Evening star., 1934-05-23
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES e. TRAcEWELL.

One of the most interesting classes
of human beings includes all those
who will put off onto others-if they
can get away with 1.-THE mistakes
they themselves make.
A very simple illustration is the
fellow who calls the wrong number
on the telephone, and then becomes
angry at the innocent party who an
swers 1t.
phone seems to bring out this speci-
men. He somehow gets the wrong
number. but he is not going to admit
it to you, and especially not to him.
self
What! He make mistake? OF
course not! Though you assure him
a dozen times that no such person
lives at the address and never has,
he viii not believe you, but insists
angrily that he wants to speak to
So-and-so.
No sooner have you hung up than
the bell rings again.
You 60 back and take of the re-
ceiver.
There he Is, still believing for "Mr.
Smith," or whoever 1t Is he wants
still absolutely unwilling to look in
the telephone book to get the correct
number.
1t may be that 1t has been years
since he called the number: that the
last time he called it the number did
belong to the name he gives, but
many things have happened since that
date.
The one thing he will not admit is
that he is wrong. He saves his own
face, as it were, but thoroughly in
sisting, mostly for his own benefit,
that he cannot be wrong, and,
strangely enough, that somehow you,
the innocent party, are all to blame.
We have often wondered what such
a telephone misuser does when he
finally discovers that he has been
very much mistaken. One thing we
are sure of. he never has the grace
to call up and apologize.
X
The desire to place the blame for
ones misdeeds upon others is very
human, of course.
Especially Is it a temptation to
blame others for ones own mistakes
Of Judgment.
The thing begins in childhood.
There Is always one subtle kid in a
group who possesses positive genius
for placing the blame upon his COM
rades.
If you listen too closely to him he is
never in the wrong, but always some
body else
From this attitude It no doubt is
very easy and very natural to progress
to placing the blame on others for
ones mistakes.
In time, since most habits grow by
what they feed on, this one will have
become giant, so that its creator is
at least in hi own eyeS-entirely
blameless
Often this type Of human being
grows into this attitude while in full
possession Of his senses. Thus he will
realize. at the very time he is placing
the blame of onto others, the unfair
ness Of it. and will, In a sense, wink
his eye at himself.
He may possess a good sense OF
humor, and so come to see the whim-
sical side of it, even as he is doing it.
1t is here exactly as With the lazy
man, who though he makes few moves
himself, is not above blaming other
people for not moving. 1t cannot be
supposed that such a person is un-
aware Of the difference between
preaching and practicing what one
breaches. He simply fails to mention
his own place in the scheme of things.
Surely no one can blame him mucn
for that. If he really possesses sense
of humor which enables him to laugh
at himself, even up his sleeve.
+ X X X
To be able to accept the blame for
ones own mistakes is one of the last
growths of human character, along