| Show I i What Is is the Pride Prade of the T Town o n 1 6 9 By Dy DOROTHY WALWORTH CARMAN Author of The Tho Pride of the tho Town Ever Every town has something to toa a which it points potato with 1 p ld Ids or views v th alarm Its pride Is apt apt to be berho bethe 1 the rho new school house a with witt the tho latest latest lat tat est eat ventilating system the new playground where children can Indulge indulge in indulge In- In In organized play or the town townhall hall han But the tho r real leal al pride of At a town should be the people who live Jive there The Tho citizen clUzen who wh Is the towns town's pride Is not necessarily rich nor does he drive the most fashionable make males of car lie He is the man who really thinks Intelligently who docs does not blindly follow the leader who re refuses refuses re- re fuses to be standardized and do anything because someone else does it Such a man is s rare taro enough tobe to tobe tobe be pointed out as LS a marvel Unfortunately the picture we wo have of the rho typical citizen ti who ho Is the pride of a to town to Wn Is very different The town delights to honor the go- go getter the man who belongs to all the clubs and organizations iodise indis he man who Is In short a booster booster- Such a man is s the guiding spirit In n the Kiwanis anis and the Rotary the Civic league and the Business Mans lions union He IIo Is Ison Is s son on every committee and Is never home In n the evenings He lIe is a member member member mem mem- ber of the national fraternal organIzation organization organ organ- kno known as the Loyal Loal and United Reindeer He speaks at all banquets His Ilia life lite Is a n rush from one activity to the other for tor he Isa isa Is it ita a good mixer Such pursuits as home life Itte reading or Intelligent thought are unknown to him Activity AcU should not be confused with accomplishment It Is very easy for us to be active in these days das when everything everything- Is organized from charity t to golf and our towns sprout committals aes ts lilts like mushrooms But It t Is Increasingly hard for us to be useful The over-active over man manor manor manor or woman spends his life In Ina a sterile unprofitable and unthinking rush How can a person think who rUsh rushes s strom from the better lighting committee commit commit- tee t to the paving committee to the get to together get ether banquet to the KiwanIs Kiwan Kiwan- ls Is Is' Is We e all al kno know w v the futility of too man many Irons in the tho fire but we ve are blinded b by a surfeit of drives and causes The fibs intelligent nt citizen x will belong to organizations He will not be a hermit but neither Welcher will he belong to everything He will conserve his energy and direct toward that end which will do the most good H He Hea s swill a will realize that tha t perhaps the most popular organizations are the least valuable When I read In n the paper about the Hughes plan of reducing our state departments from to 18 18 I thought the same reduction might profitably be made In our out community Ufa life and our days would pass more uncluttered and more comfortable We lVe Ie would have timeto time timeto to think to Invite our souls souli to med mea A French philosopher aorta sala that he used to get up at nt 5 o'clock In the rho morning in order ordet to tn think seriously from 5 to We Re c must take time to think If It we are everto ever everto everto to be of ot real reat use In fn life lite We Ve mu must t tin in insist on time to think even If fC f we dl dig it out of nt the days with our bare hands panda The greatest service any citizen n can ren render Ier any community community comm ally Is III to think because only by creative thought Is the world ever Improved Someone said sold to mo me once Columbus decided to discover America in an idle m moment ment Newton New Xe ton figured out gravity in an nn Idle moment Edison thought of the In- In In Incandescent tande candescent cent lamp In an Idle moment 1 Marconi planned the wireless tele ete graph In n an Idl idle moment and so po on Therefore every man titan should endeavor or r to have hae as many Idle moments as possible This Is fa not is u absurd as RS it n sound because Newton and Edison In their ao called so-called d idle moments were Ins ink in tn creative cre The person who oho has bas never never thought cannot realize rea rea- lize bow how hard bard the process it t. t Someone Someone Some Some- one sold said to me mt m once Of course you do not lead leat a very strenuous life file You Tou just sit alt an and I write To the outward vl vie w a a. a thinking person Teems seems m. m idle with his quiet body and folded hands hand But Dut his brain may be going through gyrations equivalent equivalent lent to sawing fifty cords of wood or ar attending one hundred and fifty committee One reaSon reason also that thou thought ht does not hold holda a more re respectable place In n our estimation is Sa that thought does not produce product what tone everyone Is after now now- nowadays quick quick results Thor The process b v of reflection liko the mills of oL the gods grinds low v but grinds exceedingly exceedingly ex ex- fine Cine In my 01 book Dook The Pride of or th the Town Toa n my hero and heroine wish to lead creative lives IKes She wants to a poet poetry and he ho wants vents to write music B But tt her time Ume Is taken up by redundant societies and circles circles circles cir cir- cles and committee His time Is I filled by all aU the business organizations organizations to which ho must belong to tobe tobe I be a rising young business man Christopher and want their I poetry and anti music but th they y also want seriously to be good citizens Everyone tells teUs them the way to bo be good citizens is rs to Join everything in rn insight sight and operate co mad madly Their neighbors say it Is selfish to take tako time limo to think lid and develop their inner Inner In Inner In- In ner Ute life Their friends speak of ot their art as something trivial and pre pre- Obviously they must choose and the story of their choice Js the story of the book There are also the colored cook the cat the twins who x will not peep keep their eyes cres shut during prayers and a n host of others This novel is among other things thing a cry against the air hp mob spirit which says we must do everything In n herds herds- It Is a brief for the individual Individual ual life which seems to be quite submerged In this day of extreme operation co-operation and organization It Is a plea pica for more thought more self Somebody said that the great American passion was for tor Joining things Forming clubs in a deep- deep rooted instinct Irom from the cradle up up- Little girls or organize the pigtail over the left teft shoulder league Little boys bos organize bands of pirates This club instinct is an assertion of tie the theold old herd Instinct when men banded together for tor safety against the din dine When we have our c clubs we ore should realize the Impulse that fathers them and therefore not take them quite so 80 seriously Alter After all aU there are no dinosaurs nowadays We ought not to be too timid to essay a little living flying and thinking for ourselves The fraternal organizations like lIte the Loyal Loal and United Reindeer and their ilk maintain they Uey mean hood But just how hots much does this manufactured brotherhood of rituals and passwords and anti oaths amount to There Is an oln old saying Every body's friend Is nobody's friend The same could read brother Is ht nobody's brother True brotherhood Js Is a artist and one ono of ot equal size for tor him him- heart unforced It Is not to be confused contused con con- fused with compulsory brotherhood It boasts no badges nor parades In Washington ton D. D C C. In a n museum there are displayed In fn jars jars' alt all the In ingredients that go to make a man But these ingredients are not a man because the divine spark Is Sa absent We cannot annot manufacture man according ac- ac according according ac ac- cording to a a. recipe p nor can we manufacture manufacture manufacture man man- the brotherhood of man by wearing a a. button When hen a we e a higher plane to thought In fn our community life we ore will have true trite brotherhood for tor the thinking man I Is the brott brotter cr of every other man who thinks All who experience ex experIence ex- ex the arduous excitement o of thought know c common despairs and an Joys We Vo must learn to think put pot our Co J In their place and stop atop making Babbitts out of each cach other We Ve must be firm with unnecessary unnecessary un un- necessary chairman We Ve must not confine contine our originality to saying flaying I second the motion n Then we wo will be the tho pride of ot the town |
