Evening star., 1946-04-11
This and That
By Charles E. Trace,UeU,
WEST LELAND STREET.
Dear Cir.

Dear Sir:
Temp Jones seems to me to have
arrived at quite the wrong reason for
cars not stopping, since the wars end.
to pick him up on Connecticut avenue
IN Maryland. Will you give him one
persons slant on it?
we formerly stopped-now we do
not-but fear for our own rations WASH t
even part OF the picture. During the
war we felt that the person was watt
ing Tor the bus not through his own
cholce but for lack of necessary gaso-
line, so at any time that our car was
going to the circle-sometimes one is
not going that far-we stopped to offer
a lift.
since the wars end, we feel that
1t Is the persons choice to ride the
BUS. Temp would probably be sur
prlsed to know that many people would
rather not have a stranger offer them
INT. Even in bad rainstorm, a woman
rather curtly declined to ride with me
another woman.
X X X
"All too often people used the courtesy
as if they were paying for a cab.
One morning it meant four stops.
The first to pick up (does Temp know
how long it takes three people to decide
10 get IN car and then do it?); then
TO let out child at Rosemary street
lsince then we passed by any group
lncludlng child; next lady wanted
10 go to the Maryland post office (the
rlde mad been offered to the circle)
all OF which wasn't very good prelude
TO husbands busy morning!
- L.I
Mr.. Jones that once when it was nv
turn to be picked up, I was let out
three blocks from the circle bus transfer,
All IN all, it seems simpler to let
people manage for themselves, and, lust
POSSIBLY, during the war years, other
and wiser drivers than I found that
out. VIII you tell Jones about it?
Sincerely yours, D. N. S."
Templeton Jones smiled in his impish
way when he finished this letter.
1t might surprise the lady," he de-
clared, ito know that I agree with her.
She is so agreeably human!
Here in one paragraph she salutes
persons who accepted rides and then
asked to be put off at certain point
how dare they?-and then she complains
herself because some kind soul put her
down three blocks from the desired goal.
AS Tor me, when I accept rides.
believe when I get in that I will be
let out at least half mile, and some
times mile, from where I want to 90.
The old saying put it very well,
'Beggars can't be choosers.' When one
accepts ride, he puts himself in the
position of the beggar of ride, and
cannot very well complain, whatever
happens.
"All in all, it does seem simpler to
let people manage for themselves.
That is what I, for one, am going
to do hereafter. But 1 did want to
air my feelings, because that was the
way it seemed to me.
And I never disagree with a lady,
OF course. There is too much disagree
ment today, any way, in all the walks
of life.
There is an elderly gentleman out
my way who always refuses to accept
rides. Sometimes I have thought he
rather overdid it, since he wouldn't ride
even with people he knows.
That was rugged individualism car
ried to an extreme, perhaps, but cer-
tainly there is something admirable
in it.
There are always two sides to every-
thing, and now we have both sides of
this matter.
Il still think gas had something to
do with it. and also the fact that they
had a sneaking idea that some one
might be checking up on them.
"And your correspondent thinks 1t was
all my fault.
well, maybe she is right, who knows?
In recent years, find that only a few
persons are right, and all the rest of us
are wrong, if you can believe them
How marvellous it must be to feel
you are always right and others are
usually wrongl"