New-York tribune., 1919-02-09

W '' WIG pdIouy Oh lie That goes
on in an old ladies' home? Or in the
absurd romancing of adolescence ?
"hereupon he soothes himself by say
ing that THE CopDerhead" "got across"
by the magnificent acting of Lionel
Barrymore, "Old Lady 81" by it's senti-
mental appeal and Seventeen" by its
humo-. This is a shrewd analvsis. but
only half true.
The other half of the truth may lie
IN the fact that these plays. are an ad-
mission of whole grange of emotions
and experiences lying outside the
gamut from which our plays are drawn
that vague, wide, undiscovered-to-
he-playwright America which all Of
us are willing to admit is far more
representative of us than is New
York. They are bits of native idiom
that underlie the harsh speech of New
York-they express impulses which
poignantly hook into the small-town
pasts of the majority of people who
make up New York.
Rachel Crothers must be admitted to
the small and select group of those
who have tried to reveal America to
the Americans. The carful of people
who make up the characters of "a
Little Journey" carry the racy flavor
of their locality about them. Seen in
the solution of the plot, illumined by
Miss Crothers's light satire, they show
their origin, their tendencies and the
institutions which made them. They
have the idiosyncrasies and shrewd-
nesses that Americans carry on
their surfaces-and when their affec-
tations and suspicious drop off they
turn out to be amazingly naive ana
eager for human contact. This de-
sire for softening of the social rigors
in order that our humanity may come
through is the essence of our democ-
racy, and flowers best in our small
towns.
1t is the chief value of Miss Croth-
memory Of the small-town life from
which she has sprung cloud over. She
has had the insight to see its dramatic
value-that its compactness gives one
round look at Social institution and
an opportunity to cleave across the So
cial layers.
Her own small town lay in the corn
belt 1t is made up of a goodly MKT
ure of foreigners, laced up with
American native stock that came from
New England. The wide spaces of the
West have softened these one time
New Englanders. They put bit more
stress on education than they do on
religion. The coming of the motor car
enables the well-to-do to go into the
large city for their clothes. They are
quite earnest about music Canned, of
sive sort. They send their sons and
daughters to college, with now and then
a trip abroad to finish off-and event
ually one runs into the sons and
daughters in New York All of this
does not sound picturesque or strange,
but it is part of the changing qualities
of American life that waits to be
caught and made to yield up drama.
But though the small town from
which she herself came to this city
fifteen or more years ago is typical Of
hundreds and thousands of similar
towns all over the country, she has
30 b for
mula. That way lies the village of
melodrama Even in a small town the
combinations of human nature are un-
limited.
Miss Crothers has never lived in a
mining town-but fifteen years ago
when she wrote "The Three Of Us" she
had many letters from people in min
ing towns telling her how accurately
she had seized the spirit of those
places. And later, when she wrote a
play in a New England small-town set
ting, she had letters from New Eng
landers confirming her atmosphere.
In both cases she had merely used her
Imagination and put her own small
town, the one she knew so we'll, into
another locality-and so representative
was the life she knew that she had
not failed.
Of course, the small town need not
always be seen in the golden glow of
kindliness. But better that than that
we should be denied the opportunity to
see it on the stSge. 1t is large, anil
mate and diverting section Of our ma
tional life.