OCR Text |
Show about: Seeking Contentment. SANTA MONICA, CALIF. Out in the desert country I met kindly, hospitable folk bravely making the best of things on remote, small homesteads. i On little far-away ranches, on reservation res-ervation trading posts, they are educating edu-cating their children by resolute self-sac- rifice; keeping in "V touch with the world through radio, b" through books and I SS? magazines and fr4 ' newspapers; and al- I ,xX most invariably con- 1 s N ; tent with their lives g rTl f nN. and proud of their E, -"(jSsxx struggles and living I comfortably yes, I ftft ind happily within --- their means, how- Irvm S. Cobb ever meager. Then I come back to crowded cities where wealth seems only to make the inmates dissatisfied because be-cause somebody with greater wealth puts on a guadier show of ostentation ostenta-tion and extravagance. And I see the man who feverishly is striving after riches so that when he breaks down he may afford the most expensive ex-pensive nerve specialist. And the spoiled woman who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but judging by her expression the spoon must have been full of castor oil and the flavor lasts. And the poor little rich children who have everything every-thing now and so will have nothing except maybe dollars when they grow up. Curious, isn't it, that so little buys such a lot for some people and such a lot buys so little for the others? . . . The Return of Prosperity. I CAN'T help gloating over what appeared in this space when I predicted that the temperamental and fickle bird of passage known as prosperity was winging its way back. Because the Better Business bureau reports that sellers of no-good no-good stocks are showing increased activity. Moreover, I hear that for the first time in years practically all the veteran bunco-steers are off relief. The lean times when the locusts of depression gnawed away our substance sub-stance must indeed be over if the customers begin to nibble more freely free-ly at the same dependable old baits. So, as he thumbs his copy of the sucker list against the morrow's campaign, I seem to hear Mr. Henry J. Slickguy (late of Leavenworth but now opening offices in the Wall street district) murmuring to himself: him-self: "Happy days are here again! Drouth may kill the corn, Eust rots the wheat. Boll weevils destroy the cotton. But, thanks be, there's one crop in America which never fails!" Have you a little gold brick in your home, dear reader? Well, don't worry, nobody's going to be slighted. slight-ed. Ere long you'll get your chance to invest in one. Making Mental Slips. THE most incredible thing has come to pass. Here I go along, year after year, building up a reputation rep-utation for invariably being right, the same as George Bernard Shaw and Mme. Secretary Perkins. Then bango! I make one little slip and the trusting reader is shocked from pit to dome. The other day I suggested taxing salaries of governmental employees. em-ployees. Now from all sides I'm told federal employees are subject to income taxes; only the vast majority ma-jority of them, and probably the hardest-worked ones, draw such small wages that they owe Uncle Sam nothing when March 15 rolls around. So far as I recall, this is the second sec-ond time in my life I've been wrong. I can't cite what the other instance was some very trifling matter, no doubt but it must have occurred because I remember the nation-wide excitement which ensued, with people peo-ple going around in a daze mutter-. mutter-. ing: "Can it be possible?" I now admit that early error and the recent one, too, and humbly beg pardon of my devoted public all eight of them. It'll never happen again. Conquered Champions. IT HAS been brought to the attention atten-tion of Mr. James J. Braddock that something happened to him a while back. Probably, by now, he has cpjit wondering whether many others were caught in the earthquake, earth-quake, but is reported to be still saying "Ouch!" at intervals. And now, as is customary, his backers vill insist he demand a return re-turn engagement or disaster with the Brown Bomber. But if I were 7.1 r. Brad'lock Carrie though he be I think I'd pattern rny reply on the example- of the c-ntlernan who was knocked galley-west by a hit-and-run motorist. At lb" dazed pedestrian was try. if,:', feebly to a'. certain whether he y.-i-, ail in on" piece, ;, l:;nd liear'ed c.'.'-n hurried up. l..vr an a-ci'l'-iM?" ln'i'iirH, ' ,",'o, iri ir.k you," said the victim; "j i ,1 had cue." MtVIN S. ( Olilt. fi - v. .' i; ;,ivi'it, |