RULES FOR BENDING
Current news headlines remind me, so often, of two short stories we have in our national treasury of such material which is not longer being read. One story deals with that type of person who insists that you follow rules exactly and the other is made up of people who have deeply ingrained feelings concerning their right to “something-for-nothing” and “pie-in-the sky” treatment.
Both stories were written to be funny. Their merit is found in the fact that they are still comical when read today. They still have meaning today because they deal. The depict human traits which do not change with the pages of our calendar.
Sometime about 1906 a man by the name of Ellis Parker Butler had fun writing a story he called “Pigs Is Pigs. And, Mark Twain had written one a little earlier called called “The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg.”
The very titles themselves were enough to send the grammarian perfectionists into a frenzy of explanations concerning the proper use of pigs – singular and plural - “that” “is-are”, “who-whom”... with suggested means to keep our language pure. Neither
of them will ever be called “classics” I suppose. They're too fun-filled.
The Butler story speaks of someone, finding a rule who feels he is bound to follow that exact guideline, He is a person with “no bend”; no “give and take, “live and let live” ideas at all. Only at times when he finds such a plan is not working to his advantage will he be ready to shade a few of the stricter lines a bit, fail to dot a few “I's” or cross some ”t's” and learn “how to look the other way.”
In “Pigs Is Pigs” the author has us meet Mr. Morehouse as he calls on Mr. Flannery at the Interurban Express office where expects to pick up a small crate containing two guinea pigs. He expects pay to make payment for their having traveled on Mr. F's rail system. When they check the manual they find no specific price quoted of ”guinea pigs” . The Express Company clerk enters the rated charged for: “Barn Yard Pigs”. The customer enters a loud complaint and refuses to pay the bill. They agree he will consult the home office of the express company. In the meantime, the clerk will have full possession the giunea pigs.
Guinea pigs multiply at an astonishing rate, and those were a dozen; a score and more and more until the Express Company was making daily shipments of giunea pigs o all points south, north, east and west - awaiting word from the home office for rates on such shipments. In the end, several persons had to understand the need for occasionally bending rules.
The Mark Twain story packs a strong moral lesson for us today, as well. A strange old man visits the town of Hadleburg one night - a town proud of its reputation of honest and purity. He leaves “a sack of Gold” behind to be given to that unknown person who, many year before had befriend him and made him a loan. One by one residents started remembering the man and the deed of long ago. A great many rules had to be modified for Hadleyburg to regain even a small portion of its old reputation.
Rules must be tempered with a bit of common sense because people are no always what they appear to be.
None of us. No one.
A.L.M. January 29, 2006 [c000wds]
