes,
! they are less communicative than
they might be. They are polite, and
very good indeed to a stranger, but
they do not tell me their hearts.
There is restraint, so beautiful and
protective in the human animal. Just
| observe it in the boy and girl who
meet for the first time.
So in my perambulations about this
old town, when | want to talk to SOL
diers and others of our class, l wear
my work-a-day, clothes.
In all men there IS a human desire
to impersonate. The child begins
early to play" being this and that,
to pry into things. The man won
ders, and looks over into what's over
the edge of the world. The old are
still wondering about the mystery to
which they approach.
This accounts for the actors love
for his profession, the spy's bravery,
the detectives success, and the lik-
ing of kings and princes to wander
about in disguise.
Stories like The Arabian Nights,
and Mark Twain's prince and Pau
per-" and others, have a charm for
us quite outside of their literary
value as tales Of adventure.
And though we may not acknowl-
edge it, we like to see and hear things
not intended for US, just as we like
to say and do things under cover"
Our sense of propriety and honesty
has overcome our. curiosity. We no
longer eaves-drop, open our friends
letters, or look through a keyhole, but
who, passing on dark night by an
uncurtained window of some we'll
lighted chamber, will desist from
casting glance therein. It's human
nature, and the curiosity which
prompts it has not only got men into
trouble, it has given us most of the
useful knowledge we have acquired,
and the discoveries and inventions
which make Us happy and ccmfor-
table.
Had I been sitting on my Veranda
in conventional clothes, my chance
acquaintance would have passed by
without speaking to me. He wouldn't
have noticed me at all. But my dis
guise, if such it might be called, en-
couraged his curiosity and friendli-
ness.
Once in a western hotel where we
had been staying, stranger and his
wife arrived. They were of the class
now common in our country, having
abundance of spending money and
very little culture OF common sense,
the woman especially being very su
perficfal and unintelligent She was
constantly talking through her hus-
band to US about Paris, New York,
Vienna and Berlin, and used to name
over hotels they had frequented. She
turned up her nose at our table
(which was an exceedingly good one),
and in a few days began to be very
friendly to US. l was practising medi-
cine at the time, and had my office
in the same block, but we did not
diVulge our identities.
Tired of the woman's affectation, at
dinner one day l said to my wife
(sotto voice. Watch me sound the
depth of that creatures SOUL" and
with that said aloud: We'll, came
across the hardest beard l ever struck
today had to sharpen the razor
three times before l got through"
The strangers started up as if gal
vanized, and they never saw" us
again.
We had sized them up right, as a
class of parvenus more harmful to the
country than the poor, uneducated
residents of the slums.
MARE ISLAND PICKED