The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-05-30
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger.I

The inscrutable Eddie Guest has the
column winging. In an article printed
two or three months ago in the highly
esteemed American Magazine. Mr..
Guest attributed his success to his
marriage and to the installment
house which sold him his furniture,
dividing the credit in about equal pro-
portions. In a more recent article in
the highly esteemed American he vir-
tually gives the credit to the Sunday
editor of Detroit newspaper. Far be
it from us to knock a lodge brother,
but we claim Eddie is spreading the
unguent over a too wide expanse OF
territory.
How come we're lodge brothers?
Well, We both belong to the Amalga-
mated Association of Perpendicular
Pronoun Pushers. 1t is only fair to
Mr.. Guest, however. to say that he
has been much the less active of the
two in the work of the organization
If we should ever achieve the dis
tinction that has come to Mr.. Guest,
contingency SO remote as to be negligi-
ble, we should be hard put to it to
satisfy convention in accounting for it.
We got along about as well before we
were married as we have since, which
is nothing to write home about either
way. We were very fond of mother,
but she didn't inspire in us ambition
or unremitting industry. We do not
enjoy work, and perform it only be-
cause it is, on the whole, more COM
Portable to work than it is to loaf
We never saved the business by super
salesmanship nor terminated an idea
that grew into an institution.
Perhaps it is just as we'll we are not
much of a success. AS a success we
should be a sad failure.
A few readers of the column doubt
&1,1+ 1fof n
sequent to the last World Series we
rendered some gratuitous advice to
American League pitchers. 1t was
that they "curve balP' the Hon. Ruth
to death. We mention the matter for
the reason that they seem to be
doing it.
one who subscribes herself "a
Mother" has taken the column to task
in letter much too long for publica-
ton here. You may, however, be in
terested in some of the things to
which she objects. One is certain
colloquialisms and physiological
short cuts and high lights with which
the column is larded. She deplores
our references to w. j. Bryan and DR..
Frank Crane, and is much at odds
with our attitude toward religion. She
counsels US against taking OurSelf too
seriously, and recites the fact that, in
order to- save her children from its
communicating influence, she cuts it
from the paper before submitting the
latter to them for perusal.
I'm sure" she adds. that this will
make you yawn." Well, it is our ear
nest endeavor to be polite and cour-
teous. AS nearly everybody knows.
that is a part of our creed. But if
"A Mother" had heard the lay which
she projects sung as many times as we
have heard it sung in the twenty
years past, she'd yawn her head off.
For the balance, probably nothing
can be done about it. At any rate,
nothing can be done about it so far as
we are concerned. 1t is unlikely that,
at this late date, we shall make any
fundamental change in our method of
tirely satisfactory to us, but it suits US
better than anything that has been
suggested to us. If she has not al
ready done SO, we suggest that "A
Mother" talk to our employer. We
know him well enough to know if she
can persuade him we are doing his
newspaper harm he will have no COM
junction about severing our frail and
tenuous connection with the payroll.
Frankly, however, We doubt that
getting us fired would, in the larger
sense, serve particularly the cause of
get another job, or buy the Main
Street Weekly Cleaner. and go ahead
ana c0ntam animate some other COM
munity. If what the newspapers say
or Phfladelphia in every campaign
IS true. Wen probably do less harm |
here than anywhere else in the world. |
From the Indiana Sand Pennsy1- |
vania primaries we get one throbbing
emotion. 1t expresses itself in the
thought that q lot of fellows who
haven't said anything since 1914 will |
now become wildly progressive.
AS for us, We cling to the old door
step. We were seated there when the /
boys drove away in 1912, and we were |
there when they came back after hav-
ing lost both horses and the wagon.