New-York tribune., 1920-10-17
Maybe He Does, but Few Do
rAere Is the Well Worn Excuse, for One Thing
That He Is Tired

cessful
know Wall Street man who is
fond of etchings and knows about them.
and am told that there are a number
of men on the Stock Exchange who toll
crate certain literary disspations.
Have Not the Energy
But all the other business men |
know tell me the same story They can
not read. AS one of them expressed
himself to me:
ut takes all my energy to dress my
self IN the morning, and to peel off my
clothes at night. Between times I am
too busy to read anything except the
Papers"
Another said: Il do not read. ab
sorb headlines through my pores"-an
observation not unrelated to one made
by Charles Lamb, who remarks in Ella:
Il seem to inhale learning, walking
amid their foliage"
Recently l talked of Thucydides to a
young business man who had been sta
toned in Athens during the war. He
seemed mildly concerned; but nv
daughter intimated later (and quite
broadly) that 1 had bored him.
talked with another YOUNG business
man who was honorably acquitted from
prominent college after serving a
four years sentence, and who was sell
ing something for roofs. said:
do you ever read anything?"
He said, "No, cannot put my mind
on it, but I should like to talk to you
about your roof"
| said: 1T might help you in your
intercourse with customers, many of
whom own large buildings and are pre-
sumably educated"
He said: at would queer me. They
would think me q freak. And, besides"
he added, "it would take my mind off
my work"
Knew Only Roofs
He could talk of nothing but roofs
and depressed me with such repeated
illusions to my own-which he de-
clared was in hopeless condition
that have dsliked him cordially ever
slnce-an illustration Of the intoler-
ance and general frailty Of human
nature
Yet this young mans dctum about
being considered q freak is borne out
by observation and experience. At any
gathering of American business men.
say st luncheons or dinners, where the
conversation is unrestricted, it would
be not only undiplomatc, but even un-
safe to ones reputation for certain
practical sanity, to launch upon litera-
ture.
In these concrete circumstances i'm
aglne turning to ones right hand neigh
Dor whose mind may be intent upon the
latest phase Of collective bargaining. or
the terglversatlons of the income tax
and asking him if he thought that
W L. Georges Caliban was satire
or character study in yellow journal
ism, or whether H. G. Wells's His
tory Of the World compared favorablv
with the more discreet performance Of
the late Sir Walter Raleigh.
Lowel's experience in Chicago dur
ing heated Presidential campaign is
a case in point The Republican man
ayers had asked him to address the Chi
cagoans on the political issues of the
day, and vast audience had as
sembled for the purpose. But the man
ayers were, at the last moment, afraid
Of what Lowell might say, and after
hurried counsels, persuaded him of the
danger and got him to consent to sub
stltute for his political speech his cele-
brated lecture on Shakespeare. The an
nouncement was duly made amid much
hullaballoo, whereupon one man in the
audience was overheard to say to an
other:
~ -uh! | suppose he thinks anything
IS good enough for US"
Broad In His Views