The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-29
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY. JAY e. HOUSE
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger.)

1
bat" Masterson, one of the last of
the old-time western gunner, is dead
He had twenty-seven notches on his
six-pistol, and in the days iof the old
and informal west participated in
many free and easy shooting matches
But his most distinctive feat, perhaps,
was that of living twenty years in New
York without mishap.
The great reaches of the west are
not what they were, hoIhicidally
speaking But they never were as
The possibility that men may live to
be 500 years old is advanced by John
w. Barth, of Omaha. Misrepresentation
is an interesting one, but has no prac-
teal value. A man can see everything
there is to see in seventy-five or eighty
years. He would he bored stiff the
last $50 years or SO of the allotted
span.
1t is a curious thing, too, that am
bition to live 800 years should get its
inspiration in Omaha. One can see
everything there is to see in Omaha in
twenty-five or thirty minutes.
RSLCI0IlC6 10 OI16ld RECALLS 4. W.
Howe's favorite story. Mr.. Howe was
by the way of being somethingsof
traveller. He made a number of trips
abroad and went twice around the
world. 1t was on his first trip abroad
that he encountered one of the sea-
hounds whose chief boast is concerned
with the number OF times they have
crossed the Atlantic. rs this your
first trip?" the seahound asked Mr..
Howe on the occasion of their first
meeting. Mr.. Howe admitted that it
was. "Well," said the seahound, 1--WE
crossed the Atlantic forty times" On
the second day the seahound again put
the question to Mr.. Howe and again
vouchsafed the same observation. He
repeated it at frequent intervals dur
| ing the trip.
It was on the sixth day, after the
seahound had again spoken of the
| total number of his crossings, that
Mr.. Howe said to him: by the way,
have you ever been to Omaha?" The
seahound said he never had. well,
retored Mr.. Howe, 81 go there every
week"
From One of Hon. Ruth's Partisans.
Sir-It is a keen disappointment to
| the writer to note usually infallible
| judgment concerning men and things
perverted by what seems an unreason-
able prejudice against one of the
| brightest luminaries in the galaxy OF
stars that shine in basebalPs firma-
ment. Your innuendoes against Hon
| Babe" Ruth hurt me deeply. Do you
not think your attacks unjustified in
view of the Babes gameness in re-
covering so quickly from the injuries
which prevented him from finishing
/ out the world series, and especially in
view of his assertion in an article
appearing under his name in the Pitts
burgh Press in which he tells his ad-
mirers that his convictions relative to
! playing in exhibition games were sin
cere and genuine and that he only
played for the good of the baseball
fraternity as a whole? 1t would seem
to an impartial observer that so ad-
mirable a spirit of self-sacrifice de-
serves to be free from the envious
attacks of writers who have nothing
| to do but disport themselves gayly
along the highways in luxurious auto
mobiles and get money for writing
back to the paper about it.
H. w. S.
| Incidentally. we note that the
"Babe" has a carbuncle on his hand
and that the sufferings of the New
York sporting writer's are intense.
While we are no friend of any fic-
titious hero. we go so far as to con-
cede the Babe has had somewhat
the worst of its He is. we suspect
merely a none too lovable child of ma
| ture who can Nhit that pill New
York reporters and those who trail in
| their wake have, by their insistence
on the adulatory note and the .injec-
! ton of the mush-motif in their dis
cussions, made a conceited. intracta-
BILE. super-conscious and spectacular
ass of him.
The primitive mind withstands ad-
versity pretty we'll, But it is pretty
| sure to succumb to unlimited public
OSCILLATION. The newspapers have just
| about kissed the Babe" out OF the
| league.
! Deep Stuff.
! Sir-We are intrigued by the music
reviewer of the New York Herald. who
in reviewing the performance of the
! Philadelphia Orchestra says: DE
mortuis nil visa bonum-of the dead
there is nothing but bones. If con-