ent American 216

XXIII Behind the Times 227

XXIV Public Liars 238

XXV The Complete Collector--III 249

XXVI The Commuter 257

XXVII Headlines 270

XXVIII Usage 278

XXIX 60 H.P. 285

XXX The Sample Life 296

XXXI The Complete Collector--IV 313

XXXII Chopin's Successors 320

XXXIII The Irrepressible Conflict 327

XXXIV The Germs of Culture 336

NOTE

Of the papers that go to make up the present volume, the greater number
were published as a series in the columns of the New York _Evening Post_
for 1910, under the general title of The Patient Observer. For the
eminently laudable purpose of making a fairly thick book, the Patient
Observer's frequently recurrent "I," "me," and "mine" have now been
supplemented with the experiences and reflections of his friends
Harrington, Cooper, and Harding as recorded on other occasions in the
New York _Evening Post_, as well as in the _Atlantic Monthly_, the
_Bookman_, _Collier's_, and _Harper's Weekly_.

I

COWARDS

It was Harrington who brought forward the topic that men take up in
their most cheerful moments. I mean, of course, the subject of death.
Harrington quoted a great scientist as saying that death is the one
great fear that, consciously or not, always hovers over us. But the five
men who were at table with Harrington that night immediately and sharply
disagreed with him.

Harding was the first to protest. He said the belief that all men are
afraid of death is just as false as the belief that all women are afraid
of mice. It is not the big facts that humanity is afraid of, but the
little things. For himself, he could honestly say that he was not
afraid of death. He defied it every morning when he ran for his train,
although he knew that he thereby weakened his heart. He defied it when
he smoked too much and read too late at night, and refused to take
exercise or to wear rubbers when it rained. All men, he repeated, are
afraid of little things. Personally, what he was most intensely and most
enduringly afraid of was a revolving storm-door.

Harding confessed that he approaches a revolving door in a state of
absolute terror. To see him falter before the rotating wings, rush
forward