Evening star., 1924-09-20
THIS AND THAT
BY C. r. TRACEwELL.


difficult things in the world.
AT the same time it is one of the
last faults a man is willing to ad-
| nit, and one OF the very last to be
dug out of the complex mental life,
| because 1t lies SO close to the secret
springs of being.
Many men are willing to confess
| to their sins. admitting that they arc
fools a good part of the time, and
liars sometimes, and not all they
should b a good deal of the time.
Few there are, however, and far
between. who as readily Soa1ean thnA
the one and sole topic of their con-
versation is their precious selves
Yet the number Of this bore is
legion. Every Office has at least one,
every home has it's supply, every
where the Ill chap is found High
and low estate knows him.
More time might be spent profitably
considering this man, than bawling
out the yes yes" man, he who is
the echo of his superior in all things,
who never has a mind Of his own,
who is scared to speak out
This latter specimen is found every
where. too He is the unofficial rub
Der stamp of chief clerks in Govern
ment departments. Whatever the
boss does is right to him.
MY boss. when right; but, right
or wrong, my boss" is his motto
Surely he is loyal Lack of fealty
cannot be charged to him. unless one
considers that real loyalty involves
the truth, when pleasant, but. pleas
ant or unpleasant, the truth.
hn yEn taIl y
self is much more widely spread
through the body polite. He is so
common type that no one but is ac-
quainted with him. In this matte
men are the worst offenders. AS far
as my observations go, very few
women are afflicted this way.
Talking about ones self mostly
consists Of talking about ones work
Lack of perspective is what causes
ali the trouble. making friends shrink
from meeting this bore The trouble
is that this man fails to take into
consideration just what he does.
Let us consider just exactly what
it is such a man does. in order tha'
we may test ourselves, and see II
we, too, fall within the awful circle
Rest assured that none of your
kind friends is going to tell you
about it The clever ad writer who
calls our attention to "haIitosis," or
bad breath. knows thing or two.
No one, no matter how close one
may be TO another, is going to tell
him about thing like that. This Is
a thing one has to find out for him
self 1t was Napoleon III, I believe,
who one day was told by a favorite
who added. Every one else will de
clare I am a liar" So his majesty
discovered later, after blowing his
breath into the faces of many cour-
tiers, all of whom lied loyalty
IL your chief topic of conversation
is yourself and what you do, and what
you like, and what you do not like
you can be pretty certain that 80 per
cent of the people you meet will
seem to be interested.
That is the trouble with this trou-
Bile. 1t is fed and famed into a flame
by ones friends and relatives. Most
people are tolerabIy polite. often
even seemingly rough customers have
a deep sense of innate politeness
when it comes to going out Of their
way to avoid offending others
Here is a case in point. When a
man is selling automobiles, for in
stance. and talks of nothing but au-
tomobiles. and particularly the car
he happens to be selling, no one is
going to call halt on him.
Tell Sam Jones about that car every
time you meet him, he will swallow
1t cheerfully. Sam is not going to
blurt out: In heavens name. stop
talking about automobiles All you
do is talk about automobiles. As for
me, 1 am interested in shirts-that is
what l sell. Let's talk about shirts"
No. Sam is going to listen politely
for You, and also mild interest in
your brand of car. No matter IL he
meets you every evening, and every
time you talk automobiles, he will
manage somehow to work up an in
terest in the topic.
If you could only hear what he
says when he gets home to the wife.
Il met that darn bore talking about
automobiles again." he says -All
Sna pdoodle Floating Six, and wouldn't
have one of them boats on a bet He
ought to take a course in etiquette"
Coal men talk coal. writing men
talk writing, grocery men talk gro
ceries, soldiers talk war, navy men
talk ships, street vendors talk bal
looms and talking mice, retailers talk
car men talk street railways, political
candidates talk politics, orators talk
talk.
If you only met any one once, it
would not be SO bad. 1t is when you
have to face the same bird every day
that the curse comes. Talking coal
with ]. Russell Chestnut is not so bad
once in a while. After six steady
nf
1y to anthracite and bituninous, how
ever, one has a mad desire to force
j. Russell into discussing the Phila-
delphia Symphony Orchestra
Il say, J. Russ, what do you think
of the allegro movement from the
Beethoven Third Symphony" ?"
Wouldn't old J. Russell curl UP IN
astonishmenti
Probably he would not. He would
listen politely until you got to talking
about the fiery climax. when he would
break in:
Fiery climax is good, Say. have
you got your coal in yet? I can let
you have some fine white ash stove"
X X r
Very few of us escape boring others
in this way at some time or another
Most of US have to be pretty careful
about it We are interested in our
work. of course. This work is, for
US. the most interesting thing in the
world.
The point is that it may not be the
most interesting thing for the other
fellow, in fact. often does not interest
him in the slightest If your chief
topic is new to him, he will be in
terested for time, that Is all.
The man who wants to avoid boring
others in this way has to be on his
guard all the time against two things:
1. Talking about himself and his
work.
2. Letting the conversation steer