THE NEUROTIC PICCARESQUE

"Man and Girl Killed by Nervous Bandits in 13th Street Hold Up" reads a headline in the New York press. And one realizes even more keenly how this age of motors and rotors and traffic police is undermining the physique of modern man. Imagine the rogue of yesterday whose nervousness would cause him to break the codes of gentlemanly brigandry, would make him less the bandit and more than man.

One cannot even attempt to vision such a vagary. It is impossible. Jesse James Eye Dicks shot straight and to the point. And they never touched a woman, not to mention a girl. Romance indeed fades when the world has only neurotics for its brigands. And therein lies a lesson for the youth of today. If the world of tomorrow is to have creditable and esteemed handits it must have fewer of the uncertain and inadequate kind whose nerves disarm them of true restraint. Nerves in bandits and servants are without excuse.