Evening star., 1924-08-21
THIS AND THAT
BY C. e. TRACEwELL.

Sometimes when a man sits In
restaurant and the waiter hands
him a particularly elaborate bill of
fare the fact that making a choice
between things is hard hits him be-
tween the eyes.
Not until he stacks up against
something unusually difficult, like
that menu. does he stop to realize
that choosing anything is one OF the
hardest feats he is called upon to
perform.
Making choice is something a
man faces all his life, from selecting
pie of a counter holding dozen
different fiavors, to choosing a wife
out Of million or SO girls.
No wonder men get gray around
the ears, and many of them bald
at 40!
Guess. if you can, and choose. if
you dare"
That is one of mans eternal prob
lens. from the days he first learns
to walk and talk until the time when
he ceases thinking and walking
altogether.
Just the everyday grind of selec-
tion. the picking Of one thing in
preference to another, the choice of
the best from many good and bad.
ing prose all his life but did not
realize it, all Of US are daily making
decisions, good and bad, often with
out suspecting that this is in reality
about the hardest job we face day
by day.
Watch any business man select
ing his lunch. you will get a good
idea Of one of the reasons, at least,
for the tired business man." He ap-
exactly the same spirit he does some
weighty mercantile question.
The executive still remains the
executive.
Lemon, peach, chocolate, apricot
and custard pie catch his eye. What
ever else man may be, he Is a pie
eater, first and last This is the
inescapable heritage Of an American.
No man can be said to be an Amer
ican, indeed, unless he eats pie, to
paraphrase the statement of Secre-
tary Davis to the effect that no man
is an American until he has eaten
Off lunch counter
Lemon, peach, chocolate. apricot
and custard?
How does the man make his selec-
ton? Frankly, nobody knows, not
even the man himself. There is no
particular reason, as far as he knows,
another today.
He is betwixt the devil and the
deep blue sea, or, in pie phraseology,
between lemon and peach, or choco-
late and apricot, or apricot and
custard, or custard and lemon. and
peach and chocolate, and the 3,749,637
other comparisons that might be
made.
See him stand deliberately eyeing
nj
down a decision as to abolishing
branch house with any more gravity?
Would his eyes be any more intent
when he came to the consideration of
giving Bill Jones a "raise?"
Guess I'll take piece OF custard,
he tells the counter man. NO, make
it peach" he adds. triumphantly.
made it peach, only his innards can
tell. and they will not talk.
The same process of selection. of
choosing one from several, is made
daily by all of us in the various
channels of our activities.
There is never just one necktie
on the rack-there are many. There
is never just one peach on the plate
there are several equally tempting.
When a man goes to buy an auto
facturers had done a little some
thing to save him from the embar-
rassment of such riches, he finds 50
many models, so many makes, so
many engines, so many styles, SO
many finishes.
He talks them over with his friends
and finds that each one prefers a
different car. Those who own auto
mobiles speak up for their own selec-
- H@
of choice, and virtuously being at
rest on the subject, at least osten-
tiously.
The trouble is that each new friend
he meets is an ardent booster for a
different car, so that he might as we'll
come to a decision on his own behalf
and be done with it.
This he proceeds to do, with much
discussion of motors, learned and
| otherwise, finally making his choice
If he is honest with himself, nine out
of ten times, he will confess tina,
there was no particular reason at all
why he chose the new car. He will
prove this next year by selecting an
other make.
'The strongest principle of growth
lies in human choice" George Eliot
said, in her Daniel Deronda."
These everyday decisions make
| man what he is, some persons being
on the horns of the diurnal dilemma
| longer than others, that is all. The
| man who can make a quick choice
is fortunate, in some ways, and gets
, the reputation for having a good
| brain, until he happens to make q
bum selection. The man who chooses
carefully is put to more trouble and
vexation of spirit. but probably does
| better by himself and others in the
long run.
There is another phase to choosing,
that voiced by Shakespeare:
will not choose what many men desire,
Because I will not jump with common spirits.
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.
This Is where education, whether
of the schools or experience. comes
to help a man, giving him a wider
acquaintance and knowledge. so that
his selections may be made in all
lines with judgment.
How can a man select the better
books il he knows only the trashy
sort? How can the child with music
in his soul make good choice If he
knows only blues" songs and the
cheapest sort of syncopation?
| \ X X \
The fascination of chance, fortune.
luck, call 1t what you will, is what
makes these daily choices not only
endurable but enjoyable.
The man selecting his flavor for
the day may not realize it, but he Is
gambling, in a sense, almost as much
as when he holds the cards in front
of him and wears that supervise
expression, "the poker face"
| It is the quality of doubt in the
thing that exercises the magic, that
throws the glamour of the mysterious
over the commonplace. that sends a
man plunging back into the secret
| recesses of his mid-brain to the al