Evening star., 1932-02-05
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES r. TRACEWELL,

The toke Is that no matter how much
one stands back to let 'em get on first,
they nevertheless will prod and poke
with elbows and knot their lovely eye
brows In anger II one cannot escape
from said pToddings and pokings.
Ask any street car conductor. He
will tell you that no woman ever has
been known to board the car with her
fare In her hand Nothing doing! She
waits until the crowd gets in the con-
ductor'S well, then she calmly opens
her handbag, ruffles around for her
purse, opens 1t, peers in for change,
finds no change, scrabbles around In
the big bag for coins finds none, goes
back to the pocketbook, takes out $40
bill. hands 1t with triumphant air to
conductor. Just small sample Of
bad manners which no amount Of un-
natural eyebrows will make good
manners.
1t is dif1icult to believe that the crime
OF bad manners in any form is human.
In reality it is Of and by the beast in
human nature. The animals are not
hnicky, as we say; they know no better.
With them there is no good or bad, but
everything is interesting. A bad odor
to them Is Just as interesting as a good
one, as we say. As matter Of fact, be-
cause bad ordor from our viewpoint
Is likely to be pungent 1t may interest
the animal more than sweet smell.
But human beings through their
ability to grasp relative values have
set up system of rights and wrongs.
1t Is one thing to be interested in an
odor and another to show that interest.
Ihe animals having no minds, in our
urh 40 laxy
know no better, and there is no rea-
son, since they are animals. why they
should act any other than they do
Human beings however, having
minds, know values. Even the most
ignorant persons, those who not only
Know nothing but Sneer at those who
do, know enough to know the differ
ence between good social values and
bad social values.
That is why their bad manners can
not be forgiven them, and that is why,
curiously enough, they cannot forgive
themselves. For what Is their anger
at those who dare to point out their
failure to observe the human code but
complete confession on their part
that they are ashamed OF themselves?
Society has got to a point, civiliza-
tion has got to point. where certain
SNiiiaAASo 0At Ahhac dpOll lilOSS AL H.
II one does not measure up to these
plain demands, one falls short, that
Is all.
The custom Of pretending not to see
these overt acts, as they really are, has
grown to such a point, too, that some
persons tend to believe that they are
hiding their misdeedS. that they are
getting away with it," as the jargon
OF the day has it. The jargon OF the
next century will have another wav of
putting it, but 1t will mean the same
thing.
Society has overdone, one may think,
the overlooking OF social faults. In
order to keep anger at a minimum. in
order to keep the animals frcm becom-
ing stirred up, all too many Caspar
Milquetoasts have keen willing 10 make
out that they do not realize how ILL
hammered many people are.
The soul Of every MilQuetoast. how
ever. longs for the moral stamina. the
physical Drawn, the honesty OF thought
and expression, which would permit
him, with a flourish even to tell the
man with bad manners just what a poor
sort OF brute he is. Mr.. Webster's re-
cent cartoon. in which CaSpar was
shown "bawling out" everybody, Is the
sort Of thing the world needs 1t was
only dream of poor old Milquetoast,
OF course-but dreams sometimes come
true!