davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
BY THE WAY
BY HARVEY PARSONS.

| 1t has been reported on good and
Highly Indignant authority that our
| city Jail is no fit place for a perfect
| gentleman to spend the night. AS the
| dump was not originally constructed
| as a resort for perfect gentlemen, and
lncarcerations. without cause are in
frequent, would enquire, in a mild
| tone or voice, Of course, what the
perfect gentlemen are bowling about ?
Our Humane officer candidIy ad-
nits that he would not allow the use
or our city Jail as a. dog pound. And
he is right, at that If a dog goes out
and gets pinched for disorderly con-
Duct, 1t is not his own fault. 1t is a
matter of carelessness on the part of
his owner, coupled with a dog-nature
that was born in him. He has a de-
fense that 80 per cent of the Jail So
Journers could not produce in open
court.
And the howIers are advised that
there Is an easy way to avoid the dis
comforts of overcrowding, sheet iron
cots, ct cetera: it is to keep out of
Jail
And now that the curfew law is to
be revived, it may be we'll for par
ents to purchase towser-chains and
attach same to their boobs. Else,
when the picture show is out, and
SeNDJ 9eOPS " IuDD0T lnIO a WINDOW,
something may be added to papa's al
ready alarming expense account.
Men also would like a minimum
wage law, but they don't want the
minimum set at their actual value
The Wichita Eagle recently issued
16S-page paper, but the display of
eagle feathers was no greater than
usual. The issue contained a small
bundle of eagle feathers, mixed with
bullmoose hide. and the rest of it was
paid advertising.
1t appears from the exchanges and
telegraph news that, after two ex-
tremely shady charges have been al
most proven against him, the citizens
or P1ttsburg, Pa., begin to suspect the
morals of their school superintendent
And because he is not a millionaire
his case is so peculiar that the Pitts
burgers are really taking an interest
in it.
Not satisfied with trimming him of
his land rights, California would now
annoy the Hon. Jap. Schl Boy by
making him ride in the Yellow Coach
Ahead.
Mayhap the aviator who flew across
the Gulf Stream from Key West to
Havana for $4,000, thinks he set a
record; our missing friend, John Sars-
field Gilvie, flew from a point just
east of Havana to the White Shark
river in the everglades in a 14-foot
row boat, and the only prize he won
was misspent life.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
GLOBE SIGHTS
BY THE ATCHIsON GLOBE.

If a retired farmer makes garden,
it is a sign he regrets the move.
And the consequences may hurt you
whether you care for them or not.
Until it breaks down, almost any
old motor car makes a horse seem
lazy.
Every man has a scheme for max
ing much easy money, buthehelofitis
to cash it.
Wouldn't this be restful world if
there weren't any such thing as a
lime light?
If a man has a mean disposition he
will brag to his wife about how hard
some other woman works.
Those devoted to finding faults are
some distance ahead of those correct
ing them, as we worry to press.
Not that 1t perturbs us greatly, but
other evidence of culture is needed to
convince than diScarding the RS.
No American farmer ever got so
poor, even in grasShopper years, that
it would be safe to call him a peasant.
Every team has pennant hopes in the
spring, but, for the most part, they
won't keep through warm weather.
1t is surprising how many people go
fishing when one remembers there are
so many more comfortable ways of
loafing.
The rule that a mans affinity is
younger and better looking than his
exceptions.
When a man wants to economize, he
smokes five-cent cigars, about twice
as many as he would of the dime
variety.
When a man goes shopping with his
wife he feels like a common carrier,
and thinks he should whistle at grade
crossings.
Why is it a crime when a pugilist
is killed in the ring and deplorable
accident when a football player per-
ishes in action?
Neither does the important cere-
mony of pitching the first ball by
distinguished outsider add greatly to
the joys of our national pastime.
'I also seem to be different in this
respect from most of my friends; I
have no idea 1 could make a good liv-
ing in the chicken business. RUFF
Hoskins.
Those interest in simp1ified spelling
should begin on the scrambled appella-
lions of some of our foreign born citi-
zens, which should hold them for
awhile, or longer.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
THE STEEL TRUST.

| If the testimony of the president OF
| the steel trust given in the dissolu-
| ton suit may be taken at its face
value good may be found even in thai
much abused institution.
little more than ten years ago
when the United States Steel corpora
| ton was organized. it was said that a
| bestriding, selfish monopoly had been
| established in the steel business; that
| it would raise prices to consumers;
that it would lower the wages of labor;
that with the incentive of active com
petition removed the corporation
would resist the introduction of i'm
provements; that with it's management
dominated by Wall street financiers,
interested only in dividends and know
ing nothing of the business, the steel
industry would become infected with
dry rot and would lose its foreign
trade.
According to the testimony of Pres
ident Farley, prices have not gone up.
but down. In 1902, for example, wire
nails sold at Pittsburg on basis of
S5O.4O a ton. They now sell for less
than $40. Steel bars and beams show
a reduction of 81 ton compared with
1902. Tin plates are down Sc a ton
in ten years. and SO are steel billets-
In 1901 the yearly average price or
light steel and iron commodities was
s39 ton, against a yearly average of
$35 last year.
Wages have gone up, not down. In
1902 the 10000 employees of the
steel corporation received $716.SS as
an average annual wage. In 1912 the
nF Ia Pnrn0ratiOn
received sS56.7O as an average annual
wage. Since the first of the year
wages have again been advanced, and
the average for the current year IS
estimated at 1912. Hours of labor
have been shortened and seven day
work practically eliminated.
The introduction of improvements
and the development of efficiency, in
dictated by the fact that prices have
gone down and wages up, is proved by
the fact that the wage cost per ton of
product is practically no higher than
in 1902.
In 1903 the corporation sold abroad
292, 900 tons of its product; in 1917
it's exports aggregated 2,246,O00 tons,
an increase of nearly 500 per cent. NO
less than 10000 men are now steadily
EMPLOYED to make steel sold abroad.
The corporation sells from Iceland to
the Fiji Islands, maintaining no less
than 46S foreign agencies. and through
them greatly assisting the sale of other
American steel products not manufac-
tured by the corporation.
Moreover, the concern is one which
is not making any fuss about the pro-
posed tariff reduction.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
Women as Inventors,

1t is sometimes stated that women
lack creative ability, and it will sur
prise great many people to learn
that feminine skill and ingenuity have
played an honorable part in supplying
the world with the useful inventions
that have contributed so largely to it's
material progress.
A remarkable versatility in talent is
shown in the case of Harriet Hosmer.
She is noted as the sculptor of the
ventor of the permanent magnet as a
motive power for lifting large masses
of metal, and of a novel method of
changing lime into marble.
The ice cream freezer was invented
by Mrs. Nancy NJ. johnson. The SCI
ence of anatomy is indebted to Nine.
de Condray for the manakin, while
Janette Power is the author of the
aquarium.
Miss Mary. Walton of New York has
contributed to the comfort of man
kind of device for deadening the sound
on elevatved railroads and also a sue
cessful smoke consumer.
In 1871 Margaret Knight of Boston
invented a machine for making paper
bags, and Washington woman has
given her name to the Coston light
so valuable in maritime signaling.
Frances Durham is responsible for
the comb foundation for beehives
1t should be borne in mind that all
these products of woman's skill are
eminently practical and successful and
they are only few random examples
of what the sex has accomplished.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
QUAKER NEGOTIATIONS.
IErOm the PI

[From the Philadelphia Record.1
Praying for a thing isn't going to
help those who are too lazy to work
for it.
pessimist is a man who never
hopes for the best because he hates to
be fooled.
Dreams go by contraries, and some
times even loves young dream goes
that way.
It's a comforting thought that there
are people in the world who are worse
than we are.
The most disagreeable people are
usually those who are on good terms
with themselves.
Hoax-'The doctor spends money like
water" Joax-"He doesn't get it from
the we'll, either"
Elocution would have more value if
in addition to teaching how to
speak it would teach us when.
He-'I would lay the world at your
feet, but for one thing" She-'And
that is?" He-"Some other people are
using it,
Some men are born great, some ac-
quire greatness, but you can't make a
man believe he has greatness thrust
upon him.
Tommy-"Pop, what is discretion
Tommy's Pop-"Discretion, my son, is
merely the art of bluffing a fellow you
know can lick you
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
AYHAWKER DTS

One of Abilene's best city COM
to the recall there should be a come
back law.
Fred Vandegrift suggests a slogan
for western Kansas. 1t is: "Kaf1r
and Cane and Milo, Cattle and Sheep
and Silo."
who, beside Gov. Hi johnson and
Hon. Hobson, wants war with Japan ?"
Hutchinson News. Why, Billy
Hearst. of course.
A poet down at Buffalo has sue
ceeded in finding a word to rhyme
with Fort Scott as we'll one to
rhyme with the name of his own
town.
The discussion of the tariff is aban-
doned by the small newspapers while
the question of whether the editor of
the Parsons Sun is a man or woman
is being settled.
If the friends of Charles Sessions
don't go a. little slow with that boom
for governor business which they
spring occasionally, the thing will get
away from them, and infest the entire
land.-Newton Karsan.
"E. w. Howe is the only man in
the world who can write travel letters
worth reading" alleges Walt Mason,
and your Uncle Walt is a smooth old
critic guy; he gets things mostly
right, but either his judgment is not
good in this matter, or else he hasn't
read Billy Morgan's travel letters.-
Lawrence Gazette
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20

was put into the brides hands letter
and an old Bible. The letter had been
written by her grandmother weeks
/ before, and when she had but a few
years old. Grandma was an old eccen-
trio, who lived in village fifty miles
away, and she and Mr.. Brodie were not
friends. The letter had a few farewell
words for the granddaughter and clos
| ed by asking her to search the Bible.
When this was done bit of queer
| writing was found. 1t read:
TT is z from the d to the b t
Dig. The house is left you by will"
1t was not until Mr.. Winfield was
called home, and man and wife made
the journey to the town and inspected
the poor old house that grandma had
left them that they puzzled out her
meaning. She was surely a very &c
centric and suspicious woman. In
stead of going about the thing in a
normal way, she had mystified it so
that the chances were hardly one in
fifty that her puzzle could be solved.
Good luck had to go with patience
before it was interpreted to read:
1T is seventeen steps from the front
door to the big oak tree: Dig.
1T must be treasured" the hunters
whispered to each other.
mo, it can't be, for grandma was
poor
ut is probably some heirloom that
she cherished, but of no value to US.
When night came to hide their &C
tons from the eyes of curious neigh
bors they dug as commanded Hardly
more than a foot beneath the SURFACE
they found six fruit jars stuffed with
gold, silver and greenbacks. Grand
ma had been a money-lender and
miser, instead of being poor.
Mr.. Brodie of the blue-blood, sat
in his private office at the mills one
afternoon. He wasn't thinking OF
business, but of his daughter. He had
made no inquiries, but the couple
were starving somewhere, of course.
1t was what they deserved.
HELLO, papa!"
How do you do, Mr.. Brodie?"
1t was Maggie and her husband.
They did not look pale and wan, nor
did they have tears in their eyes, but
Mr. Brodie waved them away with:
Nothing for you-not cent?"
Not even a cent?"
mot one!'
but papa, Harry has 100000 to
put in the mills and wants to be a
partner"
Mr.. Brodie stared at them just four
minutes by the watch, and then said;
Speaking as a redblooded father,
and one proud of the fact, I'm 1nvit-
ing you both home! The house is big
enough for all, and the mills need
Harry copyrighted 1913, by the
Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.)
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
POINTED PARAGRAPHS.
[From the Chicago News,

[F'rom the Chicago News.l
Even a dull man has his good points.
Widows oft rush in where young girls
fear to tread.
Even the open faced man should shut
up occasionally.
The pawnbroker won't advance cent
on your self-esteem.
Nothing rattles a contrary man more
than to have you agree with him.
When a woman says, at don't care
what the neighbors say" she doesn't
say it loudly.
During the honeymoon when other
women look at her husband the bride
thinks they envy her.
The man who throws himself at a
young widows head will soon find him.
self under her thumb-or foot
The girl with two or three good look
ing brothers always has more girl
friends than she knows what to do
with.
Start out with the intention of call
ing everything by its right name and
you will change your mind before you
have gone a block.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
JAPAN NOT LITTLE"

Whenever the japanese government
becomes involved in a controversy of
any kind with a great power it is the
custom to speak of little Japan.
Friends and foes alike use that ex-
preston. Some deride the pretensions
of the Japanese on the ground that
their country is too small and weak
to be taken seriously by a nation of
the first rank. Others show their
sympathy with the islanders by calling
it shameful to bully so small a state.
This is all a mistake. Japan is not
little. In area, of course, the Japan
csc territory, occupied or conquered,
is small by comparison with Russia,
for instance, the huge empire which
the japanese defeated in a long and
bloody war. But in population the
Japanese empire is not one Of the lit
tie nations of the world.
There are more than 100000
japanese, not counting the Formosans
or the Koreans. They have more than
100000 subjects in Formosa and
more than 100000 in Korea, or
Chosen, as they have named the coun-
try since its annexation. These 49,
100000 Koreans and Formosans are
just as much to be counted in reckon
ing the population of the Japanese
empire as the Filipinos are in stating
the number of persons living under
the American flag or the natives of
Algeria and Cambodia are to be in
cluded in the population of France
and its possessions.
But taking account only of the
japanese it is evident that 52,000,0 900
make a large state, not a little one.
That is the population of Hun
gary. 1t is 100000 more than the
inhabitants of the British Isles. France
stands about 10000 600 below Japan.
Italy is smaller by 100000. The
population of Japan is greater than
that of Spain, Holland, Bulgaria,
Switzerland, Servia, Sweden, Greece,
Denmark and Norway all taken to-
gether.
Obviously, such nation needs no
sympathy because of it's littleness. 1t
is equally clear that it cannot intelli-
gently be derided as too small to have
chance of resisting any big and
powerful country
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
FROM OTHER PENS

A COURT WITHOUT LAWYERS.
courts from which lawyers are barred.
The object is to insure prompt and
cheap justice for the poorer elements
of the community. The procedure in
these courts is businesslike and free
from technicaKties and red tape.
Now Kansas has followed the exam--
pie of Germany and established by
law system of lawyerless courts. City
or county commissioners are empow-
cred to appoint judge for a debtors
court from which lawyers are ex-
cluded. The plaintiff must tell his
own story, as must the defendant
There are to be no technical pleas
and no legal jargon. The judge may
call witnesses, examine them in his
own way, Or otherwise investigate the
case.
Kansas is to be congratulated on
this piece of legislation That the
claims tried in the new courts shall
not exceed $50 is, however, an I'M
fortunate limitation. The limit might
well have been put at 500. After a
time. no doubt, it will be.
A few such laws and experiments a
THIS may cause the average LAWYER tn
take some interest in law reform IN
the movement for efficiency sanity
ana simplicity in our courts of JUS
tice. BUSINESS men, too, will take no
tlce ana ask why they, though not
poor, should pay for delays, mean
lngless technicalities, verbiage ana
professional tricks, whether ethical or
low Law reform is waiting for the
ak, ana Kansas has made a be1in
nlhg.-Ch1cago Record Herald.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
KANSAS COl4AENT

THE LUTHER BURBANK SOCIETY.
No doubt Luther Burbank is all
| that is claimed for him as wizard of
plant life and has done much to make
the desert blossom as the rose with
| spineless cactus, shredded prunes and
| other succulent stuff. At least, if
there is reasonable doubt of all this,
we are in no mood to dispute it know
ing the futility of argument and the
vainglory of forensic oratory. He is
something in addition to the wonder
full climate and rebuilt San Francisco
for California to point with pride, and
| is doubtless entitled to all he can get
as an agricultural expert, and then
some.
But we fail to see in his achieve
| ment of dehorning the cactus or deo-
doriZing the onion any particular ex-
cuse for a tired business man to pay
out his real money to join the Luther
Burbank society, and take time from
| his regular chores to prove that burr
less sandburrs fill a long felt want.
1t is an achievement, of course, to
produce a seedless watermelon and
make two blades of bluegrass grow
among the dandelions, but it should
be rewarded through the regular
channels, and writing for the monthly
| magazines. and not by popular sub
scription. ..-----..
Your regular occupation, II you
| make a success at it. will take most
of your time, and there is no occasion
to pay monthly dues and rend your
raiment for the good of the order in
which you aren't particularly interest
ed. All of which is set forth in no in
tention to belittle the plant wizard
of the Pacific slope, but as a general
proposition.
For you will have plenty of oppor-
tunities to join similar societies which
are as useless as this, and II Is q rare
man who doesn't fall occasionally.
Free, downtrodden American citizens
have the joining habit so strong that
many of them go about making a
noise like a password, and the dues
and assessments are important factors
of the increased cost of living, which
won't be touched by the Underwood
bill.
If the time and money devoted to
the societies for the prevention of pip
and other noble purposes were devot-
ed to useful endeavor the world would
wax richer and the dandelion become
extinct in the front yard. What the
toiling masses need more than a
change of administration or old age
pensions, is a disposition to get there
without the aid of a leader, and to
boost themselves more and devote less
energy to popular idols and polar re-
search. There is so much of that sort
of foolishnes 1t is enough to make a
man flee from the busy marts and let
his whiskers grow and become a her
nit.-Atchison Globe.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES


As soon as the fire burns red and low,
And the house upstairs is still,
She sings me a queer little sleepy song
OF sheep that go over the hill.
The good little sheep run quick and soft,
Their coIors are gray and white;
They follow their leader nose to tail,
For they must be home by night.
And one slips over, and one comes next,
And one runs far behind;
The gray ones nose at the white ones
tail,
The top of the hill they find.
And when they get to the top of the hill
They quietly slip away
But one runs over and one comes next
Their colors are white and gray.
And over they go and over they go.
And over the top of the hill
The good little sheep run quick and soft,
And the house upstairs is still.
And one slips over and one comes next,
The good little, gray little sheep!
I watch how the fire burns red and low,
And she says that I fall asleep
Josephine Daskam Bacon.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
EVENING CH<T
Dangerous Prophecies.
BY RUrx cAx<ERoN.

1t Is when we are young that we
say, I shah nevers and I shall always
not knowing that we are only times
atoms and a crucihle of incredible
change An old man scarce dare say
L have never for he knows that if
he searches he will find probably that
he has. -All-all is change Booth
Harrington.
There's one thing I'll never do" I
heard young girl say the other day,
apropoS of a friends marriage to a
young man man with more prospects than
salary, I'll never marry man who is
getting cent less than $40 a week"
If 1T were possible for me to lift the
veil that lies acros my future, would
not do it. 1 believe most of us are
happier knowing Just the present.
but must say 1 would like to be able
to look ten years ahead into that girl 8
future, and see if anything happens to
that cock-sure assertion of hers.
1 suppose you thought when you
going to use it to launch myself into
a TRADE upon the extravagant matri-
monial standard of the girl of today.
Not at all. OF course the remark did
suggest that line of thought. But as
England's great story-teller so often
says, That's another story" What it
set me to thinking most seriously was
this: that it's a mighty risky business
to prophesy what we will or will not
do under this or that condition.
Is there anyone among my readers
l wonder, who is not doing at least
one thing which he has said he never
would.
I doubt it.
cock-sure young person may stick to
that VOW, but think there's every bit
as good a chance that she won't
perhaps better.
1 well remember an energetic young
woman who used to be Mortified be-
cause her newly married friends were
paying $35 and S3S a month for rent.
When she was married, she used to
say, she would never pay more than
$25. She is now paying $40 a month.
Another young business woman who
knew too we'll the danger that wives
run when they go serenely away for
the whole summer and leave their
husbands to shift for themselves, was
very fond of saying, When I'm mar
ried I'll go away with my husband on
his vacation, and perhaps I'll stay a
week or two more, but I'll never go
off for the whole three months. I
don't think it's right"
For the first two years of her mar
ried life she was true to that never;
then the babieS came, she wanted the
country air for them, and now she
goes away in May and comes back in
October.
OF course she didn't reckon with the
power of maternal solicitude when she
made that vow; but that's just it, we
never can reckon, we never can real
ize, just how we would feel under con-
ditions we haven't experienced, and
therefore we have no business to say
what we would or would not do.
1t is as if man should pretend to
solve an equation with two unknown
quantities himself and the conditions.
We know in part and therefore we
ought to prophesy in part. Or, better
still, not at all.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20

A recent charity fete In Chicago
Melted $1,100 and charity got $500 of
1t. A report made by one charity or
ganization in the same city showed
that 55 per cent of its funds went fer
administration. Probably every other
city has about the same experience
Still the people would rather stand
the waste than to pay taxes for the
same purpose and have the fund eco
nomicaIly administered.