Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1915-06-24
The Gloomy Trip
Through The Paper

Through The Paper
Editors Note: The follow
ing editorial, condensed some
what because of lack of space
is taken from The Wichita, Kas
Beacon. 1t is published tt
show to what lengths the cri
tics. of newspapers will go il
demanding that certain adver
Using be omitted from the
columns Of a new spaper, anc
the absurdity of trying to spoi
our lives by denying the right
of anyone to enjoy whatever
good things he can get out Of
life beyond the bare necessities
"a subscriber from Vassel
avenue sends a we'll writer
protest against some tobacco
advertising which has been ap
pearing in the Beacon.
She says that a paper whose
columns generally are clear
and whose ambitions for q high
standard are we'll known should
print in its advertising columns
nothing advising the use Of
that which leads to the forma-
ton of useless habits.
Her argument seems plaus.
IDLE and we started through the
pages of The Beacon to see how
much advertising of this kind
there is
The first page we turned held
large, breezy, pictorial adver.
tisement on the delights, re-
wards and consultations of chew.
ing gum. We paused to study
the attractive Typography of it.
1t was the last word in modern
advertising. AS we gazed upon
it, the desire for gum began to
agitste our salivaries. Then we
realized that the advertisement
was bound to increase gum
chewing In fact that was why
it was written.
Then we remembered that
modern scientific conclusion
declares gum chewing to be
more deleterious than tobacco
chewing. It's gastronomic ex.
travagancies attack entire ia.
miles.
AS we reach the conclusion
that gum chewing should not
be encouraged in any virtuous
newspaper, an attractive an
nouncement of a shoe man con-
fronts us. He is offering at a
bargain shoes with french heels
four inches high. Then we
catch a vision of an age of gum
chewing women mincing and
tottering to their fall upon
these unnatural stilts-Adver.
tisements for "foot ease," bun
ion cures, relief from corns,
flash across our vision, and we
make mental note that a paper
desiring to abolish the harmful
should eliminate the French
shoe advertising. You glance
apprehensively through the
taeming columns to see how
many there are, but before
you've proceeded far your eye
falls upon the modern corset
advertisement, and you recall
all the things the dress reform.
err and the physician have said
of eight lacing" and you put
corsets in the list of things that
people do not need.
And so we pass YEARLY
through the advertising col.
umns we have in times past en-.
joyed. We read an advertise.
ment for pins and shudder al
the recollection that babies
sometimes swallow them; We
recall that it costs the waywarc
daughter of a New York mil
lionaire SIS a week for "pir
money!" according to the re
ports of a recent scandal; We
glimpse the picture of a nifty
locking pistol for S. SO, placire
homicide, suicide and foolicidt
within the easy reach of al
the pictured silk stockings, the
temptation to wear which, Jane
Adams tells us, has led pool
girls into indiscretions, ieer al
US.
We've become abnOrmally
sensitive to the possibilities Of
evil in nearly all the things tina,
are offered for sale, from thu
motorcycle to face paint.
We lay down the paper real
izing that no editor can print
them all and be virtuous or re.
fuse them and remain solvent
AS a matter of fact, if oul
weary brain does no. deIude us
there are only about adozen ar