The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-12-24
Nearly All the Officials Have
Gone to Homes.
MANY PRESENTS GIVEN
Pay Checks for Post Cards in
Auditors Office.
Everyone Happy But Political
Reporters.

The week preceding Christmas is
always deadly dull at the state house
SO far as politics is concerned and the
political reporter is always glad when
it is over. The holiday week following
will be worse, and then the advance
guard of the legislature will begin to
assemble in the capital and there will
be news a-plenty.
This week was one long struggle
for news. The governor was prepar-
ing for a Christmas rabbit hunt at his
home in Lawrence, and his clerks were
full.
In the secretary of states office it
was still worse. They were tying up
packages in there and sealing them
with funny little photographs OF santa
Claus in colors.
In the auditors Office they issued
pay checks and Christmas postcards
from the same press and talked about
trees and candles and toys when asked
for news.
The minions of the insurance super
intendent manufactured their own
presents and used the office for fac
tory purposes.
ington all week and his office force
started in to celebrate Christmas last
Tuesday.
The bank commissioners force
nearly did the newspaper man an in
jury because he had In not been been the
The supreme court judges were
wrestling with the problem, What
shall I give to him and what Will she
like best?" and therefore handed
down no decisions this week that
would interest the public.
And so it was all down the line. The
reporter got his pay check cut for a
Christmas present and received abuse
from his editor for not getting more
Tvt- 40T, @lncs
magazine got all the scoops this week
and the other publications never had
a chance.
Why even the stenographers covered
up their typewriters and devoted their
borders which they pasted on cunning
ly wrought boxes and baskets. The
man who made two blades of grass
grow where only one grew before
would have been tied to post in the
week.
Kansas makes politics like the Ten
nesseeans used to make whisky in their
native mountains, but even Kansas
mas time and sit down under the
shade Of the Christmas tree. Well,
why not? During fifty-one weeks in
the year the old state house is devoted
to work and the schemes and politi-
cal plans of men. Ambition and in
tree. Hope struggles with fear all the
time Jobs are given and jobs are
taken away and blessed be the name of
the lucky few. Men court favor and
forget it as soon as 1t is given. Men
make faith and break it AMI some few
there are who keep it always and
hold the sack for a recompense. So it
is well to have one week in the year
when unself1shness reigns under the
dome: when little favors are extended
that make everyone glad and no one
unhappy. A political gift hurts more
than it helps, but a Christmas gift
hurts no one. A political plot works
as much havoc as the sowing of
dragons teeth. but a Christmas plot is
like a flower garden undor the pro-
lection Of the sunbeamS.
1t is Christmas time at the state
house and everyone Is hs ppy but the
political reporter who can get no news.
But it is all right. During the other
fifty-one weeks everyone is unhappy
by turns, while the political reporter
goes on serene through the haze of
disastrous election returns and the
noise of falling dynasties and the
smoke of council fires and the light
of conspiracies that were born too
soon.
One week of good will towards men
is all too short to balance the long
year, but it will help some. So the
political reporter, holding on to his job