Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1927-03-10
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON
Drawing by Ray Walters.

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RUJKK ri HEN You mail letter In
kM "fI the post box on the cor
kA ner, do you pull down the
k9AJD slot, drop In your letter,
kSaEzlSH release the slot and then
kH2RS8 walk away? Or, after
dropping the missive in,
do you give the slot series of vigor-
Gus bangs before you are satisfied
that it is really mailed and that you
can safely go away and leave 1t to
the care of Uncle Sam2
Unless you're most unusual per-
son, you do the latter. Why the vigor-
Gus bangs? There's a psychological
reason. so let psychologist, pr. Thad-
deus L. Bolton of Temple university,
answer. He says:
Everybody-or nearly everybody
rattles the mail box slot two or three
times after posting a letter. Whyl
Various reasons-irst, caution: second
conceit, and third, egoistic hunger that
finds satisfaction in making a noise.
The cautiousness springs from the
fact that at some time or another we
have found the mail box full, and our
tlHy ltlleT CCulu only De WGQReQ In Dy
a series of dappings with the lid of the
mail box. The element of conceit en-
ters in the form of pride in our own
written word We want to make sure
that nothing goes wrong to prevent
our words reaching the recipient. A
great deal of energy has probably gone
into the letter. At any rate it is our
own written word, SO we snap the mail
box opening several times lust to
make sure"
The last and probably the greatest
reason people rattle the mail box slot
is because it makes a satisfying noise
and the noise is an expression of our
capacity to do things. We make our
selves realizable. When we make a big
reise we reassure ourselves that we
are alive, and our egoistic hunger for
the moment Is satisfied
And that is the scientific explana-
ton for the mail box banging. ANY
one of the three reasons would be suf-
fcient to cause many persons to rattle
the slot, but all three together result
In at least 80 per cent of us doing it.
Stand near a mail box some day and
make your own observations Nor Is
1t only the mail box which gives us an
opportunity to satisfy our egoistic
hunger. Doctor Bolton says further
After all we never get very far from
the rattle stage" even in our so-called
growing up state. We must confess
that, sophisticated as we may be, we
like to rattle things. This makes us
kick tin cans, run umbrellas along
picket fences, and otherwise make our
selves conspicuous. We will walk
along the sidewalk, carefully avoiding
the cracks-or walking on one brick
ut a time. All these maneuvers are at
tempts to make ourselves felt. 1 once
observed An iron post with an iron
ring attached to the top-one of those
old-time hitching posts OF the 100
people / watched as they passed, more
than 30 ratified the iron ring or tossed
it from one side to the other.
So the proverbial small boy making
deafening racket by drawing a stick
along picket fence can't be explained
by "child's love for noise" He is sat.
isfying his egoistic hunger and reas.
surfing himself that he is alive. Sc
we're all small boys, to that extent
for we all do 1t.
Ever work a crossword puzzle
Probably! Even If you have thus fan
escaped golf, radio, bridge, mah-jongg
or any Of the other popular modern