San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-02-12
Watered Personalities
BY II. Addingtou Rr,,ce

To DR.. Samuel s. Drury, rector OF
st. Paul's school, owe a singularly
expressive phrase. Writing. in his
The Thoughts of Youth" of the di-
rect and animated way in which Theo.
dore Roosevelt addressed himself 20
all with whom he talked. DR.. Drurv
goes on to speak of type of person
whose manner of social intercourse is
the opposite of RooseveltIan.
Such persons" he drylv remarks,
mix water with personality" Aud,
particularizing a man of watered per-
sonality:
That kind is never wholly with
you. He has a restless eve. his glance
shifts from your eye to point some
where over your right shoulder: and
while his voice addresses you his eye
and mind are rowing far afield."
This description itself suggests the
cardinal defect in those whose per-
sonalities may justly be termed water
cd. One and all they are deficient IN
human sympathy. Most Of them.
moreover, lack enthusiastic interest in
anybody or anything
Various conditions contribute to "
b'NtlOplItuL VI lutSC really idultuluBIG
shortcomings.
In some cascs-in fact. in a great
many Cases-the state of the health
plays a part. When the health is
chemically impaired from aEy cause
whether the. cause be a serious Or
Sanic disease or some aliment as
trivial as flat foot-there is apt 10
be general lowering of the psychic
tone. manifested in a dulIing of in-
terests and an unduly self-ccntercd
rode of thinking.
SO true is this that sometimes tic
first indication of health impairment
may be personality dilutiOr.
Always there is ground for suspi-
ciOn that medical advice is needed il
Il person, formerly intense and viva
cious and keenly interested in all
manner Of things, begins to grow
apathetic, listless, and unsociabIe. 1T
may be that this reflects only fatigue
or long-continued unhygienic living
habits, but n physician can determine
this better than anybody else.
On tie other hand, there are nu-
Inerous people in whom even serious
il.-health does not cause any appre.
ciable watering of the personality.
They are people to whom sympathy
and enthusiasm have become, one NAV
justly say, habitual. To feel for and
with others, to forget self IL devotion
to external interests, are qualities
which they have made so much their
own that nothing can shake their
hold Of them. 1t was distinctly thus
with the man of ardent personality
whom DIR. Drury extols, Theodore
Roosevelt.
And it can be thus with any mar
who sedulously cultivates. as Roose-
welt did, the precious quality Of SYM
patty: who. by wide reading and as
ISOLATION with all manner of men, ex-
pands and intensifies Ills interests:
who learns TO throw hImsClf whole
beartedly into everything he dOesi ;
and, finally. who refuses t. make the
gaining of self-gratificatlun his chief
end in life.
Out of roots such as these n riCh
personality grows, personality that
at once impreSScs itself on other pC1-
PIE and appeals pOtently to other PEG
pie.
In such a personality there =. is no
watering as there is, alas in the
personalities of all who permit them
selves TO go through life only half
alive, devoid of interests other than
tLose that Immediately concern them
selves. and unreSpOnsive 10 the inter.
cSts, the hopes and aspiratiOns, the
joys and sorrows, of their fellows.
copyright. 1928, by the Associated