The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-11-11
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAZZ u. HOUSE.
(Tron Philadslphia Publis Lsdsse.l


to get into another row. This one
is with a reader who objects to the
fact that this newspaper printed tne
news OF the Roster case He writes:
certify and truth defend your own
paper for the sensational stuff, in
GLIDING photographs, Of the Roster
trial?"
We can and do. The Roster case
was news Not only that but. IN a
way important news. To our way OF
thinking, it is as much the duty or a
newspaper to clarity as it is to reveal
Here was cheap, sordid murder almost
obscured by maudlin piffle and punk
and flapdoodle. We Conceive 1t 10
have been the duty OF a newspaper
To do so it was necessary to print az az
of the relevant detail concerning II
You can't leave it to the people; you've
got to tell 'em.
The day the Roster trial opened we
happened TO be talking to the re-
porter assigned to BOYER II. How
would you write itR" he asked.
well" we replied, we'd write the
facts in a simple. straightforward way.
The tendency will be to over-Write II.
The mush-mopgers and the sob-sisters
will run hog-wild on it. As a matter
of craftsmanship, we'd underwrite 1t.
In that way we'd make our story Stand
out in the reek of florid and hysterical
reporting which will characterize the
case. After we had related the facts
in simple fashion, we'd poison every
well along the way. You'll be deal
doubt, or right, or fairness enters into
it. 1t is as much your duty as news
paperman to show up the morons who
are justifying it as it is to present the
facts of the trial" And We thought
the young man made a pretty good
job of it.
1t all reVerts to a decision handed
down in this column some weeks ago.
High-ciass Journalism consists in re-
vealing the various activities and
manifestations of humankind in fair
and accurate fashion. Because many
of the manifestations and activities of
humankind are cheap and sordid and
commonplace, much of the news will
deal with cheap and sordid and COM
monplace events. 1t isn't high-class
is class journalism. And, as a rule, the
class journal dies presently of mani
ton
For that reason we shall pay only
casual attention to the communica-
ton received from w. K.
What we wish to say to him is that
the word about which he wakes sa-
tirical and contemptuous was cor
rectly employed The fact that he has
never used it in the connection has no
bearing in the matter. Conceivably.
there are a great many things he
doesn't know. Apparently, that is one
of them. That he is. as he says, tired
of the locutions, bored stiff and
able. Only Herman properly appre-
ciate a rugged phraseology.
AS we have hitherto indicated. we
seldom engage in either. but, as a sim
pie matter of courtesy. it seems we
should pay some attention to the COM
plant lodged herewith by +. B., and
we shall now do so.
F. B. writes in part: "Next time you
see Sinclair Lewis will you convey to
him my coincidence? You pulled a
ing a friendly chat with a man and
then publicly denouncing him as typ
ica1y mid west, 1 should think you'd
be ashamed to see him again."
Everybody knows our passion for
accuracy. 1t is. in a way, the col
umn's trademark. And So we wish
to correct the impression that we had
a chat with Mr.. Lewis. 1t was a ses-
sion. It lasted from 1880 o'clock in
the evening until 2 o'clock the fol-
lowing morning. Had we not been in
evening regalia we should have stayed
all night. A meeting OIL the DroIAer-
hood Is not adequately described by
referring to it as a chat
1t was thus we discovered that Mr.
Lewis is typically midwest. That is a
broad, general term, meaning many
things. But specifically what we
meant by it was that he has the deep
strain of melancholy which almost in
evitably underlies the native Ameri
can of the middle west. 1t is a melan-
choly CARRIED in the diaphanous veil of
romanticism, the legacy of the pion- |
GERS to their descendants. Mr.. Lewis !
inherited the quality from his father
who was, and is, a country doctor in |
Sank Center. MINI. And the latter
probably got it from his father. 1t is