Show 0 a 0 0 0 a 0 0 0 DRABNESS 0 0 0 a THAT LIES WITHIN 0 0 0 0 by FANNIE HURST 0 Z a by b laca are I 1 WN U y servias I 1 eradicate I 1 Is an all too large TP 0 r ta 0 n of human beings who proportion and life i e a dull business certain definite conditions of our civilization contribute to that pa thetla end and help biln bring about the sin gin and the shame shaine of it life so go short at its best should be if the little littie god of as astl tacy ought eyo ug to ht he is at t all merciful an interval crowded with light but we go 90 ahead and cram man into the sometimes too tightly fitting shoe of civilization cramp him mentally an and d physically hi D to routine work stultify his imagination by crucifying him on the cross of day by day stark realla reality Y and unless the individual develops the and glory of resistance to mere ex the result Is dangerously apt to be drab nor Is this quality of drabness necessarily essa rily confined to special social planes it can hang in a pall over the rich and poor alike conspire as all these eternal conditions of society way may against the individual I 1 lt it Is a undoubtedly a matter which lies within his bis power whether he be will succumb or resist the deadliness of finding life drab As a matter of fact even though so many of our lives seem tinned and classified the way out Is via the intellect ct more than through release from routine but the di difficulty lies la in its obviousness there Is a certain experiment which Is commonly practiced on college classes in psychology the professor holds up a chart containing various pictures sentences figures objects characters and colors tile the class Is permitted to gaze upon the chart for the period of a moment or two and at the end of that time each member recites what he has seen the almost invariable result Is a fine commentary upon the varying degree of thoroughness with which individuals divi duals observe the majority of the class usually observes minimum some few have been alert to most of the objects colors and characters but only a select minority really sees in detail and with mith power of ob observation on the contents of the chart life can bf be drab because most of us os are so busy missing tile tie most of it the aspect of it that Is s free for all the tha adventure Pd venture of the adventure that lies in our reach the of curiosity the desire to know intellectual tel curiosity meaning the desire and the vitality and the interest to delve into every minute aspect of life that presents itself Is the gateway to experience practically all the great figures of history have been blessed with st it to caesars caesara Cae sars napole ons Roosevel ts life cannot be commonplace mon place because so little appears to them as commonplace vigorous seeking minds are not easily bored it Is fair to assume that just as much of life Is lying about us in our daily routine as there Is compressed between the leaves of books anyway it Is worth seeking and the way to seek is to take nothing for granted A subway jam contains enough of the possibility of adventure to blow up tp new york harbor scratch the cuticle of your desk neighbor and you will find and the mystery of a pulsating planning blannin sch scheming emit ig human being intellectual curiosity about people places street scenes books and above all the desire to study and know the people who happen to be inhabiting this planet called earth during your same interval here simply will aill not permit life to become drab that must be why the sort of human beings in whom you are impelled to confide your difficulties problems amours seem always so go filled with a certain power and strength they are interested in people they command confidence by wanting it nobody is 13 just a person men lien and women are people 1 exciting problematic subtle dangerous appealing provocative magnetic repel repellent lents alluring and human and in the midst of this melee of the excitement of being human among humans each of us Is privileged to live his life just around the corner la Is no more to me than it is to you the unknown lurks lurk there for one and tor for all intellectual burlos curiosity Is a magic carpet which can whisk you out of yourself and yet how appalling when allen one tops stops to consider the lethargy toward lit life that falls to the lot of ho 10 many the books that are never dever opened the tha confidences that are never given or received the friendships that are never dever made because two particular human beings had riot not the curiosity to want to knowl know I 1 when it is sold said of it a roan man that ile he is a good mixer it usually means in calls that his life IM Is ig crammed with interests of various sorts gorts who wants to know people because he be knows that within them lies tile the secret of t keeping life quick lick with iab interest lie he does not find life drab chiefly because be Is not DO drab at tile the same applies to the light that UPS lies in the eyes of the bookworm strange thrills are lit his S strange deac rea eions ong to beil beauty lity because he be has had the curiosity to go co seeking them it Is not only to those destined to walk high places or to roam the world that excitement of life can come on the contrary arry if the drabness lies alleg within you for those who see not it Is as equally boring to roam the world as it Is to ride daily la in the subway toward your job if not got then you are one of those to be envied persons who sees with ith joyous alert eyes the color the shape the significance of every object on the professors chart and it requires no genius nor special equipment to do so just a deliberate love of lite life and a will to live it tor for all it Is worth arid and to such a per person peron on it Is worth a great deal and since we are all of us occupied with the business of living it how joyful to be living it joyfully I 1 there Is great deal of bubbling bubbling 9 optimism which manifests itself la in the so called drab places of lite life one Is I 1 inclined to think just its as much if not more than there Is la in tile the makeup of the synthetic kind of j joys manufactured by tile the rich men digging ditches look no more oppressed with tile hie heaviness of life than men sitting in opera boxes no one can fairly blame his internal drabness dra buess upon externals ter nals at least it if we are to judge by the interchangeableness of human reactions the rich can be drab the po poor r can be drall drab and both can be drab D dull ull das dais come more readily to some gome than to others you hear people say they are never bored they cannot be drab inside what they find lit in life may make them suiter suffer as easily as it may bring them joy but bill the unhappy medium is boredom to be neither pained nor surprised delighted nor depressed with life because the interior Is a vast moor gray unlighted with interest or intellectual tel curiosity Is to be dead on 00 your feet I 1 boredom Is the emotion of a vegetable |