Mexico Missouri message., 1911-01-19


Ing vessel for the person with Gallo
taste than old La Champagne. Today
II Is an sntiquated hulk. plying some
where between Havrs and South Amer
lean ports, carrying only those passen-
gers that the American with his su-
perb snobbishness would describe as
second class"
There really was at one time frst,
second and third class trstic. but the
American, with the absurd indiffer-
ence a. to how be spends his money
and as to where he belongs. has made
everything, in his estimation, nrst
class BY buying unnecessary things
and demanding unbecoming comforts.
1t was almost the last voyage Of La
Champagne. The night before the ship
arrived Captain Didot had asked all
the passengers to do him the honor to
dine with him. an invitation that
meant q great deal more on board this
old French ship than the captains
dinner means on the average ocean
liner. There were souvenirs, there
was champagne, there was O little BIT
OF Gallo gayety, and there was delight.
| full Gallo informally. There were no
loud toasts and no long speeches. nor
did any one pull the lions tail or wave
the stars and stripes.
Graham Winthrop had been over In
Paris for q month. He cursed bis luck
that he had been obliged to take this
slow going vessel instead Of one Of the
faster steamers, as his natural Amer
lean appetite and income suggested.
The hrst few days had been days Of
intolersbls boredom. There was hard
ly soul on board the ship who
amounted to anything. as far as he was
able to nnd out, but himself. There
were silk merchants from Lyons. a
French consul or two. q couple Of
American travellers from the middle
west and = lot OF other people that
zone doesn't see at ones club"
His fair knowledge Of French and
his proclivity for bridge led him to
spend most of his evenings In the
smoking room with three Frenchmen
who admired his bridge and cursed his
French internationally. The attitude
that two Of the card players took to-
ward the third. ii. vavin. impressed
him little uktil one day, walking on
deck, he did a memorable thing In his
athletic ufeAa two mile turn with the
same NJ. Vavin.
You have written plays" he sug
gested In the course OF the brisk walk
NJ. vavin smiled and said, IL should
rather say, monsieur. that have tried
to write plays"
"And yet Alexandra says you are
one of the greatest dramatists in
France"
vavin laughed pleasantly and raised
his hand deprecatingly. 81 have done
my best In recent years to write plays
for France that would do France good
That Is not always the right attitude
Of the dramatist. for sometimes the
dramstist Il justified In doing the
thing that be thinks will help his
country. even though II does not help
his country, even though It does not
help his art, monsieur"
I'VE have never had any OF your
plays in America" said Winthrop. For
him the deeper and subtler side Of
vavin's answer had no meaning.
America" said NJ. Vayln. with q
smile. is wonderful nation. won
derful in that she is growing more
wonderful every day She wants
things that pertain absolutely to her.
self. and there she Is absolutely right
The great art is never produced by
any nation unless II pertains absolute
ly to that nation. My plays pertain
TO France. Your American dramatists
sometimes have. | think. less finish
than we OF the older nation. You will
pardon me If l say that sometimes
your dramatists are. from our point Of
view, rather crude, but that Is not the
question. The plays of your best dram
atists would not succeed In France.
and the best plays OF my confreres In
France do not succeed In America for
the same reason"
II was all q tribe too technical for
Winthrop. but before they had dn-
ished their walk the consideration and
the great courtesy that he had been
shown 10 this conversation. the defer
.nce that had been paid 10 his far
from acute understanding. had fasci.
mated him. and for the rest of the voy.
iGe he and n. vavin were walking
companions
When they sat down TO the captains
, Inner on the last night out he had
begun to feel that there was IN him
an nndeyeloped Intellectual power-the
| inevitable aud sometimes unfortunate
I result Of association with intellectual
men. In addition, he had 10 the course
, Of his conversation during the voyage
! referred 10 the fact that be knew and
? had been engaged to Dora Fullerton
$ and Vavin, with surprise well conceal.
0 ed. had after that hunted him up on
= every favorable opportunity 10 get hl.
opinion OF the young woman. her sur
a roundlngs. her friends and her incl
, nations
81 met Mile. Fullerton" he told Win
u throp. some years ago in Paris, when
& her father. Professor Fullerton. wal
i Iecturing there. She was q very sweet
girl, and every year J have taken the
& liberty OF sending her q token OF my
q respect"
II may have been the champagne, Il
e may have been the ground on which
. they met-talks about Dora-but when
the captains dinner was nearing itI
b close Winthrop. who was known 10
n college as the great introducer," stood
on his feet and declared be thought