Evening star., 1932-01-04
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

! he is in some respects the blood orotne1
! IN Earnest of the Great Stone Face, as
described bv Nathaniel Hawthorne, Whc
was discounted by his neighoorS, bu'
woke at last to find that his own phy-
siognomy had taken on resemblance
to genuine greatness. We may SuSpec'
| that many a man, going arouno III ma
| tive simplicity, and therefore honesty
| of mind, will come to be regarded al
last as far wiser, and lnf1nltely oetOer
| than many of the flasher persons WhC
persist in believing that smartness Is
| the hall mark of greatness. The JOKE
of it is. and the hopeful thing, too, tha1
! the very persons who now insist or
| laughing at these simple people will at
| last praise them. 50 much for the
real honesty in mankind, despite the
differences of outlook.
1t is possible to be warm, fully warm
| in Winter, without paying much atten-
| ton to it. Many people seem TO tnlnk
it childish to talk about such thing
The truth is that no child in the world
ever cared rap about keeping warm,
in theory or in fact; did not know, even,
| whether it was warm or cold, so long as
it was playing happily and had been
well fed.
The consciously happy person is not
1 X, "
| knows he Is warm, and Is glad OF It,
He is interested enough In the matter
to be aware of 1t, that is all. II this
should mean that he is not sufficiently
interested in foreign affairs, and inter
national affairs. to have his mind
stuffed with them, to the exclusion OF
the furnace in his own basement, he
happily admits that so much is true.
He is willing to be blamed, If any blame
attaches to it. Warriors in foreign ma
tionS will continue to be warriors, no
matter what he thinks of them, nor
how much or how little he knows about
them. But the furnace in his basement
is something which comes home to his
heart and bosom, as Sir Francis Bacon
put it, "a hours day.
One of the best ways Of enjoying a
home. at any season, but particularly
in Winter. is to regard it as a ship.
Come to think of it, there Is some
thing shiplike about every house.
There it sits on the lawn, like ship
in the water.
1t has a fixed position and could be
charted once for all.
1t breasts every wind that blows.
To some it may seem to get nowhere,
but it goes everywhere, If one is able
to see that it does.
The very windows and doors of a
good house resemble those of ship;
and the good householder keeps his
house Shipshape.
He is helped in this, II he has the
instincts of sailor. Now every man
has these, to some extent. 1t is not
necessary to have sailed much, or to
have owned a boat.
g Love of the great seas is inborn. In
every mans ancestry there must be sea-
faring people. We came from the sea,
and go back to 1t again.
The realization of the joys Of the
household, in Winter, or at any other
time, comes easy to the person who
sees his house as a ship floating
This requires a retention of some
thing of the imagination of the child,
or its adult equivalent. To see house
ASA ship is gesture toward infinity.
1t means that one elaborates happi-
ness out of materials near at hand, in
stead of looking for them elsewhere.
1t means that one person can be hap
pier than another, If he knows how.
1t points the way to those who do not
know how, and who, perhaps, never
will know how.