San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-03-25
BY WELLS HAWKS.

Copyright. by The San Antonio Light.
New York, March 24.-Reform,
like some of the old time emperors,
who used to go to war in sandals and
a short skirt, seems to ever be look
ing for other things to conquer. We
seem to have gotten into state of
stirring and turning things over
wanting always some high salaried,
deep-thinking man with a dominating
demeanor and a well filled vest to
tell us Just what ought TO be done.
Every day the news seems to break
out that somebody is going to take
charge of something and say how we
can do 1t. Baseball was about the
first to be officially chaperoned and
then come along the movies with n
Job that was going to lift the flicker
ing. screen to real art and literature
and canonize the beauties who play
around Hollywood both before and
after making pictures.
Then the good old drama thought
she needed prop and guiding hand
so she was fixed up. Now they tell
us that a Chicago lawyer with ample
brow and a stern chin is going to
clean up the outdoor show business
which will, OF course, include the
beloved entertainment of our youth
and Peter Pan manhood-the circus.
the street carnivals. the side-shows
and all the other forms of favored
frivolity that we love TO let ourselves
loose on Saturday afternoons and
Sunday.
Stood For First Reforms.
When the pure food law hit the
circus and made us keep popcorn
under glass covers and insisted that
each peanut should be busted and
deodorized before being served a per-
son or pachyderm, we felt the blow
little, but when the dictator sent
out the edict that no longer should
lemonade be pink, we felt that our
liberty was being walloped.
A circus without pink lemonade
was like an Eden without apples.
Yet, we were told and we believed
There was devilishness in the red and
pink that made the clowns funnier
and the little ladies of the spangles
more beautiful. without its pink the
circus lemonade has lost its kick.
L remember we took the old circus
over into Canada one summer and
every known beast In the animal king
dom passed inspection. Only one
thing was objected to by a sort of
animal censor. This was our trained
pig-brains Of the side show-who
told time, did card tricks and was
otherwise unhoglike.
But Canada would have no Amer
lcan pigs even il they were artists.
! recall with what Christian fortitude
the pig took the verdict, remaining
on the frontier awaiting our return
playing solitaire with its greasy pack
and without an audience.
somehow my sawdust soul Is dis
turbed by this announcement that the
circus is to be censored, that the
side show is to be given a woman's
page editorial supervision, that Coney
Island is to be put on a one track
system of behavior, that literature is
TO be made of the bally-hoo and only
careful, correct and conscientious
gentlemen be allowed to beat their
bamboo canes on the canvass an
nouncing "come in for a dime and
see what this great world contains ,
We balk at this for one of the real
Joys OF life has been standing before
a barker, our mouths wide omen.
listening awed and amazed at his
description of what was within. what
was back Of those gaudy banners. "for
good people. the pictures on the can
vass, tell the story
Didn't Ask For Truth.
We didn't ask for truth and we
want no rude hand to drag away that
wonderful tale that made us give up
our dimes. We like passing beyond
the portals to gaze upon avid Nell.p
or tremble in fear before "Bamboola.
the Terrible" who struggled with his
chains and foamed at the mouth. We
loved 1t no matter if Bamboola's
canestry came from Poland instead
Of Borneo and that he was a highly
respected resident of the Bronx. We
loved him because he was mad and
we refuse to have him censored.
But there arises in this censoring