The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-08-21
SAYS UNCLE CAV

I am inclined to agree with old Doc
Houser, who came to town the other
day and took dinner with me in cafe,
which prides itself on its cabaret show.
Said Doc when we had reached the cof-
fee and cigarsi fHsf' q --.-;t
.'One thing that. ails this land of the
more or less free and the tolera bly,
brave is that we have too ALFRED
many ragtime kids and ragtime bab-
ies.''
Sure" said I. What's the rest of
it?''
permitted to pass judgment upon real
city folks" he went on, I'll say that
this ragtime stuff, as you call it, goes
deeper than the musical atrocities COM
mitted in Tin Pan alley. AS far as the
music is concerned. I'm told that you
shut up a young man recently arrived
from Russia or Germany in a bare cell
along with a piano and a few sheets of
really good music. When he goes crazy
from solitary confinement and begins
to demolish the music box, you print
the result and sell couple of million
copies.
Now, if that's the way to do bust
ness and make the world happy, I haVa
not any kick coming, but l have got
my conviction about ragtime ideals. L
take it that ragtime music and ragtime
dancing are only symptoms of ma
tional disorder and that in themselves
they aren't particularly serious. But
I don't like the young person who leads
the syncopated life.
He jams a lot of experiences and
emotions enough to last a healthy man
a year. into one day, churnS them to
froth and drinks the froth. Naturally
he can't thrive on that mixture. The
women are as bad as the men-no.
they're worse. for a man does have to
hustle for his provender and the hus-
tie puts stamina into him. The rag
time baby hasn't got it. She gets MOTH
ing but froth and she shows it. 1 don't
like to think of what the next genera
ton will be with that kind of mothers
The decreasing birthrate doesn't bother
me. An increasing birthrate in these
days of ragtime parents would make
me lay awake o. nights.
THE ragtime kid runs too much to
a few of the minor things of life-doI-
lars for one thing the coarser pleas
ures of the senses for another. To him
dollars mean debauches-not necessar-
lily liquor sprees, but sprees of cheap
music, overseasoned food, cheap fun,
cheap ideas, cheap ostentation-all
cheap but all costly.
The natural needs of the human ami
NAL are his last concern. A show girl
is his inspirat ton and he is her slave
He lives at ragtime pitch, and his sole
justification, excuse and reason is that
every DOoyS dom it He mas no idea
more serious or more elevating than
those in the songs he huns. His nat
ural aura is cigarette smoke and he
cannot comprehend the music of the
spheres because it hasn't been written
and rearranged by a newly arrived i'm
migrant.
Il haven't anything in particular
against the ragtime musician. If folks
who know what they're about want to
dance the Texas Tommy and turkey
trot and the one-step let 'em go to it.
But do object to ragtime butchers and
bakers and candlestick makers. 1 have
no use for ragtime mail carriers and
ragtime street sweepers. 1 do not
want any ragtime school teachers for
my children, nor ragtime preachers for
my church. And looking over the sit
uation with a not altogether prejudiced
eye, 1 think we've reached the danger
mark Copyright, 1913, by the Nc
Clure Newspaper Syndicate.)