Evening star., 1925-04-27
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

ting away with lot in this world, but,
as a matter of fact, the very things
they gain are what decent man
wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole.
Whatever happiness they seem to
have, there is one they will never get,
that's d cinch-and 1t Is simply this:
To pass for a decent man. Nobody
may say anything, but everybody is
on to them.
If the old world seems pretty well
mixed up, remember that it takes a
mixture of various grasses to grow
the best lawn. Kentucky blue grass
by itself won't do it.
We always get back to my pet state
ment-that whatever lis, is right.
Caesar had his place in this world
the grasping. ambitious Caesar-and
so also did one Titus, who said when
he had. done no good deed one day.
my friends, / have lost a day. That
old Roman had the right idea.
l believe that the prize of being de-
cent is something that you can't gel
any other way-a certain amount of
sunshine in your soul, to use a nifty
figure of speech: a certain feeling of
happiness in the heart.
You can't beat it. Why when you
were a boy you thought you were
happy when you stole the crullers out
of the big crock in the pantry, but
you wouldn't feel so glib over that
now. although you are that same boy
grown. And sometimes boy who is
saint at 21 ends up by being an old
reprobate.
Honor and shame cannot be said to
come from any particular set of con-
dftions- All we have to do is do what
IN n
the best Judgment of the hest of our
fellows. Real worth is what makes a
man, not his clothes.
What's fame? Why, it's nothing
but a sort of fancied life in others
talk. All we have of it begins and
ends In the comparatively small cir
Gle of those who know us, no matter
how famous we are. The Hottentots
never even heard of Napoleon.
Getting right down to 1t, an honest
mans the noblest work Of God. For
who would want to be a wise man
1t means simply knowing how little
one can know in this mysterious
universe. 1t means simply seeing
everybody else's faults, and knowing
your own.
Believe me, Buddy. If you want to
teach truths, you have a hard row to
hoe. Everybody fears you, nobody
aids you and very few begin to under
stand you. l call ii a painful pre-
emlnence, to look at yourself above
lies weakness-and its comforts, tooi
Virtue-just being decent-is the
only point where human bliss stands
still. All the rest is a mad merry-go-
round. with the steam music grinding
out tuneless fox-tots that all sound
alike.
The decent man is never elated.
while one mans oppressed, nor is he
ever detected, just so long as another
man is blessed.
Nature has not given to any of the
animals a wish which they cannot
crafty. What they seek, they find
And so, to Man. she gives not only
a hope for known blisses here, but
a faith in a Bliss Unknown.
And 1t must be right.
All, Buddy, in dreams / see This
and That, / see man in a great
country as yet unknown, nearly 200
years hence, translating these lines
into prose, in a spirit of admiration
as well as of fun.
He knows, and all his readers shall
know, that being urged by you.
made sense out of poetry, showing
erring pride that whatever Is, is right;
that reason and passion both play
their part In life; that true selflove
is love of ones fellows; that only by
being decent can we be happy; that
our greatest wisdom is to know our
selves.