Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-10
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

And yonder lovely lady villainess-
what are her Vaccinations except the
| overrunning of a disgruntled spirit, dis
satisfied with life?
With the great majority, urban living
is mostly a matter of give and take.
Mostly city people attend to their own
business and expect others to do the
same. Life for each one is made up
| of home and office and maybe a few
clubs and personal friends.
The chart of his goings and comings
to and fro in the city might be easily
made. since most of his travels are
In the same old paths. He may go
back and forth over them year after
year, this average city man of whom
we speak. To begin with. he may be
rich or only moderately we'll off, ex-
tremely moderately. if you will.
He may travel these self-made routes
Tor years, We say, and never once run
against man who actually deserves
to be termed his enemy"
Opposition. civilization is coming to
see, does not necessarily mean opposi-
ton with meanneSS in it, counter
action fringed with nastiness or cruelty.
Honest dislike, based upon certain
anttpathies, may be met and accepted
Tor what 1t is, without any one finding
it necessary 10 call the holder of it a
villain"
Disagreement may be made without
demanding a Surly temper or a creased
brow. In the face of these facts, the
old-time story book enemies" and
Villains" mostly disappear.
X X X X
Today men meet opposition, dislike
and disagreement without getting into
a stew. The universal tendency Is to
laugh it Off"
Suppressions of one kind or another
are getting in their work. There are
some who tell us that to suppress a
child in any form. shape or manner.
is bad for it, but since the adult will
have to practice suppressions of many
sorts, why may not the child be trained
in few of them?
Thus the grown man or woman finds
it eXpedient. not cowardly, to ignore
as many small unpleasantneSses in life
as possible. From some standpoints
this would seem to be the happy me-
dium, the golden mean, between the
two opposing principles, /. e., to lily
off the handle at the slightest upset,
and to turn the other cheek. The first
is foolish and the second VIGOROUSLY
difficult to achieve.
BY ignoring what it Is possible to
ignore without loss of honor. one may
get along with a minimum of enemies,
grand, major or minor varieties. And
sometimes, too. honor makes no such
demands as a more romantic age
thought necessary.
Not so many decades ago in the
United States men found it necessary
to go to a dueling field if one of them
called the other liar. Today this is
still a fighting term, but quite often
the man who is given the lie will
realize that he is liar and in spirit
of humane fellowship admit it.
This. it would SEEM is a real adj
vance. not only in citizenship but in
common sense as we'll. This sensible
attitude, diffused over all the walks OF
life has lessened the number OF enc
mics and villains and transformed the
latter into up-and- doing citizens.
The loss of villains and enemies out
of the average life is no loss at all.
Even in the dueling days nobody really
wanted them. but they were part of
tradition. Now that the world is get
ting rid of them. men are satisfied to
allow them to remain between the
covers of books for the ediflcation Of
the young.