The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-13
ON SECOND THOUGHT

Like most OF those who stayed at
home we had a war speech. In it we
had welded in impeccable phraseology
a graceful tribute to the new dawn"
We professed after scanning the hofi-
zon, to have detected the fact that it
was breaking over a certain section to
which We fondly alluded as Joan of
Arcs country" 1t was a touching
thing. But it has since occurred to
US that we may have been too enthusi-
Iastic about it.
We are willing to leave it to you.
Do you see any indications of the new
dawn" and if so what are they?
E. N. T. notes the paragraph to the
effect that Governor Cox didn't try to
say it with flowers. Evidently" she
writes, you did not see the picture of
Of October 81. He was placing a
wreath on Susan B. Anthony's grave"
Fortunately. we were spared the
pictorial representation of that specta-
Gle. We don't read the esteemed
Times. Life is dull enough at its
best. But had we seen it, it would
have distressed US no more than the
attempt of the unguent-spreaders to
make it appear that Mr.. Harding is
wrapped up in his church work.
From what we hear of Mr.. Harding,
and we know any number of people
who know him very we'll. he is a lika-
attributes of the mental giant or the
religious ascetic. We wish the unguent-
spreaders would let him alone. They
are likely to damage Mr.. Hafding's
administration beyond repair.
There is Just one thing, we go on
to say, the sovereign American voter,
cannot and will not stand. And that
is the assumption that any other man
Is better than himself.
1t may interest you to know that
our attempt to hand the late Mr.
Henry Wadsworth Lonefellow credit
for 1.-THE Death of the Flowers" has
been checkmated. All along we were
afraid we couldn't get by with 1t. and
so interpolated a saving clause. A.
H. s. reminds us that Bryant wrote the
deathless verse in question, and we
hereby make what we deem to be
proper restitution.
In line with our policy of making
the correction as prominent as the
original charge, we quote from mem
ory;
The saddest of the year.
OF wailing winds. and naked woods,
And meadows brown and sere.
Heaped in the hollows OF the grove
They rustic to the eddying gust
And to the rabbits tread.
For the column. at least. business
is looking up. Yesterday we were
called an ass by Lew McMakin and a
gentleman who signs himself N, S.
The old zip seems to be coming
back.
For Mr.. Harding giving up the May
flower was not the act of abnegation
it might otherwise have been. Mr..
Harding will have yacht of his own
after March next.
"How is It," writes a correspondent,
when am sleeping? That 1 can go
asleep at night and wake up in the
morning assures me that I will be
able to die and sooner or later awake
in some other human body. knowing
or not about my former life; about
yesterday"
If our correspondent is asking q
question, we don't pretend to be able
to answer 1t. If, on the other hand,
he is giving vent to an exclamation.
we assume the responsibility of telling
him that all of his punctuation marks
are either interpolated or misplaced.
We do not recall having seen such
reckless and promiscuous employment
of the exclamation point. the interro-
cation mark and the semicolon.
We do not expect much facility from
a layman in the use of the semico1on;
only a proofreader knows where to
put IT. But we do demand an eco
nomical and conservative use of the
astonisher and the paralyzer.
when" interrogates f. N. s., may
we expect to hear from the rest of the
family?" Practically speaking, the
sequence is complete. The dog cant
write.
Do not expend all of your sympathy
on those who perform manual labor.
Save some of it for those who are try
ing to read Galsworthy's I'm
Chancery."
We do not feel competent to sit in
judgment upon it. We, therefore,
leave it to you to decide whether the
feat performed by the gentleman who