The sun., 1919-11-02

and drilled into Us the stupid fancy that materials
for yardstick were not to be found at home.
The results, by the way, have been mixed The
bad ones have been accentuation of the tendency
to leave native prophets unhonored and lot of
literary snobbery and obsequiousness toward Eu-
rope. If Americans devoted to letters have had
much scornful patronage from literary Europe
they have asked for it bootlickers must expect to
De kicked in the face. Cat present there are signs
OF reYulsisn, signs that we are all about to over
recognize artists and near-artistS in order
to be able to get even.) ~
The good result, on the other hand has been
readiness to serve European prophets unhonored
at home. We have taken many false alarm too
seriously, but we can pride ourselves with reason
on having been often ahead of Europe in popular
acclamation and reward of its really deserving
authors.
The Mote and the Beam
Equally unfortunate with our excessive anxiety
to borrow standards has been the OVERRIDING of
Europe's smile at our pretensions. The latter mis-
fortune begins at home meaning Europe. That
European attitude which can be roughly exempli-
fed by mentioning the London Saturday Reuiew
is a standing temptation to the gods of the arts to
work a complete poetic retribution. Aside from
which, there are minor, more immediate and per-
sonal reasons why European author who enjoys
an American public will do well to try most sin
cerely to understand and estimate that public be-
fore he lets his confreres persuade him tc follow
their example and patronize it.
The best feature of all these visits is the oppor-
tunity the visitors have to understand and esti-
mate. Handicapped as they are they are infinitely
less handicapped than others who stay and make up
their minds at home Consider Mr. SHAW His
mind is made up. His lecture tour of America
would be huge success; but he won t come, prob
ably for fear that frst-hand view would shake
his convictions about Those who have come
are luckily for every one and everything con-
cerned including the prospects of intellectual
entente'') different ''to' Mr.. SHAW.
Stay-at-homeS cannot realize how treacherous to
themselves are the impressions they can get Of us
at their distance. Suppose-an easy superstition
that some of the Englishmen are amused right now
by what looks like MERRIcK initiation here They
have heard that choice new edition of MERRICK
is selling like hot cakes. They know what Ameri-
can blurb is. They have seen certain American
"appreciations of MERRICK that read like Hark,
the herald angels sing They conclude that we take
Mr.. MERRICK for the modern CHAUCER; the fact
being that take him for precisely what he is
that-95 per cent. of those who are buying him are
reading him unafectedly, attracted by his pleasant
art and his powers of pure and delightful enter
tainment, an entertainment requiring some taste
and discrimination but no arduous effort of intel
lect in its audience, All Of which came in happily
at the hour when we were sick of cheap, touted war
stuff but unable to find recreation in the post ar
mstice wares of our average storytelling maya
zine. And Ito carry it into Africa our hark-the-
angels reviewers have not been one whit more ex-t
travagant over MERRIcK than the corresponding
Englishmen have been over o. HENRY-who seems
to have found sincere English public in an denti-
cal way. Does it mean an O. HENRY initiation
there? Not much
"The Four Horsemen."
Having discussed Mr.. MERRIcK, it becomes i'm
possible not to discuss visitor Just arrived. A
BLAsCo IBANEz initiation, at least -Four HorSemen
initiation, IS undeniable In passing: if we are ex-
cessively aware of the Spanish author, London is
insufficiently aware of him. Living novelsts up
to the mark of Blood and Sand are not so common
that any reading public can afford scarcely to