University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1910-11-10
10, HENRY FOND Of
PATHETIC CONTRASTS
Books Of the Late Sidney
Porter Abounded in This
Kind of Writing.
IN LIFE AS WELL AS WORK
Last Words Supposed to be
the Refrain of Old
Comic Song.
IN LIFE AS WELL AS WORK

The late Sidney Porter, who signed
himself o. Henry but never grew as
Mark Twain did to fit inseparably his
pet name, was fond of pathetic con-
trasts, yet nothing in his fiction is
more poignant than the appearance
so soon after his death of his last col
lected volume, entitled "Whirligigs,"
and published by Doubleday, Page &
Co. More obvious is the melancholy
tendency of Let Me Feel Your Pulse"
published by the same house, cour-
ageous burlesque in which he satir-
ICES the doctors and defies them to
do their worst. Stevenson's optimism
found expression, at time when the
end seemed near, in "Aes Triplex"
and Ordered South" the American
avenges himself on fate with quip.
Unless myth, which has arranged so
many deathbed scenes, is already at
work the last words OF o. Henry were
the refrain of the comic song, I'm
Afraid to go Home in the Dark" In
the same spirit is this adventure in
neuresthenia," as he gaily calls it
meant to be jolly, but inexpressibly
painful and Earring as voice from the
tomb:
UnfaiIng Gaiety in "Whirligigs."
So went to doctor.
How long has it been since you
took any alcohol into your system?'
he asked.
Turning my head sidewise l answer
ed, ooh, quite while.'
He was young doctor, somewhere
between 20 and 40. He wore hello
trope socks, but he looked like Ma
poleon. I-liked him immensely.
Now" said he, 81 am going to show
you the effect of alconol upon your cir
culation." 1 think it was circulation"
he said; it may have been "advertis-
ing"
Now" said he. you see what alco-
hol does to the blood-pressure.'
Its marvellous said l, "but do you
think it sufficient test? Have one
on me and let's try the other arm"
1t is rather grewsome foo1ing for an
opus posthumous. To see what we
have lost in the premature death of
this gifted story teller it is only neces-
sary to turn to the other volume of
"Whirligigs," tales as light and insub-
stantial as their title, but of an I'M
failing gayety. Sometime the best of
o. Henry's work will be brought to-
gether into single volume, and then
it will be easier to appraise his
chances of lasting fame. He wrote
often reluctantly, to make copy, and
with long periods of idleness. His
writing is uneven, and his material
often Of the slightest. Yet his work
at it's best is so admirable that it is
hard to conceive how some of it could
fail to make it's way into our perna-
nent literature.
The Cap and the Anthem"
Perhaps no single story in 'Whirli-
gigs" is to be account among his best.
'The Songs and the Sergeant" for ex-
ample, is by no means so good as "The
Cop and the, Anthem" though their
titles might easily be confused. Yet
it is gay little picture of the life
which in the imagination of many peo-
pie is New York. A party of actors
quarrel in restaurant and is taken
to the police station, where a sympa-
thetic sergeant hears all sides, and
lets them give an eight-minute act of
der to see where the blame lies. OF
course, there is love interest, and
OF course it comes out in the SNAP
per" which gives a brilliant close to
most Of o. Henry's stories, even the
slightest Of them. There are other
tales of "the four million" ESQ rapidly
becoming 5,000,000) and perhaps it is
for these New York scenes that Por-
ter's name will be longest remember
ed. At present his most distinctive
achievement seems to be the romance
OF tropical America, of which several
good examples are included among the
"Whirligigs." There is clever comedy
in THE World and the Door" in which
New Yorker who has fed to tropi-
cal shore to escape arrest for homi-
eide, confesses his love to woman
from St. Louis. who frankly tells him
she has poisoned her husband. She
hnds from a newspaper that her re-
morse was needless, because she had
confused the aconite with the Veteran,