Evening star., 1925-10-09

| ing the fellow. Just what he did. or
| what accent he gave to his well bred
voice, was past analysis, but the fact
| remained that he could insult others
! without committing any overt offense
The thing was u masterpiece In Its
way.
| X X X x
| This man staggered mentally, as
others do with their shoulders, or a
| too-erect carriage Of the body. or a tilt
| of the head, or a visible sneer
To the observer of life, this ability
of men to strut their stuff" as the
| slang phrase has 1t, is intensely in
| teresting, since 1t shows him that no
matter how low q man gets. he still
| possesses this divine spring, which
enables him to come back" upon the
| slightest opportunity.
SO the reader will see that / have
| answered the second question. "1f he
| does swagger. what's the harm?"
There is no harm, only good
Without this inner. secret convic.
| tion that we are pretty good stuff
after all, only the fortunately situated
| from the beginning could ever be any.
| thing, or ever achieve any mark of
| distinction.
Unless we could strut, now and then
| think we'll of ourselves when no one
| find this a bad world indeed. One has
only TO saturate himself with the dire
| forebodings as to the ultimate destiny
of man to be found in all literature to
see to what depths of misery we are
exposed.
Fortunately, we are SO constituted
that these calamity-h -howlings slip off
us like water off n ducks back. II
we look in the mirror, We see our
selves more as we want ourselves to
be than as we really are.
Everywhere in the world we live in
this divine impression Of ones worth
Is strongly manifested. From our
| very birth we look with pride upon
| ourselves. and what we do.
''She has pretty hair" say friends
| of the ugly child. 1t Is all that they
can say.
The child, hearing. prides herself
on her hair and forgets her ugly fea-
lures.
We can thank Heaven for this abil-
ity of ours. and hope we Will never
become such observers OF life as to
forget to act our part therein.
The psychoanalysts have a term
that Is more or less understood now
throughout all walks of society: An
'inferiority complex" they say, is Il
manner OF thinking and acting which
rises from the secret feeling Of the
victim that he Is outclaSsed. in various
ways, by others, A man may feel this
way without particularly knowing he
has the obSession.
SO they account for people with
chips on their shoulders. too great
strenuosity. and all forms of conceit
and push" carried on TO an extreme
degree. The victim is doing his best
in his way. 70 chow the world that
"he is Just as good as you are
sometimes wonder If all men are
not working under some sort of univer.
sal "inferiority complex" either be.
cause they feel their inferiority TO God
and the angels, or. II they have a ma
terialistic conception of the universe
because they resent their general help,
lessness in a world SO vast and SO
heartless.
Wherefore. / felt, as ! stood in that
busy Washington street, that II Is
we'll for US Il we can throw our chest
out and our head up in the face OF
all creation Let the poor man swag-
ger. the ugly man strut, the ignorant
fellow Snecr at the learned.
If We are the sons of God. then we
have right 10 be proud. II we are
not. we can show the universe some
thing new under the sun-pride-and
be proud Of II.