The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-31

N GAIN the Americans aTs damned \PU by a distinguished Englishman.
 [ This time it is G. Loves Dickin- son. Some fairly reputable and compre- hensive works of reference discuss Dick inson, Emily" and skip to Dickinson. John," but this is mere narrow-minded- ness for Dickinson, c. Lowes," is a person of no little heft who writes Ion various cultural themes" as one of his to brilliancy in print.
 MT. Dickinson came over to America, found the latch string on the outside. pulled 1t, entered, ate and drank, but wasn't merry. He found the country a conversational Sahara, and was much depressed. He returned to his own Eng fish oasis, outside of which few true Eng lishmen find the sort of wit they appre- ciate, and damned Americans, not with faint praise. but roundly.
 An Englishman in America-that is to say an Englishman of the c. Loves Dick inson type, if 1t is not insulting to him to suggest that he Is a type-fnds, &C., cording to MT. Dickinson, that his mind begins to shrivel as result of a want of exercise, like the biceps of the idle rich. The American, he finds, has no imagination, no faculty for conversation. no humor to speak of. and no desire to know anything that does not result in an increased capacity for accommodating cash. And that is why the conversation does not really much amuse the English. for the English are accustomed to Shakes peare and the London cabmen."
 The mere fact that the market for the works of the immortal William Is about as brisk on this side of the Atlantic as 1t is in England may be passed over. MT. Dickinson was gathering impressions and not statistics, and he could not be ex- pected to know that Americans are quite as well up on Shakespeare as the Eng fish.
 Some time ago an erudite Englishman, Tom Taylor, a graduate of the University of Glasgow and Trinity college. Cam bridge, tried to write comedy and called it "Our American Cousin" MT. Taylor had enjoyed a wide experience of life, and his pretensions to a sense of humor and a faculty for writing hu- morously rested upon his service on the staff of Punch, as contributor and as editor, and his authorship of several com- edies. When he wrote "Our American Cousin" 1t contained the character of Lord Dundreary. written in H lines. As this was what is commonly called "char- acter comedy" satarizing people, the humorous MT Taylor found no occasion for deyoting much space in the lines, or upon the stage, to a mere English lord, about whom there could be nothing espe- cially amusing. How E. A. Sothern. who had learned something about American humor during half-dozen years of ill., rewarded labor in this country, rescued Mr. Taylor's comedy from the oblivion to which 1t was doomed, by building up' the delightfully."- droll character of Lord Dundreary. Is a bright paragraph of American stage history. Giving to Eng land all due credit as the birthplace of MT. sothern, and admitting for the saks of argument that his long residence in this country had nothing to do with his ability to save the Taylor play by developing the possibilities of a small character and reversing the satire, it cannot be charged that the reception ac- corded MT. Sothern's "Lord Dundreary' did not prove certain sense of humor in America The character of the Amer ican had possibilities for humorous treat ment quite equal to that of the English lord, but Mr. Taylor, who ought to have known how to develop those possibilities. failed, and the play would never have lived in either country as 1t was writ ten.
 MT Howe1ls, commenting upon MT. Dick inson's animadversions upon Americas g inability to converse pleasantly with Mr. Dickinson, and his resultant homesick- ness, observes that learned persons are not always the most brilliant conversa- tionalists. and that in the south, where persons read less than they do in New England. ''the talk is apt to be brighter and more illuminating"
 It is true that ono kind of American humor Is open to MT. Diclkinson's criticism to the effect that it Is based upon for mula of exaggeration. That was true of Americas cordial indorsement of Lord Dundreary'' insofar as it's enjoyment of the character is concerned, but the keen appreciation of the play as one turning the tables upon the author. and the enjoy mont of 1t as a practical joke at the ex- pense of British humor, proves greater subtlety.
 MT. Howells says that he can readily understand why an enlightened English man would not like George Ads, and con- fesses that he cannot always comprehend him. ''How can MT. Dickinson be expect ed to understand our humor,' asks Mir. Howslls, when Andrew Lang, reading ene ee 0eosU AAss sa>aee aheut . tpar