Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-22

In the midst of the braggartS who
toot their own horns modest man is
likely to feel like an arrant failure.
They talk so much and so loudly
everything that they have and do is so
perfect, that the meek man who believes,
to some extent. at least, in the sermon
on the Mount becomes very humble
indeed.
After listening to typical round-table
Of human beings praise themselves and
their own work, such modest man is
suffused with shame at his own short
conings.
When he enters the circle of light he
is under the impression that he amounts
to something, but by the time he is
ready to leave he is almost willing to
admit he is unworthy to tie the shoe
strings of the others
If they are speakers of the truth, If
they are really all they picture them
selves to be, If they hold the important
places which they say they do, and if
they have solved the mystery of life and
living as they profess!
So you see it Is a pretty big 'if,"
after all.
These self -glorifiers must always be
taken with several grains of salt, espe-
cially by those who are inclined to be
modest or super modest concerning
themselves.
Such arrogant claims are part and
parcel of our modern American bluff,
that extremely useful attitude which
sometimes takes the place of merit,
worth and aptitude, but which more
often simply helps others to understand
such aptitude, worth and merit as one
has.
Many persons understand the whole
art and science of bluffing to the point
where they instantly discount half of
what is told them by others; it is not
of these that we speak, for they can
take care of themselves and give as
good as the others send.
We are thinking, rather, of all those
men and women who were brought up
to take others at their own valuation
until they were proved otherwise; we
are thinking of all the men and women
who are the products of such education
as held modesty to be desirable moral
quality; we are thinking of those who
were specifically taught by their par
ents to say Eyes, sir" to men, and yes
NAM" to women.
These persons in sense are unfor-
tunate, since they are the all-too-ready
NlStAilo vi IIle UIdSBdIIS, lis Sell
glorifiers. the -mouther, the proud,
the naughty, the pretentious, the arro-
CANT, the conceited.
Yet they, too, form part of hui
manity as do those of the latter class;
from the reaction caused by the arro-
CANT and conceited have come count
less works of art which otherwise would
never have appeared on this earth.
This is the divine purpose, as we see
1t, of the proud and the naughty. to
goad into action of some sort the meek
and humble of the earth, who without
such stimulus would be willing TO live
their lives through in fruitless peace
and intending quiet.
Such is the slow motion of their
peaceful souls that they minimize their
own worth, play down" their own
achievements, keep quiet when they
might speak of their own achievements,
refuse to countenance others to speak
out for them.
They are as different as day from
night from the others, but live in the
same world with them, under exactly
the same conditions, playing or at
tempting to play the same game of life
with them, but often being outdistanced
because they will not descend, as they
call 1t, to the same tactics.