Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-11-09
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

| X-rays. one gathers, show the ankle
broken in two places.
Mrs. So-and-So, however still doesn't
know that anything was broken, and
tor some reason or other-somebody
coughed there-the thing is being kept
| from her
Mrs. So-and-So has an ankle broken
| in two places-and doesn't know it!
Can you beat that?
X X
| Accidents of one kind or another are
| favorite vehicle conversation topics.
| Somebody is always telling an acquaint-
ance about a bad fall. or how they
caught their hand in the wringer, or
got a burn on the furnace door.
| There are, of course, as many sub
| iects as there are human beings pres
ent, with few extra thrown in for
good measure. Here will be a couple
of young men seriously discussing the
| place of certain author in the galaxy
of the great, while over there two race
horse fans solemnly compare notes on
how to pick winner. Five dollars won
on lucky bet will outshadcv 500 lost,
and be remembered ten times as long.
Human nature is wonderful.
The wild young man with fantastic
theories has a warm place in the hearts
of all those who amuse themselves, con-
sciously or unconsciously by picking up
scraps of conversation in street cars and
buses.
Not only has this young fellow the
cries all his own, he has queer thoughts
which somehow strike one as honest, if
not plausible, and as somehow fascinat-
ing if not practical.
Last week he was going on at great
rate about how he longed to hurl a
cup of hot coffee in mans face in a
restaurant, not because the man had
said or done anything that displeased
him, but simply because the idea came
into his head to do it. 1t seemed, from
as much as one could gather, tina.
something about the fellows appearance
rubbed him the wrong way.
He did not set himself up to be the
judge of mankind, he said, but simply
did as all people do, have instructive
likes and dislikes; and this time he
found something in the facial appear
ance of the man to irk him tremendous
ly. So what thought came to his
mind, he went on, but to pour the cup
of coffee over the man?
The thought rather aStonished him,
he declared, because he was tempera-
mentally adverse to cruelty in any form;
DuC since 1t came to him he turned 1t
over In his mind to see why it was
there, and what he should do with it.
Rejection, of course, was its fate.
y X X X
Another time this entertaining fell
low conceived the idea, so he expatiated,
of setting up dictatorship to rid the
wage-earning field Of ugly people.
People were too ugly, he said, to be
permitted to exist-that is, too many
of them were. If he had his way, ne
insisted (although evidently he didn't
believe what he was saying HIMSELF :,
all homely persons ought to be fired"
Personal beauty, so he insisted, ought
to be taken as the criterion. Then the
working world would be rid of many
distressing sights. Solid worth, he in
sisted with an airy gesture Che and his
companion sat in the seat ahead, might
suffer, but the world would be better
off in the long run.
OF course nobody believed a word he
said, not even himself. His talk was
merely sample of what one must ex-
pect to hear on public vehicle, If
boredom prompts him to listen in"