The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-15
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE
tFrom Philadelphia Public Ledger.)

Thoughts concerning the Hollywood
mystery leap and frivol in mind. OF
these, the most engaging, perhaps, is
the one concerning the perspicacity
OF the Los Angeles police. Vested
authority in Los Angeles has decided
that murde1, was done and that it was
committed by a man or a woman.
Mystery yields to the touch of an ex-
pert hand. Except for the trifling
detail of fixing the identity of the
guilty party or parties, nothing now
remains to be done.
If the police are correct in the as
sumption that a woman did it. the
mystery is soluble and presently will
dissolve under its own weight. A
woman is either troubled or boastful
concerning any episode in which she
has beeA involved. She must tell
SOMEONE Usually she tells another
woman, and the other woman does the
rest.
To US the sidelights that fall
athwart the case are more interesting
than the central tragedy. We have
referred to the disclosure of the fact
that some of the motion-p picture
that some of them can write.
AS exclusively forecast in this
column, we have been rebuked for our
farmer" One who signs himself ''Ex-
Farmer" writes: when a man writes,
about something Of which he has no
knowledge he usually makes a fool OF
himself. The jay who engineers the
silly column has done full justice to
his name on the farm question. Can
we wonder that Philadelphia is ridi-
culed all over the land when a publica-
ton sacrifices 81 whole column to such
twaddle as the jay dispenses? He
never said a clever thing; never pre-
scented a new idea. He disgusts every
body, belongs in the padded CELL"
Still. the column has its qualities,
and we ask that it be given credit for
them. 1t is our proud boast that it
has. at one time or another. if we may
employ good Middle-Western idiom,
got under the hide of every fathead,
every yawper, every snake doctor.
every gutter, every anarchist, every
pussyfooters and every grandstander
within the orbit in which it moves and
has its being. And, WHEN we go away
from here, we ask no kindlier or more
generous epitaph than that.
When we devoted such talent as is
ours exclusively to agronomy, corn
sold for rs cents a bushel, wheat from
was So the ton. Hogs brought 81 a
hundredWe3ght; fat cattle, $3.50.
Since then we have watched the re-
public fall a number Of times. But
in the years that have interviewed
nearly every farmer in that neighbor-
hood has acquired an easy compe-
tency.
Among those who have almost con-
tinuously despaired of the republic is
Uncle Wesley Huddleson. Uncle Yves
ley bought his first farm in 1886; pre-
vious to that time he had been a ten
ant farmer. He acquired a quarter
section of land at a price of 81 per
acre, paying $500 down. Cutthroat
capitalism carried him for the balance
Uncle Wesley owns four farms now;
in all, $50 acres He says it's worth
5000 an acre. If Uncle Wesley had
been subjected to the keen competi-
ton of urban life he'd be "Janitoring''
in church or an office building in
stead of sitting at his ease.
And that, we shall add, closes the
discussion of farm economics for the
time being. Already we have too long
neglected literature and the other arts.
Certain readers of the column seem
to believe Monday mornings effusion
was one of the trick stunts of the
regular columnist. IT. we did not
make it perfectly clear in advance we
wish to do so now Mondays column
We do not know Mrs. Roberts; we
never saw her. We haven't the re-
hottest idea who she is. But we'd love
to meet her. She has that indefin-
able thing called personality" and a
most delicious sense. of proportion.
When we asked, the other day,
about the tinfoil we were not engaged
in a personal quest. We saved no
tinfoil. 1t merely occurred to US that
you might want to know.
Belated dramatic note: 1.-THE Bat
has moved on to Wilmington. While
it lasted it was the best crime in town.
My dear, it made the Philadelphia.
Ladies' Association of Killers look like
a bunch of amateurs giving show in
the town hall.
And that opens up another en-
tranciag field of speculation and con-