The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-05-21
ON SECOND THOUGHT
By JAY E. HOUSE
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger.)


quest 1 am about to make" writes
T. c. L., will come to you as a great
surprise. I am In most serious and
disheartening situation and am won
dering if you would be able to help me
out of my plight. Frankly, I am PEN
niless and behind on my board a
month. I am alone in life and can
get help nowhere. and this. under
stand, after twelve years of illness,
mostly on my back in bed, the result
OF overtTork and the constant but I'M
successful efforts of doctors to kill me.
live cheaply as a tramp here TAX
ing care OF my own room and living
on milk exclusively. A hundred dol
lars would last me nearly three
months. Can you loan 1t to me?"
F. C. L. has paid the column a great
compliment, one of which It Is I'M
Shall we borrow the 800 and send it
to him or shall we write him an am
biguous and evasive letter?
There is, we go on to say, an ele-
| ment of novelty and frankness about
T. c. LIS letter which we find in
| triguing. He doesn't pretend he has
| been ground under the heel of capital
| or that it has denied him living wage
| in order that 1t may further add to its
swollen fortunes.
Who'll Undertake This Commission?
| -Sir-Isn't it time some competent
person compiled in one volume the
| witticisTns of that wonderful woman,
Lady Aston? We only get occasional
tgleams by cable, as in the Public
| Ledger of May
| Lady Astor declared amid loud
laughter that men are apt to make
very alluring promises at the time of
marriage"
| Another suggestion I make without
charge is that some lecture-platform
| agency offer Lady Astor a substantial
sum to tour the country with How I
Convulsed John Bull'' as subject.
| Commissions of the kind Lady Astor
promotes must have left John Bull
very tired and. doubtless, he would
be very glad to get rid of her.
| s. T. D.
| We are one with s. T. D. in believ-
ing Lady Astor's gems of wit should
be collated, If that is the word for
it. And we promise the volume a
good notice in the department of
| Books and Literature" if the sug-
gested compilation is made.
Further than that we do not care
| to go. We lived for nearly twenty
decline to encourage anybody's lee
| ture tour.
| Mr.. Edison finds men who have
gone thru college amazingly ignorant.
His experience does not square with
the observations we have taken from
| time to time. We have known boys
| who. previous to matriculation, had
| never worn a nigltshirt to become
addicted to pajamas in their first
| semester.
| College training doesn't do much for
! the plain dub" And neither, we shall
add, does the great school of life.
| Our instinct for speculation leads
| us still further into the realm of con-
| lecture. We don't believe Mr.. Still
man is having very good time,
| either.
We attempt to restrict or restrain no
| newspaper in its hour of grief, but it
seems to us the New York World is
| taking the spectacle of Colonel Harvey
safely ensconced in woodrow Wilson's
seat much too hard.
| And while we do not wish in any
way to interfere with the Worlds
| matchless exhibition of agony We do
| take the liberty of suggesting that
| them pears is et''
| The New York papers quote young
Bud" Stillman as saying to his father.
| But you know. dad. you have lived
| with other women" We may be bit
!
younger Stillman knows too much for
| a 17-year-old boy.
The story of an attempt to swindle
an intended victim out OF the ridicu-
| lous sum of $4,000 gets into the pa
pers. This, as far as we have OBJ
served. is the first time the newspapers
have mentioned so small a sum since
1914.
Money. apparently. has receded to
the point at which anybody may
speak of it.
A good many of US who are fairly
nimble as to tongue stutter in the
head.
Formerly when a woman wanted to
show her love for man she crocheted