New-York tribune., 1920-12-08
Books )

When" writes Charles Macomb
Flandrau, "some weeks ago, you wrote
from your pallet of pain Qll say it
was pallet Of pain, he instantly mad
wa%ged back that Mrs. Whartons Age
Of Innocence was dull I felt, for al
most half an hour, that all was over
between us. Since then, however, has
come your inevitable and most honor
able amend, and my intellectual life
has once more become harmonious.
Llterature,' as you say, lis not an
exact science, and perhaps no good
purpose is served by running small
errors to earth'-and while I have an
lnescapable sense of meanness in run
ming after any flaw in Mrs. Wharton's
mastery and delightful revival of Vic
torian New York I yet, in feverish
anxiety, cannot resist writing to YOU
to ask 1 Was the expression week
end current in this country during the
1905? l am unable to recall that
this imported term dawned upon me
until somewhere during the 1905.
Was it, throughout my youth. splendid
ly employed in New York, Boston and
Newport, while I in distant and bar
barous Minnesota was totally unaware
OF it? ! doubt it.
"Then (2) in The Age of Innocence
some one is slightingly referred to as
having married his 'typewriter.' Were
there any typewriters during the
1905? There may have been, but,
surely, they were not female and, sure
~, it had not at that time become
convention to be enamoured of them as.
NOWADAYS, one always is enamoured of
ones typewriter or ones trained
nurse"
None Of this Information Is ready to
our hand. Our information about the
lo7O's is vague and largely derived.
But somebody must know, and it is
important that he should communicate
with US at once so that we can forward
the information to Mr. Flandrau. who
is more than curious to know. In fact
he says, "If you don't at once write to
me and put my fears at rest I shall
as my darling Ouida says somewhere
in The Massarencs, die silently. as
gentleman must"
Anybody who has read The Diarv Of
freshman must realize just how
great calamity is threatened.
"The American composer for Mr.. NJ.
Lincoln Schuster's First American
Crapsody," writes Robert A. Simon,
would logically be Carl Deis, who
has written several charming things.
Probably he would arrange the COM
position as concerto for the worries.
In keeping with the custom of apply
ing descriptive titles to musical ef-
forts, the piece would be known as
musical gambol. And make no bones
about saying that it ought to have a
great sale on the rolls"
The popular annual volume of native
biography, entitled Who's Who in
America, is little bewildering this
year, because of the various methods
employed in picturing the many char
acters represented. Occasionally fig
ure is merely skctchcd in with every
thlng most important left to the read
er's imagination. Such a biographical
treatment is accorded to John Barry
more, whose story as told by Who's
Who in America is as follows:
barrymore, John (John Blythe), ac-
tor; b. Feb. IS, 1882; member of noted
theatrical family; s. late Maurice
barrymore (Herbert Blythe) and
Georgiana Drcw) B.; NJ. Katherine
Corri Harris. Debut as Max in Magda,
at Clcvcand's Theater, Chicago, Oct.
81, 1908, and appeared in Savoy Thea
ter, New York, as Corley in Glad OF
It, Dec. following played In London,
Eng, 1905, and later in Australia, in