The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-09-06
ON SECOND THOUGHT
By JAY E. HOUSE.
lFrom PhiIadelphia Public Ledesf.l

OriVing west last 1all we parked IN
Quincy for the night. After. a very
good dinner in a restaurant which
formerly had been a famous saloon,
we walked across the street into the
beautiful little park Ground which rhe
town is built. This park is etched
sat here travel-staiped. worn and
weary and envied the squirrels the
peanuts passers-by, fed to them. l
came back tonight in my own car. l
came back. not peripatetic printer
or a smail-town reporter, but q
column conductor I'm a good story
Let's go up to the Whig-Herald office
and gets our names in the paper"
We climbed the stairs to the edi-5
terial rooms of the Whig-Hsraid
Two or three shirt-sleeved young men
were bending over desks. OF one we
asked for the city editor. He isn't
here" the young man replied He
can't work all day and night, too"
Then we explained to the young man
who we were. We were going to tell
him what we'd been. But he wasn't
interested. rs that so?' he said.
What can do for your" We skunk
down the stairs. and we
didn't get a line in the paper.
We Found This Interesting.
Sir-The revival of the bonus issue
in the column, and particularly r. j.
Hager's scintiliatfng and logical
epistle, calls to mind two examples of
the way the war reacted on indi-
viduals. Both came under my per-
sonal notice and both are authentic.
You are at liberty to make whatever
use you wish of them
Prior to the entrance of the United
States in the. war A. B. was a handy
man in a garage, handy" being
gentle euphemism. His weekly emoi-
ument was SIS. which, as George AIDE
has remarked, was large il you knew
A. B. He submitted uncomplainingly
to the draft because, to paraphrase a
good old English expression, he didn't
have the abdominal adequacy to do
anything else. He did his duty as a
soldier intelligent1y and faithfully, for
he had brains, but he was physically
and mentally a coward. At the first
semblance of a fight he slithered off
and hid in the underbrush. A young
lieutenant wise beyond his years,
found him and talked to him; talked
like a Dutch uncle. He stirred within
his lackey's soul semblanee of pride.
of belief in himself. To shorten the
tale he came out of the war wearing
the D. S. c. He came out a man. A.
B. is now prosperous auto-accessory
man in New York, owning his own
business. married. with a family and
on the road to independence. There
is no man he cannot look fairly in the
eye But for the wak he would have
continued a masseur to muddy auto
mobiles at SIS a week.
B. A. is a lawyer. At the opening
of the war7h ne had a fine practice. He
comes of long line of fighting an
cestors. Altho little beyond the age
of the first draft, tradition demanded
that he offer his services to his coun-
try. He felt the urge within him.
Every time he saw a flag he felt
guilty. He hung around recruiting
offices and draft boards with unrest
in his heart. 1t would take the pen
of & Hugo to describe the battle that
IA ged in his inmost consciousness. But
there was the fine practice that would
go to pot. 1t was the deciding factor.
B. A. now is on the downhill road and
mighty near the bottom He has lost
his grip on things. There is within
him the consciousness that he was
called and did-not answer. His prac-
tice has slipped away. He is just wor-
rying along with an iron ranking in
his soul.
Who OF these men deserves a
bonus? say, give it to the lawyer.
Us. W. J. H.
Curiously enough, the contribution
from w 5. II. buttresses a contention
we have long held and often ex-
pressed. 1t is that the real sufferers
from the war were those who couldn't
get into it and those who could have
got into it but didn't do it. For those
who couldn't get in. time dulls the keen
edge of regret. For those who could,
have gone, the fact of their delin-
quency will be a barbed memory thru
all the years to come.
Had you observed writes r. H.
R., that the great issues of the day
no longer are decided in the barber
shops, but that the solutions now are
reached in the massage rooms of the
Turkish baths?"
The fact that we hadn't noticed it
is not surprising. Our acquaintance
with the Turkish bath is yicarious.
We're always all right the next morn
ing.
We trust nobody will discover that
we have the wrong slant on the word
'-vicarious." We can ill afford to
suffer the loss of two phrassological
props in ona day. We can get along
without "nadir"; we used it sparingly.
I But 'vicarious'' Is an essential.
George Matthew Adams