The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-12-01
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E HOUSE
tFrom Philadelphia Public Ledger.l


OuIl-DaF SEulE.
Around a newspaper office the most
cherries day is a holiday. Sunday IS
bad enough, Heaven knows, but holt
days are stepped in gloom and tainted
with despair. 1t is a theory of ours
that Bryant wrote ''The Death of the
Flowers in the editorial rooms of the
New York Evening Post. He had. we
have always fancied. journeyed down
to the office on a somper autumn or
winter holiday to write his editorial
for the day. The atmosphere of the
office seized and held HIM. and he
produced, instead, the deathless bit of
verse which bears his name. One OF
our faverite lucubrations Is to the ef-
feet that home is the dullest place. A
newspaper office on a holiday is the
saddest. Not more than half of the
staff reports for work. Those who
come hurry thru their stint and HE
them away to the various occasions
OF entertainment and merrIment that
beckon them. There is none of the
usuat~ea maraderie. The customary
jest is dead, the jape withheld, the
whim -wham unspoken.
And so, in the mind of one who
filings free lance for his daily bread,
there is always a question as to what
he shall write on a holiday. The in
SEPARATION of comradeship Is missing.
The ordinary news sources do not re-
of life are blurred by his surround
ings. Such dilemma faces US at the
moment. The only CLEAN that lights
the gloom is an excerpt from a letter
from farmers wife who lives near
trenton. 1t is a recurrence to the dis
cussion concerning the east and the
west recently waged an the column.
Among other things she says: You
don't like comments out of date [
know, but l want to stay anent the
east-Versus-West subject that since we
came here ten years ago from the
west we have found out this: The east
erner is not naturally stupid, but he
expects the other fellow to be-" And
that strikes us as the cleverest bit of
philosophy yet to appear in print on
that subject under this masthead. 1t,
so to speak, pierces the vitaIs of the
anything of the west. 1t Is always
surprised when the west discloses
SYMPTOMS of intelligence ana discern
ment or displays familiar knowledge
or civilized habits and customs. And
there is the thought for the Day. We
shall proceed to elaborate IT, not in
time, perhaps, to be able to attend the
Penn-Cernell football game as we
should love to do, but in time 10 beat
the dead line" and catch the firsv
edition of the paper.
Some such thought as that expressed
by Farmers Wife" swept over us a
year or two ago when an editorial CO.
adjutor to the eastern manner born
and bred asked us if our old town
had country club. We lacked the
inspiration to revelation then: we
think we have it now, and we thank
the Trenton lady for awakening the
conviction which has long lain dor
naant on our inner consciousness. The
inquiry as to whether the old town
had country club amused us vastly
at the time. It is the capital of a
prairie state and a thriving city of a
little more than $4,000 people. In the
east it would be a little more than a
village. But in the middle west a
town of $4,000 people lis a thriving
city and possesses all of the appurte-
nances of urban life. We were not
native to the old town; no oId-home
ties distort our view of it. We merely
lived in 1t nineteen years and became
familiar with all Its walks from Sol
der creek on the north to Shunga-
nunga on the south and from the
basebell park on the east to the cam
pus of Washburn college on the west.
The country club was built in 1903.
With one exception, it is a larger and
more expensive structure than, any
country clubhouse we have seen in
Philadelphia or its environs. The town
has two excellent golf courses. More
than 600 persons play on them niRe
months out of every year. They are
speekled with fine golfers. On the
last afternoon of a recent visit we
played 1 8 holes with the old foursome.
The nestor of that foursome is sixty
two years old. The green's were bad
they nearly always are bad in the mid
die west-but he shot a 80 and a 40.
and he is in the second or third flight
of golfers in that town. While we
were there the world series was played
in New York. One of the newspapers
put up an electric scoreboard and gave
each game play by play. The crowds
which turned out to see the games
blocked the streets. Anywhere from
5000 to 10000 people came every day
to watch a counterfeit presentment of
world series baseball. Not more than
ten in every hundred had seen a major
league team. The \ town sports in
reckoning the winnings and losings,