"The New Yorker"

Monday, Mar. 02, 1925

Article Tools

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Next morning, the Home News published the announcement that ''a list of rhyming words is given here to aid in writing the last lines of the uncompleted limericks in yesterday's Journal and Graphic." Followed some words. The Journal limerick required a rhyme with "stroll" and "roll'; the editors of the Home News suggested "poll," "extol," "dole," "cajole," "condole," etc., carefully explaining that the first meant the head; the second, to praise in highest terms; the third, to give in small quantities; the fourth, to impose on by flattery or delusive promises; the fifth, to express sympathy, etc. The Graphic limerick rhymed with "stew" and "chew"; the Home News offered "barbecue" which, they said, is "an animal, roasted whole"; "phew,"—"an expression of disgust or surprise," they made clear; "eschew," which means to "avoid" or "shun," the editors of the Home News told the public so that there would be no mistake about it. Certain readers of the Home News, however—those whom Robert Browning could have complimentedtore up their copies of the sheet and stamped upon the fragments. "Our intelligence has been insulted!" they cried—"that is, treated with contempt, an affront."

^{*H.W Ross, Ralph Barton, Heywood Broun, Marc Connelly, Edna
Ferber, Rea Irvin, George S. Kaufman, Alice Duer Miller, Dorothy
Farker, Laurence Stallings, Alexander Woollcott were the names
appearing in the prospectus when the first number of the magazine
appeared, it was noted that Heywood Broun, Edna Ferber and Laurence
Stallings had disappeared from the list.}