The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-01-05
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger)
Greeting From pannemora.

Greeting From Dannemora.
\sir-The Frank Cecil McLains
ght have spoiled your Christmas
! Personally, have met but one butler
! in my career. 1 first met him leaning
against a bar in Sing Sins>s He laid
claim to having butlered extensively
| outside; but he was an exceptionally
good shoemaker inside. His case was
quite unique to us because he was the
only butler-burglar in captivity. But,
aside from the McLains' spiraled
| thunderbolt, we wonder what your
| feelings might have been had you. on
| Christmas Eve, hung up your stocking
and when you looked at it Christmas
4 the only present you found therein
was your foot. Such was the Christ
mas of 1921 to US. and the fact that
we had even to put our foot in it SYM
bolizes our whole career of crime.
I wish you a happy and prosperous
New Year and beg to be remembered
to Mr.. Cain and Mr.. Suillane.
NO. 1881 CLINTON PRISON.
Probably, since this is our first op-
portunity to do SO, we should wish you
a happ5SNeW Year. But we have been
wished a happyNNew Year ten million
times and nothing ever came of it.
However, we don't mind telling you
how to achieve one. The only way to
do it is to keep busy.
AS for US, We intend to keep to the
beaten trail. We never made a New
Years resolution 1--WE never expect to
do so. New Years resolutions place a
man under obligations to swear off or
take on. Usually they involve him in
the tacit admission that his habits
have been not what they should be.
We make no such admissions. We
cherish our habits. They represent
perseverance. They suit US. If we do
say it as shouldn't, they compare ia
vorably in number and quality with
those of the best-known citizens of the
country. And they serve to differ
entiate us from the type Of human
being toward whom we have an aver
sion.
Habits reflect a mans craving to be
a good fellow and a regular guy. A
desire to be rid of them indicates in
feriority complex. It is q mark of
weakness. With one or two excep-
tions, our habits are all against the
law. These soon will BEL And that
is a distinction to be not lightly re-
garded. 1t is the distinction for
which nearly every American citizen
now is striving. We intend to go
right along during 1922 being proud
of them.
the use of the phrase, Few equals
and no peers" is advised that we put
out that particular bait about twice
year and that it never fails to bring
in fish.
If memory serves the last previous
occasion on which we employed it was
in May, 1920. But the trick can be
worked regularly about twice year
with good results.
The Hissers.
Sir-Misled by Bishop Berry's de-
scription of the Pennsylvania Associa-
ton Against the Prohibition Amend
ment as an organization of ''bufhs,"
the Rev. A. j. Arkin, rector of St
Georges Protestant Episcopal church
at Kensington, registered in Thurs
days Public Ledger, his surprise at
finding very respectable people pres
ent' at the association meeting in the
Metropolitan Opera house. He con-
Guided by "regretting the presence of
members of my church at a meeting
in which the name of a Methodist
bishop was Missed and booed.'" But
was it not Bishop Berry who began
the Kissing and booing? Bishops
should not call very respectable peo-
pie" buns. Even the most respecta-
BILE of us respectable people feel an
impulse to hiss and boo when we are
called such names as that. Speaking
as one of those respectable people,
will stop kissing when the bishop
does. c. W. T.
We are not, understand, trying to
settle the controversy. We don't know
whether they are buns or not. We
are acting merely as the impresario
of the argument.
SIT IS, of course, unimportant,"
writes I. E. X, but that definition
of the word 'highbrow' which excited
the admiration of the column was
the pittsburgh Sun, as far back as
1917"
For three or four years our neigh
bors, the Haleys, have been talking
about the money they lost in rubber.
Frequently We have heard Fred Haley
say. "It wiped me out and left me a
pauper." We have since learned from
a man familiar with the affairs of the
company that the Haleys lost $500 in
rubber.
No two men agree as to the distance
to a given point or the best route to
take in order to reach a given destina-
ton. In East Liverpool last fall one
man told us it was eighteen miles to
Lisbon, another said it was eleven, and
q third thought it was twenty-nine
miles. The speedometer on the Blue
Swallow indicated that it was twenty
two miles.
The northern girls are pretty smart.
A northern girl can go south to visit
a school friend and come back at the
end of three weeks with a southern
dialect that almost defies detection.
No scheme plays as well as work.