Evening star., 1931-12-16
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

his lunch in order to eat with his
| favorite conversationalists.
He eats his meal In courses, as 1t
were, taking soup with one. vegetables
with another and dessert with several
more.
Eating, drinking, sitting and talk
ing
Honest, everyday recreations they
are, and 1t is just as well If they
are recognized for what they are, with
out fear or favor
One may eat and drink decently
without pinning on the inevitable tag,
sary at the lunch, or supper, or mid
night meal of the type we have in
mind, the type Stanley Walker had
in mind, that there be particular
amount of merriment.
The deepest laughter is not of the
so-called belly" variety, but rather
that sort which springs to life in the
mind and heart at the making OF q
good point, at the putting together OF
one and one to make perfect-three,
of course; not two.
Sitting is the basic part OF this Big
-Four Gust another one OF the many
Big Fours of life). One must sit be-
fore one may eat, drink or talk. To
eating and drinking are merely ave-
nues to much palaver.
These parties, time-out in the busy
day, are genuine recreationS, because
one may talk. All else Is secondary.
BE seated, gentlemen" says the in
visible Minstrel Man. Here Is some
thing to eat and something to drink,
but we are not here to eat or drink.
I'VE are here to talk: but not even
to talk for talks sake. We are here
to strike spark against spark, to give
out and to take in, to form old con-
cepts into new ones and to resolve new
ones back into old ones again.
We are met here together, brethren,
to take down our own esteem peg or
two. No man sits at this table without
rising from it wiser and, one hopes,
better man. This Is the fountain head,
as it were, of democracys greatest rec
reation-talk.
Talking
Man is born to talk, as his mouth opens
outward From the moment OF his flrst
breath he attempts to speak. His flrst
halting sounds are formed into words
bv loving instruction. The first seven
wears OF his life he learns the basic
principles of his mother tongue, the
rest of his life he talks away as best
he can.
Because man has loved to talk, he has
fabricated the fiction that woman loves
to talk more than he does. All women
have seen through this from the begin
ming; discerning men know the idea Is
mostly ballyhoo.
The difference between men and
women, when it comes to talking lies
II, this fact that women will talk in
Discriminatory to all and sundry and
enjoy it, whereas man must talk only
to a chosen few, if he wants to be happy
about 1t.
There is no talk like honest talk for
man, and even that must be within
the bounds of good taste. What he de-
mands is honesty Of thought. He has
no use for these hypocrites who will not
talk straight themselves and who Will
not allow any one else to, either.
| Hence, he finds his sitting and eat
ing and drinking must be done with
true comrades, men who know the value
of talk based on intellectual honesty.
Given them, he can say anything which
comes into his mind without running
the major danger Of having his words
! changed on him and his ideas covered
with mud. Talk of the right sort. with
the right people, is interesting, amusing
and ennobling, Happy is the man who
participates In 1t. and when he does
! the world must envy him.