The Tupelo journal., 1906-04-13
If the Critics Wrote the Plays.

If the Critics Wrote the Plays.
In this sad, degenerate day
Dramas in a dismal way,
Fallen from its high condition
Just a business proposition;
Vuiga sordid, cheap, banal,
Anti-intellectual
Vanished is the vital spark;
Dramas lamp is cold and dark.
How it would revive and blaze
If the critics wrote the plays!
Every drama then would be
From the common failings free,
1t would be a work of art,
Perfect in it's every part.
1t would please and educate,
Entertain and elevate.
Influencing high and low
In an equal ratio,
There'd be one great paean of praise
If the critics wrote the plays.
More would ask: How was the play?
AS we hear it asked to-day
Question would be: Did you go?
Wasn't it a splendid show
Everyone would recognize
There was naught to c%riticise.
One opinion. Criticism
Would be an anachronism.
Speed. Q Time, that day of days
When the critics write the plays!
Literary shoemakers are as disin-
clined to stick tC their respective lasts
as the proverbial maker of footwear.
Thus Morgan Robertson, who does sea
ta.es very well, prefers to write about
psychic influence and introduce a beau
tiful woman in he story. Anyone
that has seen Mr.. Robertson or a pic
+,ro Of hipo will roadi1v ltndorctond
how naturally psychology and beauty
would appeal to him. Another writer
who loves to daily with the psychic is
Hamlin Garland; he dislikes to stick
to ensilo and silage, where his special
gift lies. George Barr McCutcheon has
always had a craving to introduce hui
man beings in his romances, and has
to be constantly depressed by his pub
ishers, who know how costly the ex-
pertinent is. Lloyd Osbourne is af-
flicted with the auto bug. Thomas w.
Lawson's secret ambition is to design
the covers for Everybody's Magazine.
And SO it goes. The only excuse the
average author has is that he is doing
the thing for which he is best fitted.
s. +
Now that the holiday trade is over,
one hopes %devOutly that "All the Fifty
Cent Poets have returned from the
depths of 10 cents to their half dollar
eminence.
The most overworked word in the
T1-rr1,eh I oo unconventional 10
the word proposition" Once you be-
Gin to notice it, it gets on your nerves.
some people can't talk 80 seconds with
out using it. A friend of ours used it
90 times in the course of W minutes
talk. 1t is maddening. Stop it. A little
picturesque conversation goes a great
way.
RESPONSIVE READING.
She
/ love Mr. S%winburne.
He
His verse is so warm;
She
And if you don't read him
He
He'll do you no harm.
The Exposure Fad of Little Already.
The exposure fad has hit Little Ar
cady. ILL.,, and hit it hard. That once
idylllc community, recently made IA
nous by novelist Harry Leon Wilson,
is in the throes of publicity, and the
most astonishing developments are
promised.
Nothing is talked of in Little Already
except exposure. Prominent shame
finders have been invited there to lee
ture. and among those that have
agreed to come are Lincoln Steffens,
David Graham Phillips, Samuel Hop
Adams, Thomas w. Lawson and Ida
Tarbell. During the past month the
D best six sellers in Little Already were
enemies of the Republic" by Lincoln
Steffens, ITO Ward Delnge," by David
Graham Phillips, rs Rockefeller HUI
Eang' by Ida Tarbell. E~yerybody's