The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-10-18

you WOutd like to admire yourself If
you weren't too sour to admire anything
except your own cynicism
A pessimist,' the Oracle went on not
giving the Sophomore time to enter a
demurrer, is merely an optimist gone
10 seed. When / see a young fellow
thoroughly convinced that this is a
bully old world and that life's greatest
problem is to how to keep all your
dates, I really feel sorry for him be-
cause know that the thrOeS of mis-
anthropy will be his finish. If you are
exceedingly trusting and confiding a.
seventeen you viii be a suspicious cynic
at twenty seven. Investigate the mis-
OgynlStS past and you will find that IL
was one continuous performance of
irritation and affaires d amour AS a
rule the man Who declares that all wo-
men are false. is one who has gone the
devious way of intrigue and deception
necessary TO keep several contenDor-
aneous love affairs in progress, has new
er been perfectly honest with any -Wo-
man and blames them for his own fail
ureS. You would think to hear a man
of that description talk that his heart
had been played with (isn't that very
much Laura Jean Libby?9 by half the
women he had known but as matter
of fact he probably never cared sincere
~ for woman in his life and has been
loved devotedly by several.
A m1Sogynist is always a kind Of dog
in the manger. He is so bored with So
ciety and so tired of love affairs that
he simply refuses to meet a new girl
but he's Jealous of the youth and en-
thusiam of those who still have such
! puerile interests. He consoles himself
when he sees a man happy in the com
pany of nice girl with the reflection
that she's probably 'stringing, him. He
likes to call the fellows who go about
| with girls easy marks and chuckles
when he thinks of the cab hire. You
i know Jim Frank? He's an old bachelor
1 of that description. The other day we
were at the railway station when that
St. Joe girl came to visit Margaret She
is such pretty girl and was looking so
swagger that day in her long travelling
coat and l could see by the way Jim
was eying her that she looked good to
him but he only sneered at the man
| who was helping her off the Pullman
and said: Two years ago I would have
been carrying that suit case by this
time
IF I were a man I'd never envy one
of these irresistible Ladies' Favorites.
1t looks to a casual observer as though
his life were one continuous crimson
sunset but such popularity is always
disastrous and prolonged season of
gaiety and idolatry leaves him with a
dark brown taste that lasts through
life
Well" said the Sophomore, your
sermonette is so cheering that it must
| have a moral Let's hear it,
No" said the Oracle. mot from me.
I'm likely to be guilty of almost any,
thing else but the Moral is too depress-
ing even if it is edffying Let us leave
it for the Preacher
Never was there a period when fashion
placed SO few limits on the house furnish
er's art as the present. Effect, indeed, is
the only arbitrary guide. So long as unity
and harmony prevail all schools and all
periods may be rifled for design and color
In the attitude of the young wife there
has been a marked change in the last
few years. Formerly it was her ambition
to outshine those of her set in the splendoI
and cost of her furnishings. Now her aim
is to produce a home artistic and comfort
giving.
The art of house furnishing is little
known in this country. especially
among the vulgar rich. says a woman
whose home is known for its beauty and
restfulness. The last thing that seems tc
be considered in their arrangement is the
convenience of the occupants. To judge
merely from appearances, one would thins
that they were designed osserve as show
rooms for furniture and bric-a-brac and
fancy work, and that the inmates were
only there on sufferance, because they had
to have some refuge from the wind and
weather and no other domicile could be
found. Most women" our authority OBJ
serves, treat their homes as storehouses
or museums, and the more things they can
crowd into them the better they are
pleased. They prefer to have the things
where they can be seen. if possible but
when more space is left and not cor
ner is available for even a photograph OF
a china dog they will pack them away il
chests and closets and go on accumulat-
ing. They may have no time for reading
or recreation or even for the proper care
of their own persons. but that fact never
deters them from adding to the number
of their household gods and to the al
) ready intolerab1e task of taking care OF
them.
Mrs. Oliphant. in one of her stories, tell:
of a vulgar rich man who liked to have
costly and useless things about him. HI
saw no beauty in the Turner which adorn
ed his drawing room, but it was swee
to him to think that he was able to hang
up thousands of pounds, so to speak, upor
his walls. 1t is perhaps something of thi.
feeling that makes women turn thei
homes into museums. In a country wher,
so many people have become suddenl,
rich or have been raised from poverty t
comparative influence. possession is sucl
an unfamiliar thing that it seems to pleas
/ in itself, apart from any value in the ar
ticles possessed. and people who canno
have the satisfaction of possessing costly
and useless things find some consolation
/ in an innumerable number of cheap anC
: useless, if not cheap and nasty, articles
) In older countries, where rapid changes
of income are not so frequent, one see
! lish homes, for instance. there is a com
} fort and restfulness, and consequently
beauty, even in the midst of shabbiness
| which is little known in America