Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-22
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

| Cleverness, be she natural. is divine,
and all the world bows down to her.
When she takes the shape of wit and
humor, the world pays tribute.
When clevernesS crops up as repair
tee, exactly the right words at the right
| time and place, men Of all nations
listen eagerly, each thinking how he
himself so often failed in that very cir
cumstance.
When cleverness assumes the guise
of the new creation, a something or
other which scarcely has existed before
in exactly that form. the world of in
telligence is happy to give the credit
where the credit belongs.
To be sophisticated means that a
premium has been placed upon clever
ness, not the gift, but the achievement.
Hence, this cleverness assumes a gilt
ter and cheapness which is at once
hard and common. A prime example
the writer's Of the great City of New
York, who suddenly took to their hearts
the saying. And SOS your old man.
For as long as half year together
almost every article printed in that
nightly metropolis managed to weave
in that saying. And the curious thing
was that, as long as the rage for it
lasted, il was unanimously credited by
all the sophisticates as being really
clever.
A thousand changes were rung upon
it, and each one bore all the earmarks,
at least so they thought, of Cleverness.
Like most such things, however, time,
the master, puts the end to it, and
revealed it at last in all its poor cheap
ness. 1t isn't funny now, and every
one sees that it never was funny, but a
rage, a craze, based on plain striving
to be clever, in order to please the ultra
sophis.icsteS and their hangers-on. A
real sophisticate may have some good
points, but their followers scarcely any
| at all.
Perhaps the covert Boosting of which
we have complained follows as a M tier
of course. 1t is displayed in the pages
CT this volume, not SO much by II did
this and Il did that" as by constant
references to events with which the
reader will already have been made ia
miliar by past writings or past pub
licity.
Thus the reader who might fall upon
this book without any previous knowl-
edge of its author would wonder over
many reference which would mean
nothing at all to him. Thus, the book
cannot stand on it's own legs, but must
constantly fall back upon other props
| Perhaps the writer is right about that
after all. Who can any writer appeal
| to, no matter who he IS, except his
own readers, those who have found or
, might find in him the expression of
their own conscious and unconscious
| thoughts?
| But Boosting on the printed page is
dangerous. One cannot even use the
personal pronoun "I' too often, or the
reader becomes weary of it.
Constant references to deeds and
achievements Of an author, even in his
own biography are replcte with danger
to him. even if he is celebrated and has
his own list Of ardent readers.
He had better step lightly, for the
ice is thin and the water beneath is
cold. But If he must boast, let him
do 1t with gusto rather than by sly ref
| erences now and then to great events in
his life.
Approached so solemnly, the mighty
subject ought to give forth some sparks
Of light, ring few bells in our mem
ories as well as in his. If this author
would be honest with himself and with
us, his readers, and do this book over
again, happily forgetting about the
bright boys with their clubs and
vreaths. what beautiful book we might
have, indeed! But, heaven forgive us!
we had almost forgotten that to be
"beautiful'' is to be damned roou-adavS