Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-07-22
Poetry and Homicide
BY William McFee
(OW Special Correspondent in The
Mediterranean

htHitITHNtHNJ
Smyrna June IS.
TT WAS an evening of blue and silver
marked by great black expresses, when
the book came. had been ashore rum
maging in bookstore for odd volumes |
had purchased small leather bound volume
of Carducc, for present. Perhaps you do
not know Carducci. | used to stumble
through his lordly stanzas in Ancona. my
friend Ricardo Cairola sitting beside me
on the roof of the Turkish consulate, and
holding me up when | slid off into deep
water And on the fyleaf ! was writing
some verses in French, though Italian would
nave beer more acceptable to the recipient.
But II record it here for what it is WORTH
never could with all my admiration for
Italian, remember Italian verses. French
poetry is as easy to remember as English
1t learns itself; and I have head full of
stray scraps. Hugo, Nerlaine. De Musset
ana so forth. And | was writing one of
these scraps the fyleaf of Carducci's
book. You must figure the brown leather
volume with thin line of gold fooled along
the edge; a blotch on the flyleaf due to damn.
for the arcades of the Rue Frank are damp.
AM filled with admiration AS | picture
the strenuous lives of writing men in
America, turning out prodigious quantities
Of stuff, writing hard. going home to the
family at night. something attempted some
thing done to earn nights repose. while |,
miserable wight, loaf about the arcades of
Smyrna or Ephesus. smoking Turkish
cigarettes. drinking mastic and fdding with
a string Of amber beads. muttering bad
French to girl with gold eyes. and being
instructed in the politics of Asia Minor by
'Spaniard whose ancestors came here from
the lnquisiton. | feel the years passing and
nothing comes Of it. However. | saw man
murdered the other night No. not in that
arcade, but further along. Talk about the
righteousness of irearms-gve me firearms
! like not the aftermath of knife work. the
Shiny ooze marble steps. the convulsve
contortions of ripped abdomen. No, give
me some more mastic and cigarette and let
us look out to the harbor where the great
ships ride beneath galaxes of glittering
electrics. | should make a bad murderer,
Crack, Friends of the prisoner taking pot
shots at the gendarmerie. Quelle vie II
am going ashore. | am always going ashore
WILLIAM McFEE.
The tragic city of New York is now sub
mitting itself to new Griffith film. One of
the allurements of the picture. as per the
ads, is Fountains of Wine" and it is pro
duced in the customary ice cooled theatre. ;"
Wine on the screen and ice in the ven
tilators-how New York has changed.
The best pun of the week has been pulled
by Ben De Casseres, who is really a Phia-
delphian. although he resides for the noncc
on an island in the Hudson river. Ben saw
Harry Kemp, the unkempt poet of vaga
bondia, coursing down Broadway in his
corduroys. "Ecce Hobo" said Ben de-
murely.
Book collectors have their little oddities
Just the same as other enthusiasts. Almost
every really fine collection of rare volumes
includes book said to have been in
Shelley's pocket when he was drowned
Sometimes las in the Bodleian at Oxford) il
is a copy of Aeschylus; sometimes las in Mr.
Morgan's library in New York; it is copy
of The Indian Serenade. 1t seems to rs
not surprising that poor Shelley was
drowned if he had a whole FIVE foot shelf
about his person.
We hear a good deal said about the need
of q new coin, ~ cent piece or something
equally fantastic.
As far as we are concerned, the pressing
need seems to be not a new coin but few
more of the existing milled edges,
SOCRATES.