The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-25
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY e. HOUSE
tFrom Philadslphia Public Ledger.)

We do not wish to annoy Mr.. Com
pers, but his statement that union
labor defeated fifty of the members
of congress it had picked for slaughter
whets our keen appetite for informa-
ton. We should like to have Mr..
Gompers name them. II the task set
encroaches too much upon his private
and personal affairs, we are willing to
relieve him of a part of it. We shall
be satisfied if he will name ten of
them.
We do not question Mr.. Gompers
wisdom or the sincerity of his efforts
in behalf of the weli-known but infre-
quent workingman. 1t has occurred to
us there are times when his judgment
and discretion are at fault. With
thirty or forty wars going on and
recruits needed in every branch of the
service, Mr. Gompers picked the late
campaign as the psychological mo-
ment in which to fight the Republican
party.
A reader wants to know how long
we expect to continue that which he
describes as "a crusade. against the
theatres" Not long. Within a week
or two at most we hope to find some
thing else to play with. We should
carry it along indefinitely if we
thought 1t would do any good. But
it won't. There is nothing the feather
head resents SO much as the interior
ence of the earnest soul who is trying
to do something for him.
Our point, and we have gone to
some trouble to make it, is that while
safe in discommoding the general pub
lie, it can't~'kid' the column.
Every time the average man gets
of his fellow citizens meet in secret
session to devise plans for taking II
away from him.
The rule is that when the son of an
old friend calls upon you it means he
is short of funds and is seeking oppor-
tunity to negotiate a small loan.
A woman thinks more of the two
dollars she gets for her husbands sec
ond best suit than she does of the
wrist watch she gets for a Christmas
present. A woman sets as much store
by the cry of the Aold clothes man in
an adjacent alley as a man sets by
the rustic of a woman's skirts.
Books and Literature.
Passing reference has been made in
book, THE EDITORIAL" published re-
Gently by Appleton C Co. Having since
read the professors book, we desire
to amplify the favorable opinion of it
previously expressed.
1t is a grand book.
We find that in it the gent who
writes this column gets publicity al
most equal to that accorded Don Mar
quis and F. P. A. in c. L. Edison &
1.-The Gentle Art of Columning."
Prof. Flint has performed a great
public service. He has directed to this
who otherwise never would have heard
of it.
Speaking of clothes, and since the
bill for fall suit has just come in we
feel justified in doing so, we'd love
who drew it likes the old dress suit we
sent him a couple of years ago.
He may have esteemed 1t a tawdry
gift. We take this method of telling
him that had it not been for a sudden
Accession of embonpoint in the vi
cinity of the waistline he never would
have got it.
We mention these purely personal
matters in passing merely that we may
direct attention to the sublime heights
relieve the sufferings of his fellow
men. Mr.. Cole sent the Belgians an
opera hat.
You probably had noticed that the
gentleman who formerly reviled the
bartender because of the temperature
at which his martini wass served now
is satisfied to know somebody in the
assembled company has a flask on his
hip.
And if you had not already noted
it. a perusal of the preceding para
graph will impress you with the in
creasing difficulty in writing anything
smart and snappy about prohibition.
AS we have hitherto noted, so far as
prohibition is concerned. there isn't a
laugh left in the world.
In the connection it ds reassuring
to note that the right of the citizen to
use coffee is not Immediately to be
assai1ed. No less authority than Lucy
Page CASTOR, who, operating under a
personally issued commission, attends
to that sort of thing for the country
at large, is quoted as saying so.
You remember Mrs Castor, of
course. She is the lady who put the
cigaret on the blink" and whose ear
nest efforts did SO much to discour-
L.
At the time Mrs. CASTOR began
fighting the cigaret an average of one
woman in every hundred thousand
used tobacco in one form or another.
Not more than five out of every ten
now do SO.
A man may be said to be making
progress as soon as he discovers the
cracker box at the corner grocery is a
mighty poor seat.
T.
Buck Kilby thinks men have some
advantages over women. 81 can look
at my vaccination mark" said Mr.,
Kilby, yesterday, .'by merely rolling
i up my sleeve"
On the whole, the thin man has a
better chance than a fat one. Women
cunning for mep are seldom suffi-
GENTLY expert in their craftsmanship
to hit a thin one.