Evening star., 1932-11-17
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRACEEELL.

| business and the sort which likes to
poke it's long nose into the habits and
business of other people. there will
never be anything but warfare.
The one cannot understand the other
and never will. The sad fact is that
the common, inquisitive mind will not
even try. nor can see any reason for
trying.
Reticence Is a virtue unknown to
them, or, If not unknown, least not
thought much of, and seldom used.
Yet reserve in speech is enc Of the
finest flowers Of civilization.
The avoidance of saying all one
knows or feels marks the gentleman as
nothing else does, perhaps.
Civilization 1s, in some measure, the
triumph of the unnatural over the
purely natural. 1t Is natural to say
right cut what one thinks, and 1t is un-
natural, in many instances, to refrain
from frank speech.
Yet all the finer points of civilized
life often call for this delicacy, and un-
less one is willing to frown upon it as
being unworthy of "he-men" and, we
suppose, "she-women," there Is no es-
cape from the value of it.
y X
1t would seem. at least to him who
values this quality Of heart and mind,
that course in reticence ought to be
established in our secondary schools
and colleges
A Chair of Reticence might do yeo-
man service in converting roughneckS,
on q large scale, into some semblance,
at least, to cultivated gentlemen.
A well equipped Professor of Reticence
could earn for himself a lasting place
in the esteem of the Nation.
His might be thankless task, but 1t
would have many rewards for a sane
man, who, as he looked at the end prod
uct Of his skill, would feel encouraged
TO keep on.
The trials and tribulations Of the
teacher of physics, chemistry, biology,
mathematics, Greek. would be his; at
the same time he would be engaged in
a nobler task than any Of them, to wit,
he would be making better human
beings. kinder and more decent men
and women, who, in the long history of
living creatures, would be triumphs
wrought out of nature in the crude.
Since there Is no escaping the fell
low who makes impertinent remarks
1t would appear at first blush as II
there were nothing to do but put up
with him as best one may, and this
Is, indeed, the course adopted by the
largest number of sufferers.
Another and O. smaller class of men,
however, have shown that another
method Is very effective. These are
the men who, by reason of certain ad-
vantages Of birth, are able to adopt. as
to the manor born. a certain hoity-toity
attitude commonly called "high-hat," 4"
In the vernacular.
The truth is that they have a right
to this appearance. II for no other rea-
son than that they do represent. in
themselves, the fine reticence which
distinguishes, perhaps more than any
other one quality. men from brutes.
In order to keep their own souls
from the proclamation OF others, as
they in turn respect the rights of
others. often enough they adopt policy
OF the guarded life, as II they lived
always with a subtle but nevertheless
very solid wall around them.
Every one knows such people, and
sometimes resents them, in a way, but
a little reflection proves them to be
eminently right and sensible in their
conduct. They are practical philoso-
pliers, who carry out plan for acting
like gentlemen themselves and for
forcing others to treat them in as
gentlemanly q manner as some of these
others can be brought to adopt. The
commonest, not the common, touch,
smears them not: they are forever
guarded by an invisible cloak, through
which profane hands dare not pry.