The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1927-03-11
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON
Drawing by Ray Walters.

RuWKT1HEN you mail a letter In
tN RN the post box on the cor
~ w ner, do you pull down the
kS3Sr4 slot, drop in your letter,
ESEIn release the slot and then
M2&A walk away? Or, after
dropping the missive in,
do you give the slot a series Of vigor-
u bangs before you are satisfied
that 1t is really mailed and that you
al safely go away and leave 1t to
the care of Uncle Sam?
Unless you're a most unusual per-
son, you do the latter. Why the vigor-
GUS bangs? There's a psychological
reason, 80 let a psychologist, DR.. 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. Why?
Various reasons-frst, caution; second,
c%onceit, and third, egoistic hunger that
hnds 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
tiny letter could only be wedged in by
a series of f~appings with the lid Of the
mail box. The element of conceit en-
tiers in the form of pride in our own
written word. We want to make sure
tina nothing goes wrong to prevent
our words reaching the RECIPIENT. A
great deal Of energy has probably gon9
into the letter. At any rate 1t is our
own written word, so we nap 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
noise we reassure ourselves that we
are alive, and our egoistio hunger for
the moment is satisfied.
And that is the scientific e~xplana-
ton for the mail box banging. Any
n of the three reasons would be suf-
ficient to cause many persons to rattle
the slot, but all three together result
In at least 80 per cent of us doing it.
Stand neal a mail box some day and
make your own observations! Nor Is
it only the mail box which gives us an
opportunity to satisfy our segoistic
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
at a time. All these are at
tempts to make ourselves felt. I once
observed an iron post with an iron
ring attached to the top-one of those
old-time hitching posts. OF the loo
people 1 watched as they passed, more
thar 90 ratified the iron ring or tossed
It from one side to the other.
So t&e>proverblal small boy making
g d~eafening racket by drawing a stick
along a 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. So
we're all small boys, to that extent,
for we all do II.
Ever work a crossword puzzle
Probably Even II you have thus fan
escaped golf, radio, bridge, mah-jongg
or any Of the other popular modern