Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1914 — "STUPID VICE OF SWEARINGS [ARTICLE]

"STUPID VICE OF SWEARINGS

Magazine Explains Why It Has Practically Been Barred From Its Pages.. For two months I was printer's devil for the proprietor of the Valparaiso Vldette. I learned to set type and makeup the paper, but what I most remember was learning to swear. Profanity was then the accepted etiquette about a country newspaper Office. The oaths meant nothing. They were not even Ingenious or amusing, and they were not indlcative'of strong feeling. It was simply an ugly habit, like tobacco chewing—which I got to hate there because the loafers in the office used to spit on the floor about the type cases, from which I often had to pick up type. I soon became expert in profanity myself, and could scarcely utter a sentence without an oath. When I got over the habit of swearing, I got over it entirely. Ever since it has seemed to me a vice as stupid as it is ugly. I have always been against using profane expressions in McClure's Magazine, except where the author could convince me that they were absolutely necessary for the truthful portrayal of character —and then the author had to ’be some one who knew what he was talking about McClure's Magazine. , Scant Praise to the "Godd Losers.** Maj. M. M. Beck thinks too much credit is given to a "good loser.” “A man,” he says, “fighting for a principle should never be a 'good .loser.’ The men who for years unsuccessfully fought slavery in this country, in congress and on the rostrum, were not ‘good losers.’ They suffered defeat after defeat and yet always came back. The same may be said of the men and women who have been fighting the liquor traffic. Defeat has only made them more zealous and determined. General Grant was not a ’good loser.’ At Pittsburgh Landing and in the battles against Lee on the way to Richmond reverses and seeming defeat only nerved him for more determined efforts. General Thomas would never have won or deserved the cognqmen of the Rock of Chickamauga if he had been a ‘good loser.’ Colonel Roosevelt has none of the earmarks of a ’good loser' in the fight he has espoused for equal opportunities and better conditions for the common people of this land of the free.” —Kansas City Star. Too Wise to Btart s Hunger Btrik«. "A white man was talking, down to de postofflee dts mawnin’, ’bout dat ar Mis’ Pankyhurot, de English sufferer,” said old Brother Bulglnback. “Nigh as I could make out, sah, de lady swo’ she wouldn’t eat nuth’n’ twell dey done emigrated her, or suppin like dat Uh—well, sah, wid all doo respect to a white lady, If my old mule was to take dat notion—be ain’t never ’zibited no symptoms like It ylt, but I says, If he should—l’d dess remark, ‘Ah-ho, Brudder Mule, much obleeged; uh-kaze de less ye’ eats de mo' dar am for de oowl ,, *Tig