The sun., 1918-12-22
Four Corners of
Character Square
By EDWARD N. TEALL.

few nature makes an incompatible num-
Der Of combinations. Divide the archi-
lecture Of human head into as many
separate parts as yOu can find names
for and you've an incredibly small num-
Der of parts to be combined in enough
patterns to equip all mankind with
faces-no two precisely alike. however
abundantly we may detect resemblances
Not many things happen, yet they make
a worlds history. None of us has, with
all his senses and organs, any very great
variety Of acts at his command, yet out
of those limited possibilities We manage
each to build up character that sets us
apart from all other men and women.
A pretty heavy dose of near philoso-
ply, no doubt, with which to preface con-
alteration of four books that have no
mere connection each with the others than
such as we may choose artificially to give
them Yet simple as the idea is, it has
stuck in the reviewers mind, obstinatelv,
ever since it casually popped into it, I'M
til the whimsy has become an obsession
that will not end until we place the four
persons about whom or by whom these
books are made at the four corners of a
square of character.
A drummer a dusky Texas house
boy, reminiscent old veteran of the farm
and woman missionary nurse in China
an odd Convocation. And vet it will
not seem altogether unlikely after you
have got acquainted with them all that
they might spend an Interesting and quite
comfortable hour together Which seems
TO demonstrate that the four authors have
all written about real people, even if two
of them are either invented out of the
imagination or copied from living mod
els
Mr.. Squem: n jolly chap who has
stopped far short of permitting himself
to be invested with the several dozen Law
ers of convention that would make most
OF us unrecognizable by our creator. He
goes up and down the land, selling various
1hncs' and freely dispensing great riches
of unconscious philosophy. But is it I'M
conscious philosophy That word is
habltually applied-misappLed-to hui
NOR, for example, that is so far superior
TO the common brand, attained by earnest
endeavor, that the possessors Of the COM
mon, inferior kind observe it with envious
respect and ungenerously refuse to ac-
knowledge with frankness. Mr.. Squem's
casual acquaintance would have called
his ripe philosophy unconscious, and so
doing would have proved themselves to
the keen and impartial observer the pos
SCISSORS of little souls. Mr.. Squcm acted
his religion instead of taking it out in
formula; he was gentleman without con-
Germ for the label of his honorable estate.
Almanzar: a type" of darky not
widely celebrated in fiction. San Antoine
is not Virginia or Georgia, and most Of
the darkics of fiction belong there or there
about. Almanzar goes in for style, and
sparkin', and scrapes with the police. His
humor is unconscious; he owes much to
his interpreter-or introducer. He is
hkable because he is so much the natural
man" of his race. Certainly Mr.. Squem
and Almanzar would have been able to
get along together.
They would both have enjoyed listen
ing to the tales of old time farm life that
Mr.. Wood tells. Cows and courtship,
sweet cider and apple sass, stumps and
snake fences, dairying and threshing, coon
hunts and songs of other days-here, in
another dress, is the same simplicity and
sincerity that make the two other books
SO Hkable
When we come to Ny Chinese Days the
grouping begins to seem a little more
nueStioDa hla than ~ hoe b;tharto R,,4 tbo