The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-07-06
oN,sEcOND THOUGHT
BY JAY e. HOUSE.
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger.)

what" writes w. H. o., ARE your
reactions to Less Than the Dust?
1t should stir your jaded SOUL" Our
reactions are. shall We say, general.
teen serial stories as they wind their
way thru twelve different magazines
and periodicals can have a set OF re-
actions for each story. The author of
Less Than the Dust" has presented
a fragment of life in somewhat exag-
gerated fashion. But his characters
lack the. human glow and they will,
die in the public mind with the story.
It doesn't stir our jaded soul. If we
happened to miss an installment, we
probably shouldn't go to the trouble
to look up the back number contain
ing 1T.
Most of the contemporary literature
dedicated to trankness and reproach
presents life in a fragmentary way.
But the picture isn't large enough or
vital enough to imprint a lasting inn
preston. "Cytheria" is a fragment of
life. There are goings-on in every
community. But those who read it
and we were one of them, read it for
the dirt" there was in it. The story
itself is so futile and uninteresting
that it does not hold the reader be-
yond the first fifty pages. Who'll re-
member Cytheria" a year hence?
The. story we've heard most talked
about lately is Irv Cobb's ~. Poindex-
ter, Colored," which has just reached
its conclusion in periodical which,
for reasons that are obvious, NAV not
be mentioned here, 1t is a slender
story, but it had the human glow, Mr..
Cobb presented a definite, lifelike
character = one whom everybody
recognized. He endowed him with
the humber virtues and the humber
fatlings. And the reading public late
his story up"
II there is a suggestion in the fore
going for those who are endeavoring
to accentuate the public pulse beat
thru the medium of the printed word
we take pleasure in making them a
gift of it.
Senator McCumber publicly resents
the fact that he has devoted twenty
three years and some odd months to
unselfish public service only to be
swatted by the public in the end. I'm
less Senator McCumber is singularly
unobservant. he would expect nothing
else. The public does not pay on serv-
ice. 1t pays on the ability of its bene-
ficiary to excite its prejudices and It's
| emotions.
The best guaranty of perpetuation
in the public service Is a good organ
ization differed by captains and lieu
tenants who are ever under obligation
to their leader.
Schooled in politics and public af-
fairs as he is, we don't suppose Presi-
dent Harding expects to receive any
credit for settling the coal strike, If
he does settle 1t. If he expects credit,
he will be sorely disappointed. What
they will say of him is, Why didn't
he do it before?"
A correspondent has asked us to
explain recent hotel fire in Toxic at
tributed by the Japanese newspapers
Information to guide US. we assume
the fire was due to the usual cause
somebody tossed lighted match into
a bamboo waste-bssket.
The foregoing casual reference to
the matter need not be construed as
an indication that We are getting ready
to engage in another controversy over
the cigarette. That doesn't come up
again for nearly six years:
AS most OF our readers know, we
settle the cigarette controversy once
every seven years. 1t is the contro-
versy over Shakespeare as a dramatist
that we settle every year
We have a sneaking desire to. attend
an old fashioned Fourth of July cele-
bration. We are curious to know what
the orator of the day could find tc
say for this country and whether he
would dare say 1t.
Some of us still have a kindly feel.
ing for the country of our birth oil
adoption. But not many are suffi-
GENTLY courageous publicly to ad'
| NIT it.
There should be a wheeze for the
right sort OF columnist IN the fact thai