Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-08-11
THE OTHER MAN
By DR.. Frank Crane


Every man is accompanied always by an
Other Man.
This Other Man is his servant. He does
ninety-nine hundredths of his master S
work.
He never speaks. He never sleeps He
never takes vacation. He works every
minute, every second, night and day from
the minute he is born until he dies.
Perhaps in calling him servant we err.
Occasionally he is, but most of the time he
goes along without instructions. 1t might
be more accurate to say that the man him
self, the Ego, is No. J. and this Other Man
is No. 2.
We have sometimes wondered who keeps
the heart beating while Ego is asleep or
thinking of something else; it is the other
Man
The stomach does not digest the food au-
tomatically. Digestion is a very complicated
process; no automatic machine could pos
sibly accomplish it; foods differ; some If
them must be kept in the stomach longer
than others; the various juices secreted by
the stomach must be supplied in just the
right quantity and at just the right time.
Hence the stomach, the doctors say, is con-
trOlled by the nervous system. AS a matter
of fact, however it is this Other Man that
attends to the whole business, so that you
see he really must be quite wonderful fell
low.
If you ascend a mountain from sea level
to six thousand feet the number of red cor
puscles in your blood must be considera bly,
altered or you will get into trouble. The
Other Man attends to all that.
When you run fast you get out of breath
that is to say, your body has used up the
blood more quickly and the lungs must work
harder to purify the blood stream; so the
Other Man pumps more vigorously at the
lung-Wlndmill, and speeds up the heart en-
CINE
If you cut yourself and bleed, the Other
Man is Immediately the job; he attends
10 making blood clOt which will stop the
wound and the scab to cover it; he calls
the little workmen of the blood to repair
the injury and they all work away so fast
under his direction that the place grows
not, and we say it is teverish. New skin
must be formed, severed tissues knitted up
and general repairs made, so that this 9th
er Man is like a railway boss who hastens
to the place where the train has been wreck
ed, and keeps his workmen busy till the line
has been cleared
When you walk the Other Man attends
to it. He gives the orders that make your
teet go and you can talk or look at the
scenery or otherwise amuse yourself.
Sometimes a man playing piano will 90
ahead with his tune and talk to you at the
same time. The Other Man is playing that
piece.
This Other Man is strangely Independent
of the Ego You do not have to tell him
what to do. In fact, the more you let him
alone and do not bother him, the more per-
fectly he does his work. If, for. instance, you
think about your digestion this Other Man
is. likely to go on a strike and give you in
digestion, just to teach you to mind your
own business
For all that, the Man and the Other Man
are intimately connected When the Man is
sad the Other Man squeezes water from the
eye; when the Man is ashamed the Other
Man bushes; when the Man is frightened
the Other Man draws the blood away from
the face and makes the hair stand on end
when the Man is amused the Other Man nuIIs
the corners of the mouth up toward the
ears.
Altogether it is the most remarkable
partnership in the world