Evening star., 1933-07-14

Not day goes by but the observer
sees some person standing carelessly
in a so-called safety zone" without
any regard whatever for the cars which
WhiG past.
Is the person:
/. Less afraid, in general, than the OBJ
server?
2. Or possessed Of greater faith in
g. Or the owner of less common
sense?
To watch some of these persons one
might think they were sitting In their
living rooms at home.
They pay no attention at all to pass
ing automobiles which barely Craze
their elbows.
X X X
In fact. they deliberately turn their
backs ON the ono oming traffic.
Cars cut in closely. but they know 1t
only by the current of air on the back
OF their neckS.
Impatient motorists come by to the
right of them, as they should, and close
to the left of them, on the car tracks,
as they should not.
These innocents-for such we choose
to regard them-stare blankly shead
of them, as If this We're quite the safest
position In the WhSie wide world.
X X X II
Leaving out Of consideration the type
of human being one sometimes hears
about-he who deliberately hopes he will
get "bumped"-we see in this type
either less general fear, more general
faith or less common sense.
Surely it must be one OF the three.
because the slightest swerving OF Car
would lard. as it has landed, one or
more persons in the hospital.
Ii person has his bump OF caution
reasonably well developed. he will Won
der at the sublime trust which SO many
CT the walters for street cars and the
lie seem to put in their fellow men.
He will recall that old Sam Jones.
there. who does not in the least re-
semble philanthropist. nevertheless
stands waiting as if no car on wheels
ever could swerve by so much as a
hairs breadth to run him down.
He will feel willing to believe that
Jones never displays such trust in hu-
manitv in the other walks of life. The
old fellow is keen enough to get sigma
lures ION the dotted line" in his other
dealings.
Now he stands there like a lamb,
back turned to traffic. blissfully certain,
it would seem. that no kind automobillst
is going to strike him.
X X 4
That no one has does not argue ex-
actly for the impossibility Of the hap
pening.
1t has happened, Of course.
1t is the fact that 1t might happen
which counts.
There ought to be some compulsion
on the part of the famous pedestrian
to watch out for himself Yet nothing
is palmer on the landscape than the
man who seems to put the entire onuS
on the motorist.
To do this may require reasonable
faith in others, as well as less general
fear, but it seems to argue poor deVel-
Cpment of the so-called bump OF cau-
ton 1t bears out the belief Of the Cb-
server. that good common sense is not
any too widely spread among the popu-
lace.
4 X
Self-preservation is called the first
law of Nature, but, II 1t Is, 1t does not
appear to be as widely distributed. at
times. as one might think offhand
Despite the fact that people in all
walks of life have read time and time
again of the danger OF leaving articles
lying on the floor at the head of steps,
to trip over, that very thing is COM
monty done in thousands of American
homes every day. Maybe they have
learned better over in Europe. with
their centuries of living behind them.
Over here, however, thoughtless and
even foolish things are done, or rer-