The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-27
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY z. HOUSE
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger)

ness is with the unimpprtant, but now
and then We point an idle finger at
the Unusual We find inspiration for
such gesture in the announcement of
the recent marriage of Miss Edith B.
Webb and Mr.. George Miles. Buried
deep in the story OF the wedding as
printed in the New York Trtb is re-
vealed the fact that ''the bride is do
ing her own housework"
We are only a peor columnist sprung
from a "hick" environment. We gre
not supposed to know anythingf of
metropolitan journalism. But If that
isn't the lead" of that story. Mr..
Dana's definition of news was wrong.
Regular readers of the column may
recall the handsome offer made to
the first Philadelphia family to show
us butler. Our assortment of prizes
is such and so varied that we do not
now remember the article we prom
Used to confer. Likely it was the
gold-plated hallmark. In any event,
everybody will be interested to learn
we are making progress. We talked
over the telephone yesterday with a
gentleman who has one
1t seems to US we are approaching
the end of our long quest. That we
shall ultimately see a butler seems
now to be certainty.
We desire to cast no shadow Of
doubt upon the newspaper relation of
the feat of former Governor Osborn,
OF Michigan, who is credited with
choking a bear to death. We believe
the story implicitly. But what. we
wish to ask, was the occasion for do
ing it?
The New York papers are trying to
! q 80 a.
breaking rum We had wondered
about that, too. and finally decided it
was because it is pretty good show.
Plain Talk by the Preachers Wife.
Sir-A propos of Fannie Hurst,
there is Elinor Glyn. whom the motion
picture fraternity is trying to lionize
just now. I think you are wrong
when you shrug your shoulders and
| acquiesce, as it were, to the trend of
the times and call it inevitable. Moth
ing is such Il public opinion is strong
enough against it.
take the stand that we will always
have such things with us and that is
why I do not become an alarmist.
But it will be a constant fight be-
tween the best and the worst elements
of society, with sometimes one and
sometimes the other in the ascend
ancy. With the stage it is a little
more fair-you can pick your COM
pany-but the motion picture is sub
tie. You go to see a picture that has
passed a board of censors and settle
back to enjoy something wholesome.
Even the title, Don't Neglect Your
Wife, helps the delusion. You find
you are asked to sympathize with the
divorce, while the hero is represent
ed as turning to drink to drown his
disappointment and the heroine, also.
in order to show her sorrow at being
separated from her mesalliance.
But this is not the worst; in fact, 1t
is the least, for the brotheI, too, plays
its nasty part here. The scene is LARD
out west, where they call such places
dives" Our heroine browns her sor-
rows IN one Of these nasty places and,
as If the suggestion is not offensive
enough, young and old alike are TAX
/ en- into the malarial contamination
and treated to a scene which is
thrown on the background, not once
but three or four times. of a perfectly
nude woman with consort. Forgive
this plain talk with all its frills taken
off. If you think your column can
stand it, it might help to point the
moral by signing the epistle
A MINISTER'S WIFE.
We used to try to regulate the uni
verse. We didn't have much luck at
it and after a time withdrew from
the competition. In large part. we at
elAOOtSu AdiuI0 u the TACT Ifldt the
field was overcrowded. Everybody
else was doing it; most of them are at
it yet. Out of the experience we
evolved an idea. 1t is that public
morals can't be regulated by scream
ing or scolding or by passing laws.
Gentle ridicule is the lethai weapon.
- AS whole, the people have poor
taste. They have no high moral aims
or aspirations. But they are suscep-
tible to ridicule, and may be reached
by it. If the newspapers were so dis
posed, they could kid" any public ex-
hibition of indecency, any display of
questionable taste, any mess of mushy
sentimentality, into a timely grave
within the week of its ACCOMPLISHMENT.
The trouble is that most of the news
papers have no sense. either.