The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1907-08-24


you spoil every denouement by those fiat, drab,
obliterating sstrokes of your brush that have so
often complained of. If you would rise to the
literary pinnacle of your dramatic scenes and paint
them In the high colors that art requires the post
would leave fewer bulky, self ad dressed enve-
lopes at your door,"
"Oh iddles and footlights!" cried DAVE de-
ristvely. you've got that old sawmin drama kink
in your brain yet. When the man with the black
mustache kidnaps golden-haired Bessie you are
bound to have the mother kneel and raise her
hands in the spotlight and say: May high heaven
witness that will rest neither night nor day till
the heartless villain that has stolen child feels
the weight of a mothers vengeance!'"
Editor Westbrook conceded smile of imper-
'vious complacency
II think, said he, "that in real life the woman
would express herself in those words or in very
similar ones"
mot in six hundred nights run anywhere but
on the STAGE" said Dave, hotly "Tl tell you what
she'd say in real life. She'd say: WHAT Bessie
led away by strange man? Good Lord! It's
one trouble after another! Get my other hat,
must hurry around to the police-station. Why
wasn't somebody looking after her, I'd like to
know? For Gods sake, get out of my way I'll
never get ready. Not that hattie brown one
with the velvet bows. Bessie must have been
much powder7 Lordy How I'm upset!'
That's the way she'd talk" continued Dave.
"Peope in real life don't fly into heroics and blank
verse at emotional crises. They simply can't do
it. If they talk at all such occasions they draw
from the same vocabulary that they use every day,
and muddle up their words and ideas little more,
that's ALL ~
,"Shack,"v said Editor Westbrook inpressively,"
did you ever pick up the magled and ltteless form
of a child from under the fender of street-car,
and carry 1t in your arms and lay II down before
the distracted mother? Did you ever do that and
listen to the words Of grief and despair as they
flowed spontaneously from her lips?"
II never did, said DAVE. did you?"
well. no." said Editor Westbrook with slight
frown. "But can well imagine what she would
say"
$50 can l." said Dave.
And now the fitting time had come for Editor
Westbrook to play the oracle and silence his
opinonated contributor. It was not for an I'M
arrived hctionist to dictate words to be uttered by
the heroes and heroines Of the Minerva Magazine,
contrary to the theories Of the editor thereof.
my dear Shack" said he, "if know anything
of life know that every sudden, deep and tragic
emotion in the human heart calls forth an apposite
concordant, comformabe and proportionate express
ion of feeling How much of this inevitable accord
between expression and feeling should be attributed
to nature and how much to the influence of art, it
would be difficult to say, The sublimely terrible
roar Of the lioness that has been deprived of her
cubs is dramatically as far above her customary
whine and purr as the kingly and transcendent
utterances OF Lear above the level Of his senile
vaporings. But it is also true that all men and
women have what may be called a sub-conscious
dramatic sense that is awakened by sufficiently
deep ana powerful enotion-a sense unconsci0usly
acquired from literature and the stage that prompts
them to express those emotions in language be-
fitting their Importance and historiontc value"
And, in the name. Of the seven sacred saddle
blankets: Of sagittartus. where did the stage and
literature get the ,stunt?" asked DAVE
From lfe," answered the editor, triumphantly.
The story writer rose from the bench and gesti-
culated eloquently but dumbly. He was beggared
for words with which to formulate adequately his
On a bench neargb a frowsy loafer opened his
red eyes and perceived that his moral support was
due downtrodden brother 80 i
punch him one Jack" he called hoarsely to
DAVE. ''W'at's he5c come maxim noise like penny
arcade for amongst gen lemen that comes in the
= Square to set and think?":*@ .~"a ~. ~ . g.
Editor Westbrook looked at his watch with an
affected show Of leisure. ss 49,, - ~ e.. :s:sg
Tell me- asked Dave, with truculent anxiety
what especial faults in The Alarum of the Soul
caused you tosthrow it down r. *'.TT3 ~e e.
r. ''When Gabriel Murray" said Westbrook, goes
TO his telephone and Is told that hts hancee has
been shot BY burglar. he says1 do not recall the
= exact words; but :#9 HI s= tsss ,3s}Hs
'.' ''1 do.' said Dawe. HE says: Damn Central;
she always cuts me on And then Is his friend)
Say Tommy. does & thirty-two bullet make big
hole7~ It's kind Of hard luck, amt It? Could you
get me- al drink from sideboard Tommy NO;
!. straight; nothing on the sid. 3. ]" .sss 4s
@And fasain, a continued tho editor, without
81 paqstns tor argument. Ron Bersnioe opsns the