Evening star., 1934-04-05
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

no need for taking 1t any other way.
One need not 60 as far as some Of
the ancients are said to have gone
when they caused deaths head" to
be brought in at their feasts to re-
mind them that they were, after all,
mortal. No doubt that was not a
common practice, but caused such q
sensation when 1t was introduced that
1t was mentioned unfailingly when the
histories of those times were written.
Life Is so serious that we need not
remind ourselves Of 1t except occa-
sionally. 1t will remind us, sooner
or later.
There is a real danger, of course,
Of taking it too seriously, in a sense,
and that, no doubt, Is what the Hal
loween pranks and the April fool
jokes are supposed to rule out.
1t is the misuse, Of course, which
occasions the trouble But philo-
sophically the real trouble lies at the
source, and world without these two
popular occasions for pranks ought
to prove to be better world than
one with them in it.
There must be thought to be enough
ordinary occasions for such things
without ordaining special occasions
for them. 1t may be that mankind's s
willingness to temporize has fixed, as
scientists used the word, certain bad
characteristics in the race, and there
is no getting them out now. Lady
Macbeth. crying her "Out, damned
spot!" may be taken as typical OF
the inner cry Of all seriously minded
persons
Whether new generations will be
any particularly different from old
ones remains a problem, but there Is
at least hope. BY holding to the old
things they cannot get anything bet
ter for humanity than we have had
in the past. If that is enough, all
right, but If there are those who think
otherwise it is up to them to look
to youth, for a large hope is a part
of their possessions. Experience often
enough kills out one hope after an
other, so that a man in time comes
to look upon his life as strewn with
the wreck Of many hopes Some Of
these were dear to him, and he re-
grets them; some Of them time has
killed, both in his own mind and
externally, SO he does not regret their
passage at all.
A++
None Of his hopes can be built
upon foolishness. Each one must be
eminently serious, in itself, even
though it deal with a FOOLS matter.
For the essence Of hope Is perfect
seriousness.
The so-called practical joker never
makes joke at his own expense, it
is well known. Nor does he ever ap-
preciate some one else trying to make
one on him. A good Joke" is al
ways outward, with some one else the
victim. That is why, from the stand
point Of a real civilization, which
ought to be based upon cooperation
and mutual help, such jokes are in
imical.
This famous man who enjoys his
"joke" as we'll as the next one never
used a bit of "joshing" when pre-
pairing for the feats which made him
famous. He was all seriousness then.
II any one had dared tread on his
toes during those feats he would
have been very angry indeed. Now
he needs his good humor" as an off,
set to mighty deeds. But does civili-
Zation need them?
One may be forgiven for thinking
not. And if not, from this man, how
can the answer be other than no
in relation to the majority of just
ordinary folk?
The sunrise of an Easter which fell
on April l. and. therefore, was a
fools day" to few, was happy omen,
let us hope, Of a new day in human
affairs, for which the world has
yearned so long. with its unextin-
guishable light, One Man, out Of the
ages. Who placed on seriousness its
true and unashamed value.