The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-04-01
~
fAsZ:N.||

AK4H
Crop note: The bonehead crop ha2
been unusually good around the Kan
sas City Union depot this week. Pick {
ing boobs is one of the principal local
industries, as well as favorite out-and-
indoor sports. They are falling for
brick and other time honored stunts.
and even the good old fashioned
dead brother joke Melted one en-
terprising trimmer $50.
The Pennsylvania gent who obliged
by officiating at his own hanging, was
undoubtedly one of those pests who al
ways butt in and admit that they can
do anything better than the trained
hand on the job. His kind freQuents
the newspaper offices. Hence, this
department is of the opinion that the
Pennsylvania gent was entitled to what
he got.
The action of the executive council
in calling Doc Crumbine is not funny;
it is too much like making sport of
sacred relics to be funny.
Frank Ryan has a qualification for
the office of governor which few men
in the country can boast. He has new
err made a practice of paying railroad
fare, and can therefore assert, in his
campaign, that he has never given
the railroads his support" That
should be a valuable asset in a Kan
sas campaign.
Price of Holsters has doubled on ac-
count of the storm on the New Eng
land coast, but the price of Holsters
is an unimportant market quotation in
this town, where the edible kind of
lobster seldom visits.
What has become of the old-fash-
toned red flannel shirt, which, after
washing, looked like string of coral
beads?
An old soldier may be bald as an
egg and clean shaver, but simple
subterfuge of the kind will not eX-
empt him from the ravages of the cub
reporter, who always refers to him as
'grizzled veteran
And at the hands of the same C. 7.
every aviator is daring" q
The following contribution was
written, evidently, by a gent of poetic
tendencies, but one who does not fol-
low the dolphin for a livelihood. His
criticism of Uncle Walt is well worded,
but hardly justified. In the days of
Homer or Omar, it is possible that the
poet could loaf under a fig tree and
date with him. Today it is different.
The poet who can write anything fit
to print is soon tied up with a con-
tract to deliver the more-or-less fin
ished product at stated intervals. If
Michael Ehlmann waited for the spirit
to move him before he commenced to
fiddle, his ability would not bring 35
cents on the open market; If Uncle
Walt went to sleep and waited for the
Muse to awaken him, he would be
cadging his smoking tobacco.
HOWEVER, the "pote" who wrote
this criticism. seems to have a kindly
feeling for the Kansas Bard, so we
will print his communication for its
face value:
A PLEA FOR CONSERVATION
Time was when the rhymes which
Walt Mason manhandled and whipped
into line by the force of his will, were
meaty, and many there were that we
handled on our mental knee and were
pleased with his skill. Full many an
overlooked moral he painted and held
to our view for brief helpful gaze.
but recently much of his stuff has
been tainted with vapid rot foreign to
earlier days. His jingleS still Jingle
but something is lacking to rivet at
tention; they're all out of Joint; and
where in the past he used wisdom for
packing we now read them through
without finding the point. In passing,
however, we can't say we blame Walt
tits but the result of the commercial
craze-for most of our writers are
cursed by the same fault, and all
gained in quantity, quality pays. Let
Mason bark back to the time when his
patter was written for joy in the
work he could do; he'd then have
more time to think over his matter
and let his brain work out a real
thought or two. This thing of at
tempting an endless profusion of good
stuff like Uncle Walt started to write
is bound to result in a hopeless con-
fusion of jingles whose memory won't
last over night.
Leon Macarthur, Dodge City.
Another instance of dogs careless
ness: While Tom Hughes and his lady
friend were strolling around Sunday
evening watching the stars shoot
through the heavens and recording
each one in the usual way, a savage
dog rushed out and bit Tommy four
times on the public square.-Hering-
ton Sun.
III C P