davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13
By George Jean Nathan

THE THEATER-ADvANC1 BY Ed
ward Craig. Little. Brown G. Co.
1t is simple matter warmly to ad-
mlre man whose theories and opin-
ions support ones own: it is another
matter warmly to admire man with
whose theories and opinions ones own
are often IN violent collision. Gordon
Craig, the theater's greatest dreamer
and greatest imaginative artist, falls
TOR many devotees of the art Of the
stage--into the challenge of the sec
ond slot. And yet, by proving that a
dream may often be more magnificent
than an Immediately tangible gesture,
by proving that there is often a pro
found practically in fancies, he has
gained for himself the concord and
the mighty respect even of such as
have sometimes found in his assump-
theatrical creeds. These assumptions,
many of them already proved emi-
nently workable and many of them
already familiar 10 those who have
followed "The Mask and "The Mario
nette," are presented By Craig anew in
"The Theater-Advancing, a piquing
readable, consistently holding and
thoughtful book.
Craig, as I write, lies abed, a very
sick man, in his faraway Villa Rag
gio He has been confined to his room
for month now, his little son writes
me, "but he thinkr always, always Of
the theater. :" Has the thea
Alter, indeed, ever had more stanch
lance, more steadfast knight? To
Craig the theater has been life itself.
He has worked for it faithfully, tire
lcssly, beautifully. The one Great. new
note Of beauty that it possesses in its
highest forms to-day it owes to Gordon
Craig, and to Gordon Craig alone And
yet, the admired of every man in whose
heart the spirit Of the theater has a
place, he has been neglected by the
one country that, theatrcally, needs
him most, the country of his birth
England.
"They invited me, once, to help
them" he has said. ~ went to them,
gladly, eagerly, willingly. And they
let things rest by giving me an after
noon teal"
Craig may come to America, once he
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13
)p and Down, by E. F. Benson
Reactions of Philosopher Torn
From His Meditations by the War

Published by George Doran & Co. New
York.
up and Down" promises much in
terest to the individual who fifty years
hence will be browsing around IL
braTy to find an honest and unexag-
gerated commentary on the war. Ger
tainly, any one who cares to contem
plate pictures of the English lay mind
during this disastrous period will find
them here. Occasionally there are in
teresting lights and shades, but fully
as often what we behold is as com
monplace as lithograph. The book
is written in diary form and like most
diaries is informal, personal and diff
fuse. 1t deals with the national mind
from May, 1914, to April, 1917. and par
ticularly with the reactions of the
author and Francis, his most intimate
friend.
Like the usual war book, it begins
IN the ante bellum days of calm and
inefficlency. but in this case the stage
IS set in languorous Italy. The scenes
are SO full of local color, the atmos-
phere so warm and lulling, that the
reader himself enters into this dolce
lar niente and scarcely heeds foreshad-
owings Of the great war, which rum
bles through the rest of the pages.
We find Francis, the unique and
central character, basking dreamily on
Italian shores. 1t is his metamorphosis
that gives a sense of unity to the
book. He is by no means a typical
war hero, who rouses himself from
4 settled existence to Join the army
and beat Germany; he is distinct
deviation from type. Despite his
human qualities, one can scarcely ac-
cept him as a normal individual. 1t is
one thing to retreat from an active
world, to write ones opinion about it,
or to make some designated research,
but Francis, in true Indian fashion,
spends most of his time, which is all
leisure, in thinking out his identity
with the Absolute. He is thoroughly
expatrated, charmed with the Italian
surroundings and perfectly contented
with his present mode of living; So
given this Hypothetical Francis, his
immediate decision to fight for Eng
and is very interesting. One might
call it the instinct of self preserva-
tion in the collective sense; a deep
rooted feeling that IT is necessary tc
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13
Good Books at Cheap Prices

The Four Seas Company, of Boston,
is issuing an edition of the classics of
international Pocket Library. The
books are printed in attractive bind
ngs pocket size, and the price of each
volume is 25 cents. Among the titles
announced for publication are made
moiselle Fifi and Other Stories" by Guy
de Maupassant; "The Gold-Bug and
Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe j;
"The Importance of Being Earnest" by
Oscar Wilde, and "Gitanjali," by
Rabindranath Tagore.
The Library seems to have met with
an immediate response, for the COM
pany announces that the first edition of
10000 volumes was exhausted before
printing, and second edition of $4,000
is now on the press. In these days of
mounting book prices any effort to pub
hsh good literature at popular prices
should meet with a general and en-
thusiastic response
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13

save Western civilization. This
strange young man is often charming,
especially in his appreciations of ma
ture. AS for his rather tiresome hab-
its of philosophizing, we take ex-
ception only to his furloughs, which
are riotous with mystic ruminations
Mr.. Bepson's entire book is like
Francis, q mixture of the charming and
banal In his account Of the war and
its effects he is so sincere and human
that one almost forgets the usualness
humorous aspects of the war such as
the blatant war entertainments and
the elaborate preparations for Zep-
pelin raid with genial humor that
is highly amusing.
The author quite consciously sand
wches quaint little incidents in be-
tween dark happenings of the war,
just as his mind, essentially healthy
turned back and forth from serious
to trivial matters. This form, however
logical, cools the interest of the reader.
The diary is rampant with religious
ethics. The philosophy of the Abso-
exciting during the lifetime of Spnoza,
is expounded with an energy natural
to person who finally feels what he
has hitherto merely accepted. How
ever earnest, it makes rather dull read
ing. The author is candidly interested
in all varieties of mysticism, and he
ends with a description of seance,
which has, he considers, given him
valid evidence of the existence of a
psychic world. With absolutely no
information on the subject, one would
venture a guess that Mr.. Benson's
favorte poets are Longfellow and
Wordsworth. V. r.
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13
This Poet Is a Barytone
"McAroni Ballads" Again Reveal Tom
DAILY as Poet Who Pi pes Pleasing Tune

MARoNI BALLADS BY T. A. paly.
H&rcour; Brace 4 Howe. New York
<ISo net.
Some of our solemn literary dictators
probably will pass Tom Daily by as
"one of q group Of clever journalists. )"
Snobbery is not dead, least of all
among those who discourse of living
writer's. And yet Tom Daily seems to
us far more important than the mass
Of rhymesters and vers librettists who
hornswoggle the pundits with wabbly
Elizabethansms and secondhand
treudianisms.
Tom DAILY is. first of all. an Ameri-
can, He isn't the great American poet.
and he wouldn't want to be considered
anything more than one of US who
happens to have the gift of putting
you and me and the family in Apart
ment 5B into rhyme. And if he seems
to be q sentimentalist-why not? You
and l and the family in Apartment 5B
are for the most part, sentimen entalists
And Tom DAILY has the rare knack of
making an emotional appeal without
violating the sugar conservation ordi-
nee.
Although occasional verses remind
that Tom DAILY has read and under
d the literature of the past, he
IS by ear. His Italian and Irish
poems Look like series of
ophes in print, but read them
= and you'll catch the melody that
/ Days own. Try "The Man at
4irnpike Bar" on your larynx:
he wonders o beauty 1 caught Wild
eye,
m the toll. tal5in the toll
stand like a King, wild the world
ethreaming by,
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13
MIR. Aiken's Likes and Dislikes
"Skepticisms'' Fair Minded Analysis of
Radical Tendencies in Modern Verse

ST,EpsTIClsMs. ,ras BY Conrad Aiken. Al
trcd A. Knopf. New York.
At the very outset Mr.. Aiken re-
nounces all claim to objective validity
poetry. In the "apologia" with which
ne prefaces his work he declares that
every poet is instinctively a propa-
gandist when he assumes the addi-
tlonal function of critic. Try as he
may to adopt an attitude of judicial
impartlality man who writes verse.
IN mr.. Aiken's opinion, is certain to
be biased in his appreciations by his
own M personal tastes and preferences.
mere was q time when this subjcc-
tive theory Of criticism per Sc would
entitle a book to a certain measure of
regsrd. through it's very novelty. But
subjective criticism has now become
so common that it's standards have
Deen considerably raised. 1t is no
longer sufficient for a man to be
honest enough to say that his literary
lkes and dislikes are not shaped by
certain arbitrary predetermined rules;
ne must be able to give some intelli-
likes. ~ 'A'' ''"o u'S-
Mr.. Aiken is always eminentlv
intelligent. He possesses faculty Of
discrimination that is woefully lack
ing II! many of our would be apprais-
ers Of poetic values. He is skeptical
about the permanent quality of much
current American verse And open
minded skepticism (not the blind and
deaf hostility of the literary reaction
ary) is quite helpful to American
poetry at its present stage of develop
ment. For now American poetry is
passing through period of creative
experimentation rather than of finished
art. During the past five years there
has been most encouraging emerg-
ence of new poets who have sounded
notes of originality and vigor; there
has been splendid revulsion from
the c!oyng sentimentality, the affected
prettiness, the fundamental emptiness
that characterized SO much American
verse of the past generation.
But revolutions, in literature as we'll
as in politics, have their harmful as
apostles of new new 1oetic dic'o,eI, ordcr orr apa
sincere and earnest. but their work
is often uneven and lacking in con-
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13
Seeing America
Tale of Coast-to-Coast
Automobile Adventure

FREE AIR" BY Sinclair Lewis Pub
lished by Harcourt, Brace Howe.
The agreeable basis of light fiction
IS tactful Difference to the wholly su
perior business of getting and spend
ing. Gree Air" by Sinclair Lewis, is
excellently contrived for giving seden-
tary indoor people the illusion of ac-
ton. 1t gives them diversion without
taking their minds too seriously from
their work. 1t keeps them out in the
open, literarily; gives them some
vigorous action, and sends them back
10 work in fine vicarious glow.
Free Air" is proof that the motive
power of up-to-date Western fiction
can easily be changed from pintos and
bronchos to automobiles without in
volving the least change in the tradi
tional scheme of it. Claire Boltwood,
an aristocratic Eastern girl, discovers
the West on a coast-to-coast automo-
bile tour which she undertakes with
her father for the sake of his health.
The West seems to her crude and un-
couth, until somewhere in the wilds of
the Middle West her high powered car
puts in for repairs at little garage.
The young mechanic, who is its owner,
is marvelously unversed in sophistica-
tion, but in every practical emergency
he is strong and resourceful. He ad-
venturously tosses aside his business
to follow in her trail, and in all the
perils that beset her path he is un-
failingly in at the rescue. There is a
lover from the effete East who repre-
sents all the cultivation Of Brooklyn
Heights, but the chivalry and courage
of the West triumph over the sophisti-
cation Of the East. And, incidently.
the girl learns the lesson of democ-
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13

is feast for the soul. food for tn.
For there wasn't day that stood In that
But was blessed wild tho grace OF soma
~ ,S dacint girls laughter: now
or the turn OF a head or the gleam Of
That I'll, IN often an. often be glad to
look afther now!'
The dialect work of Tom Daily is so
we'll known that it's hardly necessary
to say that the "McAroni Ballads"
equal any of his previous efforts in
broken English. Tom DAILY knows our
new Americans and he presents them
humorously without the usual bur
iesque touches that pass for character
portrayal. He succeeds even in turning
popular vaudeville jests into delightful
pts pts OF human nature; A poem called
more than the old wheeze about having
twins at Twin Lakes and going 10 the
Thousand Islands next summer, but
even this obvious waggery has it's
charms when Daily translates it into
"Anglaice."
Tom Daly's straight" poetry i'm
proves constantly, "The Second Com
ing Lincoln fancy, being q partic-
ularly powerful work. His light verse
mate Miranda" with "gander." If
you don't know Tom DAILY, it's time you
were acquainted In our choir Of
American singers he's fine young
barytone with a fine natural voice,
and he sings Verdi and Irving Berlin
with equal grace. AID when you've
heard Tom Daily sing you may come to
the conclusion tina. Verdi and Irving
serlin aren't so far apart as you've
been taught to believe.
ROBERT A. SIMON.
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13

Juvenile
THE WONDER GARDEN. BY Frances
Jenkins Ocott Published by Houghton
Mifflin Company. New York and Boston.
About hundred and fifty myths
and tales from all languages told in
fanciful style calculated to appeal to
children.
THE FAT FROG OF PAU. BY Katherine
Stedman Palmer. Published by the
Neale Publishing Company, New York
A nature tale with French back
ground.
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13

slstent artistic quality. And thew aro
sometimes inclined to take themselves
a trihe too seriously, to exaggerate
the significance of their work in
american literature, and in the litera-
ture of the world
=. Mr. Aiken is anything but conserva-
1--WE; he directs savage attack unon
the conventional anthologies Of Mr. Mr.
bsalthwaite; and he devotes great
deai OF attention to the insurgent ten
dencies represented by such poets as
Amy Lowell, John Gould FLETCHER
Maxwell Bodenheim and Alfred Krevm,
borg. But, while he appreciates these
authors: ne does not blindly praise
them. He finds in John Gould Fletcher.
along, with many brilliant symphonies
IN color, much that is lame, stiItedly
'HneIr'Sa'' Hr1 ca verbose or downright ugly"
Ahd ne directs several thrusts at the
aesthetic fallacies inherent in Miss
prose-" r' p'o"''
Mr.. Aiken does not confine himself
TO American poets; he also discusses
the work of such English authors as
John Masefield, Robert Nichols, Will
lam Wilfrid Gibson and D. II. Law
renee. Discussing Masefield he OBJ
serves:
"On the technical side he has few
".
rlchl y not merely from the imaginative
point of view, but also from the
melodlc He modulates vowels with
great skill; he knows how to temper
sensuousness with vigor Best of ali,
he is preaminently Anglo-Saxon in his
speech"
These comments are admirably justi
ned by Masefield's recent narrative
poem 'Reynard the Fox"
Mr.. Aiken's work is not laid out
along any formal lines; it is simply a
series OF random essays and reviews,
largely reprinted from various literary
publications. But it is none the less
effective on that account. Mr.. Aiken
is more dispassionate than his "apolo-
gia" would indicate; for a poet he is
quite merciful to his contemporaries.
Written in a style that is distinctly
"intriguing' (to use one of the au-
thor's favorite terms), "Skcptcisms" is
fair minded analysis and appreciation
of radical tendencies in modern verse.
w. H. c..
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13

1t was largely due to the operate
merry war Hammersten conducted that
in 300 days New York was the richer
by 600 Representations of opera, omit
ting from the count the bastard spawn
Of the theatres called comic OPERA" and
the poorer by over $2,ooO,0o0. Mr.
Krehbiel tells US "the editors were Mr.
Hammerstein's willing and active
agents. He was a fecund source of
news His audacity, intrepidity, mex
haustible energy and good humor won
their admiration He fell; but
even in his fall l am persuaded he
triumphed over his rivals"
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13
An Auth0r-rxplOrer

William J. La VarAe, author of cup
the Mazaruni for Diamonds" recently
published by the Marshall Jones Com
pany, is now with the Rice expedition
up the Amazon. He writes that he is
collecting great deal of material and
adventure for his next book.
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13
1.-The Theater- Advancing
Book by Gordon Craig Serves to Tell
Ideals Of a Dreamer in the Theater

regains his health. He wants to. And
what he might do in this land of
Belasco, the iteralist! Meanwhile,
give an eye to his book 1t will not
help you to understand the man, but it
will help you to understand a great
and gorgeous ideal
New-York tribune., 1919-12-13
The F orbiidden Trail
hrilling Plot in a New
Novel by EIonore Willsie

THE FORBIDDEN TRAIL, BY Honor.
Willsie. Frontspece in color by r.
Enmet Owen. Frederick A. Stokes Com
pany, New York
Mrs. Willsie's latest novel is just the
kind of a breath from the West that
the Fastener likes something natural.
something rare. 1t is a wonderfully
complete panorama Of American life,
beginning in small town in the East
and going westward for action and ad-
venture, combining characters old and
young and displaying a wide range Of
nature.
The first chapters tell of the early
lives of the principal characters in a
university town and carry them
through youth. In them Mrs Willsie
develops Roger Moore, an inventive
young fellow, who dreams of revolu-
tionizing civilization if he can harness
solar heat and make it replace labor.
With his devoted friend Ernest Wolf,
Roger goes to an isolated corner Of the
Arizona desert 10 establish a pumping
plant to be run by solar neat which
will prove the possibilities Of Rogers
invention by irrigating the desert land
They join a small colony Of young peo-
pie tncfe, ana all OF them come under
the charm of the "Still jim" country.
The romances resulting from the as
sociations of these young people are
made more real by the introduction Of
a German intrigue to steal Rogers de-
vice. Ernest Wolf, Of German parent
age, is led to believe for time that he
is more German than American by
propaganda which in those days was
rampant in many American colleges.
This addition to an already complicated
plot gives the story a remarkable fas-
cination. Thrill follows thrill, and
every incident contributes to very
satisfying conclusion.
"The Forbidden Trail" winds faY
through forest of beautiful and at
tractive characters, and the reader is
assured of an interesting guide in Mrs
Wllsie. ". M. T.
CARITA's NEW WORLD BY Lucy NJ
Blanchard. Published by the Page Com
pany, Boston
The story Of a girl in Mexico
THE SCOTCH TWINS. BY Lucy Fitch
Perkins. Published by IiOughton- Mlf-
fin Company, New York and Boston.
A story of two Scotch twins, for little
people.
THE WISHING RING BY Eleanor
schorer. Published by Harcourt, Brace
& Howe. New York.
An honest-to goodness fairy story
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-03-10
LETTER TRAVELS
THREE MONTHS
Sisters Christmas Gift Mailed
in Texas Follows Soldier
All Over the Country

Columbia, Pa, March 1o.-A letter
mailed at Ranger, Texas. December
s. 1918, by his sister. containing a
sum Of money intended as a Christ
mas gift, was received by Emerson
W. Kane. in Columbia, yesterday. af-
ter having travelled all over the
country for three months. Mr.. Kane
was a sergeant in the Two Hundred
and Eighth Aero Squadron of the
United States Army, and was sta
TONED at Brindley Field, l. /, when
the letter was mailed. on the 18th
of December. Sergeant Kane was dis
charged from the service and came
TO Columbia Later he accepted n
position at Harrisburg. but retained
his temporary residence here. The
letter reached Brindley Field after
he had left and from there il was
sent to nearly every air service sta
tion in the country, going as far as
California.
In the meantime Mr.. Kanes sister
had written about the letter and
stated that she was tracing it from
her office. He did the same from his
post office, and after three months
of shifting from one place to the
other, the letter came TO Columbia
and was delivered to him yesterday.
1t was so much marked mp that his
address was scarcely discernible. but
when he opened ii the money was
there. and he at once notified his
sister that her Christmas gift had
been received.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-03-10
WEST SHORE NEWS
Shiremanstown Young
Folks on Strawride

Shiremanstown, Pa. March 10
A merry party of young folks enjoy
ed u strawride to the home of Mr..
and Mrs. Tolbert Rider, at Sporting
Hill, on Thursday evening. After
spending a pleasant evening with
games, music and dancing, refresh
ments were served to: Mr.. and Mrs.
George X. Eshleman and son, Ken~
meth, Mrs. Mary Zimmerman, Mr..
and Mrs. Carl Bomberger, Mr. ana
Mrs. Robert Rider, Mr.. and Mrs. Ira
Rider. Mr.. and Mrs. Tolbert Rider,
Miss Rhoda Beamer, Miss Ruth Zim-
norman, Miss Myrtle Baum, Miss
Belle Patterson, Miss Ruth Shum-
berger, Miss Mary Deckman, Miss
Rachel Baum, Miss Esther Shaull,
Miss Maude Shaull, Miss Cora Nauss,
Miss Nellie Stone, Miss Dorothy
Stone, Miss Eletha Shearer, Miss
Esther Rider, Miss Mabel Rider, Miss
Catharine Zeigler, Clarence thinner
man. Chester Beamer. Russell
Sheaffer, Cecil Baum, William Baum.
Sr.. William Baum. Jr., Clyde
Adams. Guy Rupp, Clarence Shaull,
George Nauss, Robert Rhodes. Thom-
as Basehore, James Coble Samuel
Speidel. Richard Rider. Daniel Moy-
er, Clair Smyser, William Zeigler.