The Topeka state journal., 1922-12-25
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY q. HOUSE.
(Fron Philadslphia Public Ledsas.l

what is the matter with Eastern
journalism ?">asks one who writes to
lament the fact that he is no longer
able to read the Chicago papers. "A
good many Western newspapermen,'
he observes. "come East to work on
newspapers. but they lose their kick
after being here 4 while. Convention
cuts their horns off"
I We have been studying Eastern
Journalism if that is what P. P. wants
to call it. pretty closely for three and
a half years. We have been familiar
with Chicago journalism for thirty.
We don't see anything the matter with
! the Eastern brand. 1t is plenty fast
enough for us, if anybody cares for
our personal reaction to it The idea
that newspapermen lose their kick
in the East or that convention cramps
them is pish posh. 1t is inferior pish
posh at that The man who knows
what to do with liberty-who can be
trusted not to abuse it-may have his
freedom in any decent newspaper of
flee, East or West.
Good newspapermen just happen.
They are likely to happen anywhere
1t is a gift. The best newspaperman
we ever knew was country editor
who never worked q day on a metro
politan newspaper in his life His
name was E. w. Howe. That which
we know fundamentally of newspaper
work-we learned watching Howe. He
had surprising gifts. He knew exactly
he was indefatigable in finding It. lie
had the genius of narration and en-
doWed his facts with phraseologlcal
grace and skill. Better still, he had
fhe faculty of instantaneous differen-
tiation between the Imitation and the
genuine. Howe ran the most 1nfluen-
tial country newspaper ever printed IN
America, but he would have been
great editor in any setting
Howe happened in a country town
in the middle west. He might have
happened anywhere. But the fact IS,
there are more good newspaper men
in the metropolitan newspaper belt OF
tn east than in any other equivalent
area in the country. We go further:
there are four times as many
Not only that, but the condition ex
listed prior to May, 1919. Cur coming
east did very little, if anything. to es-
tablisn it.
Terminal Infacility of Baron Roscn.
Sir: I enter the following from
Baron Roseh's Forty Years of Di-
plomacy'' as the worlds longest and
most interesting sentence:
after having spent, most agree
ably, about a. month in Washington:
having been initiated at the old Met
ropof1tan club in the mysteries of the
seductive but slightly uncertain game
of poker, and, lastly, at a Christmas
Eve party at Sir EDWARD and Lady
Thornton's; having witnessed per
formance of the Spanish dance known
as 'cachuca' by my old lamented friend
and colleague, Victor Drumn1ond, |
then first secretary of the British le
cation, as well as a remarkable stunt
executed by the German minister, the
learned DIR. Won SchIoetzer, which con-
sisted of his turning his white waist !
coat inside out without taking off his
dress coat, 1 reluctantly Dade good-by |
to all my neW-made friends in Amer |
lr1 and Rflh9 TEP(1 ri tho I
waves of my beloved Atlantic ocean,
which. 1 am happy to say, 1 have
crossed thirty-seven times, the last |
crossing that brought me here having /
rendered me happier than all previous
ones.' FRANK.
Speaking of sentences, Buck Kilby |
used to say marriage is the longest. |
But what he really meant was that !
marriage is the longest sentence that !
can he imposed by justice of the \
peace.
H. L. NJ. has a competitor in H. H /
G., who writes: ''I'H spot him Thanks /
giving, Christmas and New Years
less time to play. My schedule is:
Daughters birthday anniversary, No
vember IL; wife's birthday anniver-
sary, December s; wedding anniver-
sary, December ID; my own wedding
December %. Kindly in
scribe my name on the gold coal scut-
tie until a superior claim is made"
If H. H. G. wants the gold coal
scuttle, he is in the wrong competitive
event. The prize in his class is the
three-toed rocking chair; and in or
der to cole into permanent posses
sion, he must win it three years in
succession.
At any rate, it cannot be said that
Miss Frederick, whose third adven-
ture is being talked about in the pa
pers and elsewhere, hasn't given mar
riage fair trial
1--WE wanted to argue your theory"
writes 'aTeltix,'' that the middle west
is the great stamping ground of ro-
mantle melancholy. I think it ex-
tends further than that and rests on
something deeper-namely, that some
time, somewhere among the forbearsl
of every American, there was some
one who had the nerve to upstakes
and emigrate- The middle west may
show the most obvious manifestation
Of romantic melancholy, but think a
certain amount, and a pretty large
amount, exists in every American"
Likely shat is true. TIL only diff
ference is that the middle westerner
is little closer to the inspiration of
his melancholy, and it grips him
harder.