The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-28
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY z. HOUSE.
tFEom Philadelphia Public Ledger.l

Cutting a hostile Indian bow from
the shoulder of your grandfather,
communicates w. ". T, was what
might be referred to as quelque cut.
No wonder you entered him in the
Ancestral Stakest'
Well w. n. T. will remember that
at the time we entered him In the
competition we remarked upon the
fact that he was some grandfather.
IT don't care for public opinion; I
speak my mind" Mr.. Secretary weeks
| is quoted as saying. Wen, nelther 40
we and so do we, so far as the Gus
tomary and necessary editorial CEN
sorship permits.
But there is one other little thing
worthy of consideration in the connec-
ton: Neither Mr.. Secretary Weeks nor
the reporter who writes this column
has to make a campaign for re-elec-
ton this fall.
Personally, we don't believe it is
necessary for a public official to be
scared of his constituency. But being
| what he is. a human being, he is
scared of it.
There's No Use Getting Excited About
1t.
Sir-You say the people demand the
details of Mrs. Astor'S marital inhar-
monies What people? Ninety-nine per
cent of the people in this country
wouldn't know there were any AstorS
! if they didn't read about them in the
papers. If you would make a canvass
/ in toto of every one in the United
States. you would find 80 per cent of
them wouldn't know who you meant
| by the Astors.
| The newspapers and the movies give
the people the stuff. The people take
what they get. You are no better
than an editorial writer, and when an
editorial writer is not accentuating
the obvious. what he says invaria bly,
amt so. Amt we got fun? D. d.
| We hope the gentleman will calm
| himself. 1t is a large question with
many interesting angles. Discussion
of it should not be entered upon by
one in an excited frame of mind. 1t
is true that SO per cent of the people
! in this country wouldn't know there
were Astors if they didn't read about
them in the papers. But, on the other
| hand. if the papers neglected to print
the Aston news probably the people
wouldn't buy them. The people lead
humdrum lives. Being one of them.
we know. For them the adventure
| of reading the newspapers furnishes
| the larger part of the spice of eX-
istence.
The thing carries further and runs
deeper Except in a limited way and
/
1 the people are not interested in the
great questions. They live, mentally
speaking, on personalities and the
| trivial and insignificant facts of life.
They love the homely touch. CONVEX
sation among well-educated and in
telligent people runs to banalities and
largely is predicated on trifling per-
| sonal experiences. To appeal to the
people newspapers must re-create
these experiences in their columns.
We find some fault with the news
papers. They are not altogether sat
| isfactory to US. But what we object
| to is not so much the trivial and in
significant nature of the news as the
fact that so much of it is palpable in
vention. A good deal of the spice is
imaginative. Nothing that might have
happened is as Interesting as that
which did happen.
AS we have said, the people love
the homely touch and the simple ele-
mental things of life. Day by day
that is impressed upon us in our owr
| reactions. Downstown, for two OF
| three hours a day, we sit in judgment
| on the world. At home we have the
1 usual talkIng-mach and the usua
| collection of reconnaissance good and
| some bad. Specifically, we know
music and prefer the good to the bad
/ But when we go home at the end OF
\ a days work, tired and little out OF
sorts. it is not to the great artists or
the great orchestras to whom we turn
] for solace and consolation. We are
much more likely to put ON a gospel
| hymn sung by male or mixed quar-
i tet, of which we have a collection.
And We perfectly understand this ges-
| lure. 1t is the urge to descend from
| the plateau of the job into the valley
| of the elemental.
We suppose we've played the mixed
| quartet record of There Is Rest for
! the Weary a thousand times. From
| 1t we get a perfect mental picture OF
the little country church-the group
of elderly, uncultured, primitive
brethren and sisters who worshiped
in its amen corners, its smoking kero-
sene lamps, its roaring wood stoves
in which we first heard 1t. When we