New-York tribune., 1920-02-22
Behind the Scenes
With Philip Mindil

| book I'll make q play Of 1t, and I'm
dramatizing some Of my Irish charac-
ter sketches. No, Pm not of Irish de-
scent and I've never said was, though
IL might have been temptation during
my twenty years in the old 69th Regi-
ment and with my many friends among
the Irish, from laborers and bartenders
to men of wealth and letters. The
Hughes is Welsh, but my ancestors on
both sides came to America early in the
seventeenth century and settled in Vir-
ginla. Pm Southerner by descent and
Middle West by birth. 1 come from
Missouri. But l love the Irishman. He
is SO volatile, so full Of temperament,
such q dashing fellow, with so much
courage and such sense Of humor.
II have been accused Of writing down
to my audiences. That's rank Injustice.
can stand being taken for almost any
thing but fool, and surely the writer
who writes down is the greatest fool
there is. Why. it's like talking down
to children. They know it in a min
oeS oii4 n6tC yOO Lux ~. QOA Z nave
to write down to them. l am down with
them. No matter how bad my work
may be / am willing to confess that it
is always the best have in me. What's
the use of having bolt of fine silk
unless you make from it beautiful
gown or something else worth while?
What's the use Of fine clay-human
clay-unless you shape 1t into beauti-
full vase or something?
"Some have complained that they
could not see my construction. I don't
want them to see 1t. 1t IL the bones
and is meant to be concealed. That's
art, isn't It? You see beautiful girl,
fine, healthy, gracefully formed. Do
you want to see her skeleton? Does
she want you to see her bones!
"People have said. Isn't it too bad
Hughes publishes his fiction first in
serial form? He has to work up false
climaxes.' I say, The only climaxes
have to work up are these: Once In
every 10000 or 10000 words make
something happen which will make the
reader want to 60 on with the next
installment.' If the novelist doesn't do
something of the sort his readers won't
finish his book.
"Do keep right on with play, once
begun, until 1t Is finished? Not any
more. Through long and hard work,
do not have to work now except when
e. p,,% k1o< n1r 0a< n11 <hn
time. If go stale on play or book
lay 1t aside and sit down at the
piano and compose bit Of music. I
don't have much time for that, though;
my writing keeps me too busy. Or
turn out q short story or vaudeville
sketch have had In mind-sometimes
at one sitting.
"Those who did not grasp Its sub
tleties called The Cat-Bird' iippant
and trivial. It isn't either. 1t deals
with the great problem Of the sexes
and teaches that the woman is playing
Just as willing a part in the chase as
the man when she portrays the pur-
sued to his pursuer. It is the nature
Of the male to hunt; his ambition to
conquer through superior strength,
and always has been since the earliest
cave man. The woman leads him on
by being his prey. She can't help 1t
any more than he can help pursuing.
The true student Of nature realizes
that love and mating and pursuit be-
tween the sexes exists just as much In
the aowers and the fish and the insects
and the birds and the beasts as In the
human creatures.
$50 this professor, this scientist,
played 90 admirably by Mr.. Drow, baf-
fled in his own human lows. which is
reawakened on The return Of its object.