The Topeka state journal., 1922-08-18
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY e. HOUSE.
(From Philadelphia Public LedGEr.)
The Blue Swallow in Flight.
BY JAY z. HC

StroudSburg, Pa, Aug 8.
For a couple of hours now I've been
back home. Late this afternoon we
flouted the impressive natural, archl-
tectural and sartorial enbellishmentsl
of Delaware Water Gap in order thaI
I might spend Saturday night in a
country town. l wanted to take the
temperature of the u. S. A The small
town is the heart of the nation; Sat
urday night is its pulse beat Leave
me look over the Saturday night
crowd in a small town and 1 will tell
you how the people feel about the
question at issue. If can be shaved
around o'clock Saturday night in a
small-town barber shop, 1 will under
take to forecast theTesult of the presi-
Dental election. Saturday night is
about the only institution of the fore
fathers that withstands the pressure
of modern life. Between 8 and 10
o'clock this evening everybody in
Stroudsburg was downtown. Except
that both men and women are better
dressed, more alert and more sophisti-
Gated in appearance, the institution of
Saturday night hasn't changed within
my recollection. Probably it hasn't
changed since John Hancock signed
the Declaration.
I drove into Stroudsburg in some
trepidation. I was wearing knickers;
1 didn't know how the town would
take knickers. Burning, ignoble MEM
ortes of my experience in Camp Point,
1lls NeIl00s HllAln me. wore
knickers into Camp Point one day last
fall. Because of an unfortunate con-
-tretemps which 1 shall always believe
was due to the influence of q black
cat, we had to remain in Camp Point
until a new radiator could be sent out
from Cleveland. I wore knickers to
breakfast in the modest restaurant at
which had established myself on the
following morning Then I went back
to the private dwelling in which was
paying guest and clothed myself
more nearly in accord with the town s
conception of what a gentleman
should wear. Nobody said anything to
me, but the extent to which / amused
and edited the citizenry of Camp
Point burns me to this day. 1 need
have had no fears concerning Strouds-
burg. As sat for an hour in front of
the hotel after dinner 1 counted sew
enteen other gentlemen similarly
clothed, and I didn't hear a hoot.
Due, possibly, to the proximity OF
princeton college, knickerS are over
the top in Stroudsburg. But should
not advise a friend to wear knickers
west of a line drawn north and south
and running thru Terre Haute, Ind.
One thing about Stroudsburg i'm
pressed me: saw any number of girls
and young women walking along the
streets accompanied by. older women.
Presumably, the older women were
their mothers or their grandmothers.
traced many family resemblances.
SNANtAA NAAO" tdtC SAIAS lIldI SOIL OF
thing any more. I thought they had
quit going around with their mothers
and other elderly female relations.
l had gathered that no other modern
girl wished to be shamed by being
seen with her mother in q public place,
But it appears to be quite the thing
in Stroudsburg. Some of the strange
ly assorted couples saw seemed to be
on terms of delightful intimacy. And
saw a woman wearing cotton stock
inRS That iC a ri
again expected to view. She was not |
a beautiful woman. I do not imagine !
she is socially prominent. The French |
heels of her slippers were sadly run |
run over. But she wore her cotton |
stockings bravely and unashamed.
Those who have sought to do it thru
communications to the column will |
mental self-conceit has at last been |
pierced. For once my assurance melt |
ed like snow before a chinook wind. |
For a. little while this afternoon 1 was
a wilted lily in the grasp of a some
what Seedy gentleman whom 1 saw for |
the first time as he fooled a Henry
car along a detour between Doyles-
town and Easton. My system is ia
miliar to most of the readers of this
who now are eagerly Pc
rusing these lines. Briefly, it is never
to do anything l can persuade some
body to do for me. I never touch my
car. When anything happens to 1t
sit myself easily down and wait the
inevitable arrival of the gentleman
who will take pleasure in fixing it for
me. 1t is an amplification of the old
axiom that no gentleman ever chaseSj
his own hat for the reason that there
is always somebody ready and willing
to do it for him. Well, We emerged
from a mud hole along the detour in
question with one front-tire in a con-
dition compared to which debris is an
assem- mbIed piece of construct work.
1t had been a grand tire. 1t had twice
crossed the Allegheny mountains and
had penetrated the far beyond. 1t
had travelled about to Chicago,