The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-25

|
Journalistic Freak.
There is a Journal of Christian Science
| published somewhere in the wild West
| 1t has removed its habitat two or three
times during its brief existence-which
is almost as good an example of English
| gone crazy as that Cure for the Blues
commented on so pungently by Mark
| Twain. 1t contains paragraphs which a
| baby could understand. others which a
| justice of the Supreme Court could not
| explain, and still others of which it is
difficult to say whether the trouble with
them is that the writer was trying to say
something which he did not know how
to say. or that he was simply talking.
The paper is an endlessly interesting
study in the vagaries of perfectly I'M
trammeled human minds. and indicates
what we might all have come to If some
of our ancestors had not had common
sense. and if the public schools We're not,
on the whole. a beneficent restraining in
fuence in this land.
The editor of this publication is affec-
Tomato with his readers. This is the kind
of thing that he gives them:
y am the Light of the World,
Il say ;i:;to you, my Sweetheart, that the days
of miracles never pass. Am Spirit. and.
therefore, ! create and recreate every day.
say, all the time, Let there be light | Am
the bright and morning star. Am the Sun Of
Righteousness. ! Am the only real Light and
he who follows me will not walk in the dark
ness"
There is no false modesty about him.
either. Witness this:
81 am doing greater things than Christ did
while he earth. / am doing my work
in all parts of the earth. His work was confined
10 small district in obscure part of the
world. ! am doing just what he said the Spirit
Christ would do | speak the Word of Truth in
the Silence and heal all of sickness |
have patients in London, Rome Vienna, and in
all parts of Europe | am healing the sick in
Australia, Mexico. South America, and in all
parts Of the civilized world"
The typewriter girl in the office has
column of her own. and 1t is entitled
Helen Hints" 1t contains about the
only grain of real sense there is in the
paper. his is part of the column, in
GLIDING the grain of sense:
81 am Helen
II am the ticker who licks the stamps
II am the addresSer who addresses the en-
velopcs.
Il am the one who sits here and writes down
what the Boss says And sometimes he doesn't
care whether / hear it or not but walks the
EbOr ana talks 10 himself. and l have catch
every word the best | can.
1T is good place to work, for the life cur
rent is so strong you don't get weary
81 wish that each would send a sef-sd-
dressed and stamped envelope
The style of the editor and coutribu-
tors is at times exceedingly strong. So
are some things which one would not
care to introduce into literature. Com
menting on Mrs. Nations performances,
the editor says:
Jesus seems to he having he'll of time in
this Topeka. As l said before al is Good.
II is all right for eats to scratch but | not
eat. therefore ! refuse to scratch
II is perhaps well that the editor ex-
planned that he is not cat, for there is
not much more meaning or continuity in
most of his paper than in the ordinary
feline operas on the back fence
The mystery about the whole business.
to the average reader, is that such a pa
per as this somehow does get published
and find readers. 1t is inconceivable that
any man should keep such a thing going
for his private amusement. and pay all
the expense of it himself. because it is
inconceivable that any man with the
brains to get, or to keep. a moderate
amount OF money, would perpetrate such
a thing. Hence there must be persons.
somewhere in the known world. who
make up it's subscription list 1t would
be interesting to know who they are.
They might be people with a sense of
humor keen enough to relish the uncon-
scionable absurdities of the writers. or
they might be people without any sense
of humor at all. who take the whole of it
seriously. 1t is rather difficult to con-
ceive of a mind which would really and
truly accept she astounding statements
of the editor as gospel truth; even more
difficult than to picture the originator of
those statements; because there have
been fakirs in all ages. Yet there must
be such people in this country. There are
not enough persons who would appreciate
the value Of the paper as humorous mat
ter to make up subscription list three
inches long, even II they all knew about
it. This is a mystery which will possibly
never be solved.