Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-02

himself for the cheap popularity which
he sees lavished on the heroes Of the
moment?
He will get no ticker tape thrown
upon him; his place in the world Is not
to be measured in the ton homage paid
to returning heroes in the shape OF torn
paper. Thus was the world presented
with the absurdity of 1900 tons of
paper in honor of Lindbergh, 10 tons
for Admiral Byrd.
Those who fail OF popularity-and
the very vast majority do-may console
themselves with the happy anonymity
in which they find themselves.
It has many compenSations.
One receives no wholesale lots OF
ticker tape, of course, but neither does
one get an excessive amount of boos.
The "old raspberry" passes one by glee-
fully in full cry after some popular
n-of -a-gun whose popularity is on the
downgrade.
Unknown to fame, one is able to do
as he pleases in the best fashion. He
is not hampered by the sad thought,
What will everybody think?" He only
has to please a few and to wonder
whether still fewer will disapprove.
Had you ever thought to what extent
this country? There are whole maya
zines devoted to it, edited by intelligent
men who are making life business
of It,
In all walks of society some men and
women have got themselves heartily
feared by no more harsh eXpedient than
simply disappearing other people, what
they wear, do, say, think. Such per-
sons are cordially despised-and greeted
with a smile. Most people are afraid
of them. The popular person does not
L., L. e. LII e. NVArs
It Is only afterward, when his popu-
larity begins to wear thin, that they
throw off their cloak Of fawning and
reveal themselves to him for what they
always have been to others-wolves.
It used to be said that it is the woman
who pays-and pays-and pays. fSome-
khow they always got three pay days in
it, But today it is the popular man
who forks up ultimately. Popularity is
a state of mind and a state of mind Is
unstable enough when it Is just one
midland ones own. But when 1t is
the state of mind of the multitude the
result is uncertain; uncertain, that Is,
in it is sure. The greater the popu-
larity the quicker 1t wears out, and the
bigger the hero the harder he falls.
The unpopular man, on the other
hand, Is let alone, to do as he pleases.
He wears the wrist watch of his own
choice rather than the one the astute
advertising man gives him for signing
a few lines of approval. Tor, rather,
the one which the advertising man does
not give him but reserves for the hero.)
He reads the books of his choice,
smokes such cigarettes as his taste likes,
drives any motor car his fancy or his
wife approves, goes to such plays as his
experience tells him will be good.
He is the great unpopular man, the
only man in the world who can do as
he pleases, because no one else cares a
whoop what he does. He is the modern
great unwashed." The only cloud in
his happy heaven is that of the re-
former who, seeing his unsullied happi-
ness, may try to make a hero out of
him.
He SHES from becoming a hero how
ever. He has seen them come and go,
and while he has envied their popu-
larity he has Sorrowed over their
decline.
1t must be terrible thing to have
been hero and then to feel ones self
a hero no longer. Far better is it always
to be a nonentity. The former tree
performance, must be forever unhappy
as he recalls the adulation which was
his.
But the bookish man who never sat
in anything more risky than a chair
knows neither the happiness of heroism
nor the unhappiness of the inevitable
aftermath. He is just one of the happy,
happy crowd of unpopular, non-heroic
persons