The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-08
ON SECOND THOUGHT
By JAY z. HOUSE
lFrom Philadelphia Public LedRer.l

Life Is Short but Vastly Amusing.
Sir-When demurred at putting
my private thoughts. revealed to a
few chosen friends, men of like mind.
fathers of sons, not daughters, on
paper, I was urged, being a stranger,
ton. GO ahead-he'u treat you right
he's white clean thru!" So was
overruled and-sent my protest to
column writer. That reminds me. I,
since--a column of men in defense of
lives and property-not pen-pusher
column. So we are both columnists,
but of different caliber.
AS 1 read your touching account
yesterday of the two on the hillside"
1 thought. "Ah. yes. he'll understand.
He'd not wish to see those two CARRIED
and hammered after the fashion of to-
day" But I was fooled; the men who
said you were white were fooled.
The two on the hillside were myths
no man with such memories would
sneer at modesty in womanhood. Men
such as you-old and bald and pursy
sit by club windows and leer at
every pair of feminine legs that pass.
Men such as you have no hillside
memories-they are Pigments OF the
brain.
One thing more, last shot, as when
this reaches you I'll be a thousand
miles away. No man who has cash
in his pockets is a dead one to women
of the present time. Now go to il.
Print this if you dare. But believe
me, you'll remember it. More than
ever UTTERLY DISGUSTED.
utterly Disgusted'' seems to be a
bit more of an ass than we at first took
him to be. And that. in q. way, is a
blow. We take a pardonable pride in
our faculty for quick and expert dag
nosis. Utterly Disguised" finds him
self shocked. astounded and amazed
by the dress, manners and customs of
the age~ and rushes into a newspaper
column with his reactions to them. In
assuming this attitude he is well with
in his inalienable rights. But who
cares what he links and what differ
ence does it make? We are not
shocked, astounded or amazed by the
dress. manners or customs of the att
tractive sex. They do not particularly
impress US one way or another We've
grown callous to the spectacle. But
who cares what we think about it and
what difference does it make? We
couldn't change it if we would; we
wouldn't if we could. For it is, strictly
speaking, neither our affair nor his.
And so instead of permitting him to
inundate the column with his tears,
we "kidded" him gently downstairs
and out into the street.
The tim bre of utterly .Disgusted's"
braying is more easily caiculable if
idea of marriage. 1t was his notion
that he would come back to this coun-
try, pick out a girl that suited him,
marry out of hand and settle down to
a complacent, stodgy existence. 1t was
to him a. mere matter of marketing,
an inspection of the goods on the
shelves Marriage isn't achieved in
that way. Love is a tremendous con-
fagration which envelops and dew
astates one or two persons. 1t breaks
out in the most unexpected places
and frequently envelops in its flame
-apposites in thought, habit, birth,
breeding, position, taste and manners.
1t cannot be guided or directed into
any preconceived channel of fitness
or desira bility. Utterly Disgusted'
probably won't marry until he loves
some woman. And when he goes crazy
over her-and man must of neces-
sity be crazy about woman to marry
her-he won't care a rap about her
legs, her wishbone, her tricks with
cosmetics, her sophistication, or her
lack of it. All he will care about is
her.
There has been some Encouragement
in the matter of customs and exter-
naIs, but we can't see that womankind
has changed much in the twenty or
thirty years we have spent in ap-
praising a critical and constructive
eye The 'petting" and paving is
more public now, but doubtless it al
T.
a man can attract the favorable at
tention of many women merely by
having money in his pocket. A Wom-
an likes a man for what he is; she
loves him for what he isn't and for
his need of her. If she loves him,
his lack or possession of money is
the most remote and negligible of
considerations.
As to Utterly Dissusted's" assever-
alton that wen remember it, we very
much doubt that we shall. Likely
when Adelaide this morning asks us
what it is all about we shall be unable
to tell her. By the first of next
week. at farthest. we will have for
gotten the incident.
Norma Talmadge, we learn from
the Esteemed American Magazine,
got into the pictures because ehe'I
wouldn't go to school, the inference
being that had she kept on with her
studies she would have been spoiled
for them.
Well, it sounds reasonable.
George Matthew Adams