The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-01-31
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E, HOUSE
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger.l
This Is Good Enough to Print.

This Is Good Enough to Print.
Sir-Greetings and thanks for what
you said to me in the way of en-
llightenment regarding your thoughts
on simplified punctuation-and double
greetings and thanks for your second
expression of views that formed a. few
paragraphs of Thursdays column.
Unfortunately, cannot quite see why
the lengthy sentence properly dashed
is not equally as much an genealogical
triumph as the coterie of short,
pungent word jabs to which some
folks resort.
Take the following for example:
1.-THE man was bothered with rats.
| They infested his house. Their nest
was made in an abandoned cook stove.
| The man determined to become rid of
them. He purchased a shotgun and
stationed himself by the stove. He
| sat there until early dawn. Then the
rats came forth. Did you shoot them? -
| inquired friend on the following day.
No. replied the man, they were out
of range"
| I claim that this criterion among So
called short stories would be much
better reading were it dashed instead
| of perioded.
A certain member of the literati was
| beset by the corrective begums of the
proofroom, as are you-So he finally
made up his mind to beat them at
| their own game. lie competed Il
| thirty thousand-word effusion that
was masterpiece. but there was not
solitary punctuation mark in the
whole thing: instead, he filled three
pages with commas, periods, colons,
semicolons and the rest of the eternal
ct cetera and wrote at the top of it,
Here you are; put these in wherever
! you want to-
The story goes that he was never
bothered in the future-aifd there you
are. In the bulk of instances, where
super-critics are given carte blanche
est extent, they are cured once and for
ALL H. L. C.
1t all depends, we imagine, on
whether one is writing for the prole-
tariat or the cognoscenti. Writing, as
we do. mostly of and for the pro1e-
tariat, we must have a care. One
never knows when a member of the
proletariat will misconstrue a long and
involved sentence as an insult to him
and his and demand reparation. The
average member of tive proletaria :
| doesn't know what a semicolon or a
! dash means, and there is no telling
fhow he will tax it.
On the other hand. the short sem
tence may be overworked. There is a
well-known magazine writer. We are,
! or were, familiar with his work. In
| recent years We have stopped reading
him; We can't stand his short, staccat to
sentence. If he gets on the nerves of
| one SO calm, placid and bovine in his
emotions, he must drive many persons
crazy. And yet he's bully good writ
ing man His stuff is unusual and
fine. But every time we see his name
| in our favorite periodical we have the
| impulse to go out and do ifestimable
damage to the surrounding country.
What we ought to do, of course. is
to write to the editor of the periodical
and have the fellow fired. But we
| shrink from that; we don't want to
beat anybody out of his job.
The column views the attack on
football philosophically. Our mood
meets that expressed by Samuel E.
| Merwin in a story printed recently In
our favorite periodical. 1t was an ex-
cellent story, but the title, '-Therell
Always Be Something" was very much
better.
AS we observed the other day, the
| world is in process of being bored to
| death by dull and stupid people who
| are trying to render it a service. But
| it's nothing to- grow excited about;
they never get anything done.
We yield to the S5-year-o1d reader
of this newspaper who has written to
the editor to express the wish that we
| shall write the entire column instead
of devoting part of it to contributions
from its readers. AS a concession to
her, we'll try to get out one column
without leaning on anybody's shoulder.
But we do wish the lady had sug-
gested something about which we
might write.
! Charles Garland is quoted as saying
II.
cal convention. A considerable num-
Der of persons, we imagine, feel that
way about it. But few are so lacking
in a sense of decency and shame as
publicly to say so.
Our attitude toward marriage has
been pretty well defined. We laugh
our head off at it. But civilization
owes whatever progress it has made,
and its sense of duty, obligation, fit
| ness, quality, taste and decency to
those who regard marriage as a sacred
covenant.
To say as much is, of course, to
say a trite and perfectly obvious thing.
But it is a cunning paragraph, at that.
1t will help square US at home and
abroad.
Probably, if you read it at all, you
were vastly amused at the story of the
his mother-in-law, but to us It brought
no such reaction. The fact is, we were
distinctly annoyed by it.
| Our objection to it, we don't mind
adding, is that the New York World
referred to the prospective bride
groom, who is fifty years old, as ell
derby.
Little BENNY'S NOTE BOOK |