SILLY LITTLE THINGS WE HATE

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8360, 23 July 1920, Page 1 (Supplement)

SILLY LITTLE THINGS WE HATE

WARM SEATS AND STRANGERS’ HANDS AND EYES ARE SOME OF

THEM. Have you ever thought of the funny little ways that, all of us have in dealing with strangers? Most people, for instance, feel a decided unwillingness to sit down in a seat that somebody else has just got up from.’ The reason is that we have all a little left of the instincts that were very valuable in the days when man was a savage animal fighting for existence among the other animals. That dislike for the warmth created by another living body dates from the days when that patch of warmth meant that another animal was close at hand. It was a danger signal. Why do we tend to avoid the eyes of casual strangers opposite us* in tram or train? The reason for this is just as old. There is a feeling that it is discourteous to stare at a stranger’s eyes, though there is none in looking at his hat or socks or gloves. And all because we realise that a crossing of eyes among strangers means a challenge—an attempt to show oneself the master. We all have something of the old animal unwillingness to meet a direct gaze. How many people are there in a hundred who, after accidentally touching a stranger’s hand in a crowd, at once proceed to rub their own hand against their clothes, with a faint feeling of repulsion? At least seventy. If you are taxed about it you would probably talk about the risk ol infection. But your real reason was several thousand years older than that idea. You got it from the times before man invented speech and began to gather together in communities. As savage and unsocial as a tiger, the only time he was likely to come into physical contact with a stranger unexpectedly was when that stranger was silently attacking him. Those who were not quickly on the alert at a touch were apt to die out and leave no descendants. Those in whom the instinct was strong survived. And it is probably a shadow' of the same instinct that -makes us all choose an empty compartment in a train when we have a choice.