The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-12-06
M E N, w O M EN
 A ND THIN c s

1 I poked little good-natured fun d James Huneker for enveloping the only instance given of Mary Gardens child hood in a cloud of multiple personaIi. ties"
 l am willing to admit that it has al ways been good sport for paragrapher. to put into the mouth of the children born at the Hub of the Universe a certain species of Bostonese in which they are supposed to talk like their elders in migh-falutin' jargon.
 It's all right as a parody, but I am sure that Mary Garden, true to childhood took the world into her confidence with the simple impetuosity of a child without being bedeviled with the demon of multiple personalities for children have child-like and simple natures, and usually have single track minds until spoiled by their parents or teachers.
 
 But he is right in thinking that "mul- tiple personalities are to blame for much in this vale of tears and in wondering if in her early years if Mary was con- scious of the seven devils of psychoI- ogy." He comes to the conclusion that she did not analyze her "Will-to-R Raise Merry Hell," letting her out because mo genius of her order ever doss." |
 l am not going to follow him into mo mans land.' where multiple personal ities, according to his'views, are not cor nered by human beings alone, but shared with vegetables. saying: Man Is nor the only organism that shows multiple personalities; even plant life pigmenta- tion and the power of developing new species prove that our vaunted superior ites are only relative "
 I'll not weary you with the proofs he gives to support his contention, for so far as I am concerned I'll line up with Mrs. Wiggs in her common-sense state ment in which he holds that '.people are more interesting than cabbage" This may be putting the case in rather an extreme way, but I had rather come in living personal contact with Mary than to see a whole garden full of gardenias, even though each bloom on every separate bush was lowered with triple personality. After Huneker abandons his excursions into psychology, and leaves behind his belief that the "subconscious is now adays an excuse for original sin with which we are saddled by the theologians, p 1 seem to get out of the classroom hec- tored over by bespectacled professors into the environment of the first garden in which Adam and Eve were placed. and being tempted, fell. and their sons and daughters ever since have been fall ing and rising.
 When he says: "In the case of Mary Garden we call her artistic aptitudes" the gift of versatility" l am on sympathetic ground, and feel like she is real human being and not mere case for the psy- chological sharps to discuss and dissect 1 in their laboratories. "All distinguished actresses" according to James, ..have this serpent-like facility of shedding their skin and taking a fresh one at will " Now this is one of the truest and cleverest ways of putting it that I have ever run across
 For example, when he tells us that l Mary is Cleopatra, with, serpent and | scarab for sign,' I understand" or Me- 1 lisande, Phryne, or Monna Wanna; as Thais she is both saint and courtesan, her Salome breeds horror; and in the sim plicities of Jean the Juggler of Notre Dame a Mary Garden, hitherto sub merged. appears; tender, boyish, sweet, | fantastic; a ray of moonshine has en- I tered her head and made of him an ir- 1 responsible yet irresistibly charming youth. The talk of Jean and moonsnine man who lost his way, "A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moon. light, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world" | =
 There is no question but that "Ou1 Mary" has personality plus, for her in terpNtation of a number of widely diff ferentated characters is the delight and the despair of those who have witnessed her singing and acting in a number ol her leading roles. Her luminous person 1 ality is the dazzling feature of her oper. atic impersonations. Her adroitness ir
 fusng that personality with the character puts halo around her histrionic efforts
 and stamps each separate one with 2 llifelikeness which amounts to sheei genius. It was this that made Oscal lHammerstein say before his death: "Sht does not know how great she is. Sh, greater she is than others she hersel does not know" N. I confess to the fascination which celeb rites have over me. I admit that in tn presence of genius in any line I am a one obsessed I own up to hero worship yes, also to heroine worship. The grea
 personalities of history have the powe
 to dominate me. This is why cannot b
 unmoved at the thought that the great
 est of operatic stars is to twinkle her in Birmingham tonight at the Jefferson
 \ only wish I might see her m VIC full repertoire with the proper stag
 setting and full orchestra and all-sta
 cast
 Some day such thing is going to b
 possible here The work of the Musi
 Study club and the other musical organ