Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-29
ITERATURE is decadent, Out

IltRAIUR RE is QeCadenI- OuI-
side some histories, there
hasn't been a book written in
this generation that will live to
the next. The flower perfumed
plots of Ouida have given place to
the trysts of Elinor Glyn on bear
skin rugs imperfectly tanned and
giving off odors of the wild. Poe
is forgotten in the jingles of the
syndicated versifier who writes an
ode to a cabbage.
Cooper, who clothed the spring
forests in verdure and the autumn
woods in crimson and gold, who
spangled the wild meadows with
blue bells, who put a sheen on the
waters and a purple glory in the
sunset, sleeps on while we crowd
our systems with the hyperbolous
happenings of Ma Pettingill."
There hasn't been a poet since
Bryant, Whittier, Whitman, Long
fellow and Willis, with the possible
exception of Markham, whose prin-
cipal claim to fame rests on his
Man With the Hoe!'"
So writes C. NJ. (GeneraD Jack
son in the San Francisco Bulletin.
The General is newspaper man of
the old school who still ably fills
a place on the staff of the Bulletin.
That newspaper recently assigned
to him the defense of the Good
Old Days" and at the same time
had it's art and musical critic, Will
lard Hamilton Wright, champion
the cause of the present against the
past. The two articles appeared as
a full page feature. More of Gen.
eral Jackson's review follows:
The Old-Timc Religion
The old-time minister knew lit
tie of psychology. His idea of driv-
in nails was to hit them on their
heads with a hammer. He was
quick to perceive wrong and to de-
nounce it. The dominic of Patton's
Church in Chicago, of Armour's
or Swift's would no more dare
tackle gambling in foodstuffs than
he would dare tackle a grizzly with
only his naked hands for weapons.
"As a result of this dilution of
truth with the lukewarm waters of
sophistry and evasion, the church
has lost much of the power it once
had and realizes it.
Recently l looked over the
schoolbooks used by a third genera
ton descendant of my own family.
: In almost every instance the pro-
cesses of figures We're devoted to
problems explaining how much he
could make by buying something
/ cheap at wholesale and selling it
!
counter a line commencing the
precept that it is more blessed to
give than to receive. 1 searched his
! textbooks vainly for the story of
Robert Morris, who pledged his
private fortune that the Army of
Washington might be paid, but
found in a volume l presume was
issued by the school library con-
else and commendatory review of
the lives of those three great men
Rockefeller, Carnegie and Schwab.
/ MouTns Old-Timc Music
Music is as essential to the mind
as food is to the body. And what
| a mess your modern is making of
music. Gone are the days when it
was presumed to appeal to the
| sentiment of humanity. In it's place
we have conglom erations of electric
StOTlnS anu CdChllHS mems, Ol TuHlp-
| ling chariots and blazing buildings
of laundering cannon and nasal
catarrh. Lord of Israel, what q
mess! Instead of rythm, the poetry
of sound. we have movements,
Orchestral cathartics, symphonic
abstergents! And jazz!
Dancing is a first cousin to
music. But it also has been in
! oculated. Gone the dreamy waltz
| the vivacious schottische, the good
honest old quadrille. the merry pol
, ka and the stately minuet. In their
places, what? An ola podrida
made up of turkey trots,' bunny
hugs and shaking the shimme
| Sensuality set to music.
"It is the same way with the old
songs. Home. Sweet Home The
Last Rose of Summer Annie Lau.
rie' and other tender things that
made a fellows heart fill up. are
ditched, while our sopranos shrek
He Took Me Out in an Auto. but
I Rode Home in a Car and barry
tones and tenors howl, IF She Low.
ed Me as Love Her Money, How
Quickly We'd Agree with jazz or