Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-14
At the End Of the Rainbow.
THE PERENNIAL TOPIC.
BY Walt Mason.
by Walt Mason.

| 81 have my own theory as to what will
| happen when the new administration
goes into Office" began the obese board
er. ct believe that Congress
| Don't cast a gloom over this joyous
scene by inflicting your beliefs upon us. !"
| interrupted the star boarder. go bury
your theory: this world has its share:
go, bury it deeply; go. hide it with care.
l did entertain a frail hope that when
the campaign ended in November the peo-
pie would be so tired of politics they'd
be glad to think and talk Of other things,
trying to make the world brighter and
better; but there hasn't even been a lull
in the carnival of useless political dis
course. People who should be reading
Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress continue
to speculate as to what will happen two
years from now, or four years from now.
and no matter where I go ! hear the
same old twaddle until my soul seems to
shrivel up in my bosom, If that's where
man has his soul.
Il tell you, my dear Mrs. Jiggers, that
politics has become a disease in this
country, and unless somebody discovers
a dope that will kill the germs 1 don't
see what's going to become of us. Our
young men are growing up with the de-
liberate intention of going into politics
for a living. and they are encouraged
to do so by people who should urge them
politics in the schools and colleges. and
when a student is going to make an
Grafton he always talks politics.
when / was going to school We used
to write essays about great poets or
painters. or others who had distinguished
themselves in a worthy way. One great
poet is worth carload of politicians,
Mrs. Jiggers. Our American Longfellow
l,o flr r-a6ra Of
ciety and the betterment of the home
than all the statesmen in the United
States. He has done more for the up
lift than all the platforms written in fifty
years. But he isn't studied in the
schools. The ignorance of American lit
erature in American schools is something
astonishing and disgusting. The students
are filling themselves with information
about politicians who will be forgotten
in ten years, and preparing themselves
to bore humanity by explaining their
theories and beliefs i'm moral family
boarding houses, even as our obese friend
does.
I'm a little while we'll see politics
taught in the kindergarten, and small
children who should be interested in
Mary's little lamb and Red Riding Hood
will be reciting original pieces touching
the tariff on muskmeions When learned
my alphabet children were given hand
somely illustrated books explaining that
"A stands for apple q very good fruit,
and b stands for birch, Tor the risky
galoot. The alphabet was made so at
tractive by means of these appealing
rhymes that it was no trouble to learn
it, and the pupil at the same time &C
quired a taste for helpful poetry.
1.-The sunset of life gives me mystical
lore, Mrs. Jiggers. and coming events
cast their shadows before. I look down
the vista of the years and see that the
schoolbooks of the near future Will con-
tain such rhymes as these:
"a stands for 'AIdrich.' whose tariff
schedules set more people kicking like
government mules.
".B' stands for Bryan who peerlessly
led till he was barefooted on top OF his
head.
&C stands for Clark whose preco-
cious hound dog couldn't keep that great
statesman from slipping cog.
I'D stands for dump where the also
ran goes. calling down curses on treach-
erous foes
And so on through the alphabet. Mrs.
"In the course Of another twenty-five
years politics will be the only theme
There'll be no more cheerful and in
structive conversation at the groaning
board. Parents won't tell their children
of william Tell and Goody Two Shoes.
but will read aloud to them the latest
report Of the sixteenth assistant post
master general. When q man dies and
goes to his reward fun account ct his