The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-03
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E HOUSE
tE'rom Philadelphia Public Ledger)

CuriousIy enough, since the goo in
which the newspapers sunmerge nm
has made him one of our pet aver
sions, we string with Babe Ruth IN ms
invasion of the grandstand in quest
of a loose-hpped spectator.
The crowd in a baseball grandstand
we haven't sat in the bleachers Tor
years and do not pretend to speak
authoritatively in reference to them
is the saddest reflection on American
craftsmanship, intelligence. knowl-
edge, comprehension and fairness
that we know anything about. Tech
nicalty speaking, it knows nothing OF
the game it pretends to love- Inc
most elementary forms of strategy
and performance eiude it. And IT'S
mental and conversational equipment
is partisan bias and the soggy and
abusive bromides coined the year
baseball was invented
We used to live on the "bush-
league" circuits and witnessed, on an
average, not more than three or four
major league performances in the
course of a season. We thought then
it might be different in the select and
sophisticated centers of population. 1t
is different; it's worse.
AS we have frequently observed, our
meter is the unimportant 1t is there
fore in line with the policy of the
column to recite the fact that on
Thursday of this week a motion was
offered in the Farrar-Tellegen divorce
suit.
The assertion by one of the attor-
neys that the case ultimately will go
to trial might better have been LEFT
unsaid. 1t will only kindle false hopes
in the hearts of the people. No mat
ter how sensa t4onal the testimony may
be, the chances are that not a line of it
will be printed.
1t Seems a Fair Proposition.
Sir see by the papers that the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church has recommended, among 9TH
er features, the censoring of all death
bed agony scenes out of the movies.
Ordinarily opposed to a censorship,
I'll go along with the recommended
ton if the preachers will do the same
thing that is. cut out the deathbed
scenes in their sermons Is, there al
Billy" Sunday anywhere whose al
ways reliable bit of business is not
the deathbed of the dying sinner? And
how they do lay on the sob stuff,
A. r. W.
In any war which may ensue as a
result of A. r. WIS proposition we de-
sire to be classified as a non-con-
blatant; We doubt, however. that he
is quite fair to the preachers. We
don't believe they should be held re-
sponsible for the BILLY Sundays.
Our own opposition to censorship
is based on the belief that good moral
conduct gets its impetus from intelli-
gence and good taste, Those unin-
tellfBent and incredulous enough to
be influenced by motion pictures
won't get much help from a Board of
Censors.
That is our theory of it, 1t may be
wrong. If it is wrong, we have no
doubt the voluntary censors of the
column. of whom there are a number,
will tell US so.
We get good deal of our illumina-
ton from the light of experience
Vicariously, at least, we knew all the
evil we now know, and probably all
We shall ever know, by the time we
were eighteen. And, at that time, we
had never seen motion picture, a
massed center of population or
paved street.
1t is interesting to note that Joe
H ersesheimer's newest novel is such
that it can be printed serially in
magazine.
With the shaft of the Philadelphia
Budget still embedded in its ouiyerinE
flesh. the column would be less than
human should it fail to direct atten-
ton to the fact that. following its
lead, the Pulitzer foundation has de-
cided Alice Adams" to be the best
American novel of 1921. The Budget, !
you may recall, expressed the opinion
that the columns ethical and literary !
standards were laughable.
Very well, if the Shakespeareans !
can exc a giggle from the foregoing |
paragra phi, let them go ahead and |
laugh their heads off.
The Hon DennseI, ,,anaoed Ga CON,
ceal from the reporters the identity of I
the little girl who is Turing him to
the Golden West. 1t may be we shall |
get our wish. We had, as readers of |
the column will remember. set our
heart on the marriage of Hon. Demp-
sey and Miss Bebe Daniels.