The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-05
THE HUMAN PROCESSION


 actlon, the oldest, strongest and most l vital of human problems, and there nore 1t Is always the most attractive and Interesting subject, always old yet always newt
 Thus Knut Hamsun, the Nor wegtan
 literary lion,'' who has been hailed as the equal Of Lbsen and Bjornson by his Scandinavian admirers, and whose works are now being read all over Europe and are beginning to at tract attention on this side of the At lantic.
 There are Norwegians in New York, Wisconsin and Minnesota who may recall one Knut Pedersen, a green horn from the old country, who, some thirty years ago. worked as a hired nands a. cObbler, and a, harbor 1aiborer, and who posed as a lecturer and a poet, and vainly sought a job in the offices of Scandinavian newspa pers- The Knut .Pedersen of that time be- came KrfI1t Hamsun, the literary celeb rfty, after his return to his native land. The hard-working Norwegian farmers of Minnesota and Wisconsin consid- cred Knut Pedersen as something of a lazy Vagabond- As for Pedersen, he hated America and Americans, and afterward expressed that loathing in his books.
 The author was the son of poverty stricken farmer, and had practically no education other than that he picked up by his own efforts. From his youth he was an eccentric dreamer, with po- etic instincts, and while working on his fathers farm he composed verses that were published in the local pa pers. Farming he detested, and for a. time he worked as a shoemaker's ap- prentice but that labor " as little more. to his liking He dreamed of America, as 3. land where money was to be had for the picking up, and at twenty three x7ya " arr Af1aFTfiS1 in 8. freight vessel.
 Disiliusionrnent awaited him in .the. bustling New Word metropolis. An uncouth, ly-clads boy, able to speak only his native language, and without any Of the advantages conferred by excited only der4sion when he attempt ed to make a living as a lecturer. With money gone, and in despair,s some sym pathetic persoh gave him a ticket to Minnesota, where he worked for year or two on g. farm. The toll was harder than even he had been accustomed to in his native country, and he deter mined to return to Norway. On hisi way to the sea board he stopped for a time in Wisconsin, and there earned enough money to take him home. The year 1886 found him back in Norway, but the prospects, for achieving his lit erary ambitions seemed more remote than ever, and he decided to return to America His ambitions came to noth- ing and he was forced to return to the Minnesota wheat fields. Turning again toward his native land, he stopped for a time in Chicago, where he was em-- p1oyed as a street ear conductor, and the Sunday editor of a newspaper in that city accepted one of his stories. Elaborated into book form, this novel was published in Norway, and the au- thor returned to find himself famous. The government conferred a pension on the struggling novelist, and the sale of his subsequent novels made him rich.
 In 'eThe Spiritual Life in A1nerica''- a title as misleading as the famous es- say on 'sThe Snakes of -IreIand''- Hamsun held up America to the scorn of Europe as the land where maternal ism, commercia1ism, hypocrisy and dOl1ar-Worship reign supreme. Most of his books, however, deal with the varf- nal sexual relations. There Is little plot and less action in his novels, and for this reason they are not likely to attain wide popularity on this side of the ocean.
 Growth of sunragdst and sociaIistic sentine ents among the fair students of vassar College, the worlds oldest in- stitutfon for the higher education of women, is alleged to have been one of the contrfbutory causes of the resigna- ton of Dr. James Monroe Taylor from nearly twenty-se years, Dr. Taylor will retire next February. Advanc- ing age is the reason he has assigned but he is only sixty-f1ve to-day, hav- ing been born in Brooklyn on Aug. 5, l 1748. The Vassar presidents an au- thority on religion, ethics and political economy, of the orthodox varieties. and it is no secret that he has often been shocked and grieved by the he terodox opinions expressed by many of his fair charges. The famous col lego at Poughkeepsie was founded Vassar, a native of England, who made a fortune as 8 brewer.
 pr. Taylor was educated at Roches- ter University and Rochester Theo1og- | icaI Seminary, and entered the Baptist ministry in 1871, serving churches in Norwalk, Conn. and Providence, R. I. before assuming the presidency of | Vassar. in 1886-
 To be the son of a genius is not aI- ways an advantage. Genius seldom strikes twice in the same family, and the offspring of distinguished men, however talented they may be, suffer from comparisons that are odious. | Henry Brodribb Irving, who was born | in London forty-three years ago to day, learned early in his stage career that his great talent and ability must always fail of full appreciation be- cause he was the son of his father. Sir Irving. The gods gave him much, but they withheld the Prone thean fires lavished upon his sire MT. Irving's middle name, Brodribb, is the | family name of his father. which was changed to Irving by royal warrant ] Sir Henry desired that his eldest son | should become a barrister, and he full | filled the parental ambition to the ex- tent of studying law and being called to the bar of the Inner Temple As a | schooIboy, however, he was fond of amateur theatricaIs, and he never practiced law, preferring to follow his | fathers profession. He appeared in |