Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-06-07
Mrs. Wilson Woodrow's
Interesting Article
BY MRS. WILSON WOODROW
BY MRS. WILSON WOODROW

by Mrs. WILSON WOODROW
/ am always overhearing inter-
esting bits of conversation, usually
just enough to whet my curiosity;
but once in while the fragment
is so complete that l can build q
whole structure on it. 1t was in a
Fifth avenue bus yesterday that !
heard woman in the seat behind
me say to a man:
She is so clever that 1 simply
can't understand her making such
stupid blunder."
..,,, That's it," replied the man.
Shes amazingly clever, and yet
she always says the wrong thing
at the right time and does the
right thing at the wrong time"
began at once mentally to build
up the lady of whom they skope.
She is evidently lacking in what is
known in English Al as the uni
ties of time and place." and there
fore all her amazing cleverness i'm
mediately becomes as sounding brass
and tinkling cymbals.
OF course, she could overcome
this handicap by making it a point
never to. speak or act upon i'm
pulse, but that would be a slow and
difficult problem. There are some
happy souls, though, who are born
with an instructive appreciation of
the psychological moment. had
proof of this during the long season
when winter fingered so persistently
in the lap of spring.
1t was one of those raw, gray days
when the calendar announces that it
is May and the thermometer denies
it. A group of disconsolate-lookin
people, myself among them, were
huddled in a downtown local on the
subway, either staring moodily at
the floor or else gazing with lack
luster, cynical eyes at Mr.. Shonts'
SNUG assurances of Interborough al
truism.
Astor place and Bleecker street
Spring street was of course. the next
stop. AS we pulled out of each sta
ton the guard announced the next in
the conventional, unintelligible bark
But now he stood a moment in the
car door, surveying with a twinkle
in his eye that detected, droopy lot
of passengers. There could be no
question of his nationality. In a
clear, rich brogue with just a touch
of quizzical humor in it, he called.
Spring is coming, peopIe!"
1t is an old joke, perhaps. But
all l know, it has been employed
again and again. But it's effect on
the passengers in that car was mag
ical. We Strengthened up, smiled at
each other and at him, and became
more like normal New Workers, gay
and confident, and less like mourners
at a funeral.
1t was a lightning change from
pip" to pep" Our cares were
lifted. And ! for one went on to a
business interview 1 had been rather
dreading in such a serene good
humor that everything came my
way.
Solomon, of course, put my whole
argument in a nutshell centuries ago.
1t is little way he had.
"A word fitly spoken" he says,
sis like apples of gold in pictures
smile with it, that goes double.
Let me hasten to say, however,
that this is by no means written to
urge subway guards to devote them
selves to the study of Joe Miller, or
make q practice of punning on the
names of stations. 1t is hard enough
as it is for the traveller unversed in
Choctaw, without having bawled at
him: Canal street! Change here for
the water wagonl" or Rector! Last
stop for the lobsters!"
The dialect artists who now man.
gle, Watch your step" are quite
sufficiency, as Sam Bernard used to
say; and certainly we used no more
airy spooting than those salvos of
President Shonts-or should I say
"salves"-to which 1 have already
referred.
No, hold no brief for the village
cut-up or the wayside comedian. If
l want to laugh I'll pay my money
to hear Frank Tinney or see the
Sidney Drews. Life is sad enough
without the seasoning of amateur
humor.
So it is not this especial subway