Evening star., 1931-06-21

me at Cobble Reef, few miles
distant. He has formed the habit, indeed, Of
dropping in me there when he finds himself
needing confidential listener, and thus it was
that we sat together my veranda one thnly
moonlit evening not long ago, while he related
the details Of an episode mortifying to himself
but useful, I think, since it led him to some
conclusions that might be pertinent to almost
anybody The youngish moon was high over
the sea when he began, but hung low toward
Mary's Neck before he finished.
Out home in Logansville, Ill. CAr. Massey
said) such a thing this could never have
happened to me. I don't think it could have
happened to me anywhere except under the
peculiar conditions that prevail at Mary's Neck
because at a Summer resort part of persons
character can get to sticking out Of him in q
way it never would in his home town. At q
Summer resort q person is liable to discover
qualities In himself that he probably never
would have even suspected he possessed If he'd
stayed home, and the qualities I'm speaking
Of are the Kind he'd prefer to attribute TO
somebody he'd never taken any great liking TO-
The way look at it, one thing that brought
out these qualities in myself is the fact that
nearly all the families at Mary's Neck come
from different places. Back home where they
grew up they've always been used to the other
people around them, and the other people have
always been used to them, but when they come
to the neck for the Summer season they're out
Of the original package, as you might say, and
surrounding conditions are kind of disturbed
and huctuating.
That could hardly be helped because so
many of these families have got used to the
idea that they were Just about the most inn
portant in their home towns, so they naturally
feel they ought to be the most important at the
Neck too, and some others that weren't i'm
portant in their home towns have decided that
anyhow they're going to be important at the
Neck. Well, it's easy to see how difficult it Is for
q community to consist entirely of influential
citizens without any lower populace for the
influential citizens to influence; it leads to
considerable feeling at times, and we cottagers
at the Neck find ourselves getting agitated over
things that wouldn't be likely to upset us at
home.
IA /HEN Mrs. Massey and our two daughters
w and took the step of renting cottage
at the Neck and settled down there for our
first Summer, all new and excited over the
Atlantic Ocean and everything, of course we
didn't have any idea that these peculiar con-
ditions existed. 1t took us quite some time to
get acquainted around, and for good while at
first we couldn't feel that we were ever going to
be allowed to take much part in the human
life of the place, as you might call it, so we
naturally experienced good deal Of the meek
ness that comes over left-out people anywhere.
Probably we had this lowly feeling of being
outsiders more than other newcomers had it
because found out before long chat were
the only Mary's Neck cottagers coming from
the Middle West; the rest were practically all
Eastern people, who nearly always strike citi-
gems from section of the country as
wanting to stay ignorant of us and afraid
somebody1n see them talking to a stranger.
We Masseys had to go through quite little
depression, and there were occasions when We
could hardly tell whether we felt more resentful
or more humble.
For instance, at the beach, where the whole
Of Mary's Neck goes regularly about noontime,
we kept hearing people asking question that
never did hear any one ask in Logansville, and
for quite while couldn't make sense out Of
it. who Pre- the Thompsons?" you'd hear
somebody say, and then somebody else would
answer, maybe: VERY nice; they're connected
with the 2nompsons Of Dogfeld" Or maybe
the angEes would be: Terrible! Willy Smith
lives within block Of them in Newark and
says he n ver even heard Of them!"
At first couldn't see either what the ques-
ton nseRs.E or how the answers shed any hight,