The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-30
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE
tFrOn Philadelphia Public LedEer)

New York theatrical managers and
others are trying to diagnose flimp :
theatrical season. They are using a
cold iron We would undertake to do
1t in a sentence. They have made it
too hard to get into the theater. The
trouble incident to getting seats is out
offered.
sNote to proofreader: There is no
such word; but let it ride, anyway.
At any rate. there was no such word
now
But, recurring to matters theatrical
when the people learn, if they ever do,
that they can get good seats at the
box office of the theater for tomorrow
nights performance business will pick
up again. We projected that view
point last winter. Few affected to
notice it; nobdy paid any attention to
It,. But everybody now agrees theatre
cal business is shot to pieces.
We leave it to purveyors of theatri-
cal merchandise to write their own
moral.
As one who, in a small way and at
a somewhat remote period, wrote OF
sporting events, we have great faith
in the perspicuity and sincerity of
sporting writer's. We were just Won
dering if the newspaper decision
Benny Leonard won over Sailor
Freedman on Tuesday night was
customary and usual in the circum-
stance.
We know nothing of eastern Gus
toms, but in other sections of this
country-say in Arizona, for instance
lit is necessary for a champion to
beat his opponent in order 10 get the
decision.
The Doctors Disagree.
Sir-In your column in the issue of
November 81 a correspondent takes
issue" with you in this use of the prep
osition with" In expressions like
take issue with it is natural and
correct to use this proposition in this
sense of opposition. This sense be-
longs to its original meaning. If you
want to see the original meaning of
a word, you will often find IT In some
compound, as, for example, with
stand" The Bible is full of the use of
with in the sense of opposition. I
happened to see this morning the last
verse of the Twelfth Chapter of the
Book Of Revelation, which reads:
And the dragon was wroth with the
woman, and went to make war with
the remnant of her seed" j. H. D.
The fact, however, that the column
has been sustained by one authority
need not deter others from pointing
out errors of grammar and eonstruc-
ton that appear herein. All we ask
is that the matter of the offending
word or sentence be not taken up with
the Chief-that it be not made the
basis of a demand that we be sep
arated from the job. That sort of
tn inqr V-nPridS hr1f IT lie a II right
any time to administer a personal re-
buke.
Another writes: 1T always shrink
when l encounter your intrigue 1t
was born outside of blankets and
never should be boosted into decent
society. I am sure you do not know
how many people it needlessly Of
tends. There are synonyms, and they
do not share its odium. Why not
drop it?"
We were on the point of casting
intrigue" into the outer darkness; it
has served its purpose so far as the
column is concerned. But if there are
those whom it offends we must needs
retain it in the columns repertoire.
AS man to man. how are we to Keep
up interest in the column unless we
offend somebody?
A correspondent VINO says he ad-
miFes Eugene V. Debs more than any
other living man sends US two para
graphs which he says were taken from
the golden editorial columns of the
New York Call. They follow:
1t may be true that President
Harding is planning to free Debs
but who is going to free those
whom Debs has placed in the pill
lory for all time to come?
A Chicago banker has been re-
leased after serving eleven months
of a three-year sentence for
wrecking ten banks. 1t is more
respectable to steal than it is to
talk, providing you tell the truth.
Ask Debs.
All right; We'll bite. What do the
golden paragraphs" mean and what
of it?
The only thing we are able to de-
duce from them Is that Debs seems
likely to have a little the best of it.