Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-10-13
WIDEN YOUR INTERESTS
BY H. Addington Bruce

MAR too many people seem to be unaware
+ that to think about a variety of things
is one of the essentials to really salts
flying life
Multitudes, in fact, are in plight much
like that of travelling man whom friend
of mine encountered during a railway jour-
ney from New York to Chicago. AS my
friend tells the story:
Il had gone to the smoking compartment
to enjoy a cigar. There was only one other
person in the compartment, a middle-aged
man, and not unnaturally fell into CONVEX
sation with him
He was willing enough to talk, yet sim
gularly Nunresponsiye. No matter what sub
ject 1 preached he answered in monosyllables
He did not seem to have any ideas or to have
formed any opinion about anything. Finally
gave up in despair, and Iapsed into an I'M
comfortable silence.
'Then it was that he turned his gaze upon
me, with look of pathos of which I can not
describe, and offered the suggestion, Try
me with leather"
The incident is exceptional only in the
frankness with which this salesman for a
leather firm acknowledged his intellectual
limitations. Most people whose thinking Is
virtually confined to the business in which
they are engaged, are unwilling to advertise
to others the narToWness of their interests.
Many, for that matter do not themselves
clearly appreciate how little thinking they do
apart from business matters.
What they do clearly appreciate, though,
is their desperate need for diversions and
amusements when away from business. Be-
cause OF this need they willingly help to swell
the revenues of theater owners, moving pic
ture corporations, the proprietors of base
ball companies the publishers of light novels
and all-story magazines, and the makers of
playing cards.
) Nevertheless. md this is the point I would
stress, for all their zeal in amusement-seek-
ing, they are oppressed with chronic feelings
Of boredom and fatigue. They perhaps at
tribute this to oYerdevotion to their work,
but actually it is the result of understanding
If they typical tired business men, would
but exercise their minds more vigorously, If
they would cultivate such thought-stimulat-
ing interests as are provided by literature,
art, music political and social problems. sci
ence, philosophy and religion, they would
soon cease to be tired business men. For
they would now be using their minds as
Nature intended them to be used, and this
response to an instructive, craving of their
being would free them from the boredom and
fatigue of which they sometimes bitterly
complain.
Besides which, the charging of their in
terest-range and their thinking. would also
have the effect Of helping them to be more
efficient business doors The mind, it should
always be remembered, is invigorated by
exercise just as the body is. And aside from
this, the mere b nishing of feelings of bore
dom and fatigue means increased ability to
do the daily tasks theoretically and well.
So if you who read these lines know in
your heart that your business is the sole or
virtually the sole, object of your thinking,
begin forthwith to accustom yourself to
think about many other things in your hours
of freedom from business. Don't continue
to let leisure be a signal for mental stagna-
ton. That is among the most serious of all
mistakes you could make.
Copyright 1929