The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-07-23
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
Blu RE AU
FREDERIC J. HASKIrJ. DirOctoE.
Washington. D. @
BOHEMIA IN, TIT CoRNBELT.
Washington. d. @

| Unlike Greenwich village in New
York, it has not yet been made self
conscious by literary exploitation or
turned into a circus for the amuse-
ment of the "gilded Philistine."
The heart and center of this corn
belt Bohemia is the famous Dill
Pickles club in Tooker Place. Tooker
Place is a paved alley. which is en-
tered at one end by way of a crack
about fourteen inches wide between
two high buildings. The bricks on
either side of this narrow way have
taken on a high polish from nightly
| contact with the embonpoint of the
supercultured.
| The Dill Pickles club, tho it is al
ways getting its name into the papers,
| remains a mystery. Its founder and
/ guiding spirit, who has the appearance
of a poet and the name of Jones. says
| he doesn't know what 1t is, and chal-
| lenges the inquirer 60 tell him. Its
physical habitat is two long narrow
| rooms, one above the other. The lower
floor is furnished with kitchen chairs
and tables, painted bright blue with
yellow border. The walls are COW
cred with paintings, sketches, car
toons and newspaper clippings. There
| is piano at one end and cook stive
/ at the other. The second floor is an
| auditorium with chairs and raised
| platform. The club has two meetings
a week which anyone may attend,
| and anyone also may throw quar-
| ter into a cigar DO. These quarters go
to the upkeep of the club and pre-
sumably to that of Jones.
One of the weekly meetings of the
d. P. is literary. At these sessions
you may hear poets read their own
verses or somebody else's. The other
/ me WI IA
, and is much more popular. might best
| be described as woozey. Indian
Swamis, professors OF psychoanalysis
and all sorts of seers of the esoteric,
hold forth in the Dill Pickles club on
the Sabbath.
This unique organization seems to
be all things to all people. The po-
lice watch it as haugout of radicals,
but it is not of record that they have
! ever raided the place or caught any
| thing dangerous there. Perhaps, like
! other people. they have got the Dill
Pickles habit Connoisseurs of art
and letters go there to meet celebri-
ties and hunt for new talents. The
righteous and the respectable regard
it as a den of strange vices and re-
sort to it surreptitiously in search of
| thrills.
1t surely has a mixed clientele. You
can find anything there, politically,
from a protesting anarchist, who
! never tried to explode anything more
dangerous than a theory. to a shocked
and Mortified conservative. Here are
all types intellectually from an un
mitigated bonehead to an acknowl-
edged genius, and everything in the
social Chat is. the financially scale,
from fashionable ladies who come in
| taxicabs to factory girls and futurist
/ poets.
Among those present at one gather
ing were a novelist who has recently
achieved a national reputation. a poet
/ or equal fame, a little working girl
with a hard palm ana a soft voice SELL
ing pamphlets about the Mooney case
| and gifted musician who is a rene
gade from the Russian symphony or
/ chestra. A large part of every gath
| ering seems to be made up of joyously
| irresponsible youths not far past TWEEN
", with their collars and their mouths
wide open, full of facetiousness and
profundity, frolicking in this place of
intellectual license like spring lambs
in a pasture.
| The atmosphere of the Dill Pickles
club is delightfully."- tolerant and Demo-
cratic. No matter who you are, Won
| can walk in and stay as long as Won
| please: You can take your hat off or
keep 1t on, just as you please. You
4
! the floor. whichever you prefer. If
you leave your coat and necktie at
nome. you will not be conspicuous for
that reason. No one will make YOU
uncomfortable by staring at you. On
the other hand, you can address any,
one present without being introduced
on any subject and be sure of getting
a reply If not an argument. Poets and
! poetesses will read you their works.
| artists will take you to their studios
/ tot A
| anyone will expound you his soul
Inc lion and great man of the Dill
| Pickles club is S. Szukalski, sculptor
painter, poet and unconscientious OBJ
JeStor; His studio is just across the
alley from the club. He is a Pole "a
years old. In person he is 1.-the,
| straight and muscular. He wears his
hair down to his shoulders, a broad
leather belt. and no hat or coat. With
| his high cheek bones and aquiline
features he look at a little distance
surprisingly like a Navajo Indian.
His appearance might lead YOU to
classify Szukalski as a mere eccentric
but you would be making a mistake
His work is of high and acknowledged
merit. He has been discovered by
critics and proclaimed a genius in the
newspapers. His work has even been
reproduced in popular magazines. He
is witty, epigrammatic and as sharp
and logical as corporation lawyer.
Szukalski has smashed all the rules
OF the art that have obtained for five
thousand years He never works from
models, but draws and sculpts the
images and ideas in his own mind. He
says that models kill originality He
mas several pupils whom he teaches
by his method, and some of them do
good work after few lessons All of
his own works are ideas in paint or
clay. For example. his masterpiece
of sculpture is called Frozen Youth"
I shows in he grin
of a huge and terrible monster Both
the figures are highly fantastic, vet
every muscle and bone and ligament
is drawn with a finished and hideous
realism. and the attitudes are eloquent
of emotion The things sticks in the
mind like a nightmare
Despite his success. Szukalski is
poor as a ditch digger The people
who discovered him did not patronize