The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-12
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE.
(From Philadelphia Public Ledgerl
Fool Stuff.

I take this occasion to announce
that on and after this date I shall dis
card the artifice of concealing my
emotions behind the friendly cover
of an outspread hand.
I make no bones of the fact that
am bored stiff, ennui, weary.
I am tired to the point of exhaus-
ton of the continual, the reverend
ing talk about high prices and the
woes of those who must make ends
meet upon a given sum.
l am going to yawn in the face Of
the next person who mentions either
in my presence.
I am willing to concede that prices
are high; that we, as a people, are
engaged in an orgy of spending and
that We are circumnavigating a vicious
circle.
L am willing to concede that the
profiteers are profiteers.
The point I should make, If I were
to attempt to make a point, a thing
which 1 disclaim any intention of
doing, is what of it? What difference
does it make?
go about good deal, penetrating
from time to time the Businesses of
the proletariat.> one of whom 1 am
which, an. the hoi polloi.
I see no pinched faces, no rags and
tatters.
On the other hand, I have never
see the proletariat and the hoi polloi
so well clothed or, apparently, so we'll
fed.
There has been, within my memory,
no time when they had so many luxu-
ries, so much leisure, or so many ways
of spending it.
One night last winter, as I plodded
my weary way toward the domicile
which temporarily houses me. three
young women came out of a So. SO
theater and boarded the street car to-
! 80 lit o1, 7 10 =
steps.
They belonged, quite obviously. in
the ranks of the toilers. They were
either of the mental class or of the
type that gets it's living below the
strata of polite occupation.
They all wore fur coats.
To that fact I offer no objection
To it I adjust no homily. 1t is all
right with me. 1 wish every working
girl might have a fur coat
But why should 1 join my fellow
citizens in worrying about condition
of affairs which enables young womer
of the type that gets its living and its
luxuries below the strata of polite oc-
cupation to own and wear fur gar
| ments
I belong to the salaried class.
| I am one of those who toll, but dC
not spin.
I am of The segment of humanity
|
the upper and neither miIlstones of tbs
| times.
My income is somewhat smaller
| than it was in 1915.
1 desire to say that 1 have no com
plant to make.
If 1 make up my mind to ask my
employer for a raise in salary 1t will
be on the ground that 1 am wortf
| more money. My request for an in
crease will not be predicated on the
plea that 1 cannot live on what III
is paying me.
| And I get along first rate. I an
paying the prices eXacted. 1t has MOI
been necessary for me to curtail any
of my fixed habits with reference to
| expenditures.
| I am not wearing my, old clothes;
have new ones. 1t has not been
necessary for me to put on overalls
And I am eating regularly
| 1 don't want anybody weeping over
me.
To me the problem of life is pre-
Ecisely what it has always been-that
Of keeping my expenses within my in
come.
And I am doing it. More than that
I am doing it about as easily as
ever did.
At the moment, in one of the pleas
ure places of the town, there is a the
atrical performance for which a price
| of IS seat is eXacted- do not know
what the conditions are with reference
! to attendance. My curiosity concern
! ing a theatrical performance is never
\ such that 1 am willing to satisfy II
at the expense of a IS note.
But I assume the theater is crowded
nightly They all are. People are
standing in line everywhere to buy
tickets to theatrical performances.
| But what could be more ridiculous
than a disposition to worry about the
welfare of a people who are willing
and anxious to pay IS for seat in a
theater and have the money to exc
| cute the commission?
Trains are crowded and hotels over
full of people who travel about merely
for the sensation of being on the way.
All of the old devices for getting the
easy money are running full time.
New ones continually are being in
vented.
But it is nothing for me to worry