The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-31

resting Our CIVILIZATION.
LIP to date" is the characterize
ton most coveted by the present gem
Grafton. Dread of being behind the
times is a greater force in many lives
than fear of being morally wrong
| Progressive" liberal" advanced,
| ''emancipated," these are the labels
of the modern vogue.
Amid such a whirlwind of innova-
ton. old-fashioned folk stand bewl-
edred, and wonder what is what, after
ALL The very audacity of the current
mood. which flouts the most sacred
traditions and SATELLITES. is sweeping
host of young persons into its vor-
tex. Present life, in many of It's most
conspicuous phases, IS attuned 10
! 'jazZ." Have you noticed how the
modern young person, instead of sit
ting quietly in a corner to read, keeps
a monograph grinding out the latest
syncopated tunes-and then goes on
I talking as tho the music were not
playing?
1t is a hectic, restless day in which
we live. Restaurants are multiplying
in even the most conservative COM
munities, as entertainment shifts its
center from homes to public places:
and that restaurant is raetd as slow
which does not have jazz orchestra
and a dancing floor. The worlds PEN
dulum seems to have swung full arc
away from domesticity and the quieter
expressions of life. A woman novellst
remarked wistfully. recently, as she
listened to a proud father talking
about the usages of his home lie.
am so glad to know that homes o!
that sort have not gone entirely out OF
fashion: 1 feared they had.
"Jazz" Up for Judgment.
| What sure and searching test of the
reasonableness and Brightness of the
present mode of life may we apply?
Let us call "jazz' and all its works
4 20 IN
fallible judgment bar. Is there any
sure touchstone for our times?
There is. 1t is as old as the race
All the experience of countless CEN
turtles and generations endorses it.
| Jesus, the wisest Teacher, as well as
the only Redeemer of mankind, APP
plies it definitely. Modern nations
prove 1t in their present experience.
! That touchstone is simply the child.
| BY it all modern tendencies and fash
IONS and all forms of civilizations
may be judged. Put a child in the
! midst of the vogue of free life"
| (Which often means free love'D. or
BoheInianism, and behold how these
! latter cringe criminally. There is no
room for a child in this cult of "un-
trammelled self-expression." or in the
/ movement for complete economic in
! dependence for women" or in any of
| the other self-engrossed career-Pursu-
| ing conceptions of life.
/ UNBORN DaDeS point 0aHnalOry IlT-
gers at potential fathers and mothers
who are dancing after the modern
marsh-lights of personal liberty and
| selfish pleasure.
Dress and dance and dinners, and
all the other intensely fashionable en-
grossments of the hour, simply cannot
be made to accord with the claims of
/ the child. That is one reason why so
many young married people are NOV
ing into childless flats and hotels and
J l.
], the truth that there is more pleasure
| to be found ina baby carriage than in
an automobile. The modern woman
knows the touch of many a man s
cheek upon her own in the latest
| dance-but she does not know the
thrill of the velvet touch of babys
( hand.
Follow the theme to the limit, and
the conclusion is inesca pable that by
| the test of the child. the present craze
for individualism and emancipation"
and materialism stands condemned.
Unless the child is central in every
social system that system is doomed.
a Modern Pied Piper.
Like all other failures to rise to
! Gods clear and attainable level of
normal life. this modern, practical
Population of the child's place is a
| stupid blunder, as well as a sin. He
who pens these lines is no cloistered
lanchorite, no sequestered deliver amid
musty theological tonnes He knows
| the best that all the capitals of earth
have to offer the seeker after pleas
ure. He has been favored beyond
most men in adventure and in expert
ence. There is scarcely any sort of
enjoyment or thrill possible to a decent
| man that he has not tasted, from the
| excitement of modern battle action to
the calm restfulness of smooth tropiic
seas; from exciting escapades in
| strange lands to the sophisticated
1 pleasures of great cities; from plat
form plaudits to the quiet delights of
literature. And he bears emphatic
testimony that in all the wide world
there is no happiness like home hap
piness; no joy such as children i'm
part; no wonder or marvel to equal
the opening of a child's mind, and no
reward comparable with the guileless
affection and loyalty of sons and
daughters.
To miss intimate association with
childhood is to fail to taste one of the
well-springs of life. Gods plan for
the ordinary man or woman implies
the greatest possible measure of hap
piness; and that plan, as revealed in
Scripture and in the history of the
race, is for home life, wherein fathers
and mothers together rear their own
children. The other day a young
mother was showing her child the
Christmas toys in a store window. her
own radiant face revealing the delight
of both. Addressed by a neighbor, she
responded, IT never knew at all what
Christmas meant until 1 had this lit
tie boy That's it: the child, in the
good providence of the Supreme Be
ing who calls Himself Our Father,
carries in a baby hand the key to the
secret of JOY. What rich gifts the
babies bringi They lead us all back
to the happy gardens of God, where
simple faith and unquestioning prayer
f~Nfw4 Er~T
souls.
J know remarkable young man,
of strong personality, who has had
overseas experience, who possesses
great dramatic talent. and who is an
architect of distinctive and beautiful
buildings: yet it is in none of these
roles that 1 first recall him. He is
primarily a friend of children Lit