Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-26
THIS AND THAT


alone to live and to have no one pay
any attention to YOU It Is the basis
of the well known desire of men to go
camping. after year Of grubbing in
an Office
It was an ideal, indeed. which the
youthful Pope set up for himself. one
which he no more followed in after life
than most men today could or would
follow 1t. Most men haven't any pater-
nal acres, in the first place. A dairy
supplies ones milk. just as other mems
wheat fields supply the bread. Clothing
comes through no one knows how many
evoiutions from fiocks perhaps thou
sands of miles away.
Blest is he. indeed, who can find his
days going by to the happy tune OF
health OF body and peace of mind. Only
the man of studiouS disposition will
find an ideal In quiet by day" and
sound sleep at night" Perhaps few
will care to live unseen and unknown
altogether. It is pleasant to feel that
others recognize ones worth. and that
in the solemn end which comes to all
men there will be at least few to
lament.
Yet one perpetually comes back to
the same point. that some portion Of
thing Especially is one inclined to
feel this way upon being made the
unwelcome recipient of ingratitude.
Shakespeare speaks heated words upon
this bad fault, likening 1t to the bite
of "a serpent's TOOTH 1t is unques-
tionably true that nothing will make
man more willing to renounce society
than an overdose OF ingratitude,
whether 1t be from man, woman or
child.
The hurt this vice gives Is deep
one, since it penetrates both the mind
and the heart. Intelligence, as we'll as
emotions. are inSulted by ingratltude.
which, though 1t may take thousand
forms, is ever and always the same in
essential characteristics. Because kind
ness is sometimes met with cruelty, be-
cause honest affection sometimes draws
only scorn, men often feel a desire to
withdraw from society, in an effort to
run away from the risk of exposing
themselves to the same sort of thing
twice. Never twice in the same place!"
A man Is that sort OF fool. Maybe
| once, but not twice.
Then there is such a thing as
ennui. simply becoming bored with the
sopi1isticatlons of modern ways of liv-
ing. One even finds 1t creeping into
ones reading habits. An honest man
who has been brought up on what are
sometimes called Victorian standards
finds himself unconsciously extending
his reading habits to take in books
and this applies particularly to novels
which speak more frankly, which con-
slider phases of life only limited at in
novels of the English schools. Such a
reader is amazed at his own temerity
in going in for Guy de Maupassant,
only to ind him parlor amusement be-
side the crude realities OF Emile lola.
Suddenly he realizes that these out
spoken books are the sort he always
wanted to read, the sort which all peo-
pile want to read. simply because they
are honest. and the astute man values
honesty above every other quality. This
ennui with old things. old books, old
ways of living tends to make one wish
to withdraw to the paternal acres
which, unfortunately. do not exist.
Perhaps 1t is fortunate. after all, that
they do not exist. for, as 1t is, one must
tough 1t out" in the place where he
is. There is no release in the war. as
Kipliny said. in the warfare of life
We must fight 1t out on this line If it
takes all Summer, and all Winter. too.
Yet to live so that no one pays any
attention to you-that is worthy
dream for idle moments. Is II not?