1 THE SPRINGFIELD UNION: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29: 1923 F. SEVEN NEWS AND REVIEWS OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS .1 Review by Harvey L. Gray. After an absence of several he amiable David Grayson, homeapua philosopher, who in his day has his Argonaut over many a country road and through countless David Grayson Returns, lie dons the deadly logical mantle of Socrates for a spell: joins with Henry in striving with marked perplexity to define, the of and to determine the nature this monster which constantly drains the lifeblood from country places and rural lanes in his tircless quest for ad- seems to give nothing equal in return. ventures, has returnel to the haunts Old friends 'come into the picture orof his friends.
lle is the same old Du- casionally, but for the most part it vid--grown a trifle older, perbaps- now friends who engross him, and R.AY STANNARD BAKER with the same discerning eye. the same incisive, friendly understandIng of folks and facts, and still posmessed of the ability to make the story of his adventures highly interesting. This time in Understanding" is the contribution from the pen of David Grayson, in private life Ray Baker of Amherst, selected by Mira. Woodrow Wilson to be the biographer of the fatnous war President And instead of pursuing his quests for adventure in the roads and lanes radiating from his farm home in Hempfield. David has migrated for a time to the city; where the pavements ace canyon-like streets provide the locale and the atmosphere for this latest series of "adventures." a difficult thing for Mr.
Baker to do--take David after an absence of years. set him down in the midst of the hurry and bustle of urban surroundings expect him to retain his old, natural charm. L'sually the reading public is prone to he a trifle harsh with old favorites who have been off on vacation. even though their motives may be anything but unkinI. Yet in this case the creator of David Grayson has faced the ordeal' with a confidence born of knowledge of human nature; and David.
as a result, is just as convincing, 'just as delightful R3 a raconteur, as in the carly days of his, outstanding "Aventures in popularity. Understanding" David assumes an interesting point of of the country dweller delving into the moral and spiritual environments of the confirmed city dweller. Hc looks upon these now friends--for they become friends over night-with the same note sympathetic interest 25 with those rural folks he met in his earlier adventures. He asstimes the cloak of the friendly adventurer traveling "in muf- One More One More A Resiew by mice J. Barone.
"Fig Leaves." despite fact that It is the type of novel which at once calls forth the adjective beloved to reviewers, sophom*oric, is an interesting nore lin that it sincercly endeavors to indicate the handeaps under which the modern woman vollege graduate sets out to fauc life--especially life. It is the story of L.ydia Carter--middle class Middl? West. 'The time that. Lydia goes 1n college. narrative, is rather dull 10 the Middle West stale university.
From on the tempo el the story quickens. The author. Mildred Evans Gilman, sremy to have something more delinite to write about. She presents the minority view of the sorority system, pointing out its weaknesses in that it creates snobbishness and that it prods atulents into spending their time on ACtivities in which the may be not at all interested. At college she meets David, the man with whom she falls in love, pursues eagerly and finally marries.
In the beginning. being a sorority member, she aroids being seen in his company for he is not the type who would win the approval of her sisters. As she grows to care more for him she finds that she cares less for her sorority and tries. in a rather ludicrous manner. to pull herself up to his intellectual hight.
The war comes. David cannot tight because his eyes and heart are Lydia. strangely, looks alt war with eyes that realize the futility of it. The man chafes at the weaknesses which keep him out of it. Classts grow irksome and he decides to go to work.
Lydia follows suit and gets a job with an antituberculosis league in Milwaukec. One week-end David comes to see her. Together they go out to forget ti.e way life is treating theni. Several Martinis do the trick and by the time they start buck to the Y. 11.
C. where Lydia lives, it is quite late-50 late in fact that Lydia feels it woull be less einhurrassing not to 20 to her room there. David suggests a hotel and when ret 10 their room he observes that out don't have to he immoral just because you spend the night in the same room with a man." The event. unconventional it may appear. had little apparea: feet on grons further, away from her.
no! through disgust because had his but because sim did nol BI 1: hint mentally. He On. to got into the army ADJ writes to her Brooking their en- the modern college graduates to whom it particularly addresses itselt. "Fig Leaves" is of particular inter-. est here in that Mrs.
Gilman not long ago made her home in this city, being the of James Gilman, who conducted the Court Square Bookstore. "FIG By Mildred Frans Gilman (Siebel Publishing Corporation, Now York). "Chicken-Wagon Family." One of the most charming and in. cresting of love stories is "The Chick' en- Wagon Family," by Barry Bencfield, a tale unlqucly told and with a really strong plot, a combination which goes A long way toward the making of a "best seller." Jim Pickett, the principal character, is made by the. author to tell the tale.
When the story starts Jim is rather clown on his luck and is holding an inferior position on a New York newspaper. His days and nights are haunted by the memory of a swechcart from whom he has been separated by circ*mstances and he decides to give vent to his pentup feelings by writing a story of his life. He beging it some 20 years when he met "the Fippany's" And chicken- wagon, on 3 road in Louisiand. The Fippany family consisted of Jean P. D.
Y. Pippany, Mrs. Josephine Lippany and a little daughter, Addic, 10 years old. One would have no particular diffculty in picturing a "covered wagon" going west across the plains, but Mr. Benefield conceived an entirely new idea and so we read of the Rippany with Jim Pickett (joining his fortunes with theirs) heading, not for the West, but for New York.
Until then, "Father" Fippany had traveled front place. to place with his little family in a covered wagon drawn by two faithful little mules, Luce and Kit, and had made his living by bartering off various wares. He would swap with farmers "a 40-cent hen (and shc usually a stubborn setting hen, which crafty' farmer's wife wished to get rid of) for a 15-cent tin but, with Addie growing up, Mrs. Dippany felt dissatisfied. with their way of living, feeling that the child should go to school.
It was about this juncture that Jim Pickett joined the family, and Mr. Fippany announced that, they would all start, via "covered wagon," for New York. Their ideas of the metropolis were meager. but they had any amount of confidence In themselves, and the account of their drive down Broadway and the search for A stable for the mules is very amusing. Fully to appre.ciate the rest of this very enjoyable littie story one should real the book: to tell more of it here be to spoil it for the many who will want to read it.
This is the first long story written by Barry Benefield, though he 13 well known AS a short-story writer. One hopes ho will find the "spirit" move him to give us other book-length stories refreshing and delightful as this first attempt. 1. T. "THE CHICKEN- WAGON FAMILY." By Barry Beneficid (The Century Company, New York).
Seed Catalog Manner. A surprise angle on the triangle (sums up Cynthia Stockley's "Three Parms." In her characteristic African setting sho puts three English farmers: a soldier who had his face shot to pieces, a typical "tightwad." and the cican "wheat smelling" hero. The first man is married to a vampire in sheen's clothing and the last to a noble and beautiful creature who is too good to be true; the second is a bachelor as all miserly men should be. The scenery in the "Three Farms' is excellent, the Negroes when they appear are most amusing. The plot is exciting but revolling-once it is started.
It takes Bliss Stockley just about half the book 10 get started. This is probably she insists upon making the descriptions of her characters AS alctailed A3 sced catalogs. Except for these trifling faults, "Three Farms" is ically A good crening's amusem*nt. J. C.
M. "THREE By C3 nthi: Stockley (Ci. 1'. Putnam's Sons, New York). "Elizabethan Lyrics." Lyrics," an anthology edited by Norman Ault and published by Longmans, Green New.
York, will welconic to lovers of poctry and of Elizabethan litcrature. it is the largest collection of poems of its period ever made. containing 130 more selections than any other licretofore printed. It represents through upwards of 2000 books and almost 300 manuscripts. and reprints not little that has been lost to litcrature and number of pieces that have never before appeared in type.
A Radical and a Bore Heriew by Walter K. Schurinn. An honest and sincerely cynical book might have been written on the history of American idealism, but Gustavus Dyers has not written it. He has not written it. I am inclined to believe, because he at no time during its composition had a firm grasp on his conception of the pature of idealism.
What that puzzling but very tungible quality is he does not attempt to deand it is impossible, for me at least, to deduce it from his book. the Bili of represents idealism. then, of course. the 18th amendment to the Constitution does not. Dir.
Myers has fervid praise for both. I strictly representative government constitutes idealism. then the direct election of Senators cannot. Mr. Myers lauds both.
If national unity 13 A product of idealism, then fighting the Civil War merely to abolish the slavery of the Negroes was not idealism at all. Mr. Divers thinks national idcalism is typiticd in both. These. take it, are more than inconsistencies They represcot rather a misconception of the nature of incalist and misunderstanding of its ins.
But hencath the erratic surface for 3r. Myers' writing. 14 vaguely 018- cernibie a notion or what concolrea 1 to be state. Every Agates and Migs Ety A. L.
S. SOON "What or is latc, the a matter naturalized with pearanco of standing within The heretic is New Englander asks the native, Boston?" The native, with the aphearing distance of blasphemy, says, answered, but not satisfied. His imagination takes him back to a Golden Age, when another naturalized New Englander proclaimed the town of crooked streets the Hub of the universe. can sec that the town isn't the Hub anything any morenot of: the six sacrosanct States -not even of Massachusetts. It is apparent to a casual observer that there has been decadence, devastation, since the days of the Great Tradition, but no one can realize how complete is the ruin of Boston until he has read an article in The Amcrican Mercury for December.
The author is Charles Angolf and his title is "Boston Twilight." In reading The Mercury In reading The Mercury one suspects Mr. Mencken of writing any article under a not, wellknown. name. For instance, I half suspect him of writing "Keepthe Puritans Pure," by A. L.
S. Wood. Supporting the suspicion in the casc of the, Boston defamation one finds the line of Mr. Mencken's interests followed The importance of music to the civilization of the town is stressed, for instance, but: so Angoff really may be a person just as Wood may be. In any case, Angoff or Mencken or Mencken and Angoff find the of the town's journalism important.
Mencken is a master journalist." To whet the appetites of prospective crusaders the comment on the theaters is reproduced from Mr. Angoff's article. rest of the arraignment is quite as bitter and 1 invite attention to it all before armor is girded on and the battling for the Hub "The fate that has befallen Boston theatrically is hardly less disgraceful than what has hit it journalistically. In all booking offices it is known as a jay town. No good play can make money there; most producers of such plays are lucky if they leave town with their shirts 011.
Shaw's. "St. Joan" played there for four weeks to empty Rostand's "Cyrano de ditto. Even Franz Molnar's "Liliom" had to close after six weeks. For a number of years the Castle Square Theater presented plays of a better Irish Rose" is playing there now.
The Jewett Players at the Copley Theater are now taking its place, but they manage to cover cxpenses only by sandwiching in a piece of rubbish every now and then. St. James Stock Company, which dared to 'present a good thing every so often, is now dead and its theater will soon be occupied by the Keith-Albec hoofers and sword -swallowers. The Bostonians of today simply don't want good plays. They want dramatic garbage.
They want cheap musical comedies. They want leg shows. Whenever, such a work of art comes to town a men, women and a children are trampled under foot in the frenzied rush for seats, and the show stays on for months. "As for the movies, the Bostonians can never get too much of them. In fact, the demand for them is so great that the Boston Symphony, Hall is now- very frequently being used to satisfy it.
The Boston Theater and the Globe Theater, where America's greatest dramatic artists once played. are now cinema houses. Where Edwin Booth and Charlotte. Chapman were. Charlie Chaplin and l'ola Negri -now are.
And the Howard Theater, which ranked with the old Globe Theater--Annette Kellermann and Bozo Snyder and. their like do their tricks there now." Bookstall Gossip By RUTH HOWE WOOD Christopher Morley, Mrs. Morley, Successor of Gissing, at Their New Book, "Thunder on the Doubleday, Page .111 bookshops are interesting but 7 bookshop in college town: has a Alisatmosphere that is not to 10 tinct, in any other community. it attracts to itself youth and enthusiasm. A number of prominent young women of Springfield have journeyed to South Hadicy to open ties first real bookshop that the town had.
Their shop is on the main street in the midst of the college buildings and is bound to attract all sorts of interesting people. The new booksellers are Dorothy Adams, Florence Brewster, Gertrude Brugn, Mary Bruyn, Eunice Burbank, Alice Halligan, P'hillips. The Hadley Bookshop is issuing :1 leaflet containing booknotes, reviews and any gossip interesting 10 bookish people. The little dedication introducing the shop follows: THE BOOKSHOP WINDOW. The charm of the collegc bookshop is nonmoralistic.
It' neither urges an evangelical "free-for-all." nor poses 81.9 11 scientific Cassandra. It merely exists. And between a bookshop and 1 booklover: there comes. to be a sub. tle interchange -flexible and indcterminate.
The booklorer Ands his pet prejudices, soothed by. agreement or pricked by contrariness, and sees an image other than his own reflection. He does not realize that ho has endowed his bookshop with life. And so -geometry to the contrary -the whole more than cquals the sum of the The movies haven't always been grown-up. They were children once and like: children they.
hud charm. 'They were funny at times but they haven't always been the artiticial, unreal. people they have grown into. Pinda Griffith or. really Mrs.
David Wink Griffith writes of the beginning of the movies when one ent in olscure chtrances to avoid being to moving pictures. In those days they were considered very low and only 'actors who were out of job acted in them. Nowadays the pic: 1 which included among others-John Drew, Irvin S. Cobb, Royal Cortissoz, Jolin O'Hara Cosgrave, George H. Doran, Danicl Frohman, George Barr McCutcheon, Cliristopher Morley, Charles G.
Norris, Arthur H. Scribner. r. Ellery Sedgwick, Otis Skinner. Frederick A.
Stokes and Julian Street. Original, as always, Mr. Mcrrick is breaking all traditions for the visiting novelist. He is not going to lecture, not going to criticize American literature or American authors. He is not going to raise noncy for any charitable purpose.
He is not going to write syndicated articles for the newspapers. Mr. Merrick describes his visit as a "Sentimental; has come to America to see the American people because He loves: them. The American public buys his books more readily than the English public -that is the secret. -And Mr: Merrick has come across the Atlantic to express his appreciation to the American public.
A translation "of Mme. Marcelle Tinayre's "La Vie Amoureuse de Mme. de Pompadour" is to be published this spring by Putnam's. No life makes ject of this biography. That Mme.
stranger reading than that of tho super Pompadour was brought up from infancy with definite purpose of fulfiling the roles she eventually assumed is in itself, perhaps, the most remarkable fact. Ethel Colburn Mayne has completed her translation and the English edition is already printed, including beautiful reproduction of the Greuze head of Pompadour as the frontispiece. A graduate of Dartmouth College in the 70s, member of the Boston Bar for 50 years and Congressman from the 18th District of Massachusetts, Mr. Powers has known intimately. many distinguished His early recollections include graphic pen pictures of the faculty of Dartmouth College the period.
His reminiscences of the Boston Bar in the 70s recalls a group of notable lawyers. Powers devotes. a chapter to four Massachusetts Governors, Long, Rugsell, Guild and McCall; he tells of his intimate acquaintance with three Presidents, Cleveland, McKinley and Roosevelt, there is a chapter devoted to Captains of Industry, while his recollections of his life in Washington as Congressman reveal the author as a man of keen perception. The pages of his book are illumined by innumerable anecdotes of famous personages. This year marks the centenary of the writing of "The Last of the Mohicans," and it is worth noting that although James Fenimore Cooper has during these 100 years been alternateJy praised to 'the skies and damned to the depths, his books still read.
That probably proves something, but we don't know what it is. The New By H. L. MENCKEN. It must -be obvious to every one that religious animosities, after lying in.
abeyance in the United States for 65. years, are now acute again, and indeed more acute than ever before. In fully half the States they play an and important part in every election, and in tically all the rest they -are -potent under the surface. Here and there they seem have overridden. all other differences, economic, racial, and political.
It would be quite impossible for a Catholic, -or even a Unitarian, to be elected to, any public office. in Tennessee today, just as it would be impossible for a Methodist to be elected Mayor of New York. The pastors who foment such animosities like to argue that they show a revival of interest in religion, and to talk of a renaissance of evangelical enthusiasm. But'I see. no sign of any such revival or renaissance.
The American people seem -to be headed, in fact, in the opposite direction. They are going to church less and less, and paying less and less heed to the admonitions of their ghostly. counselors. And the that is true in the country as well. as in the cities.
Even at. Dayton, in the high, sweaty midst of the Scopes orgy, the local sorcerers complained. bitterly that their flocks went straying on Sunday mornings, and a newspaper correspondent who made a tour: of the churches told me the largest congregation he found in any of them ran to but 50 souls, chiefly female. On all sides the devil sets his wiles, and so 'the damned multiply. Sunday is not as dismal in republic as it used to be.
the remotest reaches of the hinterland the automobile, the radio, the phono- A Publishing Romance .1 true romance of publishing just come to a successful conclusion in the publication of what is probably the finest collected edition ever given to an American author. on "Stephen Crano the definite collection of the work of one of the greatest of modern American writers. For 011 Nov. 20 the first of 12 volumes in this edition, containing "The Red Badge off Courage" and "The Veteran" (a related story). with a special introduction by Joseph Hergosheimer, appeared for sule in the bookstores.
The story of this. set goes back to the summer of 1021 when the of getting Crane's books together and idea, publishing a sound test first occurred to Alfred A. a Knopf as he was discussing the life and reputation of Stephen Crane with the late Sydney S. Pawling. as William Heinemann's partner, was Cranc's English publisher when the American author was still alive.
It was then that Mr. Knopf decided to undertako this formidable venture' in at the same time to build an appropriate memorial to the American who, though ho had a universally famous reputation, was at flic same time a wholly, unknown person. With this decision began inc difficultics of publishing a definite Colition. In the Arst placc it was necessary to get years that part of the task was finished then came the equally difficult sabot obtaining the copyright to all these volumes in order that when the definitive edition appeared it would not encroach on anyone's fickl. When this WAS finally done the task editing Stephen Crane's Collected Works was turned over to: of "The Modern Novel." Mr.
Follett and Mr. Knopf decided to have each volume introduced by a specialist and ail authority in one of the many fields that work covered and to invite American writers only to do these prefaces. Thus a collection of some of the greatest names in American -literature was added to the alrcady famous work. Among who have written special intreductions for this set arc Joseph Horgesheimer. Beer.
Sherwood Anderson, H. Mencken, Willa -Cather, Carl Van: Doren and Amy Lowell, whose introduction was probably her' last picca of critical -1 After the text had been prepared it W'15 given to 1 Elmer who designed 'and supervised its printing by The Plimpton typography; rozard it' as' onc. of most beautiful specimens 3 of: the printer's art. The sccond volume of STEPHEN CRANE the text of all of Stephen Cranc's work. Most of this material, because it had long been out of print was utterly unknown 10 all except collectors and was Almost inaccessible except at extraordinary prices.
of bookstores and auction rooms was immedistarted and sloaly the collection of rare conics grew in size until everything Crane had ever published was gathered together. At the end. of two. Inquisition graph, and hot dog offer cruel competition to the preachers of the Word. The fact explains the violent dudgeon of the Lord's alliance, which begins to long, like the Anti-Saloon league, for bayonets and.
blood. It would not bawl for the secular arm so shrilly if the persua a A A sions of its missionaries had so completely failed. with them come new of angles on human relationships, all which are meat and drink -to David. Reading the teresting fire in text is like sitting with that before rare an open company character, the incurable globe trotter, wealth of experiences at his tongue's end and possessed of the abil-. ity to weave them into a magic tale.
From first to last David is in his clement. even though it is business. which has brought him, with the faithful Harriet, to the city and its ordinarily distracting His "Tower" becomes the mecca for all manner of new friends, much like quarters of Dickens' "Master Humphrey." where David and these new friends of his may discuss human problems, happily and interminably, until Harriet finally impresses them with suble hints that it is long after the time for them all to be in bed. It would be more or less sinful to outline the full text of "Adventures in Understanding." It should be sufficient say that David is eternally in his element. in city strects as in country lending an ear for those terious messages which always have been so essential in all of his advensures.
And in the end he roes back to 'his broad acres in Hempfield. with his latest series of adventures ended, but all primed to continuc them where he had dropped them before, in these inore rural envircnments. For the bencfit of the impressive host of folks who regard David Grayson as a personal friend. it might De added that this volume. like the others which have preceded it, has been offectively and generously illustrated by the abic pen of Thomas Fogarty.
IN UNDERSTAND. ING: By David Grayson (Doubleday. laze Garden City, N. Revelation Lydia finishes college, the war baying ended the previous fall. and then to her parents' disgust decides to go to Chicaso to find nork.
She hardly arrives than shie calls un David's home and learns that he is there convalescing from pneumonia. reconciliation is citectedl and Davil and Lydia deride that after all they can faro life better together. "Jig Leaves" is apparently an autobiographical novel. Mrs. Gilman doss not spare herself in the least.
her revelations of it young girl's heart and mind being the most interesting elcment in tic book. So what it may- lack in finesse it makes up in sincerity. "Fig Longes" will probably bo contpletely forgotten five years from now but in its very ephemeral quality may be found subject for discussion among lI. The members of Smithville. Klavern march Into the Baptist church in -full canonicals and hand the, Rev.
Pastor $10, but at once they march out again. There is seldom any record of, their. lingering to profit by his exhortings. Nor. do they seem to go into the ter when he has a baptizing on.
his hands. Nor do they accompany. him. when he preaches in- the. highways and byways.
Nor do they sing in the choir. Nor do they show. any other sign of that private and beat, to be saved which is the delight of. pastor's life and the "reward of his laborious prayers and soul searchings. Why, then, their trendy.
for, the True Faith? Why. their elaborate campaigns against Catholics and. the; Jews, not to mention. the Unitarians and the agnostics? Do they fear, they that the Republic will swamped. by hordes of non Nordic fanatics sworn to Jerusalem and.
to Rome? Then why didn't they Tell when these hordes were actually don ing in, instead of now, when they' are cut off? The causes of the current uproar, I believe, must be. sought elsewhere. More, it. seems to me that they. lie plainly in view, and should be apparent to every one.
They' belong to the sweet heritage that was left to us by the late crusade for democracy. They are part of the curse that was then unloaded upon the The rabble is idiotic today because it was then deliberately filled with idiocy. And. it will be a long time before that idiocy oozes out. What we have here, in "brief, is fear substitution.
How it worked on higher levels is well known to every one. During the war the whole conntry was. systematically plied with: until finally it was in a state bordering upon frenzy. Behind door a German spy was concealed. in every loaf of bread there was German glass.
whenever a tire blew out it was a German plot. Suddenly the war over, and the impotence of the Germans was manifest. It was no longer: possible to fear them. But the fear that had been manufactured so adeptly remained, and it had to find a new object. That object appeared in Bolshevism.
In fact, the substitution was made ficially, and to the tune of loud music. 1. million bolsheviks, it appeared, had stealthily invaded the United Stater, each with his pockets stuffed with gold. They were. at work among the workingmen.trying to foment strikes.
They were putting dynamite under wrecking mills, burning crops. They had propagandists in the coal mines. in the public schools, in the halls of Congress. Their aim was to 'abolish private property, murder all capitalists; and put a communist in' the White House." What issued out of that rubbish history. There was an uproar almost as bad as that which had gone on during the war.
Prisoners were taken by the thousand, all persons suspected of the communist: heresy were harassed by the police, and whole shiploads of men. most of them innocent, were hustled out of the country without trial. It was a. great show while it lasted, albeit somewhat obscene. On witch.
burner actually aspired to the presidency on the strength of it. IV. But there tras one defect in the rusadc. Its chief appeal was to men with money in the bank and property 10 Jose it did not reach the poor men where he lived. Thus his vast fear, lingering from the war.
days, suffered the lack of a suitable new object. was simply impossible for him to shiv. er and shake over a menace that seemed to threaten his boss tried to tremble, but it become, after a while, too difficult. Even the American Legion could fetch him lle enjoyed its rowdyism, but only. show.
tHe was on the. There entered the wizards and grand cyclopses of the klan. with their tondant ecclesiastics, and almost in. stantly longing was satisfied, ant he was, shivering with the best of them. But not over to the United States Steel Corporation 'and the Federal Reserve system.
This new menace came It threatened his his domestic. peace, and hi: sacred honor as a Democrat. It was thrust at home and freedom. If brave men did not challenge it and dispose of it; Constitution would be in tat. ters, the serf would become a slave the Bible would be on the fire, and a wor would be in the White House.
The fears of the, yokel rose at once and with him the fears of the proletarian- beside his kitchen stove. Here. ut last, was something to justity. and dignify tremors that yet ran through every patriatic frame. Here? was something simple and satisfying.
The isn't that it succeeded, but that uny one, hearing of it when it new. could have: imagined it falling It was almost perfect medicine for Once it began to run through their veins they happy. It possible be scared again, frankly openly, and unashamed. The shaking will go OD, I believe, for some time to come. the emotions prob do pot wear off quickly.
But us not. misunderstand the nature this onc. It is no more grounded upon genuine religious moaning and snuffling of the triots were grounded upon liet in. democra by the cricaro Tribum; the Four Little Morleys And a Long Island Home. Mr.
Morley's Left," Was Issued lecently by and Company. tures are. so unreal and remote that one of intelligence can't take them -they arc made by beings different from 18 88 I 11 the past sear I have scon 20,000 more homes than America has, destroyed by the eternal triangle. Livingrooms in thic movies have all thro hone-likc a1 mosphere of the Grand Central, all rich people arc disagreeable and overdressed, all poor people sad, everyone appears to be ol the same social grade--the kitchen -and they are only to he distinguished by their clothes. liven telephones in movics are dressed up in colonial costumes.
When the were Joung the system was different. Tho Biograph which developed Mr. Griffith, was a stock company that made picturcs. It was before the days of stars; the loading woman did all the leads and the comedian did all comedy parts. Mary Pickford was glad to get her thirty dollars a week.
and slic wasn't a leading woman then. Drs. Griffith' book is really a eulogy of Mr. Griffith and history of their struggle from most humble beginnings. It is diverting, if nothing else, to watch this nice little child grow up into the silly person We know today.
of aristocratic standards and the substitution of the majority rote therefore is A manifestation of icalisnt. Every step away. from representative government toward pure democracy is a similar manifestation of idealism: Every time intelligence and taste displaced by majority whim idealism is aguin revealed. These seem to be the conclusions upon which Mir. Myers builds.
Inasmuch as he ba3 dedicated. this book to that great conservator in politics and art, Otto H. Kuhn. it may 10 that Mr. Dyers will resent my culling him a radical.
Yet 1 can conceive of him 03 nothing else, and, us such, I have a quarrel with him. quarrel with him not merely because his book contains sone very bad politics, but more because it contains some extraordinarily uninspired writing. I have reading the mourned Frecdom, why the radicals all seemed have bad arguments and brilliant pens, and why, on the other hand, conservatives seemed to huve good arguments and dull pens. Here, at any rate, is du exception -a radical who is a bore. In my estimation, a radical has small excuse for being unless he is provocafive.
intolligent and sharp. Mr. Myers' book has small excuse for being. 1 HISTORY OFF AMERICAN By Gustavus Macis Mrarlaht, New York. "WHEN THE MOVIES WERE (1c.
YOUNG': r'. Dutton By Mrs. New W. Griffith Quietly and unostentatiously, unheralded in the press and ungreeted by reporters, there landed in New York couple of weeks ago one of the most distinguished -if not the most popular of English novelists, Leonard Merrick. author of "Conral in Quest of His Youth." "While Paris Laughed, "A Chair on tho Boulevard," and many other works of charm and distinction.
At a dinner given to the colchrated author by a number of his friends and on Nov. 16 at 'The Coffee House in New York, Mr. Merrick expained the reason of hi- unobtrusive arrival to the distinguished rathering which had met to de him honor and set. "Talcs of Two. with an introduction by Robert Davis will be out on Dec.
4 and edition will. probubly be published. within a year. Although the books can. be obtained as they pare pullizhed.
at $7.50 a copy, the work. is sold only as complete. set for each of the 750 copies is numbered and the purchaser will- naturally desire to. have an unand uniform collection. 6.
