Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1942-01-09
''Chirps'' ~
from the
Democrats Pen

Well, Sir, you KNOW 1ueSudy 10 0iiO
day 1 generally get out of my system
the blurbs that will persist in dispor-
Ting themselves in this column, every
week. Some people go so far as to tell
me I'm not exactly finished in my
nuper-story-a fact, they say, we'll
uroven from the stuff that messes up
about twenty inches of good clean
white paper, every week.
Now, if l should agree with such
opinion, it would prave, at least, that
know as much as they do, and, err
go, haven't as many bats IN my bel
fry as one might suppose. You know,
the best way to confound critics is to
agree with them. Many individuals
tear people and institutions to pieces
because criticism is supposed to lndl-
cate superior wisdom. To agree with
their criticisms seems to draw all the
powder from their guns, and their o.
unions are nothing but buds in the
battlefield of wits. Argument is what
critics live on; agreement is poison
to 'em.
Howsome-ever, 1 started to say
something about using "Choosday" as
my Chirps day; that job on that day
has become a sort of habit, and you
know what habits can do with guy
specially when he has passed-well,
at least out of his teens, as | have.
Habit is a great thing. A writer OF
oIden days once said: Like flakes of
snow that fall imperceptably upon the
earth, the seemingly unimportant e
vents succeed one another. AS the
snow-flakes gather, so our habits are
formed. No single flake that is added
to the pile produces sensible change.
No single action creates, however 1t
may exhibit mans character. But,
as the tempest hurls the avalanche
down the mountain and overwhelms
the inhabitant and his habitation, so
passion, acting on the elements OF
mischief which pernicious habits have
brought together, may overthrow the
edifice of truth and virtue" And a
mother author says: Habit is the
child of impulse There is in human
nfe the period of impulse when habit
is nothing; and there is the period of
habit when impulse is nothing. Young
persons are creatures of impulse; old
people are creatures of habit Almost
everything is impulses with little
child and nothing can be called habit;
almost everything is habit in the sec
end childhood of old age, and there is
very little that can be called impulse.
Impulse is habit in formation; habit
is impulse fixed. When habit is once
formed, impulse is powerless against
it. Indeed all impulse falls into it. 1t
is like deep and swift and resistless
river, into which an opposing noun
tain current may pour with tremen-
dous momentary shock and agitation,
but with no effect whatever, save to
increase the volume, rapidity, and fu-
ny of the tide which is turned down
ward to the sea-"
Now, | don't know whether you
read all that or not, but it's good
stuff. What l am trying to get rid of
is this: / write "Chirps" on Tuesdays
that's become, not an impulse, but
habit. If anything interferes to i'm
pede the force of habit, thereby
throwing the whole mental gear out
of articulation, then there's catas-
trophe.
Tuesday, spent the day and part
Of the night in going to Annapolis,
staying while in Ye Anceente Cite,
and returning therefrom; consequent
", the blurbs sorta got all blurred in
my think tank, and I just naturally
can't get them out into the clear sky
of composition. Maybe there was also
something heard in Annapolis that
sorta increased my blood-pressure;
sorta- well, grave talk about this war
that made me glad had eaten a
lunch before l heard 1t, or 1T would
have taken my appetite.
There amt no picnic stuff about
this National Defense proposition.
And being as how l have passed be-
yond the point where l can do moth
ing to help my Uncle, l came back
thinking a while lot about the situa-
tion. So, yesterday was my day for
writing 1t had become habit. It's
hard to substitute another day for one
that is past into history, so Pm going
to ask all you people who are good
enough to read what l have the au-
aacity to write-please excuse this
column from Chirps today. I'm not
writing it. See you next week
maybe.