The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-03-25


not suggest the text for it is a story of
American politics and its corruption,
The following synopsis will give the
reader q hint of what it is like: Told
by the hero, who starts out as a pow
Grty stricken Young LAWYER in a small
city and rises through politics to be
q president-maker- The here's city
is somewhere in the west; any state
willing to claim it is welcome to it,
The hero home, where he and his
widowed mother live, was mortgageds
and he was in love, so he sold him
self to the county boss and was
elected to the legislature. His second
year he voted against Il railroad bill
under the very eye of his boss. OF
course he wasn't reelected; more
over. the boss ruined his law business.
Then the hero was elected county
prosecutor in a reform campaign; in
campaign for reelection he was de-
feated and found himself heavily in
debt and worse of than ever.
Then a college mate gave him a job
with a trust. he threw over the girl
he loved, who was waiting for him
married the rich sister of his college
mate, and began to climb upward
fast By means of a com animation of
corporations he first controlled the
state politics and then the national poll
tics. He picked out a defeated congress-
man for a figurehead, and made him
governor. and then bought the presi-
Finally ne got sick Of it all. and, as
his wife was dead, went back to his
first love and married her.
There is little of the brighter side of
politics-if there is one. Mr.. Phillips
writes we'll and his new book will hold
the attention of the reader whether he
is interested in politics not.
The illustrations are a pleasing fea-
ture. They are by r. NJ. Ashe.
You don't have to be a mindreader
nor turn to the last page in order to
know how the Letters of Theodore VIII |
end 1t is a foregone conclusion from
the first mention of John Gilchrist'' |
that Theodore and he viii be married /
by or before the last chapter. s@Theo-
dora" is the kind of woman, already /
done a good many times in literature |
from Aurora Leigh" down, but rarely |
met in life, who is in love without /
knowing it. She is clever and ambi- |
tiOus, signs for career and refuses to I
consider marriage. especially to John !
Gilchrist. So she runs away to New 4
York leaving him teaching at Phoenix 4
college, back in North Dakota but he /
gets position at Columbia university !
and follows her east, tags after her and |
hangs on, until, finally, she marries him. /
OF course her letters pretend that she 4
has loved him all along and didn't know \
II, but, leave it to you. if 1t happened !
IN real life, wouldn't you say she mar
ried him to be rid of him, or because,
having made failure of her career,
and spent all her money she didn't
know what else to do?
However, that is neither here nor
there. The letters" are clever and en-
tertaining, even if the plot is transpar-
ent and lacking in novelty. FTheOdOra'
writes naturally. breezily and pertinent
" and her letters reflect some interest
ing phases of modern life especially in /
re the bachelor maid as she flour
ishes in our American cities, and who 1
for all her brave show of independence
and seif-sufiiciency, her appearance of
prosperity and success and her now
general recognition and acceptance as
an established unit of society, neverthe-
less frequently masks a sneaking sus-
ptciOn that after all she is neither fish,
flesh nor good red herring. Her posi-
ton is in some respects an Improvement
over that of the 'old maid" of 40 or so
years ago, but she is stin far from re-
alizing in her busy independent life the
true womanly ideal and it win be a
long time before she will become the
universal fashion even If she should not
prove to be a passing fad.
There are lots of good things in the
Letters.
There is so much said and written
nowadays about going back to the soil
that honest, respectable folk like YOU
and me, are rather bashful about ad-
uniting that we have a regard for Ma
ture. The average person who protests
that he loves nachure' means that he
loves a bed of red geraniums with
border of foliage plants.
I notice that strong minded women
always use three names. She
wants to make him happy-I give her
credit for that-but she wants to make
him happy in her own way.
Any wife must have times when she
reminds herself that she didn't have to
marry her husband. Kate Field used to
say that one is to blame for ones
friends, not for ones relatives. So
suppose one is to blame for ones hus-
Il wish there was something out and
out disa greeable about Corinna so that
needn't feel SO mean about disIiking
her. She goes in for reform work
more than ever and understand, from
her letters, that she is devoting con-
siderable time to her literary work
6Note. One of the tricks of this Theo-
dora is to put in those scoffing quota
ton marks whenever she refers to any
other WCmans literary WOrx). For in |
her way, which is not mine, she is lit !
efary. Her poems are published, which
IS more than can be said for mine.
Corinna is scientific or nothing. She !
knows all there is to know about food
values and upon her table appear the '
proper proportions Of proteids and ear
bohydrates and things. Poor 7
frank must drink cereal coffee or have I
q 0aliy squaoole. 1 shall not be :
trait accompanying an advertisement s
for one Of those prepared breakfast I
FOODS that look like chopped excelsior.
I asked Miss Brandenburg the name g
Of the salad was eating. r
1t is a Nuremburg salad {
g Why Nuremburg?' :
manner of the March Hare. 'Nurem- I
burg is the first word that popped into ?
my mind when you asked the name
am glad you like it. I composed 1t
Just now always compose my salads
compose soups also. You should taste i
my soups. child. To tell the truth wou T
came near having no luncheon today L L
am seldom phaSed by ANYTHING in the {
culinary line but I found my refrigera- I
tor nearly bare. Then bethought me I
OF the bird I had for dinner last night y
ana fortunately the chestnuts We're boil d
ed No, can't tell you how it is made; I
/ pitched it together. Another time I \
should make it differently, I dare say 8
salads are my speciality, Let me make z
OF I