The Topeka state journal., 1922-06-21
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger.)

1
/ Copy this and send to nine people
whom you wish good luck" recites a
| chain-letter moored at this dock.
/ 1.-The chain was started by an Amer
| lean officer and should go three times
chain, for whoever does will have
bad luck. Do it within twenty-four
! hours and count nine days and you
will have some great good fortune"
The distinguishing characteristics Of
the column are its fearlessness and its
audacity. Were going to break the
chain We understand fully the
untoward happens. Wen get a column
of good stuff out of it.
One other thought in the connec-
tion opens its petals and bursts upon
US: Who are the serious minded
asses who start the chain-letters?
We have a sort of hunch that our
Sunday afternoon, just out of Clay
mont, Del. a black cat crossed the
road directly in front of the Blue
| Swallow. There were fifty motor We
hicles-mostly Fords-in sight along
the highway. The cat could have
crossed in front of any one of them
but it waited for the Blue Swallow.
We came into port without mishap Of
any A1IQ anu nOInlnS mas happened
since Judging the future by the
past, If a black cat doesn't bring US
bad luck, no chain-Ietter is going to
do it.
You're too damn elegant" writes
a reader. That is faint praise. We
are, of fact, meticulously so.
Mr.. Lasker has confirmed the re-
port that alcoholic liquor is being
served on American ships at sea. Mr..
Lasker has only recently come into
public life and, apparently. is unfa-
miliar with its customs. The custom
in public life, we take the liberty of
advising him, is either to sidestep or
to straddle.
Mr.. Lasker's frank admission, how
ever, reduces one moot question to
the status of an elemental problem.
The American citizen who contem-
plates a sea voyage need have not hesi-
tation about sailing on an American
ship.
Nobody Knows.
Sir-I read you daily, therefore am
of the elect. I come with a query.
may be a moron for not knowing the
answer; but I don't. Here it is: Why
does a pictured face in a public place
inspire certain of our citizens to add
mustache thereto? What of their
completes and reactions, and why? Is
your felicitous frivolity? j. F. T.
No diversion which tempts to indul-
gence two-thirds of the inhabitants of
this country above the age of seven
years may be regarded as too frivolous
for discussion. The topic has many
interesting angles. We have noticed
that of every million persons who feel
and half-tone art, only 731 have lead
pencils. OF the 731, not more than
three can produce anything remotely
resembling mustache, an imperial or
a Burnside whisker. But nobody
knows why they do it.
'I am not a Socialist" remarked
woman friend of ours the other day,
but there is som ething wrong" No
doubt about it. But it is nothing the
simple medicaments of industry, eff
cheney and thrift won't remedy The
chief trouble is that the number of
vendors who wish to sell tickets for
the SPECTATORS rakeoff is out of pro-
portion to the number of buyers
This May Be in "Sparks of Laughter
No. T."
Sir-A propos of a lot of things in
this story, which I haven't heard for
twenty years or more. A farmer in
your beloved state of Kansas had built
a rude shack for his home Along
came a cyclone and reduced it to scat
tered lumber, With much gusto the
farmer stood outside cussing the
storm and all other related factors in
his hard luck. His wife listened in
Cdmiration and then said: Hey, paw,
let up on that cussin' and come in
here and get this cook stove off my
leg!" A. r. w.
A. r. W. leaves US in much the
same plight as did the man who
laughed himself to death. Nobody
took the trouble to find out what the
joke was. A. R. w. neglected to indi-
cate any of the things of which his
cyclone story is a propos
There is some talk of holding an
other anti-prohibition parade on the
Fourth of July; but it's a compara-|
lively safe gamble it dosn't proceed
from those who participated in the
other one,