The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-07-02
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE.
(From Philadelphia Public Esdg.r.)


We are indebted to p S. for a
learned and comprehensive disserta-
| ton on what a column is and should
be. The questions raised by Mr..
Fivell.' writes P. S, 'cannot be set
tied in so summary a fashion as ne
suggests, What is a column? 1t is
a small Enclosure of Journalistic soil
leased to some deserving person for
tillage. The produce of that plot is
expected to be different enough from
that on the rest of the estate to i'm
press upon the reader the maxim of
fallibility: that at no one time has
any one sect, or group. or party, or
publication had monopoly on truth"
We confess we had never thought
of a column in just that way, but the
point p. S. makes is we'll illumined.
Te us a column has always been some
thing that had to be done before we
could get away - play golf or go to
the club 1t was something that peo-
ple-perhaps only a few people-read
and said, THAT was good thing, you
had this morning" or "I don't see
why they keep that fellow on the pa
per; his stuff is awful
Today. as an instance, the column
is something we must DO before we
can have dinner. When we left home
Adelaide said. Dinner Eill be ready
at o'clock" II is now, if one may
Judge by the clock in the tower of
Independence Hall, 1880 o'clock. Wen
have to hurry along. Giddap!
Possibly our failure to react favor
ably on Mr.. Fivel is that we have new
er catered to that type of mind. We
leave that sort of thing to Charlie
Chaplin and Roscoe A"Fatty') Ar
buckle. They do it SO much better
/ than we could ever hope to do it.
We wrote our first column on Au-
gust 6. 1901. We had in the begin
ming. no notion as to where We were
going nor why we had undertaken
| than particular journey. We were not
even certain we should be able to pass
a given point. But with the years a
certain philosophy concerning col
umns in general and our own in par
ticular has come to us. 1t is that
column should present life as it really
is, or as the celumnist thinks it is
which amounts to the same thing.
since no two persons interpret life in
exactly the same way.
1t seems to us the obligation resting
most heavily upon the newspaper man
is that he shall present the truth as
he sees it. In this country the news
paper has come to be the steward of
public opinion, the meter or the con-
servator of human passions and emo
lions. The trouble with the people is
that. half the time, they don't know
and can't find out Two-thir7s of the
trouble in this country is fomented by
INSCRIPTIONS newspapers engaged in
the act of sharpening personal and in
dlvldua1 axes upon the grindstone OF
public opinion. To the coluplnist is
accorded a certain leeway in the dis
cussion of affairs not vouchsafed the
editorial writer or the news gatherer.
The editorial writer has-+he dignity
,f Ia rfa1 r,r1Ir, 1frNF
of his newspaper to maintain. The
news gatherer is bound. and very
properly so. by the traditions of news
gathering. The ceIumnist is not bound
by tradition and he has no dignity to
maintain And if he has a clear eye
and en- honest heart he can slip the
truth to his public without greatly Of
Tending any considerable portion of it
If it were left to us we should say
the art of a columnist lies in his abil-
ity to slip it across. That issthe one
gift we have tried to acquire. In the
beginning we used a meat AK Now
our endeavor is to stroke the public
with velvet glove. We used to write
a column with a trombone. We now
wear rubber heels.
The theory that the newspaper col
umn is vehicle for the expression
of humor is as old as Rameses and
as dead. No man can be funny TO
order. He is either funny or he isn't;
but it is a matter over which he has
no control He may be as funny as
a crutch on Monday and as heavy and
tragic as a walrus on Tuesday. He
may set the table in rear at dinner
and be an apostle of gloom at break
fast Humor IS a certain natural emo
ton which. from time to time, bubbles
in the human breast. II comes and
goes; 1t lights and fits. The man who
is being funny knows it. The ebulli-
tions of his grayer mood bubble with
in him as he writes or speaks But he
cannot summon the mood to order or
call il back once it has passed. There
is no spectacle so pitiable as That of
funny man trying to be funny.
The axiom that one mans meat Is
anether's poison applies with equal
truth to humer. In ether words,