Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-10
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcEWELL.

from the same fount all persons latel
found food for talk In the same ideas
which included a large proportion o.
the right and wrong Of people ar1c
their actions
| ~
Perhaps 1t was only inevitable thai
what people did not talk about they
would finally come TO omit, at least Il
some extent. from their very thoughts
And with the moral question thu
soft-pedaled, as 1t were, 1t was only
human that men and women should
come to lack discrimination, in the
moral sense.
That is, many find one man as good
as another, no matter what his private
life may be. Any defalcation he may
make and rucus which he may Incur
Is merely . matter for an amused rails
ing OF eyebrows
One goes to hts home Just the same
as ever, and probably with more gustc
than to the home of some severely
moral but dull person who lacks the
power to so entertain.
X 4 y
Entertainment!
! Is that not the keynote to the modern
american temper?
We like to be shocked out of our-
NAAN cNSiCJlN bIldIlh OIlC IIld1 OIL
woman or family which provides u,
with this new amusement.
we ike to peek into windows, while
AZ the same time we loudly disclain
that we would do anything Of the sort
But Tor the pleasure of sitting in or
the m1sdeeds of others, rom which we
carefully keep our own feet clean. we
are willing to smile as sweetly at these
people as those more straight-laced and
u - FNNAw H-Inw
X y n y
Well. do the straigilt-laced people fee
that they are getting 4 square deal7
They know they are not.
They know, by all the inherited rules
OF right and wrong, rules which their
own experience and common sense tel
them are still very much operative, that
their often painful repressions and pro-
hibitions in the name of good, as they
are given the light to see the good, are
held In no different wise from the plain
misdeeds Of others
What can such person do but say
that such people lack a sense of dis
elimination? Nor is that all they think
They say they lack a moral sense, too
Such people are perhaps Immoral
rather than immoral. They welcome
anything for the sake Of It's entertain.
ment value. And thus they give ap-
plause to misdeeds, and tend TO make
those who misbehave (as Christian NOR
ais see misbehavior) feel that they are
very clever folk after ALL
One cannot be q mere spectator al
the feast of life
Life is earnest. as Longfellow said
Even this innocent saying Is food for
the sneers Of the morality baiters.e
Those honest people who somehow
believe in the sanctity of life, with all
1t implies. in the matter Of every day
conduct, find themselves Jumped off Ia
certain minds, as not whit better than
certain types Of people they openly look
down on
liberation calls for no sacrifice Of
opinion on the part Of an honest man.
Fair play makes no such demand. But
1t takes courage today to let the lin
curl in decent contempt, and TO refuse
to overlook what one regards as wrong
Surely the most misunderstood people
in the Bible are the PhariSees. They
were simply courageous men, not given
to putting the drama Of right and
wrong, as they saw II, on a strictly en-
tertainment basis They thought that
somehow in the wings they saw the
shadow Of the Great Stagesetter.