Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-12-29

Upton Sinclair and his soul states.
You first must know something
of Upton" he said. "He is a queer
of good and bad. He is a
radical when it suits his ends to be
a radical and he is a conservative
when conservative ideas will justify
whatever course he wants to pur-
sue. He has no sense of humor and
he is always raving about genius.
He magnifies everything and
worries himself into what he calls a
soul state When he was in jail
down in Arden he thought it was the
worst thing he ever had been in and
he went and had big soul
state over it, saying it was worse
than Siberian prisons and all that.
Il went down to Arden last July
upon Upton's invitation. / never
had had any correspondence with
Mrs. Sinclair; we never had been
more than formally friendly.
MADE HER LIVE IN TENT.
when 1 got there 1 found the
Sinclair home broken up. Upton had
told Meta he wanted a divorce and
he had driven her nearly wild He
would insist on her doing everything
he did-made her diet and live in a
tent He showed her no affection
Whenever she would want him to
carry in a bucket of coal he would
do it, but would yell that was a fine
| occupation for a genius.
Upton, you know, preached free
love. In his Love Pilgrimage ht
put forth his ideas.
Meta was unhappy and UptoI
was so excited about his genius al
the time that nobody would hav,
much to do with him. Meta and
began to read poetry and take walk
together. Meta and / were havin,
2 grand time. We were congenial.
by and by began to notice tina
Upton was becoming sort of funn.
and ! went to him and said:
Upton. am ] paying too mucl
attention to Meta?'
No. he said, go ahead and |
you can, make her happy
We'll, thought perhaps l ough
to go, but 1 remembered the doc
trines that Upton had preached an
how he had treated Meta and-an
] loved her. So 1 remained.
''Then Upton came to me an
wanted me to promise that / woul
play square. He didn't know"
CHANGED ATTITUDE TOO LATE.
The poets voice sank.
He came too late, But though
he would live up to his preaching
But Upton, who had been a radica
then began to take the advantages {
the conventional husband, just as
. he had loved his wife and as If
had deliberately alienated her affet
tions!"
Kemp said Mrs. Sinclair the
went to New York to the home {
her mother. He followed her in
few days and lived also at her mott
er's house. He continued:
The next thing we knew Upto
came in on US suddenly one ever
ing. We talked a while and the
he went away. The next mornin
Upton called up and was all excite,
The reporters are coming!" /
said. They've found out I'm goin
to sue for divorce. You'd belts
set away
II talked to him over the tel
phone.
Wen. Upton I said, you,
| done a nice trick
| 81 can't help it, he said, I'll
reporters found out about it fro
somebody else
Il found out" Kemp continue
that he told the reporters himself
| WANDERED THROUGH JERSEY.
Kemp said Mrs. Sinclair borro,
ed 500 and. with some money
had, they started out wanderiI
through several New Jersey towns
search of a place to stay until tn,
found the cottage in which they a
now living. He said Sinclair b,
come to see him at a nearby tow
but that he had made him (Keml
so angry he made him go back
New York.
Kemp has a weekly allowance
$3.50 from a Chicago man who
interested in his work. He is ma
| ing a little money from the sale
poems.
Mrs. Sinclair asked the report
2 to deny her don't give a daI
about marriage" interview.
For the sake of my friends,
wish you would deny it." she sa
Il had made up my mind to 81
3 no interviews, because they disLre
ed my mother She doesn't s
= things the way do. you know. a