Life — December 23, 1920 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

1174 “Ordinary” HAT isitthat makes | an “ordinary” per- son? Most people are ordinary, or there would be no substantial basis upon which to erect such | a supercilious definition From the standpoint of exclusiveness, “ordi- and “common” “We all have our pet common nary” are unanimous. people,” says Mrs. Arch- er, one of the characters in Edith Wharton's lat- est novel. Yet about an “ ordinary” person there is something that seems to distinguish him quite subtly from the great mass. It can sea said of those among the socially elect, to whom reely be this term =“ ordinary come as the de: gna tion of a certain offen- sive type, that they them- selves are not “ordi- nary.” Their opinions | are certainly Their excuse for not be- ordinary. asked of a ing ordinary consists in certain habits of wealth | “It's not r: It’s a look I ach and ease—of “refine- ment"—which segregates them from the multitude. Purely Automatic IDNIGHT. Mandleton made a slight, almost imperceptible gesture toward the telephone, but the burglar caught it, instantly cover- ing him with his gun. “Lay off that,” he whispered, “or I'll— up!” and Mandleton, shivering upright in bed, obey Keep your hands ds him. The burglar, his gun slightly lowered, but his quick eyes un- relaxed, was going through the dressing-room drawers with great rapidity, tossing the contents on the floor as he proceeded. The door back of him leading into the upper hall he had left open for his getaway; there was indecd a clear path to the rear, down the back stairs and through the kitchen entrance ; he kept his eyes going like the revolving light in a lighthouse. But there was an instant when back of him, in the line of the hall door, his eyes did not reach, and in this brief flash of time a white- rohed figure sprang through the door and landed full on his hack like a jungle tiger, pinning his right arm down, followed hy a whirling struggle in which the revolver discharged itself harmlessly, Mandleton leaped out of bed, and between his infuriated wife and himself they got the man down and dis- armed him. It was beautiful. Truth at any time may stranger than fiction. The next morning Mandleton said to his wife NO SUCH LUCK man whom I knew, Whose expression was heliotrope blue, ] Oh, why the wry face? —not a trace ve from home-brew!” Probably the real dis- tinction which, in the minds of the elect, sepa- rates the person from the rank “ ordinary” that he aspires to be like the and file is elect, and fails. He is clumsy and tactless and vulgar and says the wrong thing at the all this me of his vicious ambition, Noth- wrong moment being the oute ing excites the contempt of any class more than the effort of those who tr, fail. to imitate it—and A Sure Thing LORA: Jz ribly in love with Nelle, Do you think he has a ghost of a is ter- chance Dora: The best in the world, E ery member of her family is unalterably opposed to him, Outstripped the elimination con- test between fashion and modesty, fashion is winning by more than the proverbial neck. millionth of a second, alk about presence of tlation of “Tf you had made a miscalé it would have been all up with us. mind, instant decision and brute courage—why, my dear, you're ut wonder, a superwoman!” “Nonsense!” replied Mrs. Mandleton, calmly sipping her coffee. “You don't suppose I've been looking at those wild- western movie melodramas for the past two years for nothing, T. LM. do you?” Advice Was What He Sought married, ain't you?” “Well, what's your next move when the wife says she has nothing more to say?" . iri “T place myself in a comfortable position in the easiest the house and prepare to spend an hour listening to her say it.” Treason! PPLEBY; What was the trouble at the meeting of the Li n last night? T heard a frightful racket when I went by and loud cries of “ Judas!" and “ Bene- dict Arnold!" Martine: ndlords’ Associa Panderson was being expelled. He had heen foynd guilty of making a one and one-half per cent. reduction in his rents : comicbooks.com