The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1924-11-26

sophies, blot them dry Ia smile Of
personal satisfaction spreading then
jovial faces), go down to the corner
have a glass of beer and forget all
they had just written.
Their job was ended.
The effect Of what they had writ
ten on those who later read-especi-
ally on gullible young men and wom-
en-concerned them not one moment
They felt certain qualification, nc
doubt in the thought that they were
indeed bit shocking; they prided
themselves on their ability to play
the deuce with mems thoughts-but
after all, that was of minor signifc-
ance now that the writing was done.
Tomorrow they would get after
that other hairraiser they had in
mind.
But for the young man who read
them, the gullible young man, mat
tiers were different.
Because he romanticized them, be-
cause he idealized them, he would be
certain to lay their truths next his
heart, cherish them, cultivate them
and fashion his subsequent thinking
according to the thoughts of these,
his gods.
He would learn to walk the streets
with an abstract air.
He would learn to curl his lip most
contemptuously.
He would let his hair grow long,
believing-oh, so erroneously-that
his gods eschewed BARRIERS.
He would hog wallow with an air
about him because an arrogant, casu-
al air made hog wallowing an intel
lectual exercise.
For a moment we became very
grave. We raised the tragic example
of the two Chicago boys who read so
many books, and read them so badly,
they learned to give solidity and du-
rability to ideas which could only be,
being ideas, as leaky as an old wash
tub, as false as rain, which, with
equal potency, will rust iron and make
the flowers to grow.
Opinions, we reminded him, from
the pens of violently opinionated
writer's have for substance one or two
reiterated ideas, which vary only in
decoration, with the best of them as
detachable and reversible as an An
dalusian underskirt.
Cum grano sails. We urged a most
generous use of salt.
We urged a more varied diet OF
books. We pointed out they were all
good if they were amusing, and that
the most explosive, the most icono-
elastic, were the most amusing-es-
peeially when written by such clever,
deliberate fellows as our young fri
end worshiped.
We urged him to continue to read
his gods, if only he could learn to
laugh with and especially at them.
We urged that the best armor he
could ever wear against books mimi !
al to his own peace of mind, against
The scintillating surface flashes of the
gayly capricious, was his own de- |
veloped capacity for laughing /
sense of humor, a shade or two of I
self-conidence, an unwillingness to
accept things whole, an unwillingness
o. be deluded by words which assur-
IDLY take on no magic verify or au-
hority simply because they are print
d words and over the signature of
title deities.
We touched upon the responsibility
# authors toward young men such
s he.
We suggested that it wasn't great.
The greater responsibility rested
Nth him toward his own mind.
And this responsibility he could
est meet by laughing a little more,
y being circumspect in his reverence,
y taking a lesson from the words of
good man who once said: "All gem
ralizations are false, including this
ne.n