Elbow-Room | Page 2

JOE MIDDLES A COURT SCENE A DOG
FOR SALE SMITH'S BOY RETREATS BANG!!! THE
WANDERING JEW SIMPSON'S CASE THE GENERAL IN A
RAGE "TAKE HER, YOUNG MAN!" BRADLEY'S CRADLE THE
NEW MOTOR A QUEER PLANT TOO MUCH OF A BORE.
BALLAST MAJOR SLOTT'S TIGER FACING THE TIGER
CHAPTER I.
PROLOGUE.
_THE ADVANTAGES OF ELBOW-ROOM_.
The professors of sociology, in exploring the mysteries of the science
of human living, have not agreed that elbow-room is one of the great
needs of modern civilized society, but this may be because they have
not yet reached the bottom of things and discovered the truth. In
crowded communities men have chances of development in certain
directions, but in others their growth is surely checked. A man who
lives in a large city is apt to experience a sharpening of his wits, for

attrition of minds as well as of pebbles produces polish and brilliancy;
but perhaps this very process prevents the free unfolding of parts of his
character. If his individuality is not partially lost amid the crowd, it is
likely that, first, his imitative faculty will induce him to shape himself
in accordance with another than his own pattern, and that, second, the
dread of the conspicuousness which is the certain result of eccentricity
will persuade him to avoid any tendency he may have to become
strongly unlike his neighbors.
The house that he lives in is tightly squeezed in a row of dwellings
builded upon a precisely similar plan, so that the influence brought to
bear upon him by the home resembles to some extent that which
operates upon his fellows. There is a pressure upon both sides of him in
the house; and when he plunges into business, there is a far greater
pressure there, in the shape of sharp competition, which brings him into
constant collision with other men, and mayhap drives him or compels
him to drive his weaker rival to the wall.
The city-man is likely to cover himself with a mantle of reserve and
dissimulation. If he has a longing to wander in untrodden and devious
paths, he is disposed resolutely to suppress his desire and to go in the
beaten track. If Smith, in a savage state, would certainly conduct
himself in a wholly original manner, in a social condition he yields to
an inevitable apprehension that Jones will think queer of his behavior,
and he shapes his actions in accordance with the plan that Jones, with
strong impulses to unusual and individual conduct, has adopted because
he is afraid he will be thought singular by Smith. And in the mean time,
Robinson, burning with a desire to go wantonly in a direction wholly
diverse from that of his associates, realizes that to set at defiance the
theories of which Smith and Jones are apparently the earnest advocates
would be to expose himself to harsh criticism, sacrifices himself to his
terror of their opinion and yields to the force of their example.
In smaller and less densely-populated communities the weight of public
opinion is not largely decreased, but the pressure is not so great. There
is more elbow-room. A man who knows everybody about him gauges
with a reasonable degree of accuracy the characters of those who are to

judge him, and is able to form a pretty fair estimate of the value of their
opinions. When men can do this, they are apt to feel a greater degree of
freedom in following their natural impulses. If men could sound the
depths of all knowledge and read with ease the secrets of the universe,
they might lose much of their reverence. When they know the exact
worth of the judgment of their fellow-men, they begin to regard it with
comparative indifference. And so, if a dweller in a small village desires
to leave the beaten track, he can summon courage to do so with greater
readiness than the man of the town. If he has occasionally that
proneness to make a fool of himself which seizes every man now and
then, he may indulge in the perilous luxury without great carefulness of
the consequences. Smith's ordinary conduct is the admiration of Jones
as a regular thing; but when Smith switches off into some eccentricity
for which Jones has no inclination, it is only a matter of course that
Jones should indulge in his own little oddities without caring whether
Smith smiles upon him or not.
It is, therefore, in such communities that search can most profitably be
made for raw human nature that has had room to grow upon every side
with little check or hindrance. The man who chooses to seek may find
original characters, queer combinations of events, surprising revelations
of individual and family experiences and an unlimited fund of
amusement, especially if he is disposed,