Evening star., 1933-01-24

one of these fools who believes in what
might be termed "eye wrestling"
His big idea. a. he would put 1t, b
to stare you out Of countenance.
A good way to floor him Is to Do
that, literally. Stare fixedly for q
time at his feet. as II detecting some
grave social error there.
The chances are, 10 to l, that shortly
he will remove his gaze to his shoes, in
order to ascertain II he forgot to lace
them, or whether or not they are prop
erly polished.
When he finds nothing wrong with
them, rs far as he can see. he may be
so disconnected that he will forget all
about his campaign OF staring you into
smithereens
That is the trouble with such would
be hypnotists-they make q campaign
out Of something that ought to be nat
ural and unforced.
Hence the best way for the ordinary
mortal. who likes to feel at home in
his world. Is to refuse to carry this
eye-business too far.
This will not prevent him to whom
eye steadiness comes hard from keeping
we'll in mind the desirability Of it, es-
pecially In his own case.
He will know, from some experience,
that the average person puts great
deal more stock in eye steadiness than
| 1t deserves.
The crooked man often escapes de-
lection by realizing this, and malici-
ously operating upon his knowledge, and
the uncrttical belief that 1t Is possible
to tell Q truth-teller from q liar merely
by the straishtness of his gaze.
| Such men, and women. too, can out
face" anybody or anything. To the dis
eliminating their very determination
may speak volumes.
Hence often enough. the most honest
person, through some lack. Is more con-
fused, in trying to tell the truth. than
the liar who tells q crooked story with
very straight face.
This fact Is well known to crime de-
lection forces of al sorts. And every
| institution, and every. person, indeed,
must be q crime detection force at some
time or other and upon occasion.
We recall the method used by very
clever old professor Of mathematics at
| college TO unravel q situation having
to do with the misdemeanor Of one Of
the students.
Some culprit had placed stink
| bomb" In chapel so that when the stu
dent body filed In one morning. as was
customary. 1t was greeted with q most
horrible smell.
The authorities had discovered the
deed during the night, but knew that
unless unusual measures were resorted
to, nothing would be learned Of the
perpetrators.
Prof Jones, we will call him. was
brought into the case. He advised that
| nothing be done about the matter. but
that chapel be held as usual.
While the student body was filing in.
he stationed himself at the door, rs II
nothing had happened. but kept q care
ful eye On the young gentlemen.
All who genuinely knew nothing
about the affair gave exclamations Of
disgust, upon crossing the doorway, but
those who were in the know" skunk to
their seats without a single "phew!"
Mostly there Is no plan of life to
take the place Of being above board and
genuine with all II 1t calls forth re-
sentiment, upon occasion, because GER
tain persons may operate on q plan Of
semi crookedness In which they often
include themselves, even going to the
extent of fooling themselves as to their
own motives and acts, 1t cannot be
helped.
One ought to be able to look another
human being in the eye. Is the saying
has 1t, when talking to him. But II 1t
comes hard. for any reason. here Is
practical solution: Look at the side of
his nose 1t is not quite the same, but
the chances are he will not notice the
difference.