Evening star., 1925-11-01
This and That
By Charles E. Trncet1eH.

Good-by. folks, until we meet again.
BY the time you read this, Jack
Spratt and I will have gone on q
much-needed vacation. We will have
packed up our handbags and forgot
ten all about you.
And yet that is not true-we will
never forget you. Today's This and
That makes the 436th number that has
drifted from our ypewriter-approJi-
mately 436, 900 words
Through them all, kind readers, you
have stood behind US. Without your
interest and encoure cement, as set
forth in hundreds Of letters, telephone
calls and personal words, we could
never have carried on
You have been the power behind our
words, your appreciation our greatest
reward. Without you. our words
would have been as tinkling cymbals:
with you, we have written two-thtrds
as many papers" as Joseph Addison
and Richard Steele divided between
them with the assistance Of othersl
in their Incompatible Spectator
Papers.
Those papers. each approximately
the length of a This and That, totaled
635, l found on looking them up the
other day. 1 did this because I re-
ceived, on two successive days, letters
from two of you lkening This and
That to the Spectator Papers, ard
asking that the name be changed to
THE New Spectator" Thank you!
Looking over the six fat volumes.
| was encouraged by the thought that,
though l might not be able to equal
the Incompatible English in them,
had at least written enough to fill
four Of those 600-page books.
With your help l feel docking back
over my 436 articles) that 1 have
achieved several that the great Add
son himself would not have been
ashamed to sign one Of his initials to.
You will remember that Addison
| used either one of four initials, c. L,
/ or Q. AS these occurred in that
| order. some think he meant to adopt
| the name of Clio, the muse OF history.
Others believe that he merely used
the initials Of towns in which he hap
pened to be, such as London or Ok
| ford. etc.
Both are pretty speculations, but
| we have no way Of knowing, for Add
son never declared himself upon this
point.
You can imagine that 1t was an In
teresting afternoon l spent, LOOKING
| over the volumes of the Spectator
Papers. after 1 had written con-
| somewhat similar nature.
Some OF you may be surprised to
| learn that this was the first time had
ever read the Spectator. In school
days l had the Sir Roger de Coverley
papers as required reading" and cor
daily detested them, of course.
SO / was somewhat surprised, on
looking those old papers over, to find
| how much I had approximated, not
only their length, but something Of
| their spirit and topics. as well as gen
eral tone.
1t seems that any one who attempts
! honestly to write a series of popular
essays, to put himself on paper faith
fully, must write along much the same
| lines.
| X !; X
| Human nature was the underlying
theme of the Spectator Papers, and so
| it is Of This and That. Perhaps that
| is the only resemblance.
Addison made an out-and- out appeal
to woman readers. He "fair-sexed il,
I as the jealous Swift said.
| The writer of this column has made
| no appeal to the interest Of women.
| per Sc, but is proud of the fact that
| he has many readers among that sex,
! for he regards them as the most in
teresting and the best Of mankind.