The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-10-14
ON SECOND THOUGHT
By JAY 8. HOUSE
trrom rhilsdelphia Public LedgerJ

HE cannot" says our distinguished
editorial coadjutor, Mr.. Taft, in writ
ing of Governor Cox, escape the burr
den of Mr.. wilson's personality, which
has not only tired the country. but his
we should say his party is in the
more advanced stage of exhaustion.
Mr. Tafts theory that the Cox steed
is jaded seems to be borne out by the
facts. In his Wichita speech he as
signed Mr.. Wilson to a place beside
Lincoln and jefferson. The COVER
Were he going good and in his Gus
tomary state of emotional influx he
would not have ''Piked' in assigning
the president to q place in history.
Those, who mated our departure in
search of information concerning the
food of the heron may wish to learn
the result of the quest. We regret to
say we didn't find out. We shall have
to make another trip.
Since it is a matter of some inn
portanee, We shall resume the search
on October 5, that being the date on
which Brooklyn meets Cleveland in
the first game of the baseball classic.
A good many of US have felt that
way about Mr.. Post for a long time,
but the American Legion is, we be-
lieve,. the first to formulate the con-
vietion in plain and simple language.
Come March, the Republican party
will have much to do. 1t seems to
US one of its most urgent duties will
be that of cleaning out the nests in
Washington befouled by those not in
sympathy with this country and its
institutions.
The stencil in certain of the depart
ments in Washington is discernible by
those with ordinarily acute olfactory
organs at a distance of 1900 miles.
But we grow bitter and acerbetic in
discussion of politics and seek mel
lower mood. We have it and, for the
moment we shall become an essayist.
| We shall write of one of the greatest
adventures of humdrum existence. 1t
| is that of renewing intimate acquaint-
ance with the household gods after a
separation of many months. This
1 week we have looked, for the first
! time since May, 1919, upon the lares
! and penates and we ask no finer
thrill. AS lares and penates go. they
| are humble and unpretentious. 1t is
4 not outside the pale of fact to say
/ that some of them are unprepossess-
| ing But woven into their wool and
! fabric, assuming that the household
| gods have wool and fabric, are the
| golden memories of the years that
have gone never to return.
1t was in the little Colonial house
| at the corner of Fillmore and Huptoor
| streets that we last saw the lares and
| penates. Just the other day we re,
| trieved them from a storage ward
| house and st them up in a Philadel-
nj M 1nhf - 1,,T
been scratched and battered by the
hand of incidence and inefficieney
but such as they were, they We're oui
own. For fifteen months in hotels
| restaurants. railroad trains and furn.
| ished apartments, we had eaten from
rented china and reposed upon com.
mandeered linen We had been chas
/ tened by the rod of exfgency and
tempered in the fire Of dissatisfactior
and Inconvenience. And when we
saw again the poor gilt and lumber
| that was ours we ran the gamut OF
| emotion. To those of US who live the
| humdrum< life there is no thrill com
parable to that which comes to him
who touches after many months Of
separation, the hem of domesticity's
garment.
1t is true that here and there g
minor chord was written in the mel
Eody. There was a chair, a homely
hopeless morris chair. long banished
| from polite society, a pariah denied
| association with it's kind.t Its only
sanctuary was the den, where it was
permitted under protest. And yet il
fitted every angle of a faded body and
soothed weak flesh with comfort~that
was luxury. In it we used to sit an6
read. and write. and smoke, and
| dream. That chair was missing. Il
had been junked and sent to obloquy
Against hope we had hoped ane
hoped. We knew that we had left be-
hind a certain stock of contra band
and thought that some of it might BIZ
hidden in 0rawers, or hooks, or cram
MES, altho repeatedly we had been as
! sured that such Vas not the case. The
drawers were searched, the hooks and
crannies explored, but no contrabant
revealed itself. apd hope died where
1t fell.
| In the days of our former associa
ton with the lagos and penates We
never were able 70 lay hand upon &