The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-05-15
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE.
(From Philadelphia Public Ledgsr.)
Letters to AIeck.

AClttrS ~ <Al<SA.
Friend Aleck: Well. Aleck. you will
be surprised to hear have broke into
politics again. Yes, / know what l
said and l know what You said that
time you took me up on the mountain.
1 said. "Aleck, L am thru. / do not
want to smell another desd cigar as
long as 1 live 1 don'1 never want to
be Rugged by another delegate; 1 don't
want nobody whispering in my ear and
don't ever care who is committeeman
from the sixth precinct of the Third
and that ought to rrove< to you my
sincerity. 1 tell you have quit And
all you could say was. Yes, you are"
and Yes. you will,'' for that's all, you
can say. Aleck. For let them say about
you, Aleck, whatever they will, and
they have said pretty near everything,
they cannot say you are strong on re-
partee. Well, how it come about that
/ am in politics again, Aleck, was that
about two weeks ago gets an invita-
ton saying the cognoscenti and the
| literati was to meet in Atlantic City on
a certain date to elect a president of
the United States and that everything
was free and would l join the party.
Well, 1 am free to say 1 was getting
kind of hungry for the smell of a dead
cigar again ana / said I'd come, and
that's how come 1 to be there. But in
one way it was a disappointment. They
all smoked cigarettes. They passed
the cigars, once or twice, but mob dy
took more than one and some of them
didn't take any. 1t had its effect on
me and / was buying my cigars before
noon the next gay.
I like the east Aleck, but it is not
whatxI would call hospitable You
know how, it used to be, Aleck.
would show up maybe in the room
where the Ellsworth county bunch
was hanging out and somebody would
say, 'LooSit who's here" and then
| somebody else would say, "Wen, why
don't you give him drink" and
somebody would reach under the bed
| for the bottle. And then somebody
| else would say, mo. not that cheap
stuff; give him a drink out of the
regular bottle and then somebody
would unlock a suit case and produce
the choice goods. Well. maybe I'd
up to where the Neosho county fell
lows was, or I'd run into a bunch
from the shortgrass and it would be
the same thing over maybe a dozen
times. Wen. Aleck, set in that BAN
quet four solid hours and nobody said
a word. Every little while somebody
would get up from the table and go
away and in about ten minutes he'd
come back patting lis necktie, but
not once did anybody say to me would
I like to go up to S64 and see the pic
lures of his wife and babies All they
showed me was pictures of pousse
cafe, clover club and bronnix.
And, while you never seen one, Aleck,
you know how a picture of a pousse
cafe cheers man up and makes him
strong for the party. Well, after it
was all over. AL Reid and Joe Chapple
says, come and go down to the
rooms" We goes down and after we
afS nm q
all round and says, II wonder where
he put it?7 And Joe looks in the
dresser drawers and in the closet and
says. "Do you reckon he's speaked it
out e And Al says. "No. but I'll bet
he locked it up" and they kept on
looking. Pretty soon Bill Graves busts
into the room and goes over and I'M
locks his grip and takes something
out and starts away with It, Well, I
couldn't stand it no longer and says
to Bill. Don't get no drink, and
Bill says, "They are not 20 more than
half bottle left and have got a
governor and a senator to take care
of and you know what that means"
And then he blowed. / like the east
all right, but it is repressed, very re-
pressed.
Well, we talked around a while
about this and that and who was at
that table over there. and finally one
bird says to me. Whom are you for
for PRESIDENT" and 1 says I don't
know yet because nobody has told me
who to be for. Well, he looked Kind
of surprised and explains to him that
II have been in Pennsylvania only a
little while and hadn't got hooked up
with the organization yet and Sidn't
know who it was for. And he says.
do you always follow the dictates of
the organization. as you call it?" and
I says I either got to follow the die
tates of the organization or vote for
somebody who says he is for the peo-
pie, and that is one thing I cannot
stand. Pretty soon another bird asked
me was 1 in favor of electing a Re
publican president, and I says, "T have
always been in favor of electing a Re
publican president. I was in favor of
lit in 1912. and that is more than you
can say for about twothirds of these
birds that is here tonight. You prob
ably heard how Taft got a vote for