The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-11

The chances are that he Is not for the
Indiana author who has the vision TO see
vinegar buyers in this State would GER
tainly have won fame at very early
age"
Thereupon. some one in the office OF
Liebler & Co. was assigned to write a let
ter OF defense TO the Muncie Times. The
hireling said that the Times did its own
State an injustice by calling it's humble
"caricatures-" The writer of this was born
in Ohio" he said, and has made cider
out Of apples grown on his own place and
sold barrels of vinegar-the real stuff-to a
real vinegar buyer, hired by city firm, just
like Jap Miller. Vinegar buyers in Indiana
in these days-to Indiana's shame, be it
you should tell II not in Gath nor publish
IL in the Muncie Times. We presume there
are wool buyers and horse buyers and
hog buyers out In Indiana, even in these
ambitious days; there used TO be in Ohio,
and that not so very long ago..
Here is guile, and IL Is hoped the Muncie
Times sees through 1t. 1t is not sufficient
that 1t is true that there are in Indiana
characters like those moving in Indiana
dramas-this fact does not justify all the
characters in Indiana dramas being jays.
Why is not the cultured class of Indiana
also represented? Even when one does see
in an Indiana play a woman
modishly dressed and saying IF I were,'
the character is always labeled on the pro-
gramme visitor from New York or Bos-
ton Never is the well-dressed, well-edu-
Gated parsonage an Indianian. And-here
Is shame-lDdiana writers have been among
the most prominent traducers of the
Hoosier State. Think of Joseph Arthur's
blue Jeans" and Lost River" Joseph
Arthur came from Terre Haute. or some
where just truly Hoosier. Booth Tar
kngton, Ii Is not too late TO recall, once
wrote a story called 1.-THE Gentleman from
Indiana and in playform it is in the
hands of Charles Frohman and may be
made visible and audible on the stage any
time. In that story whtecaps are repre-
sented by half-Savage people living In
community apart from the village that is
the scene of the general activity. When
the book was published, several newspa-
pers out in the State exclaimed Indignantly
that this part of Mr.. TarkingtonS novel
was a libel. Whitecaps. they truthfully de,
clared, were among the most enlightened
and prosperous farmers of Southern In
diana. Thus was Mr.. Harrington justly
rebuked and Indiana set right before the
country on the point of the fair reputation
of it's whitecaps.
Again. Frank Mckee is preparing to pre-
sent an Indiana play entitled Ninety ana
Nine" by one Ramsey Morris. In fact.
it is in rehearsal. 1t is a play of Indiana
rural life" (of courseD, and gets its name
from one of the Moody-Sankey hymns.
Did not the Music Teachers Association
of Indiana. in convention at Terre Haute,
declare that the Moody-Sankey hymns
were rot" that the church singers and
preachers should band to put the trash
out OF the routine worship and substitute
therefor music of a grade worthy TO be
heard in the churches of an enlightened
commonwealth? 1t is to be presumed that
the Moody-Sankey hymns are sung In other
States; indeed, in New York city and Bos-
ton. The Music Teachers Association of
Indiana was the first or among the first,
hymns-and yet on Indiana is fastened this
new rural play, Ninety and Nine" And
| Frank Mckee is responsible. How many
| times has he accepted the hospitality and
been refreshed by the waters of West Ba-
| den? Bert Dasher, too, more than likely,
| Is interested in The enterprise, for he has
been associated with Mckee for years.
Has Dasher forgotten to revere Indiana,
| has he cut off the city that produced Eng
| lish's Opera House and thus started him,
| as an usher, in the theatrical business,
| the Broad Ripple bandits, who were in
| tellectual, artistic bandits?
|
Indiana is Jay State its people are
"come-ons" and they fatten the green
goods man. Nowhere else can the foot
race swindle be so successfully worked.
| This is the Indiana of the stage. Here is
an opportunity for the host Of culture
| clubs to assert its power for reform. Let
the indianapolis Literary Club take a
hand and the Contemporary and Over-the-
/ Teacups. Indiana has drawing rooms, In
| diana has colleges, Indiana has art, Indi-
| ana is the seat of the Western Association
of Writers. And this brings us to the most
| important point: Since the Indiana au-
| thors' readings the New York Sun and
| other Eastern newspapers of distinction
have been busy discussing, not what the
| authors read. but the authors that were
/ very much not present, namely, James
| Byron Gilmore and George Washington
| Sayler, the former the creator of "Sassa-
fras," 1.-THE Monon Wreck etc, and the
or, the Devil in Chains Elmore and Say
Ter do not represent Indiana literature, but
| they are the most striking personalities
in it, and it is personality that the world
is athirst for America grows tired of the
! gray, barren desert of historical romance
| and homespun realism. Gilmore and Say
Ter are clumsy with the language, their
| thoughts are crude. but they are not inter-
ested in the agitations of the past, and
| they are personalities. They yearn to ex-
press that which seethes within them, and
| they do. This must be the reason of their
| prominence. The Indiana writer's that are
resting easy do nothing to let the world
| know that Indiana is not one farm, peopled
| with whiskered men, calicoed women and
barelegged children. Look again at the
| list of young, vigorous Indiana authors
| that should be creating a literature telling
something OF Indiana's higher life, but are
not:
Charles Major author of when Knight
hood Was in Flower and Dorothy Yer
| non of Haddon Hail."
Booth Harrington, author of "The Gentle
| man from Indiana Chose white capsD,
Monsieur Beaucaire' and the Van
| revels"
Mrs. Mary Hartwell Catherwood. author
| Of "LaZarre."
George Barr McCutcheon, author OF
/ "Graustark and Castle Craneycrow"
Charlton Andrews, author of "A Parfit
| Gentil Knight"
Test Dalton, author of 1.-The Role of the
| Unconquered."
That will do. George AIDE is omitted be-
| cause he has deserted Indiana divides his
time between Chicago and New York, and
has bound himself for a period of years to
write comic opera librettos for manager
| sprung from Boston. AS long as Indiana
| writer's continue to misdirect their abilities
the theatrical harpies will use the State as
| a scene of the b'gosh drama. Effort should
| be made. and that soon, toward the pro-
| duction of a writer like any of those EN-
| ployed by the Smart Set. who would des-
cribe the cultured social life Of Indian
| apolis and cities of the fading gas belt and
the developing interurban system in vivid
manner TO make the general public forget
the offenses of past rural plays and refuse
to attend performances of such libels as
THE Vinegar Buyer" and Ninety and
Nine"