The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-11-22
\ THROW BACK TO POLITE>ESs.

THROW BACK TO PoLIIE>Ess.
MIR. Box. Of the Ladies Home Journal. is
remarkable man 1>s is not remarkable
statement, in view of tine fact that his remark
able character is caused by the fact that,
apparently better than any other living mortal.
he understands women. Not only that but APP
parently he understands that what women want
to-day, they throw away tomorrow He realizes
10 nicely the great truth that styles are
deeper than dress affecting mind and soul
we'll The Ladies' Home Journal in the good old
days of Ruth Ashmore and no love i'll the stories.
would scarcely be recognized beside the very
smart and very uptodate publication OF to-day.
II was said III the beginning that Mr.. Boks
fortune was founded upon his taking i pre-
mise the dietum that women wanted and would
pay for concentrated essence of inanitS The
result. nj least bears out the story, but if so he
has seen light. The Ladies Home Journa!
may not be intellectually heavy weight but
it has nobly away from its milk maid ira
dlton. Is il possible that, the hour having
struck. Mr. BOX is on the home path again?
Are women. i'll the very hour of suffragette ex-
element, again preparing to be sweet Is
man-tailored wpmen's literature to be replaced
BY the old lacea. frills and hounces?
Scarcely any other deduction can be drawn
from an editorial In tho Home Journal, which
the Columbia State denominates the "pronun-
ciamento OF poli,eness Mr.. Box" it says,
'softens and mellows and makes musical the
English language by injunction and imperial
fiat Can we not he asks, get away from the
universal use OF the words dead and death,
and even the harsher sounding words die.
dying and died?"
And it quotes:
Aside from the harshness of the words them
selves aud they harsh and cruel in their
sound the words no longer express our belief
we are all fast reaching the belief that We do
not die not dead. We pass from one
stage to another, and so why should we not
say what believe of ourselves and of those
dear to us. that we simply pass away? Any
usage any contributing element. no matter how
seemingly small that Will help even in the
slightest degree TO remove the old-tashloned
Ernesomeness that has so long associated itself
with the completion of our work here and the
beginning OF our work In another stage is worth
adoption This magazine will adopt the rule
for itself; hereafter the words, applied to
human life, will become obsolete so far as our
own expressions in its pages are concerned, in
the acceptance and usage OF the more truthful
and less Earring reference of the passing away
of human life
In spite of which protest against the de-
scription of Mr.. Box as the "mildest hammered
man that ever wrote language intended only
for ears polite Contrariwise, in fact. Mr..
Box is the Curtis Publishing Company. is he
not He is the genius that serves up such men
as Robert Chambers and Jack London, and
others alnatory and bloody. with never a blush.
is he not? He is the man who, starting the
Home Journal primly that II would have
died before II would have crossed its feet i'll
lublic brought IL to the point where Mothers
them To Young girls. Now. Mr.. Box may be go
ing over again an old and profitable ground. He
must merely have sensed the new styles in wo-
manly thrills So many sided man is he that
he is dihexagonal He is for blood. or death
or roses as the hour strikes the need He can
coo. or he can rage AT present he chooses to
COO and beguiling death to slumber, convince
IL that it doesn't even know its name. Such arc
the ladys--we mean the ns-seductions
That Il all it amounts to- but taking Box as the
weather vane of womanly caprice, we hail the
impending Renaissance of n feminine modesty
so timid that il shrinks even from the mention
Of so vulgar thing as Death.