The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-03
ON SECOND THOUGHT
RI gAy 4. HOUSE
trron PhiladslpAia Public Lsdssf.l

One gentleman. irked. doubtless. by |
| the kioEledge that his gems of
thought have been committed to asy- |
lum in the lower right-hand drawer
of this desk. writes to complain that |
we neither encourage contributors nor
print their offerings. He says many
persons would contribute bright.
t9 the column if we'd only speeurags
print the stuff he reaches the conclu
sion that we are "egotisticar' and
| .'mediocre." AS to that. we don't
| know. No man is competent to Sit inS
judgment on himself.
What we do know is that, there is
no joy in columning equal to that of
finding a translucent gem embedded
in the heart of a eontributor's mes
isage. It lifts columnist into trans
bring such jewels of thought to light
we have neglected but one of the cere-
monies. We haven't kissed anybody
yet and we have no intention Of going
that far. We reach the conclusion
that only a few of those competent to
shoot scintillating shafts of thought at
a column can be persuaded to do SO.
OF those who can be persuaded, only
a few can write, OF those who. can
white, an insignificant minority have
anything to say. Surprising as it may
appear, there is a trick in writing Not
everybody has it.
7 A good many of those who contrib
ute seem to think we want verse. We
don't Unless verse is exceptionally
good, we wouldn't print it on bet.
III it is exceptionally good, it finds
ready market in the marts of litera-
, ture. This column is aimed not at the
cognoscenti. but at the proletariat.
The preletarians outnumber' the cog
noscenti as the sands of the sea out
number the drops of rain that fali
i upon a saEebrush desert. We have a
: theory the proletariat doesn't care for
verse. So this Is q prose column a: Let
those columnists who are SO firm ~
their readers that they can etford to
: take chance trifle with verse II shey
,, will.
Having thus cleaned up the back
: yard, we now procesd with suns ana
broom to the front steps
Hon.. Link, steffens. and George
Creel are TO Interpret Mexico to the
fading administration in washington
The. fading administration in Wash-
lington Will be, Remembered for the
, beauty of its diction. the grace and
force of its phraseology and for its IN
felicity in picking those who did It's
E chores.
However, we credit the fading ad-
l ministration with one shrpass.ng feat:
: tt6 e h liz. sFs4s4S S+S ~
i, One distinction wilt be denied Nfr
l Harding and the other Interpreters
: and opponents of democracy who CONS
s in with him: No five-cent cigar Will
/ | be named for them. There no longer
i are five-cent cigars, Another sign
manual of democracy has been opiit-
t Grated.
The nomenclature of the cigar trade
E is one of the very interesting phases
t ! Of democracy. No gent intent upon
building up q market for p ten-eent
: cigar ever named it for a statesman.
D He eompiimented, instead, an actor,
I philanthropist, a race horse, a hypo-
thetical Indian maiden or suppositi-
+ tious Spanish grandee. To have named
-ten-eent cigar for a statesman would
have been to queer" both the cigar
) and its involuntary patron. The peo-
pie would not have stood for that sort
:. of thing. It would have presumed q
! certain superiority which they would
Z have. rebdked both at the cigar stand
Ell and at the polls.
The motive which actuates man t.
: shoot a woman may be traced to vary
! ing sources, but when a woman shoots
: a man it is because she loves him.
e II those who are circulating the
I story that the Inter-Werld Church
l society can't pay its debts wish to ag-
y gravate US they will have to adopt
some other method. The Inter World
, Church society doesn't owe us any
I thing.
It may occur to you that. in the
presiding paragraph, we travelled a
considerable distance for an irconsid-
E cradle load. 1t was merely that we
wished to present, in new and i'm
maculate garments, the thought that
few, care what Happens so long as it
doesen't happen to them.
We learn from. a careful reading of
, the newspapers that there is a WELL
: defined geiter belt in this country.