The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-01-28
MR.. "AVERAGE MAN"
RISES TO OCCASION
PoaOcr to Meet Emergency,
Common to All.

The average man, so we are LOto, IL
honest. Diogenes, for all the light Of
his penny lantern, could not find him,
and the editors, who have been look
ing for him ever since, haven't found
him either. he may be honest, that
average man he may be strong for
family life; he may never look the
other way when the plate goes by at
church, nor pass Sally In her blue
straw on the corner without q dime
to match her smile. He may belong
to the Kiwanis, and always land ON
the green In fve-they say he does.
l don't know. / never saw. him.
No; / never saw him, and the man
who saw him never saw either. The
truth is either an advertising agent
invented him, or else the department
stores did. Have you ever tried on
the average mans coat at FIFTEEN &
Chargitt's as / have? The name on
the tag gives 1t away. 1t is sure to
be q medium STOUT or anything
which shows It's not just plain aver
age.
If / were q king In a fairy story,
and did not want to lose my daughter,
when / advertised for a husband in
the regular way, l should simply give
notice that the first average man who
turned up should marry her-and then
I'd keep her to make my green old
age very comfortable.
There was q time when thought
otherwise. In the days when we were
all slender, and our hair grew very
black, 1t was my Job to try to re-
vamp the old Atlantic Monthly. For
a time 1t did not occur to me that our
subscribers were average people.
How could they be, reading those
austere, unillustrated pages7 Well, ]
began printing pieces which happened
to interest me and the normal, nat
ural people who were my friends.
What happened was surprising. The
circulation grew every month little
more, until 1t was about ten times
what 1t had been. They were all or
binary people reading 1t. But had not
they something which led each in his
individual way to want magazine
that made no conscious appeal to the
ordinary average MANI
Did you ever notice in reading the
story of fire or Of sinking ship, or
Of an engine tumbled over an embank-
ment, how the average" man be-
haves7 Was there ever such story
which did not have hero7 And
what is hero but the average man
when the call comes to him, and he
forgets he can't do things, and does
them7
There Is story in tOnight's paper
of an average cop. He had sworn, 1t
seems not to use his own revolver,
lest some bystander be injured. That
was a natural, average thing to do,
and when the crook he had just ar
rested broke away the cop went after
him with his bare hands. Once the
crook shot, twice, three times; then
the fourth bullet landed in the police
mans abdomen, but he went right on,
clinched with the thief, turned his
own weapon on him, killed him in his
tracks, and was carried off to hos
pital to die. Not an unusual story
but one which gives you little more
confidence that the chap next you
will do his bit when the time comes
And perhaps you will, too.
William James wrote wonderful
essay on the energies of men. He
tells how the runner will keep his
stride while his heart is bursting with
in him and his backbone knocks
against his ribs He comes to the ut
ter end, and then suddenly, marvellous
", comes the new wind. The muscles
tauten, his breath rlpples easily, and
he Is off to win the race.
That is the miracle which comes to
all of us, which makes every man
know in his secret heart that he is
just little better than the next, and
that he can win. 81" he whispers to
himself, "am a Jones My father was
q Jones, before me. OF course can
win-why, after all, they are only
average .'-Ellery Sedgwick in
Golfers.