Evening star., 1932-09-01

perior to another; he can argue the ma
| chine age like professor.
| 1t is difficult to believe that really
| young people are the main users, the
ultimate connoisseurs, of this brand OF
| half joshing, half-bantering style OF
conversation, which pretends that it
takes nothing serious.
| Such users are altogether too elaborate.
They are putting up a bluff. attempting
| to make us on the side lines believe
! that they are very young.
Surely they are not very old
All! That is 1t!
They are not young. they are not old,
| they are in the great mid-age
They are In what may be termed the
Middage of life! There people act as if
| they wanted people to think they are
young. when they themselves know they
are not. Sometimes they adopt the OPP
posite tack, and put up front OF age,
SO that other people will take them for
old
Either way. what they do not like is
to be taken for what they are, self
evident members of the Middage. that
curious period of life which comes to
all who live long enough.
Hail to the Middage. wherein one sees
that all that glitters is not gold!
Wherein it becomes quite evident that
virtue Is not always its own reward, nor
is the race invariably to the fleet.
Just what are the age limits of this
age. no one can say definitely, for 1t be-
gins early with some, and ends late, even
in the Nonnage.
/ Perhaps it differs with every one, and
knows no precision in any way, being
put together, like the ingredients of small
boys and girls in the old rhyme, COM
posed of snails and puppy-dog tails, OF
| sugar and spice and everything nice. ut
may be added that once again folk
| lore antedates science, for sugar and
| spice and everything nice" might be
/ supposed to create an acid blood stream
content, as per the latest requirements
for girl child)
The rise, decline and fall of the Ro-
man empire has its counterpart. on a
| very small and often almost impercepti-
BILE scale, in the life of every human
being.
One of the first signs of cracking is
an inability to see life steadily and see
| it whole, as the poet put it, to see that
serious approaches to the everyday
problems of life are just as fine ap-
proaches as the light, the frivolous and
| small aspect of the entire crackine
| process, but no doubt 1t is as large as
any, because it points the direction, ano
| the direction shows the way the man
goes.
| Some one may advance the idea that
chance street greeting is scarcely ol
any moment, and that it might as We.
! be silly as more serious in tone.
| But, why? If he who advances such
an Interpretation will be honest with
himself, he will see that the only pos
sible reason for the light greeting
especially when it verges on the inane
lies in the susceptibility of most of u.
to the strictly modern idea that We
must be serious about nothing but ter
riflcally serious matters.
1t isn't so. What should one care fol
the opinions of those whose applause
Is purchased at the price of Where die
you drop from?" and Who wants tt
/ know"
| We will insist to the last ditch thai
| Hello and How do you do woulc
have been more sensible, Just as snappy
and great deal more to the point.
In the last analysis. every one has Q
right to talk as he pleaseS, in the mair
! outlines; If his ways of conversation
please him, and displease some one
else, that is lust too bad for the one
whom they displease
! The one who does not car for a GER
/ tain Zine" OF talk does not have Il
listen to it. So much must be admitted
II he does listen, however. he has 6
! right to feel as he pleases concerning it
! II he is of more serious turn oi
mind. ne will dislike certain conver.
sational approaches. eschew them him.
self, and not be in favor of other people
using them. The validity of his renti.
ments does not depend upon whether
large blocks of people feel as he does
II, on the other hand, he is right to
some extent, he will have thousands Of
supporters