New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-07-20
By Virginia Tracy

A friend asked, "What's the last
word in movies? Are they still devel-
oping novelties for the public taste 2"
We answered by telling him story.
Here it is:
A young lady reared as heiress to a
great name and a great fortune dis
covers herself to be, in the language
of Maria Edgeworth, only a founding.
Legally adopted, she forfeits neither
fortune nor name and certainly not the
devoted countenance of her foster par
ents. But so great is her shame that
she feels she really must marry some
body. Naturally, she selects a man Of
plying virtue, she proclaims, ~ could
endure neither his touch nor his pres
ence," and, the healing ceremony once
performed, sends him out into the
night.
The husband in name only-what a
run there has been on him since the
dove of peace has left us a little put
to it for villan You might think
that the docility of this unfortunate
class would impair its members use
fulness as villains, but it is not so.
Existing only as necessary obstacles
to the Joy Of those who, being hero
and heroine, must rejoice, somehow
dooms them not only to death, but to
condemnation. They are in wrong.
So, while the obstacle lives appar-
= L \.
sitiveness as a founding he has
soothed meets the mate Of her soul
and, upon his proposing marriage, tells
him that it can never be. She even tells
him why, which is more than many q
heroine in her place would do with the
end of the story yet so FAR off. But her
confidence in him as a person not at
all likely to bring things to climax
is fully justified. For does he suggest
a way out of the tragedy? Not he-he
i; the hcro He kisses her hand.
But the husband in name only, being
made of coarser stuff, returns to offer
her her freedom. She rebukes him with
look. Think what embarrassment her
dear foster parents might feel if she
sued for divorce! However, her con-
sideration for this nice old lady and
gentleman cannot entirely stifle the
dictates of her heart When the hero
starts to leave town she can bear no
more; she calls him into her room and
offers herself to him without the worry
Of a divorce embarrassing anybody.
The hero suffers terribly, but he does
not yield. With touching, with mystic
resignation, he reminds her that they
stand upon the firing line of life, and
departs. Then the heroine, fearing she
may yet seek the divorce court, in
forms the foster parents of her mar
-Iare and announces, Il now wish to
take up my true life with my hus-
band"
The husband docile as ever, goes
through second, but this time mag
Efficiently public ceremony, only to be
again left standing in the hall outside
his wife's apartments-glad enough not
20 be swept off the earth altogether by
the look OF scornful virtue with which
she passes him. At regular intervals
nc continues to offer freedom to the
anCclic sufferer whom his wickednes:
las trapped to pine beneath his roof
Vat those offers are refused with colde
and colder scorn till at last he realize
what he ought to have realized at frs
that as an obstacle he really has n
right to live at all-and he shoots him
self. We gladly report that he has SUI
fcient consideration for his wife's an
her foster parents social position t
car evening clothes when he does i
md the hero and the heroine nam
heir child after him.
But what-we hope it isn't only tha
'riend Of ours who asks us-what
his? Is it the last lingering swa
ing of those ladylike souls VIII
oothed our childhood with "Gold Elsie
md "Queenie's Whim"? Does it 6
still further back to an era which cor
sidered "The Duchess" abandoned ar
dynamic? Or even to that age whe
the nice foster parents would ha,
considered it immoral to introduce Ii
tie Eva to the brazen author of "Jal
fyre"-is it some fading immortel
from an early Victorian funer
wreath? No, friends, this is the flow
Of the twentieth century, the fin
bloom, the latest word Of an age who
heart has beat for George AIDE a.
George Cohan, for o. Henry a
Bernard Shaw and Charlie Chapl
i follows the day Of the bunny hug a.
the vamp and the peek-a-boo skirt.
votes for women, of the Russian rev
luton and the knowledge of war a
all the acid tests Of reality. And t
society Of which it treats, into who
relied face no whisper Of divorce mt
bring the dcath-blush Of embarra.
ment. is the New York smart set TT
IS Robert Chambers's novel, "The Fri