Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-29
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

based upon a preference for creature
comforts. It will be discovered that the
man who wears old clothes, by prefer
ence, not necessity, would like 10 go
around in none at all, if conventions
permitted.
Short of that, nothing suits him quite
as we'll as an old coat and trousers,
old hat. old shoes. Such things appeal
to his mind as we'll as to his body. In
them ne reels more at ease, more at
one with himself.
This sartorial philosopher is willing
to admit the lure of bright, new things.
Sometimes, amid group of the perfect.
he is inclined to feel slightly i'll at
ease, not because of his old clothes, he
likes to think, but simply because he
realizes that the others place 50 much
stress on externals, as clothes literal
ly are.
Yet the man who likes his clothing
old usually has built up for himself
certain species of resistance, which
is able to come to his rescue in times
of need, and represent to him the abb
surdity of whiting in respect to his
likes and dislikeS.
He knows that criticism today has
usurped for itself SPECIAL place: it is
not so much criticism as fault-flnding
and that, in the last analysis, it means
sire on the part of the others to keep
criticism off themselves by first level
ing it at others.
Those who naturally prefer old clothes
to new will be found, in most cases,
to be men of intense loyalty, which
extends not only to human beings, but
also to their material possessions.
Such types are more easily isolated
in the country districts. There is no
township in the United States which
does not possess one or more farmers
who have outlived their families, friends
and acquaintance. and yet in their
old age will not desert the old home.
There they live year after year by
themselves, happy in their way, liking
the feel of the old door handle, pre-
ferring the laborious drum stoves" to
the latest form of centralized heating,
perhaps even sticking steadfastly to
coal-oil lamps in lieu Of the electricity
which they might easily have.
To suchs men their houses are old
garments, which fit them easily and
render them comfortable. Perhaps in
herited traits of thrift have something
to do with it. In any event, if they are
happy perhaps that is all that matters.
In the cities the man who prefers
old things, who is loyal to an old hat,
is not so easily picked out. Some call
him careless or untidy or Indifferent,
and maybe he is open TO these charges,
but at bottom he will be found to be
man of the loyal type we have pre-
serted, one who cannot be measured
by ordinary standards
There is with, him no posing, al
though he may be accused of such, be-
cause one ordinarily does not care to
pose in old clothes. How wonderful if
among the scores of unemployed who
dot our corners in old clothes there
should chance to be one or more Walt
Whitmans of the future who, out of
hard times and its experience, will
some day present the world with new
Leaves of Grass!
II exist as 1 am-that is enough;
If no other in the world be aware, 1
sit content;
And if each and all be aware, I sit
content
One world is aware, and by far the
largest to me, and that is myself !;
And whether I come to my own today
or in ten thousand or ten million
years,
can cheerfully take it now or with
equal cheerfulness can watt