Evening star., 1928-11-15
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

sire to get back" at another for some
real or fancied evil action.
Our human experimenter returns
good for evil not simply because re-
ligion tells him to-he would do 1t any,
way, because 1t Is as interesting. in its
way, as the other procedure undoubt-
edly is in its too extended sphere. BY
simple experiments in human goodness
he is able to find out in few minutes
what might otherwise take him years
to discover.
There is nothing spectacular about
his experiments No laboratory work.
er, unseen and unheralded. ever went
about chemical experiment with less
publicity. Just as the chemist holds
his test tube up to the window, so our
experimenter holds a human being up
to the clear light of the human intelli-
Gence. It Is really a thrilling thing.
Without malice (although some might
attribute it to him, of course), without
anger (although some might think he
| possessed iO, he docs or says something
which demands certain reaction.
He does not set up out of clear
sky either the action or the reaction
Humanity has, through it's centuries
OF existence, made both action and re-
| action. Civilization has formulated
| civilized beings who take pride in their
status in the universe adhere to be-
cause they know instinctively they are
right according to all the knowledge
which mankind has of himself after
thousands OF years of existence.
X X *
| Let us see how this works.
Suppose some one--a woman, for in
Stance-has gone out of her way to
treat a friend capriciously. They
finally come to the parting Of the
ways. She returns one of his gifts.
He replies with a letter. which IS so
courteously worded, so utterly sincere,
that it demands an answer Now this
is the cruX of the experiment. He
knows that it demands an answer. He
did not invent the test, he did not
| formulate the rules. He simply worked
with certain agents which the world
had long tested and thoroughly under
stood.
The experiment was a standard one.
A woman of inherently good heart
would respond to 1t by making some
sort of answer If it we're no more than
formal note of thanks. The woman
of lesser standards would equally re-
Spond to 1t by making nc response
NLldtoUCNEL! Illus Vic HI1dlAlUlC OCoU
never fails to function. just as jew
eler tells false diamond with a cer-
tain test, so our experimenter detects a
false gentlewoman by means of let
ter. She had been weighed in the
scales and found wanting.
Our experimenter plies his expert
ments in the most public places without
batting an eye, for what he works
with is invisible There is no place he
can be where he will not discover fine
people and their reverse. But just as
wit is most often interesting when 1t
is ill-natured, so experiments which re-
suit in discovering dross often prove
the most interesting. This is fault
of human nature which God no doubt
will correct In time.
He loans book to one who is. so
far as he knows, only mildly interested
In him. He is. therefore, free from
any possible admixture of anger or any,
thing other than a simple interest
The man keeps the book two months,
then appears with it one day across
the street from the public vehicle stop
where our experimenter stands. The
latter notes with interest (being the
scientist he isl that the other waits
on the other side of the street until
the vehicle comes along. A gentleman
would have come over at first Is it
not an interesting game?