The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-04-05
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY e. HOUSE
IFrom Philadelphia Public Ledger.)


The editor has received a letter from
an elderly gentleman who complains
about the column.
He says the type is so small and
runs together SO closely that he finds
it difficult to read it on the street cars.
He says he likes to read it coming
downtown in the morning because it
helps him start the day right and keeps
him in good humor.
We suggested to the editor that the
column hereafter be set in ten point
loaded, if you know what we mean
But the editor did not warm to the
suggestion.
He was non-committal and dis
tinctly unreSpOnSive-
And so we devised this plan of
breaking up the solid mass in order
that our elderly friend may, on this
day and date, more easily achieve the
solace it affords him.
For goodness knows. anybody who
rides on the street cars needs all the
solace he can get.
we ride on the street cars every
day, and gosh, how we hate it!
And that reminds US.
Who are these birds that read the
column on the street cars?
We never see them.
We thought we hadNone spotted the
other morning. He was reading the
Public Ledger and had it open at the
editorial page.
And so we watched him closely.
First he read a couple of the cdi-
torials Then he jumped over to the
foreign news page and scanned a story
from the papers correspondent in Ber
lin. After that he dipped into the
sports page and read a little of Ray
CAROLS New York letter.
Turning back to the editorial page.
he read the society notes and two or
three of the open letters.
But he never glanced at the column.
And when we reached Eleventh
street he threw his paper away and
left the car.
There is on this desk a letter from
a lady living in Moorestown, n. j..
who says, on account of having lately
had the flu and being confined to
the house. she has been reading the
column.
enemy. You know we Fasteners have
set theories and institutions and quite
some respect for public men, You
come along and you ridicule our pet
tions. Then we are sore. We all want
to come back at you. We don't get
you and you don't get us
Which is what Sam Blythe calls
pittaScene talk.
We trust we have spelled it cor
rectly, and if we haven't, the proof
desk can look it up.
Maybe the east doesn't get us, but
we get" the east all right.
Fundam entally, the east differs in
no particular from the middle west,
the Pacific coast or the sunny south
land.
Human nature is about the same
wherever one finds it.
That's trite, but it's true
If you don't believe it, pick out any
vaudeville joke that happens to strike
your fancy and follow it around over
the country.
Note its reception in the various
sections
We used to think maybe the east
was different. but that was before we
started to write a column for it.
We got our first bunch when one
night. shortly after coming to Phila-
delphia, we dropped into a theater on
Chestnut street and heard an eastern |
audience laugh its head off at a joke |
which, three weeks previously, had |
Topeka, Kan.
Then we knew we were riding at |
ease in a safe harbor.
If it is true that the east doesn't |
get us, it is our pleasure to make |
everything clear
The column is predicated on the !
idea that while the public likes the i
masseur-the dispen- /
ser of conversational emollient-it
loves the man who wallops it.
w are not our own worst enemy |
We are our own best friend.
We work the other side of the |
street.
We do so because we can always
sell goods on that side of the thoro-
fare.
And because competition is so much
less spirited there as to be practically |
negligible.
We shall do our best to sympathize
with the coal miners. but we know it
is going to be an awful struggle.
One autumn day four or five years
lgo we visited the coal fields with |
which we are most familiar.
The miners were not working. They
were loafing About on top of ground
talking and gesticulating to each
other.
They were well and comfortably
dressed, and apparently we'll fed.
The motion picture theaters held |
and discharged great cSowds of them.
stores and shops were crowded with
miner customers.
school building built for the children
IF the miners by the property owners
cared its head.
Children played on a splendid
'ecreation field.
We speak only English, so we asked
| man who could understand them
What they were talking and gesticulat-
ng about.
He said they were telling the world
md each other what a hell hole this
country is.