The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-12-29
ON SECOND THOUGHT
By JAY E. HOUSE
tFrom Philadelphia Public Ledger.)

II know it is one of your rules not
to publish anything but remarks that
are derogatory to you,' writes A. H.
S, but 1 hope you will make this at
tempt at a poetical compliment an ex-
ception" All right. all right! Well
do anything once.
Long life to the Column, may its power
In it both wit and satire delightfully."- blend.
Its wit is SO pungent and free from all
The satire so keen without malice or stings,
That this wish I utter from the depth of
May it never be dropped from the P L.
We do rot wish to conceal our de-
light with the foregoing verse. Par
ticularly, We like that part OF 1t IN
which the hope that we may never be
dropped from the payroll is expressed.
1t now appears that we had our mo-
ment of deep desolation for nothing.
The melancholy note investing the re-
marks appearing herein concerning
Mr. George Knockout" Chaney's vol
un9ary retirement from the prize ring
was melancholy wasted. At the con-
clusion of one of the shortest retire
ments of record, Mr.. CLANCY will re-
turn to the prize ring next Tuesday
night.
We had been wont to attribute the
shortest round trip on record to Mr..
Fred Voiland. of Topeka. Kan. Mr..
mayor at 4 o'clock on Sunday after
noon. He withdrew from the race at
o'clock on the following Monday
morning. Mr.. Chaney's circular tin
erary ties Mr.. Voiland's roundabout
journey, if it does not indeed surpass
And you have no idea how the
thought that he has returned bucks
us up.
Mayor Hylans suggestion that the
newspapers print nice things about
New York in order that persons with
money might be induced to visit the
metropolis indicates that the New
York papers have not, as we half sus-
pected, under estimated the mayor
Mayor Hylan's plan would divert trade
instead of attracting it.
What those having money and a de-
sire to spend il in a city wish to hear
is the worst that can be told. If the
newspa pers can stimulate the impress
sion that New York is the wickedest
city on this continent. the town will
not only be able to hold its tourist
trade. but will be able appreciably to
increase it.
When a man wants a nice time for
his money he goes to Sank Center.
You Know What Henry Ford Said.
Sir-You get a lot of fun from Mr..
McGuffey and his reader. Why not
! turn to Andrewss History of the
United States? Let me quote:
by the fourth decade of the nine
| teenth century the American charac-
ter had assumed a good deal of defi-
niteness and greatly interested foreign
a trader, everywhere at home, every
where bent upon the main chance.
He ate too rapidly chewed and
smoked tobacco and spat indecently.
He drank too much. During the first
quarter of the century nearly every
one used liquor and drunkenness was
shamefully common. Every public en-
tertainment, even if religious, set out
provision of free punch. At hotels
brandy was placed upon the table,
free as water for all. The smaller
SectS often held preaching services in
barrooms for lack of better aecommo-
dations. On such occasions the
preacher was not infrequently OBJ
| served, without affront to any one. to
refresh himself from behind the bar
just before announcing his text
Further on is another delicious bit:
Enormous bonnets were fashion,
able about 1880. Dress waists were
short and high. Skirts were short, too,
hardly reaching the ankles"
Irwin Cobb and you needn't think
al; the fun in the world is in McGus-
fcy's readers. G. I. S.
Thoughts spring to heel and leap
for utterance. The first is that Mr.
Andrews sought to taunt those of US
who live in the first quarter of the
twentieth century. The second is that
Mr.. Andrews was SO frequently wrong
in contemporaneous affairs that his
| history may be untrustworthy.
There is one thing, however. this
generation has been spared, and we
are glad of it. That is the spectacle
of people assimilating intoxicating Ii
quors.
Tt is hard to believe the greatest
country the world has known and the
finest civilization had a genesis so de-
bauched