Evening star., 1928-05-09
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES +. TR1CEWELL.

! Napoleon before swallowing the great
mans methods Zine. hook and sinker.
! If one acts like Napoleon, he must be
Napoleon.
Short Of that-~~and coupled with
Bonapartes willingness to take the con-
| sequences-~he had better stick to the
| great modern rule of utmost civllity Ill
| letter writing.
One of tho charms of letters when
/ you stop to think about It, Is how terri
bly, polite most Of us are III our letters
TO and fro.
| Somehow the very act of sitting down
to write puts the average man on his
dignity. One becomes very formal, and
in the majority Of cases when one does
that, to that extent at least, he becomes
a better person.
Too much of the nastiness in life
arises because of the informality of hui
man beings. Even the cattle observe
certain forms with each other. but 1t Is
common thing to see human beings
utterly without respect for the privacy
OF body, mind or soul of others.
This Is Why the mob is the worst
form OF humanity In mob all sense
Of privacy Is lost. with a resultant lack
OF dignity. There Is nothing formal
about human herd called a mob. 1t
Is the most informal thing in the world.
The direct antithesis of a mob is a
solitary human being writing letter.
Not only have numbers shrunk to a
number, physically considered. but in
formality has given place to formality.
unrestraint TO dignity, Grass booriShnesS
to consideration.
All this is true, even If the writer
mcditatcs a fighting letter--a letter in
which he intends to severely rcprimand
another. II he we're personally face to
face with the other, he might punch
him in the jaw before three words had
been exchanged.
See how nicely he conducts himself,
however, now that he has pen in hand.
MY dear sir" he begins---oh, so
| formally Face to face, he would say,
| You sap, why did you do so and SOP"
Now nothing less than My dear sir"
will do The offender is far from dear,
of course. AS matter of fact, the
dictionary might be looked through for
less appropriate word. In so far as
actuality Is concerned
The great point of the letter writing
art Is that more is concerned than
actuality, at least greater actuality
| than Napoleon had in mind Expedi-
| ency Is not everything, oh, spirit OF
| Bonapartel
The conqueror wanted results. Ger
| tain phases Of human nature he either
did not understand or did not care to
understand. Whatever may have been
| his greatnesses, he had his weaknesses,
| too.
| The specimens OF his letters left us
show that he wrote forcibly to the
point. but scarcely humanity in the finest
| and best sense of the term. He left out
| OF consideration the dignity OF the
| individual.
| He was himself living contradiction.
| the supreme individualist of perhaps
| any age, yet one who at the same time
had little regard for the individual.
| Lacking this sense. how could he have
known anything about real courtesy,
| true dignity?
In our letters therefore. each one Of
| us may excel in this one respect one OF
/ the greatest. If not the very greatest,
man that ever lived on this earth.
To do so. however, we must be good
| letter writer's. with some knowledge at
| least of the inner necessities for COM
plete courtesy in every epistle, no mat
| ter what It's trend.