The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-01-24
FROA OFFER PENS

AMERICAN FICTION IN GERMANY
| The exchange of college professors
between America and Germany has
begun to bear fruit in a novel field.
Prof. Alphonso~ Smith of the Uni
'versity of Virginia. this years "Roose-
welt professor" IN Berlin, has caught
| the favorable attention of the kaiser
for the American short story. Word
has passed that American fiction is the
Thing, and the German newspapers
have already begun to publish short
Istories of our best known writer's, such
as o. Henry and Richard Harding
Davis.
The editor of a leading Berlin daily
declares that if the stories prove pop
ular he will arrange for a regular sup
ply from the. new and crowded field
thus opened. Perhaps the favor found
| by the short story will extend to the
novel.
America has assuredly become i'm
portant enough in the worlds affairs
to make it worth while for the Ger
mans to study with some care our
ideas and our expression of them. But
the reverse is equally true. New Ger
many is strong and active and is ex
pressing itself with a f1uency no less
than our own. Her par ticular forte is
the "novelle,' in length between the
short story and the novelette,; and her
best things of this kind are as well
worthy a wide circulation as our best
things in the other. Mutual under
standing is the great desideratum, and
popular fiction can help as we'll as any
other means to bring the und erstand-
I ing about.-Chicago Record-Herald.
LEGALIZING TIPPING.
A bill drawn by a restaurant keeper
is to be introduced in the New Jersey
legislature, according to a dispatch
from Trenton, for the purpose of regu-
lating tipping. The author would like
to make tipping a crime, he says, but
fears it would be unconstitutional, so
the next best thing, he believes, is to
regulate the evil. His bill would limit
tips to 25 cents, no matter how i'm
portant the service. A diner must not
! give more than 20 cents, a waiter can
fnot be paid more than dime for serv-
ing drinks, while a nickel is the limit
| for the tonsorial artist after shave
or hair cut, or for a messenger boy
or bell boy. The Pullman porter is
not listed, possibly because he is in
terstate commerce. The bill would
provide q penalty of one month in the
workhouse or $40 fine for the first Of
| Tense. or $50 or six months for sec
ond offenSe
However well intentioned the Trainer
may be. it should be pointed out to
him with club, if necessary, that in
stead Of discouraging tipping his bill
would run the risk of legalizing it.
Now every man can pass his own anti
tipping law and enforce it. but once
the tips were liked by legal enactment
all would have to disgorge, and in the
attempt to strike the shackles from
the slaves of the tipping practice
would simply result in riveting them
upon everyone.-Pittsburg Dispatch.
| HOW PROVE BRIBERY?
Hereafter how Is bribery to be proved
to the satisfaction Of a senate commit
tee? In the Lorimer case the investi-
gators held that the confession of four
legislators who said they were bribed
was untrustworthy, since the four evil
IDENTIFY were no gentlemen. If the
ribe-givers had united with the bribe-
takers in the confession, there still
| would have been no evidence for the
committee to accept, because it would
have suspected collision between I'M
desirable characters.
Apparently the only thing that would
satisfy the senate committee would be
for every bribery transaction to be car
ried out in the presence of at least
three witnesses with a notary present
to take their affidavits on the spot.
| With the affidavits in hand, and with
/ an opportunity to cross-examine the
witnesses to make sure of their credi-
bility, the committee might decide that
perhaps a degree of suspicion did at
tach to the matter.-kansas City
Times