The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-11-02
Literature With a Dead Engine


By THOMAS l.. MASON, Editor of Life
and who. within the sacred reeesses of
| Brooklyn boarding houses or Harlem
flats have written thrilling tales of
cowboys and wild prairies, may actual
ly have to travel hereafter, and see the
country The prospect is appalling. L
know one writer who pounds out a
20. 000-word thriller every month. He
goes to the movies weekly and sees
a western film, to get the local color.
He is so used to writing about things
he doesn't know anything about. that if
he is forced 20 live in Chicago or Kan"
sas City and learn something of real
life. where will it end? He may be
forced into some respectable trade,
And he is only one of thousands.
\ We must face this thing as best we
may. If Rupert Hughes and Robert W
Chambers and San Merwin and George
Barr McCutcheon and GouVeneur Morris
and Julian Street are forced TO abandon
their palatia suburban residences in the
east, and have 10 be tethered on the
prairies of Illinois and Kansas. or seek
subsistence n the alkali desert or the
culture GASES of Nebraska, what is going
to he the effect upon our heroes and
heroines? The federal unreserve sex
centers of the east will have crimp
put in them that will shake all the
divorce courts to their foundations, and
cause the literary 400 to begin to think
about living half way decent lives
something that has never before oc-
Cured to them. These heroes and hero
ines, hitherto confined to the hot atncs
phere Of metropolitan drawing rooms and
studios and adjacent golf links. will have
to shake loose from their bearings The
thought that in time they may become
real men and women who pass their days
and nights talking CT something else be-
sides throwing themselves in and out of
each others arms-all this is problem
enough to make strong men weep.
Short story writer's, who have hitherto
come on to the metropolis fresh from the
correspondence schools attached to all
self-respecting universities, and have
tried to get the pulse beat of the nation
by plunging into the cardiac region OF
the east side. will have to begin life all
over again in the wilds of Michigan or
in the presidential Sam Browne belt OF
Ohio Only Irwin Cobb is safe, for he
gets all of his local color out of him
self
Up to the present time the strike has
not extended to Washington, and the
Congressional Record Is still coming
out undisturbed IN its pristine purity
But If this fountain of mirth should
eventually have to be printed in sections
in various parts Of the country, the
might develop such n sense of humor that
they would laugh themselves sick over the
high cost of living. and other irrelevant
matters now regarded with so much
solemnity.
Congressman, who at present get their
literary pabulum from Printing House
square and have their sense of humor
relayed through the inspirational pro-
fessionals of the metropolis. will take on
new points of view. Mr.. Caleb Jones will
rise in the House and say:
"Mr Speaker, I bear In my hands
copy of my favorite magazine, formerly
of Madison avenue and now printed anu
issued from the banks of the Mississippi
| that glorious and translucent river that
! rises in the north and sets in the south
! and, without objection, will read from
it a short story of 5000 words, with leave
/ to print, and which actually reveals, Sir,
| the hitherto unknown character and
habits of the benighted inhabitants of 1he
middle west. BY means of this marvellous
! tale I shall ATTEMPT to show that these
| obscure people have developed a sort on
rudimentary intellige nee and are capable
of laughing and crying and oth/~wise dis
| porting themselves like human beings,
| just as if they had once visited the Great
| White Way" etc.
| The effect of the strike upon the public
| has been 10 less disheartening. Deprived
of its magazines, this public has been
| forced to read the newspapers more care
fully than ever, and it has made the
alarming discovery that the newspapers
| often publish better real literature than
| the magazines, and much of this by wild
western writer's.
| 1t will be seen from all this that the
printers strike in New York is different
| from all other strikes. In an ordinary
| industrial strike three elements are in