Omaha daily bee., 1909-07-25
NEW ENGLISH PLAYWRIGHT
Vaughan, Who Looks Forward ID
Seeing P%ittsburg.
AUTHOR WITH AN ARTISTIC IDEA
Hsas sure Thero'u he Beauty In Its
smoke and Chimneys-His "Pene-
lopez 60 he Seen in
New York.

Morm), who IL spoken of in London dra-
matte circles ar the man Of the hour, has
typical chambers" on Mount street W, a
locality which has historic and fashionable
interest. for Il Is near the celebrated Berke-
ley Square and a part of Mayfair peopled
with Prince Charmings by romantic school
girls WHO used to read Owen Meredith's
Lucille" before romance went out Of date.
On the way to the interview, II you have
the seeing eye, you will note where once
upon q time an escaping horseman evading
an unpleasant quarter Of an hour for his
h~ighhanded and hlghwayman methods in
Piccadiliy-an object Of envy to all sue
ceeding Americans WHIT have never been
able TO adopt his desirable poiioy-dashed
down some steps and along q passage
where now vertical bars Of iron mark his
halr-raising flight. You may pass the win
dow in Half Moon street where Shelley
used to sit. You will note the house on
Charges street, next to Half Moon, where
Lady Hamilton lived. and not far away
the home Of Edmund Kean and Macauley's
residence when he returned from India
other Places of Memory.
II you insist upon repeopling the neigh
borhood. why evade stopping a moment at
II Berkeley Square, where Horace walpole
lived for more than a decade? At IS,
WneI6 ClVe committed SUICIDE and at Il,
the birthplace Of Aud Robin Gray" and
on Charles street. which like Mount leads
directly from Berkeley Square, where Beau
Brummell strolled and ogled. where Lord
Lytton wrote, where Fanny Burney i'm
mortalized the fashions Of the day In Eve
lima" You turn Dover street way with en-
vious eye, but a distant chime marks the
hour and YOU have TO leave your re-
searches.
Mount street, through which you pass
hurriedly, has few m The hand
Of tho destroyer has been particularly
ruthless, but you glimpse the Mount Coffee
House, once presided over by the father Of
Harriet Westbrook. the first wife Of Shelley,
who furnished more than the allotted nine
days talk to the scandal mongers
All this you say has little to do with one
of the latest claimants to fame, but who
can tell. every stone in the locality has
been trod by the feet of the mighty and
the invisible prints may have helped greatly
in Mr.. Maugham's ongoIng. At any rate
1t does no harm to believe so, and he him
SELF does not deny it.
Where MauRhnm Works.
The special environment, up many flights
of generous sized stairs to working and
living rooms, high enough to catch even
N+N AAAo "a HOAAAOAAF 10 III y
ing to harmonic with your expectations.
The salon has it's easy chairs and divans
covered with shiny chintzes which recall
Clyde Fitche's stage settings and home
decorations. Mr.. Vaughan In appearance Is
not unlike the Clyde Fitch of eight or ten
years ago, as his plays, of which Ameri-
can audiences have seen Lady Frederick
and Jack Straw and will see Penelope
next season, are not unlike Mr.. Fitch's
in their clever construction, their more
than clever dialogue. and their lack of
Ulmatic shock TO the novelty seeking
nerve.
lie has a sort of resemblance also to
the bronze Narcissus silhouetted against
the light on top of a revolving bookcase,
for Mr.. Vaughan is a very good looking
young man, with bright brown eyes, a
determined chin and a ruddy, outdoor
color. He is of medium height, and wears
a loose Norfolk Jacket as part of his writ
ing costume. He is in the early thlrties,
the era when a man refers frequently to
the time when l was a young fellow"
which is said by those who have passed
on, to be a verbal disease. brief and nom
~recurrent.
II he does not live up to his blue china,
he at least sits up against It, a number
of selected pieces forming a desk frieze,
and over and about him are numerous
interesting pictures, some charming water.
colors OF the Riviera and Italy, and a
portrait of himself by Mr.. Kelly. The
most interesting object In an extremely
interesting apartment is a new painting
by one OF London't greatest painters,
Wilson Steer. who is Familiarity called the
modern constable. The owner exhibits it
with pride and the attitude Of a con-
nolsseur. He has, however, a little the
manner OF the family man, who has been
carried away by the exaltation of an auc-
tons psychic moment. has purchased an
Eiizabethan bed and then remembers that
he lives in a Harlem flat.
II certainly shall have to move" he
says, taking you at once into his conf
dence, for 1 have no room here, and /
hardly think chambers make a suitable
environment for a picture like this. 1 sup,
pose 1t must be a house next time"
The moment OF confidence is apparently
quite typical of Mr.. Vaughan, who has
little Of the British detachment, to put it
mildly, and he laughs easily away the idea
firmly implanted in your mind that he was
averse to being interviewed for an Ameri-
can newspaper.
Home for His Picture.
Il have had to refuse a lot of requests
"1 ohAS boNahoG AhC N
reviewers themselves got so frightfully
sniffy. 1 don't mind being misquoted in
the least. I want to be misquoted, because
] say such frishtfully indlscreet things
that II you repeated me verbatim Il
wouldn't be fit for publication, and you
can say anything you want to and claim
] did II, but when I'd obliged two or three
journalistic friends, as / foolishly thought,
and then read that I had pushed myself
into public notice and was seeking for
seif-advertisement. why 1 had to stop lust
for protection. And then the hifaiutln'
stuff they make you say-as II any one
ever did talk that way; isn't IL awful
You don't know when you read It whether
you're proud to have such an unexpected
and wonderful vocabulary or mad to thinA
anybody could think you did have YOU
know"
His Idea of "PeneloRe."
Naturally you talk about Mr.. MauEham's
own profession, and with the recollection
OF his latest success in mind, Penelope
she OF the emotional nature, finding OUT
the intrigue between her husband and heI
dearest friend and seeking TO IN herself
by q routine OF self-control and elaborat,
policy to the task OF rewinninE him. vol