The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-12-01

| a
| WITHOUT an order. Yet before
That boy would reach the kitchen door
. Upon the errand father'd say:
mere are you going, sonny, hey?
I never saw day much hotter
Go bring me in drink of water
Inc son would wrfthe and grumble, till ?
his fatherd say, Poor, lazy Bill!''
Through all his life it was the same
Always against that same old game
" planning things that would surprise
The world. and make it .ope its eyes,
FINDING his act had been. expected
At Alias last he died and people said:
With death his troubles all are Ger:
Bill should have thought Of it before"
| Chicago News.
Popular Paragraphism.
This is the day of the paragraph.
History is turned out in tabloid form
for popular assimilation. Sense and
nonsense are most enjoyed in para
graph. and the people clamor for pub
lie speeches built on vital, meaty par
| agraphs. The idea is such a favorite
now that ministers who want to
please. instruct and, incidentally, to
save are sermonizing in paragraphs of
| slight duration. Public speakers try
Ito make a hit within the ten-minute
limit, and heroes in plays make love
ep1grammatically
! If life is an epigram, as some wise
man would have us believe, the talk
| OF life can not be made short enough.
| In America, where we never have
| time, it is as we'll to be amused, en-
tertained, instructed, sermonized, and
saved within ten-minute space.
Otherwise we would miss these essen
| tials, and what would become of us?
| In dear old England few venture
some spirits have a mind to wake the
public to that fact. In fact, it has
gone so far as to stir that most slow
of all slowly moving bodies, the house
of parliament. Cecil Harmsworth, one
| of its honorable members, and on the
cut of w. Randolph Hearst, with
slight variations. comes out in long
| article in the current number of the
| National Review with a plea for ten
minute speeches. The American pub
lie can sympathize with him. We know
how many good things can be killed
in public legislation by oratory cover
has suffered in the same manner, and
his efforts to prOmulgate paragraph
| ism in the house of talk deserves sue
cess. His plea, though not sufficiently
| brief to be very witty is charming
enough to convince the most long
winded member. He has received his
cue from us. if not from congress.
What a monument to his effort should
he succeed to make the house of too
much parleying into a house of para
graphs?
To do this and to reduce the Con-
gressional Record to tabloid form
would make this age claim another
| wonder.
AS the honorable quotes. man who
in these days can not deliver his soul
| in a quarter of an hour or twenty
| minutes doesn't know his trade, and
| is not fit to be a member of parlia-
ment.
| Just so. Brevity is the soul of wit
and the body of wisdom, in this day
of popular paragraphism.-Flor
| Times -Union.
| Concert for Cobras.
| They had real understanding
party at the Bronx Park Zoo Sunday,
and when it was over Curator Dit
mars voted it a great success. Sew
eral months ago Mr.. Ditmars. who
has got together an animal and rep
tile circus, sent to Singapore and
ords Of the music made by Hindoo
snake charmers in performing their
tricks with reptiles. The records ar
rived on Saturday.
| Mr.. Ditmars gathered some of the
| keepers yesterday afternoon, got out
| a few cobras and other poisonous
snakes from the Far East, and turned
on his music. The snakes began to
take notice right away. One of the
big king cobras raised his head high
in the air and glided across to where
| the photograph rested. The reptile
eyed the machine curiously, and its
l,head began to wave to and fro, keep
| ing time to the weird strains of mu-
| sic.
! Several of the other snakes joined
him, just in front of the metal horn
| from which the music emerged. Mr..
| Ditmars turned on record after rec
ord, and after a while the snakes
seemed to be in a hypnotic state.
| They did not wake up until they had
been put back in their cages.
| Sunday is usually a busy day for
news in the reptile house, and yes
terday was no exception. When tne
keepers arrived in the morning and
| started to enter small annex to the
east of the building they drew back
| in alarm. On the floor of the annex
was a heap of straw and shav1ngs
| which seemed to move up and down
as though some monster was be-
meath and breathing heavily. This
woodwork in the room appeared to
have been Clipped as though by
chisel. Here and there on the floor
were chips of wood.
| One of the keepers got steel net
| This was placed over the pile of straw
| and -shavings. There was quite a
commotion, and big saber-tootned
rat. a pet of Mr.. Ditmars, emerged
from the heap. It had escaped from
its cage during the night.-New York
| Times.
Goats in Missouri.
| Adair county is one of the big goat
producing countries of Missouri. The
goats are not raised for mutton alone,
| but also for the purpose of clearing
up underbrush. They will go through
thicket like a rife bullet and eat 1T
to the ground, peeling saplings and
stumps so that they will never sprout
again. The goats get as fat as butter
balls on such forage. They then are
shipped to market and sold to city
folk fer the choicest mutton.
u 81, to
| farm in this country, has produced as
many as 500 goats in one year. which