New-York tribune., 1908-12-31
RROTNTNGLTES SHOCKED.
The Faithful Hiss Speakers Who
Pick Fl,asrs an Their Idol.

The Browningites got two rude shocks ar yes
terday mornings session of their symposium at
the Waldorf Astoria. Florence De Graf Shaw
had just finished reading and elucidating rabbi
Hen Ezra and the ambient scStacy working
fun blast the audience, heart was answering
heart and everybody was saying -FDm-n!' and
--Cb-ht' and NV dear. how vonderfulF' when
daring person got I'D and read paper by Miss
Josephine ILazzr1s sister Of Emma Lazarus. the
Jewish pOetess- in which Browuings intellect was
led -'casuistjcsI" 0adylike gToans from the
dienceD Miss Lazarus, whose paper was on The
lew in Browning said that. though Browning
loved 70 write about the East he didn't understand
;t-not in any deep vital sense: its soul
capped him: and his about Jews were. in fact,
'-iust skyscrspers on the edge OF beautiful, lin
itAss desert
Naturally this caused ripple soul being, as an
i-reperent male person in the audience detained
there bv his w4fe-rnur-nured. ''F3rowning's long
Eu1-" The eudience had iust composed itself, and
somebody's singing Of Ais Right with the
wor5d' had brought that bland look back to ali
faces, when William Il. Allen got up dropped
another chunk Of heresy punk into the beautiful
harmony Of the symposium He said that ''Pipps
Passes civic document and rather a wrong
hsaoed civic document, too. because il exalted the
unconscious influence" Of good evil, and all
Firps' s singing while she was roaming around hay
ing holiday didn't away with the Raines law
hotels in that Italian village where she lived. or
off ths heads Of the corrupt police. or make
the mill owners give their employees better wages
zny1hinE Ike that. n short, after taking Pippa
I'D a secisi force. Mr. Allen laid her down again
not uD 10 the mark She syrnbozed unconscious
influence and depending unconscious influence
the world @ oppression was garnbling-rnuch
worse gambling than horse racing He also init
mated that the Brcwningftes thought too much
about art snd that instead Of rhapsodizing about
the beautiful old age Rabbi Ben Ezra celebrates
they had better do something about the poor who
were made preCla-urely ol6- and the old who were
staggering under burdens they were unfit for. in
the tenements OF New York Altogether he had
what the president Of the society Julia Paul
sne Leavens called "a chastening effect on US all
But Miss Helen A. Clarke, Of Boston showed him
wherein he erred
I don't think" she said plaiutiveiy that lovers
Of Browning ere responsible for the poverty and
bad tene1neuts and all that Why. we do a great
dsal for the poor. In Boston for example we have
formed Browning clubs for them, and I am told
ths- their souls have been greatly upfted by these
clubs"
AZ noon che Browningftes stayed their bodies with
= little mundane food. and then went at il harder
than ever. At the afternoon session the Rev
Thomas r. slicer elucidated "Surdelo" and every
body vas happy. lie said that an unenlightened
person II England, Dean Church by name had
written IL book that passages IN -'SordeIlo
were ''unpardonably obscure (Faint misses from
the aucienceD Then Mr.. SIicer eIucidated one Of
passsees-the about the fruit tree that grew
up through q crack in the pavement and was
pulled up and thrown the wall He said it was
perfectly clear, and explained quite well why
BroEninE said come home, Sordello,' at the END
cf the assage-Whch interjecton has puzzled some
oUu minds
There were many at the day sessions
one overheard explaining why she
don't bring her husband
= brought him last night" she said in q Ehamed
tone. but he-well. ne didn't appreciate It. busi-
life, you know
i know" nurmured the woman she was talking
10 My husband doesn't appreciate Browning
either He said last night that he tried IN read
-sordelIo once. and he couldn't make out whether
SordeIlo was a town. or a man. OF what He saf5
ne hoped 10 goodness that when / got through
syrnposipg I ccJld te him