The Topeka state journal., 1922-12-23
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY u. HOUSE.
(Prom Philadalphia PubIic LsdeAe.)

-Ah! Here is a gentleman looking
/ for an argument Il sometimes won
der" he writes as he stands aghast at
our airy dismissal of what he is
pleased TO regard as the motion-pic-
i ture problem, IF your readers realize
what cheap and easy thing it is to
write the stuff you do" We don't be-
lieve they do. If they did, more of
| them would be writing columns.
Columning is the almost perfect job.
The pay is adequate. The hours, from
] 2 to o'clock in the afternoon, attrac-
tive. If people knew what a snap it
is, they'd all be coIumnists.
ST have never seen insyour column"
| the gentleman continues. the slightest
| indication of constructive criticism"
| We should hope not. s"Constructive
criticism" is a fine phrase, but it
where with this "cheGp and easy
stuff. Once, in Zenith Chose were the
days in which we shaved in the mid
die of the afternoon), we stopped the
practice of Saturday-afternoon hair
cutting in week. 1t never was re-
vived until after we left the town. But
we don't know a single so-called CON
structiye critic" who isn't boring his
| audience stiff.
Motion-picture regulation merely is
another manifestation of paternalism.
In the ten or fifteen years Iast-past the
SOutib1y mas OEGI pdleTndllZGu 10
death. We, the people, are regulated,
codified, admonished and administered
from the cradle to the grave. AS a
matter of fact, the country is running
the one that should have been the first
to profit by the paternaI measure
taken in its behalf, is the toughest we
have known.
And<in order that the young people
properly may appreciate what this
country was before it fell under the
influence and domination of the public
songs.
The Songs Our Fathers Sang.
How the people held their breath
When they heard of Jesse's DEATH
And wondered how he ever came to die:
1t was for the big reward little Robert
Shot Jesse James on the sly.
The children he left will pray
For the thief and the coward
Who shot Mr.. Howard
And laid Jesse James in his grave.
Jesse was a man
friend to the poor.
Never did did he he suffer a mans pain;
He robbed the Chicago bank,
And stopped the Glendale train.
Jesse goes to rest
With his hand on his breast
And the devil will be upon his knees;
He was born one day in the County of
And came from a great race
Don't be afraid to die;
With the law in their hand
But they didn't have the sand
For TO take Jesse James alive.
OF all the towns in Pennsylvania
dry area, Sunbury seems to have the
0T11x I1xy CT,
ing the problem of an inadequate
water supply. 1t has appointed a COM
mittee to investigate the matter.
There may be no constructive writ
ing in the column, but it stands ready
always to approve constructive plan
when one is formulated.
Speaking again of constructive writ
ing and recurring to the matters dis
cusSed in the opening paragraphs of
this contribution to contemporaneous
literature, this column is one mans
opinions. 1t expresses the reactions of
a hick to life. They are often right
and not infrequently wrong. You take
them or leave them. Our job is to in
duce people to read what we have to
say. In that we have been measurably
successful. We write in many moods,
sometimes with marked exaggeration
and again with reverse English. We
do not wish to be reformative or cor
rective. The only thing that concerns
US is wh ether we have talked sense
and maintained a decent seIf-respect.
Theodore Dresser has just written
book, of 502 pages about himself.
Kemp'S book about Harry Kemp is
selling for So. If we can't write a
paragraph or two about ourself now
and then, what's the use of having a
column?
What We have learned about hu-
mankind is that one can't do much
with it thru critical speech or by way
of restrictive measures. But if one can
assist the individual to see himself as
others see him, he has placed a cor
rective in the hands of the only per-
son capable of administering it.
Marriage probably is the most eff
fective of all the corrective measures. |
One marriage will do MORE for a man |
than all of the writing q columnist is !
able to do in the course of a lifetime. |
A wife's unbiased opinion is the great |
est corrective measure that can be ad- |
ministered to a husband.
We have already indicated the first, |
second and third poorest jokes in the |
world The fourth poorest joke is
what the Governor of North Carolina |
is reputed to have said to the Governor |
l.