The Topeka state journal., 1922-11-18
ON SECOND THOUGHT
By JAY =. HOUSE.
IFFom PhilsdslpAla Public LadeaR1

Adelaide came home late Monday
afternoon, bringing word that Some oL
the Wernersville folk were WonderinS
what the column would say apouS 80, L.
on her return. We could wiring from
the imagination a beautiful story OIL
the wanderers homecoming. we
could endow il with the unguent OF
soft words We could wreathe II in
sentiment and thus achieve the ap-
probation of the attractive sex. BUT
our experience as a delineator or the
various phases or hRfnan actlVity mas
taught us that invented detail never
is as interesting as trivial and insig-
nificant fact. And so we set down
fhere that wRich actually happened.
Inasmuch as the hour YVES late. we
suggested the expedient of dining
downtown. But Adelaide preferred
the surcease of a home-cooked meal
and so, loading UP with staple and
fancy groceries, we drove TO the Ia
niliar address, Adelaide went poklng
about the apartment looking 1or aust
and sniffipg the atmospnsre LOT
arrangement of the glassware which
seemed unfamiliar suggested 10 hsr
that we had given q party IN her ap-
call on some friends in nearby SUD
urb. The friends were out for the
evening and we were back home again
before 9 o'clock.
Some of the neighbors dropped in
for a casual chat and presently went
their way. The apartment took on ITS
habitual aspect of calm ana quiet:
There were a couple of new novels and
a stack of magazines on the table III
the living room. The gods had pro-
vided new phonograph records. But
at 10 o'clock Adelaide could stand the
inertia no longer and started cleaning
the refrigerator. When, some time
after midnight. we reluctantly decided
we couldn't finish "Babbitt' at one
reading and sought Morpheus, she was
busting the living room.
Life is portrayed IN various colors.
The impulse is to tip it with flame.
But, mostly, it is like that.
As we have indicated, we are no
more than half way rnru "Babbitt."
Lacking the gift of forecast, we have
no notion as to how it comes out. The
only thing of which we are convinced
is that Mr.. Lewis must make his exit
thru the same doorway by which he
effected entrance. The man who pu1
zles his head over the answer to life
never finds it.
There is a solution, of course. 1t is
achieved not in evolving an answer to
the riddle. but in forgetting that it is a
riddle.
The result of the election leaves the
Hon. Mr.. Borah in unenViable posi-
ton. The Republican party was shot
in so many places thas 1t is virtually
impossible for the Hon. Senator to be
unhappy about it.
But That Would Spoil the Column
for Us.
Sir-In replying to correspondents
who find fault with your daily murder
of the English language, you should
fall back on the great authority, Rich
ard Grant White, who once said, He
who writes what is worth the reading
may make his own grammar Bob
Burdette, in his Burlington Hawkeye
days, quoted this saying of White and
added the comment, Those is which
we have always did, Mr.. White"
AS one who writes pretty good Eng
lish and knows it, we should be desc
become critical of the manner IN
which we give it currency.
We wish to be accommodating, but
the contributor who is trying to run
the Hon. George Wharton Pepper for
president in this column must for the
moment, do his killing elsewhere. We
are not yet ready to commit the col
umn to any candidate.
What we think of William H. An
derson's plan for the passage of legis-
lation to enable grand Juries to indict
lOA DOOLAtSSNIo WIZ Stll lAQuOT
that proves fatal is that is is imprac-
ticable and of no value. If the identity
of the bootlegger can be learned, the
thing to do is to try him, not for muir
der, but for bootlegging.
We reason from this premise: 1t is
possible, in some sections of the coun-
try, to convict an offender of the
crime of bbotlegging. 1t is almost i'm
possible to. convict an offender of the
crime of murder anywhere.
'I am not trying to take away any
ones beer" Lady Astor is quoted as
saying. We don't know anything
about English politics, but in this
country thet would mean Lady Astor
had her back to the wall.