The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-09
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE.
tEsom Philadelphia Public Ledeer.)
The WaiIing Post.

And was not afraid.
In fact, l was serene and calm,
Unpestled by regret,
very stranger to remorse.
The thing that bothers me is life.
1 seem inadequate
To sip the honey from 1t.
In thirty years I've dreamed
Ten times ten thousand dreams,
And of these dreams
One-half were predicated
Upon the Pigment, the illusion
That [ was down and out
And drifting with the sands;
That I had lost my job, my standing
And the gift
To earn my frugal fare.
When 1 recall the others
The blush of shame
Nantes my hardened cheek
And suffases it.
For in them all 1 found myself
Wandering thru busy streets
sentinel upon the Highways
Starry naked q must have
Kicked the covers Off and without
The friendly cover of leaf,
A cobweb, or a shadow
To shield me from
Great gaping crowds
Which roared in vulgar merriment.
And so I find no surcease
In my slumbers.
Perturbed and wrought upon
BY day. night holds for me,
In portion fifty-fifty,
Humiliation and despair.
I've ceased to crave all boons
Save one;
I'd love to- dream one lovely dream.
Last night I played piquet.
1 played with skill
Rorn of axOerfence and ind er1e emf
Calm and keen.
And yet 1 drew but worthless cards,
Or, when 1 made a hand,
Somebody topped" it.
l lost four dollars, but
I do not care for gilt, the rhino,
Or mazuma.
The thing that irked and pricked
My soul; that sent me to my mate
In fretted, ugly mood
Was that I had been baffled.
Fooled, repulsed at every turn
I do not read the column;
I quit it years ago,
Because l found in 1t but
The reflection of my own stupidity.
1t boreS me stiff; for me its
Dizziness and its prosiness
Contain no balm; or else
1. seem to see that such poor gifts
AS once were mine
Are slipping from me.
But there is one who. just across
The breakfast table, always gives
To it the benefit
OF critical perusal.
To-Day she cried,
How you must hate MEL
And when l asked her why
i She pointed to my limping jest
| Which catalogued as negligible
The thrill that comes
| When two who are as one
| Play cards together.
How you must hate mel"
| She repeated.
And thus my harmless, well-inten
toned
Jibe became a barb that tore
| The one who shot it.
| draped myself upon a BARRIERS
Chair and sought to turn
| That implement of torture
| Into an easy couch.
From some deep Granny,
| Where it had lain the winter thru
| A loathsone, creeping thing emerge
| And crawled across the floor.
| The Sinner" put his foot
| Upon it,
| And there II lay,
A crushed and sticky muss,
Fragments of shell and
| Odoriferous goo"
Directly in my line of vision.
| l shuddered then;
AS yet I have not put the sight
| Of it away from me.
I read the hands upon the clock
And note that time is mine
| In which to play
A round of golf.
| Ny heart leaps at the thought;
And yet I know
That 1 shall 'tep'' my drives;
/ That ffTt1ftSf' will rim the
And roll awry;
| My mashie shots will
| Plumb the creek or curve into
The tangled grass.
1 know that 1 shall walk vain miles
! In futile search to find
A hidden ball.
1 know that 1 shall be dog tired
| And ache in every bone;
J 1 know my failure to achieve
The elemental in my play
VIII pique, and plague
And poster me.
An-night the thought
| That this is junk
| Will be as lead upon my soul.
| Tomorrow I will face these
| Cold, gray lines in utter shame.
| But having thus admitted
4 The offense,
The chances are
| That I'll repeat it.
have no fear of death;
The thing that worries me is life.
| But I'll admit
Life has one thrill that never fail
1t is an ambidextrous wallop
Which comes to him
| Who has the chances and seizes 1t
To help the other fellow.
II Moulton Musings
] By ROY X. MOULTON.
| When Eve held forth in Paradise,
She Sound much pleasure in II.
For when she did her Monday wash
l. a.-..A