Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-12
HERE ARE RULES
OF THE ROAD
There's Plenty of Occasion to
Observe Them in the Daily
Routine of Living
BY BEATRICE FAIRFAX

~
When you are driving a car up a
| dark road in the black of night and
another car bears down on you, both
you and the other driver lower your
glaring headlights-if you are gentle
men who follow 1.-The rules of the
road"
In the heart of the big city, traffic
policemen will see that you keep to
the right. park your car on the
proper side of the street and make
your turns around just the proper
Islands and corners. But out in
the open country, there is nothing
to hold you to proper courtesy
except your own willingness to
abide by ''the rules of the road"
Life is very largely a matter of
open country and the rules of the
road" A great many people seem
to feel that there Is no particular
object in playing fair If they can
"'get away" with cheating and evad-
ing rules.
Rule breakers often manage very
nicely for long time-but at some
stage of the game, they can almost
be guaranteed to come a cropper"
and let themselves in for very bad
smashup.
bile-which is a good enough IL
lustration of the fact that some of
us are glad that we have five cents
carfare! If car is proceeding full
speed ahead up the wrong side of
the road at about forty miles an
hour, it is not startling that it
should dash into another with q
horrible toll of death and destruc-
ton. There is the supreme penalty
for breaking the rules of the road
Perhaps the car which is hurtling
| through the dark nt forty YYnilac n
hour only smashes itself. If there
are witnesses to prove that it was
! on the wrong side of the road,
going too fast, the driver has no
redress and may even have damages
TO pay.
Breaking the rules of the road
f1agrantly and openly always leads
to damages.
Men have, through long years of
legal training and of disect deal
ing with the law, acquired a GER
tain respect for law and order
which we women folks are a bit
slower in getting. With them there
| is q knowledge that honesty is the
best policy; whereas with women
honesty gets the accent as senti-
mental and beautiful thing quite
apart from its practical value.
Rules and regulations and laws
1
have a bit more respect for laws in
| general than have we, who know
how unfair are certain laws in par
ticular.
But that does not excuse us from
smashing certain rules all to pieces
and trading on our sex to help us
get away with our offenses.
Have you ever stood in q group
of fifty or a hundred people wait
| aafi IN
picture theater? 1t is generally the
women who dash down the aisle and
almost knock over the people who
are leaving in an effort to get the
seats they have vacated. If men
did a thing like that they would be
called cads-and they know It. But
women will only be laughed at good
naturedly.
| 1 frequently lunch in q very large
tea-room on the avenue which has
an almost exclusive feminine ellen
! tele. When the place is crowded, the
women look about to see who has
arrived at the pastry and hot choc-
olate stage, and then, stand ner-
vously and irritably waiting for the
: lunchers to finish, in order that they
may dash in and take their places.
1t isn't a bit polite or chivalrous,
and the rules of the road ought 10
say: Take your time, wait your
turn placidly and don't give ner-
vous indigestion to the people who
are occupying the place you covet" /"
Most of life is a matter of taking
your turn, of standing in line, of
waiting for the call, Next" either
in the doctors office, at the ticket
office or in the jam for a crowded
car. A little courtesy to the man
ahead of you and little decent
appreciation of the fact that the
man behind you is as anxious to ar
| rivesas are, you all work in as part
of the rules of the road.
Consideration, courtesy, good
humor, and a friendly acceptance
of crowding and pushing and SHOW
| ing will all help do away with
crowding and pushing and showing.
Helping to ease up the other chaps
burden is not likely to make your