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

The column feels that it finally has
FALLEN upon job worthy of its steel.
a question concerning the birthplace
of the actress. Sarah Bernhardt, hav:
ing arisen, the column dedfcates itself
to the task of settling the moot ques-
tlon. The controversy was precipi-
tated by Mrs. T. Z. Chapman. of Bliss,
field, Mich. who recently wrote
letter to the Adrian Telegram desig-
mating Struthers, O., as the point at
WHICH the divine Sarah first saw the
light of day.
Mrs; Chapman,s letter to the Tele-
gram follows: "A few days ago 1 saw
a short account in the Telegram which
spoke of Sarah Bernhardt as a great
French actress. Altho she speaks very
little English, she was born and
reared in Struthers, O.. and never saw
Paris until she was eighteen years old
She was an exceptionally bright girl.
It was wilen she worked in Paris at
the age of eighteen that she began her
| career on the French stage. 1t is
true books give her birthplace as
Paris, but her birthplace was here in
more than proud to acknowledge the
fact"
There is nothing unusual in the fact
that a woman reared in Struthers, O.,
| is able to speak little or no English.
Struthers. o., is no place to learn the
| English language. But for one thing
We should have accepted Mrs. Chap
mans statement as authoritative. In
| the Middle West last winter we met a
woman who told US Bernhardt is a
Jewess born on New York's East Side
and taken to France by her parents
when a child. The woman was very
positive about it. She said she was in
position to know and that we could
rely upon the information. We never
argue with a positive woman. If we
wish to stand still in one place we
secure an attractive partner and dance
the "toddle." But Mrs. Chapman's
letter convinces US that one of the
settling the matter now and for all
time.
If you know where Bernhardt was
born, will you kindly write the column
| giving location and date of fsr birth
and such othercfacts as are IN your
possession? Wecknew what the books
say. but the books are unreliable and
personal knowledge of any incident is
| preferable to that set set forth upon
| the printed page.
If w. ]. N. and others who have
written in protest care to admire
| Senator La Toilette, it is all right with
US. The column does not take the
responsibility for the INSTRUMENTATION
/
American public habitually INDUCES
/ itself. 1t declines to worry about its
| ignorance, its bad judgment and it,
poor taste. Readers of the column
have its permission to love La Toilette
| to the extent of their capacity to do so
There was a time when we were
considerably concerned about the
American people and undertook to
carry a little more than our just pro-
portion of the worry and RESPONSE
bility. We've quit that. 1t is nc
longer anything to us when the po-
: 1itical faker the grandstander and the
| mushmonger find 1odgment in it's af-
| feetions and esteem.
Fortunately, Prof. Louis Agassiz
Shaw, who lost his still. has the money
with which to buy another.
| 1t is not always so. Our observation
| of the workings of the Volstead act is
that in most instances it fails upon
those least able, financially, to with
stand the blow.