Evening star., 1924-08-05
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THE WISDOM OF LAzINEss. Fred
I. Kelly. Doubleday, Page A. Co


with instructive opposition, since it's
clalm runs counter to a point in the
routine stock of opinions that we in
common possess. Secretly conscious
OF the lazy man who lives inside of
each OF us we, nevertheless, rush to-
gether in open and united condemna- =
tion of laZiness. Like any of the
minor immOralities this one is held
in varying disesteem according to
latitude. Like sin itself it is largely
a matter of locality. Up in New
England, for instance, where soil and
climate have bred a root-hog- g-or-die
philosophy, lazineSs stands as one of
the seven deadly sins, if not as the
quintessence of all of them. On the
other hand, where skies are habitual-
ly smiling and soil unfailingly friend
ly to man, it draws out no more than
mild depreciation or apologetic toler-
ance. At no time, other than this
time, has one come upon laxiness lift
ed to the rank of virtue and fitted
with the wings of wisdom. A sur
prising effect here with enough of
sound sense behind it to support
much more than a purely humorous
outlook. All of the effects of this
volume are of the unexpected and
original stamp. A fresh and individ-
ual angle Of approach to themes as
commonplace as this mornings
breakfast proves to be the source of
the variety and originality of these
sketches and observations.
X X X
Speaking of laziness-after a good
deal of looking around, Fred c. Kelly
reaches the conclusion that the most
of human progress has been achieved
by the devices of lazy men to save
themselves steps. In citation of evil
dence he goes back to early man
who, living in caves, was compelled
often to walk long distances for
water. 1t was, unquestionably, the
lazy man of the tribe who first hit
upon the plan of hunting out some
makeshift receptacle for holding
water, thereby reducing markedly the
number OF his trips to the more or
less distant spring. But even this
was too much and it was, without
doubt, the same lazy fellow who
thought of the rude trough for hold
ing water and diverting it from it's
source to a convenient point of use
In the course of time il must have
been another lazy man, who, to avoid
carrying water up hill, thought out
the pump dUu WInuHllll ASd dlI IHlS
writer gravely maintains that the
first boat, a followed log, must have
sprung from the reluctance of a dis
tant ancestor to walk around the lake
or to cover miles along the river
bank. From this point Fred Kelly
moves on up to modern agriculture
with its labor r-saving machinery. He
aftirms that 1t was not the energetic
farmers who contributed to these
easements of labor, but, rather. the
more indolent ones, those to whom
the idea of sitting down made
strong appeal. Through other fields
of observation, MIR. Kelly passes on to
the conclusion that sit is a tremen-
dous asset to be lazy enough willingly
to sit still until bright idea comes
along. instead of frfttering away the
golden hours in wearying routine ac-
tivity. The best books are written
necessarily by lazy authors" Most
men of genius are, according to him.
lazy. In proof, he recalls that Mark
Twain did much of his best work
while lying in bed. Too energetic an
author pants to be up and doing and
cannot content himself at q desk,
calmly improving his manuscript, or
idly waiting hours at time for a
bright phrase or clever twist of
plot" Pleased, clearly, with his own
enlarges 1T to embrace other pursuits
than agriculture and literature.
Many of our greatest statesmen
were brought up on farms and would
have remained on farms, if they hadn't
+.been too lazy to face so much hard
work and looked about for something
easier. 1t is the scholars and think
ers, too lazy for much physical ac-
tlvlty. who do most to change the
thought of the world for the better"
Nonsense? Maybe, but nonsense with
a lot of pith and point and sense to
It.
What Fred c. Kelly has to say
about "FiCkleness as a Virtue" is
both clever enough and short enough
to give you the whole of it: When a
man is known as f1ckle and finds a
new sweetheart everv time he moves
to another town, people shake their
heads and speak of him as If he were
lacking in strength of character. Yet
everybody admits that the power of
adaptability is one of the best in
dications of real intelligence. A tickle
man is simply one with the ability
to adjust himself readily to new con-
ditions. If less fickle, or less adapta-
Bile. he might grieve away his life
girl instead of finding himself a new
one" A jar to the sentimentalist, but
reasonably and plausibly true.
x X x x
The story of a Boy who Hated
School not only bears the imprint
of a true and personal chronicle, but
it stands, besides. as a quite inspired
comment on education itself. "As he
got further along''-after all manner
of initial harships-''the boy was
obliged to make use more and more
of a terrible device known as a text
book. He accepted the dreary stupid
ity and banality of the average text
book as a necessary part of the edu-
cational plot to make him unhappy;
it never occurred to him that a text
book might have been different
| And the author himself steps out to
ask: How manv text books has any
| body ever heard of that 1ured one to
read away over into the back pages,
ahead of the assigned lesson? Has a
| text book ever made anybody slap his
| formation and exclaim: Well, we'll.
beforer be a HAS Has it," And grammar! mar
What boy could get excited over a
| predicate when the word itself was
| an irritating stranger! "Copula'
wasn't quite so bad because it made
| him think of "cupola," and he had
pigeons in the cupola of his father
barn. Thinking of the pigeons gave
| him momentary relief from the bore
| dom of grammar. One summer be-
| tween high school years the boy went
camping in the company of a man,
who, though formerly a teacher, was
able to impart information. He used
to pick up bugs from the ground and
use them for a text in an offhand
discussion of the basic facts of biolo-
gy With no apparatus save a canoe
and a drowsy river. he was able to
expla in the principles of buoyancy,
air pressure and many other of the
| main facts of physics-facts that the
| boy never forgot" So along he fol-
| lows the boy to college-and as in
tah no In that r.