The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-20

where he used to have parishes, he has
graduated to a higher calling. Higher?
why not? You can't beat the clergy for
respectability, but for usefulness, i'm
portance, effectiveness! Well, there's
the Rev. Mr.. Busser for example. AL
ways in the salvation business, he used
to work exclusively for the Lord and
the Altar Guilds and aid societies hust-
led for his salary. Now he's working
for the Lord and the Santa F'e. You
may not have known that the combina-
ton exists, but it does. It's combi-
nation in restraint of trade, too, for it
effectively restrains the devils ancient
traffic in mems souls.
Incidentally, the oyster supper and
church rattle no longer affect Mr.. Bus
ser financially. 1t pays him better, in
every sense to work for the Lord since
the formation of the aforementioned
trust. S. z. Busser is the superintend-
ent of the Santa Fe employees reading
rooms and club houses extending from
Chicago to the Pacific coast and on the
branch lines.
He organized and has developed this
department of a big railway system, or
iginated many of its features and, al
though when he took it up some years
ago, it was an untried experiment and
there were many of the railway officials
who regarded it as a more or less
crazy undertaking. the movement has
reading rooms are now as firmly es-
tablished as any department of the
Santa Fe. In other words. many who
came to cough remained to spray.
Reading Rooms at Division Points.
The Santa Fe has reading rooms or
club houses for the use of its employees
at all its division points. Sometimes, as
at this place, the railway has erected
a big building especially for this pur-
pose. The La Junta club house is one
of the largest, best equipped on the
system. 1t is a brick building near the
passenger station and the Harvey
House, and not far from the railway
shops and Offices 1t has a wide veran-
da big reading room and library
with a good floor for dancing, billiard
and pool tables, gymnasium, sleep
ing rooms and baths all for the use of
Santa Fe employees. All the reading
rooms of the system are on the same
general plan, although all are not so
large. There is a librarian in charge
of each, under Mr.. Busser's direction,
employed by the Santa Fe. which pays
the bills.
Now Busser besides believing in the
beneficial effects of sane and healthful
recreation and the necessity of the
right kind of play, is a musical dilet-
tante and an enthusiast on the subject
of the saving grace of the arts. And
after establishing reading rooms for
the Santa F'e employees and demon
strating that it paid. he tried another
experiment, now a number of years old,
and which has also been awarded the
stamp of success.
The Free Concert Idea.
He began taking concert and dra-
matte companies out on tours of the
reading rooms to give free entertain
ments for the employees and their fam
lilies. He selected musicians and other
entertainers, amateur and professional
but all of a high grade. The COM
panies make the trip entirely at the ex-
pense of the Santa Fe but are not 9TH
erwise remunerated. Many Topeka
musicians have made the trip and
companies are sent out from Kansas
City. Chicago, Los Angeles and other
towns.
A Topeka company which left Tues
day for a tour of the reading rooms to
the coast includes Mrs. Isabel Near
Myrtle Radcliffe, ppianist, Mr. Darwin
Bradley. bass baritone and Mr. Harley
Whitman tenor. To make the party
more difficult, the company which is
known as the Capital City Concert
Company, has anA encumbrance in the
person of the S. r." who acts a c
Wardrobe mistress, scene shifter and
manager
The Capital City Concert Companv
are amateurs, in the strict sense of the
word which bears no sting. in that
they are sort O. art for arts sake per-
formers. Miss Radcliffe it is true is
a professional accompanist and has
some piano pupils and no doubt an of
the bunch accept remuneration for
their services when it is slipped to
them or thrown over the transom. Rut
they never let the lack of little thing