Evening star., 1932-08-25
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEEELL.

of his ability to live up to his knowl-
edge, will never descend to the plane
of the rude customer.
He will remember that the fellow IS
an unfortunate. as surely so as though
he had some crippled condition which
rendered him an object of pity to all
Although the fellow may be enough
to provoke the wrath of angels, he still
possesses the stamp OF our common
humanity. and is in need OF reoemp-
tion of sort. -..
He must be wrestled with, in spirit.
in an attempt to bring him 10 thoSe
good human standards whereby the
vulgar things of life are held to an IT.
reducible minimum, and the higher al
fairs played up" for all they are worth.
Yet the kindly man, boor hanohng'
must never make the mistake OF De-
lieying that showing the fellow, by ex-
ample how to act, and especially no"
to talk. will do much good. ~
The truth is that no man Is so plno
as he who will not see.
One might refrain Tor tnouSano
years from indulging in nasty personal
comments to a boor, and he would never
once take the hint, or see that one was
showing him something.
high content of conceit goes hand
in hand with vulgarity; the boor who
snecializes in personal remarks un-
doubtedly has a "holier than thou
complex which blinds him to the beam
in his own eye.
The mote in his neighbor's eye he
sees instantly. but the fact that he
himself needs to bathe in well known
red soap utterly escapes him.
One who attempts to nee from the
boor will find himself blocked on one
side by this necessity Of attempting TO
reform the villain, and on the other by
the impossib!uty OF saying WORD
aloud
There is no more dangerous word in
the world, for conversational purposes,
than that of the gentleman who ne
is. and what constitutes him.
All this is meat for the boor.
He is clever enough (the devil must
be given his due) to see that IN speak
ing of a gentleman the other puts him
self, to some extent, IN the place OF
that real worthy.
It is the unfortunate fact, In
relation to all sorts Of goodness. that
Cod has not caused genuineness to be
surrounded with an evident, plain
light
The ancients understood this, when
they insisted on painting haloes around
the heads of their holy characters.
There was to be no mistake. they in
sisted, so that no "bounder in a bow
tie" as the English put it, should be
able to challenge their authority.
The good word gentleman" there
fore, had best be left to the dictionary
in the escape from the boor. Let him
boor 1t as he pleases, because there Will
ha M cfppninU him anvWaV
Rest firm in the belief that good
example, to the best of ones ability,
will stand some chance. however re-
mote. of sinking home to the mind and
heart of the common man who knows
no better.
Perhaps he doesn't. after all! Maybe
he is a gigantic bluff, resourceful, as
bluffs go. but at heart nothing more
along.
Maybe the fact that he forces his
unwelcome attentions upon you is be-
cause you fascinate him, as opposites
do opposites.
Although he has known you for years,
the fact that in all that time he has
never heard you make personal and
uncalled-for remark about him has yet
to sink into his consciousness.
Give him another thousand years
and he may absorb decency as flower
gathers in the sunshine But do not
expect too much of him now
Go thy way, hurt. perhaps, but serene
with that inner sanctity which comes
to all who honestly know that peace
lies within, not without, and that the
scars Of mental wounds must always
heal from the inside out.