Evening star., 1927-10-30
Buffers and Some Dayreamers Are Really the Defensive

! And it is a sort of poetic justice that
when the habitual buffer does fail.
/ his failure more often than not comes
| about because he himself has been
successfully bluffed by a bigger.
stronger and superior buffer.
| Thus it is seen that the cause be-
| hind bluffing is almost identical with
| the one behind daydreaming- namely.
q defense against certain unplea sa mt
| facts IN life. Both types, likely as
| not, as children were oyersensitive
and timid. and both types shrink from
! facing life as it is without attempting
to soften some of it's harshness.
The daydreamer soften existence
by attempting either to deny 1t or by
running away from it. The buffer
tries to soften it by appearing to at
tack it fiercely in the hope he can find
a way to twist the facts of life to his
own advantage.
Failure in both cases ensues when
the dreamer loses contact with reality
so completely that he lives wholly in
a world of make-believe expressed in
its final and most extreme form ny
! type of serious mental disease called
dementia praecoX) or when the bluff
erS bluff has been called and his de
fcnsive mechanism no longer protects
him.
When he was a boy Jim had been
endowed with but average, perhaps
even mediocre, ability. Consequently
at school his progress was painful.
and because he had just "a ordinary
physical endowment he couldn't do
anything spectacular in the field of
llsticuffs or in athletics. All this
created in Jinf feeling of inferiority
and timidty at testing either his
wits or his strength against others.
Then something happened that
opened up even to his slightly dull
mind possibilities too rich to be ig-
nored.
For long time the other boys
big ones and little ones--had been ac-
customed to taunt him and pick on
him and provoke him into fights. in
which he was always beaten. One day
at recess the school bully dared him
to fight back. after snatching off his
cap and stamping on it. Jim was
terrified and sought to run, but he
was In a corner by the fence and
couldn't.
The rest Of the crowd egged the
bully on joyously and jeered at Jim.
AZ the bully advanced Jim put up his
fists instinctively and then shut his
eyes to await assassination.
But for some unknown reason Just
then the worm turned and the miracle
occurred. Jim to this day cannot re-
member what happened. but the
crowd saw IL covering. horrorfrOZen
boy of nine transformed instantly into
fury. With u below of rage, face
contorted in a terror-inspiring leer.
eyes narrowed and teeth snarlins, Jim
rushed at the bully and literally
swarmed all over him. Fists and
feet were used Unfortunately and,
with a howl of surprised fear. the
bully unscrambled himself as best he
could from the human tornado and
ran ANONYMOUSLY home. He hadn't
been physically hurt to speak of. but
he had become panic-stricken at the
horrendous apparition which con-
fronted him.
With the fickleness of crowds, the
gang" turned on the bully and well |
coined Jim to their hearts. They gave
him a reputation as battler. a
bruiser, tough guy" that was sweet |
music in his ears. And so Jim capi- |
talized this miracle as he grew older.
and used it whenever it gave promise
of success. His feeling of inferiority
was as keen and depressing as ever,
and at heart he was as timid as ever.
but he had learned valuable piece Of