| Show r 4 7 ev t e SA ti 7 f v t t F P E i 4 j I E S CA P P FY kS yr fr fi dr 4 f t- t P t r a r x p T t G r cI r D Dance nS Bunion D r a 7 k a Sittings ole o allin n Y Ne f fa a Contests and Other Freak k Stunts of Coda Explained r S ty r r t f f b Psychology Irked r rb i I b Routine We Are t 4 5 yiv R Y V I Rebellion Against F. F H. H Y A Standardized nation Lb v II Alvin Shipwreck Kelly drinking coffee from a bottle during one of 3 his bis famous sittings flagpole sittings By Isabel Stephen artists in the mot most SALARIED HIGH popular ar night clubs of New York were left to perform to empty tables recently r while the big spenders thronged the Madison Square Garden to gape at a az z wilted corps of dreary couples shuffling over its dingy floors to the blare of a a. r raucous Thesauruses were plundered of critical adjectives by indignant citizens calling on officials ls to put a stop to the racket Inhuman brutish barbarous unwholesome some noxious pernicious corrupting destructive irrational ridiculous asinine t and senseless were only a few of the envenomed envenomed en- en descriptions hurled via telephone telephone tele- tele phone word of mouth and letter into the office of the Mayor the Police Commissioner Com Com- n missioner the DIstrict Attorney the Board of Health Commissioner the corporation counsel and lh the Humane Society And while the underlings of these executives frenziedly passed the buck from one to the other the contestants continued to drag their and calloused tootsies tootsies toot toot- sies toward possible fame and a fortune of Just where does the kick come in inu in u those freak dance contests marathons bunion derbies sittings flagpole hog call lug Ing contests pig catchers gum chewers skippers rope and so on r An answer to this conundrum was sought from David Seabury well known lecturer and author on the subject ot of psychology in its relation to Lo the behavIor of humans His knowledge is not merely v academic it s 's backed by contact with hundreds of individuals who have consulted con con- suited him on their mental idiosyncrasies Interviewing MI Seabury is like drawing draw draw- ing water from a mountain freshet inthe In Inthe the early spring The supply comes bubbling bubbling bub- bub bling forth from a seemingly inexhaustible ible source As a child he learned the principles of psychology as another learns the letters of the alphabet the famous William James was a frequent visitor to to his fathers father's home in Boston and young David was a pet of his To the penetrating mind of David Seabury Seabury Sea Sea- bury no manifestation of eccentricity in inhuman inhuman human beings is senseless ridiculous or asinine Behind the most preposterous actions and notions he finds a profound q anthropological motivation So seated in the Seabury study which r overlooks the artistic Murray Hm Hill section section sec sec- tion of Park Avenue New York the r i writer received some very interesting real rea- rea 4 l sons for many seemingly unreasonable t contests o more civilized man becomes the J 1 more he seeks in the name of etli- etli clency to standardize his everyday life he explained speaking in a singularly musical voice He rises at well we'll say breakfasts at 8 leaves his home for his office at and arrives at his office at So on through the day each hour is scheduled He lunches at the same same hour returns to the office at the same hour leaves for home dines and seeks recreation at the same hour Also his meals are also pretty much standardized standardized standard standard- served in the same manner and by the same persons PrImitive man for thousands of years ears faced the constant excitement of danger danger dan dan- ger sudden unexpected meetings with wild anima anim 1 m 5 and enemies pitfalls droughts and problems of finding food We are the product of these thousands thousands thou thou- sands of years ot of vicissitude as the anthropolOgists anthropologists an- an put it and there is an Inner rebellion against being standardized in much the same manner that motorcars are standardized d This rebellion is expressed expressed ex- ex pressed in many erratic ways which men take in an attempt tl to get away from this imposed uniformity and monotony With aU all Its comforts and conveniences conveniences conven- conven civilization has brought braught us boredom boredom bore bore- dom man is always on the edge of the saturation point hence he has a tendency tendency tend tend- ency to turn to anything that is bizarre P r Everett E Dodd Caruso of of the Hog Belt gives a swine serenade which though not exactly bel canto brings home the bacon or grotesque as a kind of narcotic which promises a a. new sensation These freak contests are just part ot of the queerness results from this effort to escape It was his understanding of this great need of escape from the commonplace that made Barnum so tremendously suc- suc He rEalized that people didn't want to see just wild animals they wanted to see something so markedly in contrast to the routine of their daily lives that they could forget themselves and the enforced monotony T. T THE HE sensation caused by the recent dance marathon had the same basis as Barnum's legged five cow Mr Seabury suggested Men and women surfeited with standardized luxury deserted the t. t pleasure palaces with their gUt gilt and brocade brocade bro bro- cade fun furnishings and their superfine songsters songsters song song- and dancers all of which was part of the routine of their everyday lives and sought the hard benches surrounding Madison Square arena a to watch a group of h boiled hard amateur hoofers desperately desperately desper- desper plodding along their endless trail 3 j r f r KF t m c b i r t t d zT o c 1 x g r a s z w a f- f da p x PS J The start from Los Angeles of a transcontinental marathon race in which there were more than contest contest- ants At the finish in New York ill prizes awaited the winners of this longest race in modern times But isn't there something of the sadistic sadistic sa- sa in It Mr Seabury was asked It certainly isn't a pleasure gIving sight eyes tortured from lack of sleep sunken cheeks and mouths hunched shoulders and nd limping feet all expressing agony more or less NO Nd I dont don't believe theres there's much sadism in such audiences he replied slowly Really neally they are not thinking of the marathon dancers as people The bulk bulkot ot of the audience is placing itself in the position of the dancers and so momentarily momentarily momen- momen forgetting itself When you see a crowd watching a humaL fly scale he walls ot of a skyscraper skyscraper sky sky- scraper breathlessly sly engrossed in his every youre you're not witnessing sing a group ot of people who are hoping hopin hell heU fall faU down and break his neck The fascInation fascination fascI- fascI nation lies in his doing something out of the ordinary and each man is saying to himself unconsciously r I could do that sort of thing myself tf I wanted to and the bookkeepers bookkeeper's stool the stenographers stenographer's notebook and the office managers manager's desk desk are forgotten for a few fleeting moments This urra to bEl be different is in every even one Oscar Wilde wore a gigantic sunflower sun sun- flower on his coat in place of the customary customary cus- cus tomary boutonniere not for p publicity Purposes as those who read of this eccentricity eccentricity ec- ec centricity suppose but because he wanted something to distinguish his appearance appearance ap- ap from that of other men Like Oscar Wilde there are many men and women who do the unusual and the bizarre even though in their efforts eifort they look foolish to other people Whatever tl this s manifestation happens to be it attracts attracts at- at tracts the attention of less erratic in individuals indi- indi il though these latter may identify themselves with the eccentrIc one on and thu th vicariously experience the ex experiment rl- rl ment in breaking away from routine It doesn't require anything extraordinarily extraordinarily monstrous or remarkable to catch th the attention of the public and for a time divert it from the contemplation tion of the commonplace Place something something some some- thing in a shop window tha that doesn't belong belong be- be long there and people will stop and stare at It though it might only be a a. mans man's old boot in a display of millinery or a alady's alady's ladys lady's hat in a h haberdashers haberdasher's showcase A very successful salesman who com comes from my home town once told me an incident which occurred early In his career which bears out this point This man was peddling some small article I dont don't remember just what it was He wasn't having much success No matter how hard he trIed to secure a street audience by clever tricks or speeches not a person stopped or gave him a glance suddenly a a. thought struck him lIe stood perfectly still staring up into the sky Now ninety nine persons out of a a. walk along the pavement pave pave- ment looking horizontally In front ot of them As soon as the passersby saw that salesman man doing something ou of the routine routine rou- rou tine they immediately caught at this bit bitof bitor or of escape mechanism and th they y too stopped and stared up Into the sky In Inno Inno no time he had a small mob about him The man sitting on top of the flagpole flag flag- pole the bunion the greased greased- catcher all have broken away from the commonplace and their ex experiment has a universal appeal For It Is not only the week a clerk and the ditch digging laborer who is bored with his monotonous duties the millon- millon n R d 0 A ti o S' S S S kf s sm m 55 J ii i i ez 3 w C r sl s st t S. S 6 3 6 r 4 A. A f v 5 J The winners and runners up of a Pittsburgh dance marathon snapped after the sixtieth hour acre aire who has the same primitive beginnings beginnings begin begin- is also irked by his routine You find the same psychological phenomena among the rich and the poor Then it Isn't to the sporting element in individuals that the winnIng of a contest contest con con- test really appeals the Interviewer suggested suggested sug- sug the thrill of breaking a record or seeing a record broken Is not the prime allure of these freak affairs neither in the freak contests nor norin norin in the more important events where records records rec- rec are broken Mr Seabury held Crowds dont don't become frenzied with excitement excitement ex- ex because the Atlantic has been crossed by an airplane for the first time but because each one identifies himself with the Momentarily he has been released from his irksome rou- rou tine This is managed through what is called the mechanism of identification Interest Is scattered during a contest though it may prove a diversion It is when one individual wins that the excitement excitement excite excite- ment starts because then It Is possible for the crowd to Identify themselves with that individual who has accomplished the unusual They can picture themselves In that activity as it were THE cr novelist endows one man and one 1 woman with ith all the finest characteristics characteristics charac- charac and weaves his plot so that interest interest in- in terest will be focused on them In real life no individual is all good or all bad but in fiction it is different the writer plays up his hero and heroine cleverly so that the reader may identify himself or herself with the chief character In the same way a lecturer at the beginning of his lecture will say a few things that touch on well known facts or mental processes This gives his listeners a touch of Superiority each ench one feels that he alone has the knowledge or manner manner man man- ner of looking at lire life mentioned by the speaker and at once pats himself on the back telling himself that if he wanted to ho could be a lecturer instead of a cleric clelIe or a salesman or whatever he happened to be in his own little niche This man doesn't want to be a lecturer lecturer lec- lec any more mora than the man on the street watching the human fly wants to crawl up the face of a building or the saturated luxury audience watching the if f t r ri rl rr n l r i Harry M. M Gardiner human fly thrilled blase New York shoppers when he scaled the walls waIls of a Broadway Broadway Broad Broad- way hotel and perched on the roof cornice some twenty five s t tor o r i e ell s above the street couples dance their marathon would change places with them but they have havethe havethe the glowing inner feeling that if they wanted to they too could break away from civilized standardization Adults all feel this way about it from time to time but they dont don't talk and admit it The child comes home from the circus and wants to try tryout out the various stunts he saw during the show he naively and openly identifies l himself with the bareback rider and the performer who rode a bicycle on the His father and mother thrilled while they witnessed these feats They admired the skill of the circus artists consciously but subconsciously they put themselves on the galloping horses horses' backs and rode down the perilous grade of the NINE TENTHS NTINE-TENTHS TENTHS of the things stored up in a mans man's consciousness by bythe bythe the time hEY as h ls reached the age of 25 have either been seen by him jn in the movies movies ies read in a book or the newspapers or heard in lectures or have been learned at school again he may have been told about it by some one who has experienced yet it-yet he is under the impression that tha lie he himself has experienced all those thos things The identification mechanism which is responsible for so much of a amans aman's amans aman's mans man's enjoyment in picturing himself f as the hero who hobnobs with the of a gambling den in Peking as he reads a detective story with a location In China or a girls girl's pleasure as she makes a mental picture of herself as the reigning beauty of the season at Newport is the same as that which governs all other impressions A young typist who was much depressed was sent to me I asked her how she spent her evenings She told me that she went to the movies and after returning home she read in bed until she fell asleep The type of story and picture she preferred was centered around the doings of the so- so called smart set highly colored with extravagant extravagant ex- ex entertainments g go o r l' g e eo o u us s clothes and constant traveling from one resort to another This was her escape but she was overdoing it Another girl brought to me by her mother was a great heiress She She was bored to death with exactly the things which sent the little typist into transports even to read about Prom From childhood her favorite literature was the Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe she thought her environment was too monotonous monotonous mo- mo and stupId to be borne She wanted to get out and seek thrills in cheap cabarets and underworld dives Both girls Sirls were sUbject to fits of despondency de- de and melancholy They were suffering from a frustration complex They were alike in complaining that they had no opportunity for self The whole trouble is that civilization does not give us an outlet for the varied energies nature originally endowed us with Though it may not be flattering our vanity to admit it we are simian in our craving for varIety It Is a significant fact reported by explorers explorers ex- ex that uncivilized tribes are arc not at atall all Interested in the curious and the bi- bi zarre They have their war dances and their parades after hunting but they are no not interested in artificial contests for life is not monotonous Every Everyday Everyday day Is fraught with danger and the problem problem lem ot of self preservation in the forest and jungle gives adequate expression for their energies The average life has no real adventure at all hence our |
