Evening star., 1949-03-15
This and That
BIZ Charles z. Trdce1Dell
"THIRTY-FIRST PLACE.

Dear Sir:
Have read and enjoyed your articles for
more years than can remember. Just
finished reading the one about Templeton
Jones and his harmonica. Please tell me.
is Jones real man or lust fictitious char
acter? He sounds so human. will be all
worried until I know.
Sincerely. r. A. L."
Templeton Jones Is very human person.
He was born many years ago not far from
big elm tree. and close to spring Of cool
water. in small town where everybody
knew everybody else. and nobody was afraid
to speak to anybody. AS little boy, he
was afraid Of dogs. and of opened umbrellas.
but that was before the days Of Freud. so
no one thought anything of it.
When he moved to Washington at the
age of T. he fought vigorously to avoid being
taken aboard the train. but after he was on
it few minutes he owned it. according to
tradition.
In Washington, to which he came with
his parents. he lived the normal life Of the
old-fashioned Washington youngster.
He went to the schools. and always did
no politics. then.
Later. when he began to think about
politics, he realized that he liked all the
Presidents through Coolidge.
But at that time ali he knew about Ameri-
can Presidents was the one who waved to
him on Sixteenth street. no less parsonage
than the famous Teddy" Roosevelt.
Templeton Jones was no respecter Of
Presidents at that time. He waved back,
and that was that. All the boys waved to
that President. He was that sort Of person.
Templeton Jones threw rocks at cats, and
tried to bag sparrows, but seldom hit any
thing.
Nothing much happened to him, 1t seemed.
It was strange, later, to realize that one
can live and not much happen to one. He
got in fight with a boy one day to be q
generaD and blacked the boys eye.
He got in another fight with another boy
Qater to be truck driveD and bloodied
his nose.
These were his only two fights. At the
time he thought them pretty tremendous.
usually his feet went so much faster than
his legs that he fell down. so he gave that
up and tried football and baseball but found
himself too light for either He was an
amazingly expert gutter.
What amazes Jones today is how free
he grew up. People today, hampered and
harassed by the interference Of q multitude
OF people and rules, laws and regulations,
cannot possibly understand the old freedom.
IL was u tlulc WueH CIle OeSC government
was, truly, that which governed least.
People thought then, and honestly, that
all things were settled
They were far of the tracks. of course,
as human beings always are.
Humanity's hopes and aspirations are so
high, and its achievements. at the best. so
little, that 1t is hard for even an intellectu-
ally honest man to know the difference be-
tween the real world and the dream world
That is why we can say that Templeton
Jones is real.
Templeton Jones world is as real as any,
body's world. The greatest and the least
have no more Of life than he. To him. a
good book is world. in which life moves
and has it's being. The world of sounds,
too, envelopes him. The world of the air,
its animals and birds and insects intrigues
him. And above all. the world of mans
mind pleases him beyond words. That is
why his adventures are all mental adven-
lures, hinging on nothing much, but based
as solidly on human nature as the greater
works of the masters. There is q kinship
between Jones and Shakespeare, between
Jones and Dumas, between Jones and Err
skine Caldwell He knows and understands
them all, because he Is . real, human guy
himself.