The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-03
ON SECOND THOUGHT
By JAY q. HOUSE
lFron rhilaaelphla Public Ledssr.)

We have just had a most delectable !
adventure. For the first time since we
set watch, some sixteen or seventeen
months ago, we caught man in the
act of reading the column. For
months as we rode to and fro upon
street cars and in railway trains we
have watched many persons unfold
the Public Ledger in the vain hope
that they would bestow upon the
column the bencficence of a passing
glance. None of them ever did. And
each day hope died where it fell.
It happened about $3.50 o'clock yes
-terday morning. We were coming
downtown on the elevated and had
struck our customary posture, that of
clinging to a strap Just beneath us
gentleman, a pair of glasses astride his
nose He was of intellectual confor-
ma ton and chestnut sorrel in his coll
oring. We didn't care particularly
for his hat. 1t was archaic in shade
and arehitecture. He opened his
paper without deigning a glance at the
first page and began reading the
column. Having completed the read
ing, he refolded his paper and resigns
ed himself to meditation.
1t may occur to you that we have
=
because you have never done" a
column. There are two thrills worth
lighting Tor. One is that which comes
to him who holds an audience of his
fellow citizens in the hollow of his
hand. The other is that of watching
the reader who, unconscious of the
writer's presence, deliberately assays
the gems of thought one has contrib
uted to the printed page.
H. c. c. assails two words in COM
mon usage herein and asks that they
1 pe eliminated from the phraseology of
the column. One of them is gents"
the other is Intrigued" Than "gents"
there is no more useful word in the
vocabulary. 1t is the one word ex-
actly describing the type of person it
IS intended to describe. For it there
ls no synonym, no substitute. We
should be willing to give up '.intrieu-
ing" provided a word competent to
take its place and one calculated to
stir up an equal amount of comments
can be suggested.
Foolish stuff. isn't It? Still. what is
one to do on days when the news fails
TO yield single wallpp?
We seem to have been seized of the
mood for intimate chat. May we not
employ it in noting certain things
which irk us. One of these is the
assumption met on every hand along
the Atlantic seaboard that Mr. Hard
ing is either weak or mediocre man.
Where. we ask in all sincerity, where
do they get it? Here is an Ameri-
Rcan citizen who fought his way from
the humblest of beginnings to the
greatest political distinction within the
gift of one of the greatest states in
the Union. As a matter of fact, Ade-
laide says 1t is the greatest state in
! tt1A Tx,s
place as United states senator from
Ohio thru association and combat with
the keenest minds and the most able
political strategistS great state fa
produced. Isn't 1t perfectly ridiculous
to say he is weak man or mediocre
man?
-. We dedicate no brief tdssMr. Hard
ing We have no great enthusiasm in
politics and we know no heroes. We
do not know the Republican candidate
We saw him but once. He wes tread
Ing on eggs in the presence of the Re-
publican national convention of 1916I
and praying he wouldn't crack a shell.
He was not compelling spectacle. No
man could have been- IN that parlous
situation But the notion that he is
weak or mediocre irks us sore.
As one who came into IT a stranger
year and a half ago, we have found
the east cordial. kindly. neiehhorlv
and unaffected. But. unconsciously. it
is griDped nv a certain insularity of
thought predicated on the notion that
nothing worth while can happen west
Of the Allegheny mountains. And that.
we take It. is tha reel basis Of the
ASSUMPTION that Harding is weak or
mediocre.
We have an editorial colleague for
whom we have a genuine respeet and
esteem-a man of wide culture and
many psrts. He has been abroad
manv times. He knows all Europe.
But he has never seen Tire Grand Can
Won. the Yosemite. Lake Tahoe, Mount
Rainier Yellowstone Park. Crater
Lake Glacier Park or the Keokuk
dam. He does not know the great
Mississippi basin. the lake country of
the north or the limitless wheat fields
Of the plateau reeien. He has never
been gripped by the 1pre of the sage
brush desert or unified by the tower
ing nea1vs Of tho Rocky rnnuutairs