The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-28
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE
tFrom Philadelphia Public Ledger)
In Which the Columns English 1:
Corrected.

In Which the Columns English Is
Corrected.
Sir-Your English usually is cor
rect, but I think your expression, Il
take issue with Mrs. Burns" should
read, II take issue against Mrs.
Burns" Brander Matthews. Louns-
bury and the photographer of Liter
airy Digest so render it.
In the same column you say, DIR.
Barrett is justified in his contention"
DIR. Kate Waller Barrett, of Alexan-
dria, Va, is a woman. S. NJ. H.
At any rate, we are relieved of one
score: we didn't split an infinitive-
The fear that we may do so harries
our waking hours and disturbs our
slumbers. Not so long ago we made
that atrocious and unforgivable blum
der. One of the older readers of the
Public Ledger became so indignant
about it that we blamed near lost the
job.
Pursuing the topic thru another
paragraph and discussing it in its
wider and farther-reac ching phase, it
is entirely possible that S. NJ. H.
doesn't understand our system. Brief
ly. it is that when in need of a word
We take one. If it tinkleS melodiously
in the impending sentence it is con-
sidered suitable to convey the idea I'M
der consideration. One who got his
knowledge of English in the great
wide-open spaces and whose instruc-
tors in grammar were the jacksnipe,
the bullsnake, the curlew and the
coyote must ever be uncertain in his
physiological footings.
We have referred to the great,
wide-open spaces. Altho the Chicago
school of verse has done what it could
to encompass them with perfumed
sentiment and brocaded words we
neither long for them nor miss them.
Ihose who are fortunate enough to
have a lease on a steam-heated apart
ment should let well enough alone
There was all along, down deep in
our consciousness, the feeling that
the news columns had led US astray
concerning the sex of DR.. Barrett. The
utterance was much too feminine for
the most wQmanly of men.
ElinOr May Consider Herself Rcbuked.
Sir-Elinor Glynn's indictment of
the American woman in the December
issue or popular magazine gives me
pain. She has evidently based her
opinion on the actions of the class of
women one could easily imagine the
author of such books as hers would
naturally associate with. She has
helped 1t along as much as anybody
else. In her book. Three Weeks
she made a hero and heroine of two
persons who had an illegitimate child.
s..-. P. S.
We trust p s. has not confined her
study of the outpourings of Mrs Glynn
to Three Weeks" If she has pursued
this portrayer of Illicit social customs
no farther than the aforementioned
volume, she has missed much that
might reasonably fall under her dis
pleasure. 1t doesn't seem possible, but
one of Mrs. Glynn's subsequent books
we've forgotten its title-was much
ceivably more stupid than Three
Weeks" For six years subsequent to
the period at which We waded thru
it we blushed every time we recalled
having done SO.
Mrs. Glynn is for the stupid. and
will always have a considerable fol-
lowing. She doesn't know anything
about American women. What she
says of them is as unimportant and
In as bad taste as her contributions
to the fiction of her day.
The representative of the great ex-
ment for a suitcase which Adelaide
wished transported to Topeka, Kan.
said he couldn't find the town in his
book and would be compelled to re-
turn to headquarters for instructions.
lie went away without the suitcase
and has not yet returned.
1t is that sort of thing, IL we may
be bold as to say so, that gives the
alert and enterprising people of Phila-
delphia the reputation of being SLOW"