The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-09-10
KANSAS COMMENT

THE KANSAS. TEMPERAMENT.
The years multiply and bank de-
posts wax large, and the per capita
wealth grows wonderously. Automo-
biles throw dust and gay abandon the
trail OF the OK team, and the grand
piano spills rag-time melody on the
atmosphere once ripped by the walls
OF populism and poverty.
Beyond dispute it is new and ev-
er newer Kansas that the statisticians
write about and the dispensers OF
modern conveniences write to. And
yet 1t is an old Kansas that fuses
ana KICKS and occasionally screams
and has seizures on her way to the
stars OF her ultimate destiny.
Inc kansas of classic literature is
readily identified in the current dis
cIssion OF the public drinking cup.
which OF itself is small matter, but
which as field of exercise for Kan
sas emotion is a large matter, like the
solar system and the tariff.
In the absence of definite informa-
ton it may be offered as a safe guess
that the public drinking cup has been
esta blished elsewhere without inter-
ference with the laws of nature. But
in Kansas it is difficult. In Kansas,
as the drinking cup passes from the
train water tank, the cork that comes
out OF the walls of public wrath makes
another shot heard round the world.
Nothing like the situation in Kansas
has been witnessed since the black
hole at Calcutta. Men, women and
children are fighting for drinks. In
fants in arms are inspired by the suf-
fering and Inconvenience of the mo-
ment to break forth in immortal poe
try something like GIVE me three
grains of corn, mother" Thirst
parched ladies are eating railroad
stocks for the water there is in them,
and strong men have been seen to
hold up the train while their suffering
families got out and gathered enough
dew along the right of way for the
days run. AS for the train tank it
self, it serves alone the brave and
hardy, whose mouths encompass its
spout with a loud, sucking noise.
1t is not that Kansas has abolished
the drinking cup that news columns
are convulsed in tremors, for this re-
form, as has been stated, is not new.
1t is not that travellers are without
drinking facilities, for the average
traveller has been carrying his own
cup or at least letting the public cup
alone for years. It is not that there
is anything new in Kansas. It is
rather that there is something as old
as Kansas itself-the temperament
has been, and that makes the world
full of martial music and the smoke
and hair of battle.-Ottawa Herald.
FINED FOR SMOKING.
The first arrest to be made in this
city for the violation of the new law.
which denies minors the privilege of
smoking in any public place, was
made Friday evening by Marshal
Humes, the violator being Charlie
Gillispie. The case was brought be-
fore Judges Mccarthy and Wright
Saturday morning, but after examin-
ing the new law was dismissed. The
state law absolutely prohibits minors
from smoking on the streets but the
city has no ordinance giving the mar
ever, a county officer may cause the
arrest and at Beloit a number of young
men have been obliged to pay the $40
fine. There is also a provision of a
$25 fine for persons selling or giving
tobacco 70 n1ineEs We hope this &C..
'currence VIII prove a warning and that
Their arrests.-Glen Elder Sentinel.
DEPENDS ONSTHE VIEW POINT.
Old Bill White received a check
for ten thousand dollars the other
day, as royalty on his new book then
straightway took his typewriting ma
chine on his lap and wrote a long edi-
torial on the Ezra of Prosperity in
Emporia.'' The other day we went
into the country to get material for
vest" but during the trip forty dol
lar tire blew out, so when we got back
to the office things looked so blue that
we hadn't the heart to brag about our
osperity.-Concordia Kansan.