The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-03-26
PRINCESS SBYS
FEAR HAMPERS
REFORM WORK
She Plans to Write Play That
Will Fight Problems with
out Gloves.
BY ZOE BECKI.EY

me Fflncess IroubetZkoy, Is tho mill
stone around the neck OF the world
We fear ourselves and VIC fear thai
powerful social leader. Mime. Grundy
We fear war. We fear poverty. We
fear death. We fear life. II we man
age to think constructive thoughts We
don't dare act on them. And II we
net on them we're afraid of the conse-
quences.
The idea of writing play showing
the havoc wrought by that universal
human weakness. fear, has smoldered
In the mind OF Amelia Rives since
ElTlh00d. Long, long before she over
dreamed Of being the Princess Trou-
befzkGE. But she did not write 1t, for
tbs Somewhat remarkable reason that
she was resolved never to attempt
play-making until she was past 40.
Learn Most After 40.
It staggers you, rather, 10 hear her
say that. You look again In the great.
candid gray eyes, the light brown hair,
the slim, Juvenile little figure tucked
kfddie-wise in a big chair. She seems
too young to be toying with a ciga-
ret Much too young to be wearing
wedding ring. While you're remem-
bering back and trying to convince
yourself that she has been writing
novels and poems and stories since
goodness knows when, she crashes in
with the casual remark:
"Go on-put 1t in your story II you
want to. Everybody knows I'm over
40. never could see that age matters.
Age is an asset. Why, we only begin
to know what life Is. what love is.
what courage is. and sympathy and
patience and truth, when we've turned
90"
Sympathy the handspring.
Seeing the princess play. 1.-THE Fear
Market" at the Comedy theater, you
begin to appreciate this. No one in
her teens or twenties could have
written 1.-The Fear Market For it
deals with life. not with ideals. 1t
shows, as friend Billiken used to say.
things as they are, not as they ought
to be.
''And how, little lady princess would
you make people unatraid7" / asked.
BY showing them something worth
while in every sincere act" she an
swered simply. Teach the girl who
goes wrong as Mrs. Grundy puts 1t,
that she need fear nothing, that she
can justify her mistake by giving a
splendid human being to the COM
munity.
sf4presr1, +hn ,+,4o a. on-. g. "a.
women. its mothers. its children. SO
that, whatever the circumstances. they
need fear nothing so long as they turn
their experience to good account. One
needn't even fear trouble, especially IL
ii comes in youth. It can all be made
profitable. I've had it; | know what
I'm talking about
Teach everybody to have sympathy,
10 try to understand those in different
walks Of life. All error is misunder-
standing. II we all understood one
ar1uther-if the rich understood the
poor, If the righteous understood the
wrongdoers, II nations understood
each other-we should have no serl-
GUS crime, no class bitterness, no
war, no fear.
It's All Wrong, PrOcrustes.
1.-THE trouble with us is that we try
to make facts fit theories. We are not
elastic enough In our judgments.
Theory is the iron bed OF Procrustes'-
YOU remember that legend. Old
Procrustes put every waytarer into his
he'd. If they were too long, he had
them chopped off. If they were too
short, he stretched them out until they
fitted.
"That Is just what we do with our
theories and our social code. We jam
everybody into them regardless OF size
temperament, environment. education
and condition in life. And it's all
wrong, Procrustes. it's all wrong. II
Is what enEenders fear. Fear in Tho
heart means destruction"
The little crepe-bloused. blue-serget
princess suddenly skipped off TO answer
telephone that rang somewhere
across an acre or so of floor space II
the huge Troubetzkoy studio, leav!nt
the prince to entertain me. But ont
isn't afraid of the prince. for all hi.
btgness and his fame as a portrait
painter.
Don't you think the fear market /.
growing less active all the Hme?"
asked the prince, who looked SO kint
and democratic and protective that yol
wonder II that is why he came away
from Russia.
She Writes Without Gloves
Eyes. indeed / do" he answered
THE world is growing better. Peo
pie are less hard. less prejudlced
Vital questions are being aired. and
old. moth-eaten theories being burned
up. The freedom and independence OF
women. more humane divorce laws
birth control-these things are what
the world needs and liz rapidly getting
We believe in them all. The princes.
thought them all out when she was
twenty-long before they were genera
topics of debate.
Indeed did" corrobrated the nlin
5 cess, returning to her big chair ant
her small cigaret. AND now tina
I've got The Fear Market off m,
mind. I'm going to do plays on all thu
other big questions OF the hour. Ant
shall handle them firmly, wlthou
cloves, and without fear"
Remember" she called after me-
the message OF The Fear Market
s. to that all powerful body, the gen
oral public. ] don't ask it to be super
humanity magnanimous. Only to b
tplerant Not to feed ravenously upol
~ EFRa .T.4fa#1Irau ~ +ba1p #nI1avvr r.nu 1YA,