The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-09-02

mild curiosity. And SO we are won
dering why it is looking for Mrs.
Stokes. Does it want to kiss her
again?
That. as you may recall, was what
the government did the last time it
released Mrs. Stokes from custody.
Mr.. Jewell, of the shop crafts.
paints a sad and doiorous picture of
the event that the shopmen are not
restored to the payroll with full
seniority rights. The picture gives US
pause and, since we keep no definite
record of events, inspires US to make
inquiry concerning it.
If the need for the shopmen is so
great, why are they not at work and
how come they lost their seniority in
the first place?
Godzool<s, We Are Undonei
Sir-Lately as I have been reading
your column, I've been very much
shocked to see mistake in your
grammar which seems inexcusable to
me. AS it has REQUIRED so often,
I am forced to believe it is not the type
setter,s fault.
used in the schools of the middle west,
having been slightly educated in the
east, but if you will some time take
copy of Genung's Outlines of Rhet-
ORIG" turn to page 81 therein and
| read the first sentence of the first
paragraph in large print, you will see
what mean.
You are by no means the only es-
teemed writer who uses this indefinite
pronoun carelessly. but in such COL
Ledger claims to be it is surprising to
find this mistake. E. P w
I Unfortunately, mayhap. altho we
do not feel in the least cast down be-
cause of it, we have no copy of &C.
nung's Outlines of Rhetoric" or
any other. We do not recall having
seen anybody's book on rhetoric. We
haven't time to look one up. If we
had the time doubtless we should be
too lazy to do it. 1t seems to US z.
P. w. would have simplified the mat
ter, and at the same time would have
satisfied the curiosity of many read
ers OF the column, by indicating the
exact nature of the grammatical error
of which he complains. Here, figura-
lively speaking, is a horde OF rayenous
readers who want to know what we
have done in order that they may boot
their derision, and there is nobody to
tell them.
We hold no brief for either the text
booA or the schools of the middle
west. The curriculum of those we at
tended was neither comprehensive
nor extensive. The schools, we fear,
were not very thoro. In them were
taught reading, writing, spelling,
arithmetic, geography and United
States history. The history, we have
since learned, was mostly bunk. There
was, we believe. a class in grammar.
but it was an elective course patron
lied chiefly by the larger girls who
expected to make teaching a ifework.
1t was considered effeminate and a
waste of time for a boy to study gram
mar. In our school the boys special
lied in arithmetic. 1t was fatuously
believed that a country boy, if he were
sufficiently well grounded in arith-
metic, had a fair chance to outwit the
city slickerS who subsequently would
attempt to trick him. And so we
came to know arithmetic pretty well
as far as we had gone with it. our
farthest point south having been that
section of the book devoted to per-
centage. We'd hate to say how much
time we devoted to common fraetions,
and we hesitate to speak of the result
OF the battle. The point upon which
we are communicative, even loqua-
cious. is that we have never encoun-
tered a problem in life to which
knowledge of common fractions con-
tributed a solution.
1t may be we should have braved
the sneers of the countryside and
given a thought to grammar and
rhetoric. A less pliable and more
courageous individual might have
done so. But that is water over the
dam. We must go on and, in doing
so. we shall doubtless continue to Of
fend E. P. w. with our physiological
gaucheries.
If the Yankees win another pennant
we are promised>a grand dinner with
trimmings BETTING the occasion. But
what are food and drink to us If we
must again contemplate the spectacle
of the American public kissing Babe"
Ruth turnout the period of long and
tedious winter? We couldn't swallow
it.
Another Old Saw Is Justified.
Sir-If you are really interested in
to know as a patter of curiosity just
what the rates were in my shining
white hotel, shall be glad to pass on
the good news. This caused me my
third gasp. We had three excellent
meals and clean room for the small
sum of 81 day. I think this sustains
the analogy. Do you? A. F. 7.
Of course, you haye already spotted
the old saw to which we have referred.
1t is the one to the effect that truth
is, stranger than fiction.
The column protests against the ar,
rest of William u. Foster. Things
have come to a pretty pass when a
quiet, unostentatious man like Mr. |
Foster is not permitted to plot against |
the government. 4
We have not yet read MY F. Scott
Fitzgerald's presumably frank confess |
sion in the current American But
we plan to do SO. We want to know
whether Mr.. Fitzgerald, following |
precedent, blames it on his mother.
The bonus controversy, after al
period of quiet. again impends- Such |
being the situation, we again take |
occasion TO say IL the boys were fight |
ing for money 500 isn't enough
>Others have slipped as far in an |