The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-12-17
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
washington, D. G.
THE LURE OF SOME PLACE ELSE

started by a book which described in
| the most luscious language that para
! disc of eternal summer, of easy living,
o. few clothes, and no restraints, and
! of beautiful native maidens who Tell
| in love with white men on sight, ana
| knew little or nothing about mar
riages.
The material for this book. 1t is
| said was supplied by man who had
spent some years in the islands, but
the luscious writing was done by
! clever woman who had never been to
! the islands at all. The book was
| quickly followed by other books by the
same author and by others. Boats
/ bound for the South Seas began to be
packed with tourists.
Then came the inevitable reaction
| The wanderers found that the South
/ Sea Islands were just about ike Flor
| ida California, or any other winter
/ resort country. They found that in
stead of lying around and picking up
| breadfruit whenever they got hungry,
they had to pay $12 a day at sthe
| hotels Instead of capering naked on
coral strands, they had to dress for
dinner. There weren't nearly enough
beautiful native maidens TO go around
As for the climate. it was nice for a
whiIe( but no tropical climate agrees
with a white man for very long at a
stretch.
In word the tourist found that
the hard realities of human life
logged him even to the South Sea Is
lands, and that the books had been
mostly fairy tales. So many were
the disappointed tourists that litera-
ture poking fun at the South Sea Is
lands has sprung into being. Many
magazine articles have been written
to that tune, and now book is out
which is a parody of all other BOOKS
fold aho11A the irrPSnOnSiblA de-
lights of the South Seas.
This comedy has been played over
again. The South Seas have 1eaped
into sudden popularity time after
time, and then have been forgotten
again Robert Louis Stevenson gave
them a run some years ago, and be-
fore that, Herman Melville set men to
hankering after bread fruit and
tropical warmth and beautiful copper
colored damsels
Places That Aren't.
OF course, what the writer's describe
and what the readers banker after
and often go in search of, is not the
South Sea Islands as they really are,
but a purely imaginary realm which
will play TO all of the longingS which
they cannot satisfy at home. These
periodic craZeS about strange lara
way Arcadies are simply evidence of
the fact that most men are only half
satisfied by the reality and SO live
largely in their dreams. This craving
for some place else is chiefly inter-
esting~ as revealing the unsatisfied
longings of men. The South Sea Is
lands are by no means the only pop
ular never-never land. The Orient is
another one which has a spell of pop
ularity every few years. It, too, is
having one just now. A series of spec
tacular plays. purporting to describe
life in the Orient, have had great
success. Several books of the same
character have been best-sellers, and
the movies as usual have followed suit.
It is interesting to note that this
imaginary Orient has almost exactly
the same essential features as the
ina ginary South Sea Island. In this
Orient of the screen and the stage it
is once more always summer, once
more people are shown leading easy,
unrestrained lives, and once more the
unclad damsel of emancipated morals
is the leading feature of the scene.
These colorful portrayaIs of an
easy, idle life, full of excitement and
desire, devoid of hard work and
clothes, draw enormous crowds of
typical Americans, who work hard ev-
cry day in the week and often go to
church on Sunday, who lead lives of
routine and restraint. in the most law
ridden land on earth, and who are
easily scandalized by any suggestion
of immortality in the lives of their
neighbors.
Things Men Crave.
Is there anything strange in their
liking for these pictures and books
and plays, which describe life as a
thing of freedom, adventure and lust?
Nothing at ALL. In. each of those
worthy citizens is buried a subliminal
self that longs for just those things,
and the preposterous books and pic
lures give him a sort of vicarious sat
isfaction.
These books and plays and pictures,
then, are above all a diagnosis of civ
ilized life in America. They show
what it lacks by showing what the
man who is living it instinctively
| Graves. And the things which he
! Graves invariably are less work, less
restraint. more adventure, more free
dom, and especially more freedom in
| the matter of love.
| The instinct of the average man as
| to what is the matter with his life is
! probably right. Most people doubtless
| do work too hard, and above all they
work too monotonously. They do the
4 same things over and over again until
| those things become meaningless.
There is not enough of change and
excitement in their lives. There is
not enough to feed their imaginations
and develop their emotions. Most
! people, too. are not satisfied in love.
! 81 lar the average ulau Is ne
/ knows what he wants, even if he won t
! admit it, or at least he feels what he
wants even if he doesn't know it. The
| books he reads, the pictures and plays
/ he goes to see are his confession of
/ longing and aspiration.
| Where he is wrong is in supposins
! that if he could just go to some far
away place all would be different. AS
a matter of fact, life is amazingly
similar wherever you go. You can
/ satisfy your longing in a measure any
where if you are strong and clever
1 enough. and If you are not. the odds
are against you or a South Sea Island
no less than on the Island of Manhat-
/ tan.
Salvation for any man is not flight
to some PARKWAY place where the game
! is easier, but in a careful study of the
/ environment about him.
4 Dinner Stories