Them Was the Good Old Days How well we remember the street parade of the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" company that came to our town. The bloodhounds, led by boys of the town dressed up in red coats, the band, and the actors. But, alas, when we requested permission to attend the performance we were informed brusquely that we could not go to see "that damyankee show." It was the only time we can remember when censorship was imposed upon us. Most of us think of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as a tank-town show now. Few of us realize that Mrs. Fiske and Mrs. Henry Miller have played Eva, and that the immortal Lotta Crabtree was once Topsy. J. Frank Davis in this number has dealt with an American institution. What town or hamlet in the country has been slighted by a "Tom Show"? Mr. Davis is by birth a New Englander and was for more than twenty years a newspaper man specializing in dramatic criticism. In 1910 he resigned as associate editor of the Boston Traveler to go to Texas and turn to fiction-writing. That those years have not been barren is shown by the fact that his published work includes some 150 short stories, sixteen serials, and two books. We have two other prominent newspaper men in this number. One is none other than Doctor John Finley, one of the editors of the New York Times and author of "At Christendom's Cross," the frontispiece, and the other is N. P. Babcock, who for forty years filled various editorial positions in Chicago and New York. Strangely enough, W. C. Brownell was Mr. Babcock's first city editor. Augustus Vincent Tack, the artist whose picture suggested Dr. Finley's poem, is one of the most distinguished American mural and portrait painters. His work hangs in the Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Cleveland Art Museum, the Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, and he painted the mural decorations for the legislative chamber of the new Parliament Building, Manitoba, Canada. Miss Ticknor's sketch of Sir William Osler furnishes the background for that part of the great phy- Sir William sician's life which was spent in Osler England, after his master work in America was finished. The author is the granddaughter of William D. Ticknor, founder of the famous publishing house of Ticknor & Fields. Readers might accuse us of giving them a cold reception with two Hales and a blizzard all in one number. But there's nothing cold about any Not a Frost of them. The author of "The Oriental Ancestry of the Telescope" has been barking up the family-tree of his favorite instrument, and his researches led back to King Tutankhamen himself. Doctor Hale is among those who did not robe themselves in white and await the end of the world at the time of eclipse. Robert Beverly Hale, author of "Mary Ellen," is a member of the well-known Hale family. Manhattan billboards are at present plastered with advertisements of the filming of his grandfather's famous story, "The Man Without a Country." Some of the literary skill with which the name is associated appears to have been sublimated in this descendant into a delicate lyric gift. Helen Among our other poets, there are a number of interesting people. Choate is a young poet whose versatility is shown by com- The Young parison of "The Tired Woman" Poets with lighter verse appearing in Vanity Fair and The Conning Tower. She is the daughter of Joseph H. Choate, Jr. Grace Noll Crowell is active in the affairs of the Poetry Society of Texas. She has appeared in SCRIBNER'S before. Edward Steese is another young poet. He graduated from Princeton in 1924 as first honor man, and delivered the Latin salutatory at Commencement. While an undergraduate he published a book of verse, and edited the Nassau Literary Magazine. He has since spent a term at the Princeton Graduate School studying architecture. Matthew Arnold. His first book, "Critical Ventures in Modern French Literature," was published a short time ago. There seems to be something in this theory of inheritance. The fiction in this number presents an interesting variety and three various people. Roger Burlingame is the author of "You Too," a novel whose underlying thesis is a satirical consideration of modern advertising. He has been held up for the delectation of the readers of a number of advertising journals as a "modern David attacking the Goliath of advertising." "Bachelors on Horseback" shows this writer in a different vein. Isa Urquhart Glenn, having written a number of stories of army life, of which she was a part for many years, has Fiction - now gone to South America to This Month visit a navy relative and look and Next life over in that branch of the She is recuperating from an attack of pneumonia contracted at the Princeton-Yale football game last fall. We contracted a deep fit of despondency service. there ourselves. Edwin C. Dickenson is a lawyer in Hartford, Conn., who writes a story occasionally for the fun of the thing. Mr. Low The May number promises equal variety in fiction and people. McCready Huston adds "Wrath" to his list of stories appearing in SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE. He is a Pennsylvanian who works in Indiana, an editorial writer for the South Bend Tribune. Ruth Robinson Blodgett is another person who has been heard of before. During her vacations on the Maine coast, where she is "Cap'n Robinson's daughter" or "Anna's girl," she plays golf. "Mrs. Renwick Plays Her Game" is a good golf story, and a better story of relations between mother and son. "The Man Who Had Been Away" is Emerson Low's first published story. We should have linked him up with J. Frank Davis's article, for he Makes His told us the other day that he spent eight months on the stage, most of which was with a 10-20-30 stock company. The experience finally ended when the manager walked off with the remaining funds and left the company stranded in a small Maryland town. Mr. Low went to Harvard firmly resolved to become an actor ("like Merton of the Movies praying," he says), but, while there, he became interested in literature and forgot his histrionic ambition. Some of the events in Mr. Low's story are true. The scene was southern Germany three years ago. Paris newspapers carried accounts of it at the time. Mr. Low is now living in New York and working on a novel. Bow in the May number of SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE: "Some American Women and the Vote," by Katherine She Admits Fullerton Gerould, and “South- She ern Memories: Sidelights on Doesn't the Race Problem," by Albert Vote Guérard. Mrs. Gerould does not want to vote, and she quite frankly says what she thinks of the argument that she must vote in order to offset the ballot of her cook. Mr. Babcock went to Colorado to find peace, Theodore Roosevelt went to Wisconsin to find fish. It was after vention in Cleveland that the La Follettethe Republican National Con- Fish in son of the man who led a third dom party in 1912 invaded the State, which was the only one destined to cast its electoral vote for a third party the following November. An excellent follow-up on Charles S. Myers's "Humanizing Industry" in the March number is "They or We: A New Spirit in Industry," The Toilers by Olive A. Colton, describing the attitude toward labor in this country. Miss Colton is treasurer of the Ohio Council on Women in Industry, a trustee of the Consumers' League, and president of the Toledo League of Women Voters. "The Organization Complex in Our Colleges" is Ruth Steele Brooks's contribution to a number of articles we are publishing regarding the col- Betangled leges in America to-day. Many Collegians of us have suffered from the organization complex. Many parents who are sending sons and daughters to college will be interested in this point of view. Cornelis Botke, the Dutch artist whose remarkable drawings of the strange old trees at Point Lobos, Calif., will be remembered by SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE readers, contributes "The Last Stand of the Windmill in Holland" to the May number. THE CLUB CORNER Being Suggestions for Topics of Discussion and Study for Women's Clubs Only this morning there came to our desk a review of a recent SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE by The Bookman of the Manitoba Free Press, who says among other things, "It is rare to find mediocre verse in SCRIBNER'S." A study of the magazine for 1924 and the first quarter of 1925 reveals the work of fifty-nine American poets, ranging from Edith M. Thomas who also contributed to the first volume of SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE in 1887, to young poets in their teens or early twenties, such as Evelyn Hardy, Helen Choate, Milton Offutt, and Edward Steese. A PROGRAM ALL COMPLETE The poets and poems appearing in SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE during this period and the number in which they appear follow (the year to be understood as 1924 unless otherwise specified): John Alden-"On Hearing the Clavichord," Sept. Eleanor Baldwin-"The Rider of the Wind," May. William Rose Benét-"The Wood-Cutter's Bertha Bolling-"Pan's Garden," Dec. Alice Windsor Kimball-"The Blind Quest," Sept. George T. Marsh-"Fleets o' Dreams," Sept. Milton Offutt-"Whirligig," Aug. Flora Shufelt Rivola-"Kindly Silences," Jan., 1925. Corinne Roosevelt Robinson-"Refusal," Dec. Helen Minturn Seymour "A Dancer from Margaret Sherwood-"The Latch," Feb., 1925. George Sterling "Lonely Beaches," Aug. Mark van Doren-"Alfalfa Coming," April. Lorraine Roosevelt Warner-"The Poet," Jan., 1925. John V. A. Weaver-"Old Farm," Jan., 1925. John Hall Wheelock-"I Sought You," Dec. Edith Ives Woodworth-"Contrasts," Sept. Roland Young-"Pittsburg-Lakewood," Jan. Biographical information concerning any of these poets given upon request, accompanied by stamped self-addressed envelope, to Editor, Club Corner, SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE, 597 Fifth Avenue, New York. Dear, dear. 1 wonder where Mr.Hammond got that funny Idea! about it Where the Reader, the Author, and the Editor Mix It Up A short time after John Hays Hammond's "Strong Men of the Wild West" appeared there came a letter from Charles J. Bosworth, of the Pacific Coast Department of the Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York. DEAR EDITOR: I read with great interest the article of John Hays Hammond "Strong Men of the Wild West," but I want you to write to Mr. Hammond and correct a misstatement made in this article. He speaks at length about Charles A. Siringo and ends up by stating that Mr. Siringo is in his grave. I want you to advise him that on January 8th, Mr. Siringo was very much alive and living at 6057 Eleanor Avenue, Hollywood, California. A little later there came this letter. 6057 Eleanor Ave. DEAR EDITOR: Having read John Hays Hammond's story "Strong Men of the Wild West" in your magazine for February, thought I would send you a detailed account of my part in the Coeur d'Alene riots. Mr. Hammond is mistaken in one thing, and that is that I am in my grave. CHAS. A. SIRINGO. After such evidence, we became a bit skeptical of the cadaverification of the doughty Siringo. We forwarded the letter to Mr. Hammond and received the following in reply: Thanks for your letter of the 19th. I too have heard from our friend Siringo and I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of my statement concerning his demise. Hótel Hollywood, DEAR EDITOR: I have read with great pleasure the interesting January number of SCRIBNER'S, and was much struck with "Letters from a Bourgeois Father To His Bolshevik Son." It is too bad that this story should be taken bodily from two old Saturday Evening Post features "The Gibson Upright," by Harry Leon Wilson and Booth Tarkington, and "The Letters of Old Gordon Graham," by George Horace Lorimer. But SCRIBNER's would please everybody if he would publish a series of good and original fiction stories on the foolish and ridiculous literary and artistic Young Bolshevists of Greenwich Village. A READER OF SCRIBNER'S. The author replies thus: Old Colony Club, Hotel Tutwiler, Birmingham, Ala. DEAR EDITOR: I am returning the communication of the anonymous Hollywood lady, after noting contents carefully. between my "Letters" and Mr. Lorimer's. Now It is astonishing that she found a similarity that I recall the details, I am forced to admit that each series had something to do with a father, and each mentioned a son. I had never read "The Gibson Upright," but I hastened to do so to-day. If Mr. Tarkington and Mr. Wilson were guilty of anticipatory plagiarization in using my idea, it was doubtless due to the fact that this project of turning a factory over to its workmen has been discussed, in fiction and out, some thousands of times, and all three of us may have been influenced by the events in Russia. Beyond that point, I am sorry to say So that's that, and Siringo is not dead, on my own behalf, I can find no likeness between long live Siringo. PLAGIARISM? Hollywood figures largely in our columns this month. We violate our general rule against printing anonymous communications because so much interest is attached to this one. my story and the play by the gentlemen from Indiana. However, I am grateful to the Hollywood lady for the compliment. E. D. TORGERSON. Our correspondent apparently voiced her conviction to Harry Leon Wilson also. Even before this letter came, Mr. Wilson forwarded a letter which he had received from Hollywood, signed A Harry Leon Wilson Admirer. The letter made the same charge. Mr. Wilson penned a comment on the missive to the effect that he could detect no plagiarism; that he had also once written a story about a professor and a medicine show, referring to "For Sale: Med Show," by Kyle S. Crichton, in the March number. We received an appreciative comment from Charles W. Collier, of Boston, regarding this story and Gamaliel Bradford's "Portrait of Edwin Booth." WHY THEY DID NOT CHEER III Broadway, New York City. DEAR EDITOR: Stella Beehler Ruddock's article "Taggin' Ship" in the February SCRIBNER'S was very human and most interesting. Mrs. Ruddock refers to the lack of cheering when the men of the fleet marched down from Grant's Tomb after the war. She speaks of this absence of cheering as a "freak" of crowd psychology and naturally she felt hurt. It was not in fact a "freak" of crowd psychology, it was crowd psychology-that is, New York crowd psychology. I myself have known scores of military parades in New York, either as a participant or as a spectator, and without exception the crowds have been "silent staring" ones. Practically the only thing that will bring a cheer or applause is a particularly straight line when marching in column of companies or platoons. Mrs. Ruddock is not alone in having felt hurt but she may be assured that the crowd really is sympathetic and grateful, only perhaps too much moved to applaud. STANLEY D. MCGRAW. PRAISE FROM THE NAVY Concerning "Taggin' Ship," Captain Elliot Snow, from the Office in Charge of Special Instruction, Students of Construction Corps, U. S. N., at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, writes: I am planning to bring the publication of this article to the attention of the Information Section of the Office of Naval Intelligence as being one of interest to the service at large. Mrs. Ruddock has written a story, "Landlocked," which will appear in an early number. EXCOMMUNICATION FROM THE ARMY With the praise of the navy ringing in our ears we receive this jolt from the army: proved to be very unpleasant to the writer, and I can not imagine anybody but a damfule Pacifist receiving any pleasure or instruction from such an article. Yet, I could excuse him for writing it and you for publishing it, because such things could have happened in our, or any other army recruited as ours was during the war, but I cannot subscribe to any such comment as the one enclosed which I have clipped from your February issue and I therefore feel compelled to cancel my subscription. EDWIN P. KETCHUM, Ist Lt., C. of E., U. S. A. The clipping which the lieutenant enclosed follows: With all this propaganda for preparedness going on about us, with admirals and navy secretaries and generals howling about the enemies without our gates, Thomas Boyd's stories have an added significance. It is refreshing to see that President Coolidge, according to newspaper reports, has put the quietus on the jingos. About a year and a half ago the New York Times on its editorial page, while finding Thomas Boyd's book, "Through the Wheat," praiseworthy, deplored the fact that Mr. Boyd “gives hardly a hint of realizing that the war had an object of sufficient importance to make the heavy price worth paying." We wonder what the author of the editorial thinks about it now. It is from "Behind the Scenes With Scribner's Authors." The conductor of that department appends the following note: POETRY REVIEW There was a fine fellow named Bok Who picked a poetical lock His name gave a sheen To a good magazine But his poem gave its readers a shock THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDY We promised a New England tragedy for this month. Here it is. Mr. Bok missed his signals and gave the ball to Emerson instead of Lowell. 666 Whitney Avenue New Haven, Conn. DEAR EDITOR: Will you pardon a correction of what evidently is a typographical error on page 95 of SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE for January, 1925? At the head of Edward Bok's interesting article "The President" appear the lines "Count me o'er earth's chosen herocs They were souls that stood alone." They are attributed to Emerson but in reality they are the first lines of the twelfth verse of.. James Russell Lowell's "The Present Crisis." |