Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-26
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

speaks. This phenomenon deserves no
further mention. since We are dealing
solely with types that do speak, if no
more than once.
The far swing of the pendulum brings
us to the man who greets you every
time he meets you in the hall or in
the elevator no matter how many times
day that may be.
His "hello" is as CHEEKY at pm
as at am. The passage of time has
no effect whatever on his good man.
ners. Whether he sees one for the first
time or the seventh, he manages to
give a smile and an oral greeting.
The reader can take his choice of
these types, and will no doubt be so
guided by his own actions since every
man must by necessity judge the world
from his own self before he can see it
from any other viewpoint.
y y
Does not such question boil itself
down. after all, as most of them do, to
a simple matter of common sense?
Etiquette is nothing but polite usage
solidly based on the natural and the
civilized normal.
There are not a great many knives,
forks and spoons in formal dinner
service simply to mystify the uninitiated
but solely because SO many arc needed
for correct service.
The forms observed have no mys-
FERROUS origin, nor are they used simply
to puzzle those without the pale, but
have their birth in utility and honesty
At the bottom of most of them is pure
expediency, based on human nature and
its rise to civilization.
When one approaches the question of
hnx times q q er0oalY
to acquaintance in business, he can
approach it from two standpoints, either
the actual or the theoretical. If from
the former, he is saved great deal of
bother, perhaps, since he will then be
under no compulsion to be anything
but himself.
If it is his nature to be cheerful he
will speak every time he meets another
If he is grouchy, he will not speak at
all. Whatever his nature is, he will be
true to it, no matter what others say
to him. If he is polite, he will speak;
if he is not, he will not. If he is too
busy to give greeting, he will with
hold it.
If he approaches this matter from
the standpoint of theory, however, he
must agree that there is but one theo
retically correct way to act, and that is
W lIlNdL AdUly dShAIOW4Cd6C WIG HoccAAAS
of friend.
Common sense applies here as much
as elsewhere. If one is in room with
another, and has given one greeting, he
cannot be perpetually speaking to every
one. Such conduct would be fulsome.
If. however. he is in another ROOM
there is no reason why he cannot speak
every time he meets another. An ora
ton is not necessary. The plain. home
ly greeting of the West, Hello" or
"Hy,' its two-letter equivalent, is
enough.
A smile, even, is sufficient. After
all, what is happier than an honest
smile? 1t just fills the bill in many
cases, showing Enthusiastically that one
knows that friend, an associate, has
gone by.
1t is said that passengers on the Graf
Zeppelin looked hopefully for waving
handkerchiefs as that glorious vessel
passed over American cities, and that
they we're disappointed If they did not
see them.
So, in everyday life, our passage of
friends ought to be manifested by some
signal which would show them that
they possess, in our eyes, the dignity of
human beings.