The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-11-22
FROA OTHER PENS

This is the day of the paragraph
History is turned out in tabloid form
Tor popular assimilation, Sense and
nonsense are most enjoyed in para
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 to make a hit within the ten min
ute limit, and heroes in plays make
love systematically.
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 well to be amused, en-
tertained,s instructed, sermonized and
saved within a ten minute space.
Otherwise We would miss these es-
sentials, and what would become of
us?
In dear old England a few venture
some spirits have 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,
n the cut of w. Randolph Hearst,
with slight variations, comes out in
a long article in the current number
of the National Review, with plea
lOE Sp6eCIlcS ne Amer
lean public can sympatf1ize with him.
We know how many good things can
be killed in public legislation by
oratory covering valuable hours
Florida Times Union.
DRESS AND THE MOTOR CAR.
English tailors complain that the
motor car has made men careless in
their dress. We had fancied that mo-
toring had greatly increased the reve-
nues of the tailors, as the pastime de-
mands special clothes. But it seems
that the influence Of motoring has
inclined men toward comfort in dress
rather than style. Therefore the tail
oring trade is depressed. This is a
new and grave charge against the au-
tomobile. Already it had been accused
of injuring the theatrical business, de-
creasing the sales of books. and de-
priving summer hotels OF their profits.
Wherefore. the motor car must be
a destructive engine in many ways.
We are bound to accept expert test1-
mony until equally good testimony Is
offered to disprove it. If it could be
proved that the theatrical business in
New York and London is not quite
SO profitable as it used to be because
of overc omp petition and an excess of
poor plays; if someone could show
| that many books are not bought be-
cause too many are published and
they are not all readable; If we could
snow tnat the summer resort DuSl-
ness had suffered because of the ex-
travagant prices charged, we might
be in a position partly to excnerate
| the motor car.-New York Times,
| VOTING AND BUYING VOTES.
At the election last week Maryland
voted on an amendment to disfran-
chise the negro. 1t failed. as it ought
to have done. Taking away from a
race the right to vote. which was
once given them, is a difficult, if not
an impossible task.
| We hear sometimes of people ex-
pressing themselves in favor of dis
franchising the negro. and they point
to the alleged practice of buying up
the negro vote as their reason. We
| do not think this practice is so uni
versal as to justify such course.
There are, doubtless, negroes who sell
| their votes, and white people. too, no
doubt, but they are low class, and
are very few compared with the body
of decent and intelligent voters.
| But here is something we can not
Enthusiastically a negro who sells his
vote should be disfranchised and the
man who buys it should be permitted
to vote. IF the matter was analysed.
| the man who buys vote is worse
citizen than a man who sells his vote.
Wherever a Iowdown negro or white
man sells his vote there is always
some alleged respectable and intelli-
gent man who does the buying or fur-
'ishes the money.-Ohio State Journal