The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-11-03
TIE ~GRAPHOMANIA NTMEYTCA
SYMPTOMS CAUSED BY THES
DEADLY LITTLE NECE0BE.
science Attacks che Problem NJ Inc Play

kNNNInE Fever. but can FInB No
e-An the worlds a Playwright.
gusPaSt. Becainae Ii Loo'ss sS Easy
There was a mlllin the Alley during the
last week. Mr.. AIDE. TO be sure, rushed
in at the GarricIS, where Mr.. Klein had failed.
and impertinent ~Artie," talrned into u
play, aiIcd a hole to kccp tins wolf away,
while another Of those musical comedy
things. Miss P~ocahontas, " followed the un-
fortunate Miss SapphO at the Lyric.
Each piece was an Improvement on the
play 10 superseded. hut neither calls for
further comment. Instead. the lvle and the
place invite 10 a quiet OOutempiatioE OF the
latest discoveries Of science
Inspired by the fine results which have
followed two recent theses 'pr the doctors
degree at Cambridge, ono can The longi-
t1dinal vibrations OF n piece OF rubbed
string" ard abe other on The place OF
vision in the mental life OF the mouse, a
friend Of ours has for some time past been
working in his private laborato ", and soon
he will give to the world a monograph on
"The effect on the cellular org lnism OF a
EgIinea pig Of the bacillus graPhomanla
mimetica." He has, after mOnths OF patient
labor. succeeded in isolating this deadly
microbe, and has several tubss hlled with
the cultures, which multiply in the tenn
I,erature of Broadway at a proilglOus rate.
We have been permitted TO 100 at this
microbe through a powerful magnifyinR
glass. II is . horrid bug. yellow, striped
with black. We ~shuddered as w looked
At il and made sure to wash our hands with
ioarbolid and TO disinfect Our clothes. But
rhe scientist seems to hands, the cultures
quito without fear. and now he Is looking
Far human beings to experiment on. The
tranbIe. he says. is not to find people willing
20 undergo an injection. but to find anybody
who hasn't already at least a faint OF the
disease in his blood. Naturally he tried
first in the colleges; but the undergraduates
turned out the worst class of all. One drop
of blood from a Harvard senior disclosed on
analysis J. 4OO,21 microbes, and even In the
women's colleges the contagion was almost
as bad. II there is anybody who has never
written so much as the first act OF a play
and has never felt the slightest itch to write
a play. this scientist would be grateful for
his or her name and address.
But in spite Of his inability to find hitherto
n perfectly healthy human being on whom
to experiment, and in spite Of his inability
to find any agent that will kill the germ
without also killing the victim marriage
VIII OtNen ClTb IONGs ~ PlObhNNiph pa
only 20 heiRhten the play writing feverl.
our scientific friend has yet been able TO
draw a few pretty certain conclusions
regarding the disease TIA can hardly fail
TO be OF interest.
One OF the symptoms which usually
Through not alwaysI distinguish the play
writing fever from authoritis in general
Is the presence in the victim Of hallucina-
.tions. closely akin on the one hand TO the
morbid idea that the world is in a con-
spiracv against n "a common form OF
-iDcipient insanity-and m the other to
exaggerated egotism. To what lengths the
first form Of the Authorizations will lead a
victim is we'll illustrated by a playwright
who not long ago wrote a furious letter to
n certain manager declaring that his play
had not been read. He knew IL hadn't
because he sprinkled sand between pages
thirteen and fourteen. and the sand was
still there when the manuscript came back
60 him. Managers don't read the plays
submitted to them. he hotly affirmed. They
produce only the work OF foreigners or
dramatists who have arrived The
Great America Drama comes knocking
at their door and they send word they are
out. The second phase Of the hallucina-
.tions is also illustrated by this same case.
The playwright was totally incapable
sof comprehending that perhaps IL was
enough TO read twelve pages Of his play to
find out that IL was unit for the stage.
Aa somebody once took the trouble 10 say,
s~You don't have to cat the whole OF an egg
TO discover that it's rotten" There was
never a playwright yet who did not feel
confident that his play was great, who did
: mot know that IL united the technique OF
: Ibscn with the amusing surface detail 81
Fitch AZ a budding young dramatist said
to us only yesterday while enthusiastically
/. describing his latest masterpiece. This
same Young bud had a play produced not
verS long ago: and that. we admit, ought
TO bN an argument for the stupidity Of
maHarers, though he arrives at his con-
clusion concerning the mental capacity Of
. the powers that produce by quite another
illogical route. This play was a dire failure.
. Not one Of the characters was alive, not
one Of them spoke human speech, not for a
moment did the drama convince, not once
/: did It Disclose the trace Of a talent.
But was he purged of his feverT Far
from II! He laid the blame on the actors
and the stage management. and went
bIithely to work on a second masterpiece
Now, nothing can be more certain than
that thisn man does not know how TO write
"a play, or, better. that he has not the
quality and force of imagination 70 con-
ceive a story in terms of the theatre. He
can and has written fiction Of some merit
and charm. He canno and never win
write a play. But the fatal germ is in his
veins. the nasty little yellow bug is eating
at his tissues. And incapacitated for self
+. criticism as a result. deluded. wrapt up
now in HIS dream, he goes right on trying.
and will go right on trying till the Ultimate
disappointment Doubtless the malign in
fuence Of the lady Of h winged wheel is
at work here. and in all such cases. 10 some
extent. When a poor pen pusher to whom
five cents a word is a dream OF avarioe reads
! that Charles Klein has made half a million
dollars from -The Lion and the Mouse or
that Fitch's royalties have mounted in a
single year into six figures. IL is easy and
natural for him TO convince himself that no
too can writea play. The fact that he knows
nothing about the theatre. that he has never
trained his mind to think in terms OF the
ptaRe. that the dramatic medium is not the
medium proper to his Imagination. does not
deter him in h slightest. So he writes the