Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-01-23
Frederic Haskin's Letter
LIQUOR AND LITERATURE

Washington. D. c.. Jan. 21.-What
part has alcohol played in the MAJ
ing OF art and literature! How Will
the aesthetic life Of the nation be
affected by the more or less coz, :
piete abolition of this source Of in
spection?
This question has been raised
again since prohibition first be-
came . serious probability. and an
enormous and interesting mass Of
material on the subject has been
collected. 1t was raised again Just
tie other day when Hartmann, the
German-Japanese poet. delivered a
lecture in Greenwich village OF
Great Men With Whom l Have
Imbibed." Hartmann mentioned
Whitman, Poe and Swinburne as
great writer's who used bottled IL
SEPARATION and prophesied dire lite--
airy results from prohibition.
Others take the view that truly
creative mind will find expression.
drunk or sober, and say the fact
that many great men have chosen
to work under the influence of
LIQUOR does not prove that they
would have been sterile If they hid
lived in the grape juice era.
Still others point out that while
it is against the law to manufac
ture or sell Intoxicating beverages.
i. is not illegal to own or to drink
them. and that many wells Of in
spiration we're filled before the pro-
hibition law went into effect. Thus
famous Baltimore critic All
scholar, who is known to regard
Ethyl Alcohol as one OF the muses.,
is known to have sold all of his au-
tUmolies and diamonds, to have
hypothecated much of his otl r
property. and to have invested all
Of the proceeds in large and care
fully selected stock of beverages,
calculated on a basis of SO many
drinks per diem for the rest of his
reasonable expectation of life. This
he has done, not in any self-regard-
ing spirit, but in order that a's
sc rvices to American literature nj y
not be impaired by what he regards
as hasty and ill-considered legs
lstion.
And his is only one of many
,, founts Of consolation which have
been established by thoughtful AMI
solvent men of letters. The situa-
ten for them is not a serious one.
But how about the young, strug-
Cling genius who regards liquor
and literature as two things in. K
tlicably associated, and who has
not been able to lay by even a
Quart or so in case Of sickness?
How will his work be affected
Suppose that Poe had never had a
drink in his life. Or Robert Burns
While Poe's addiction to drinking
was greatly exaggerated by his
early biographers. there is every
reason to believe that he relied dis
creetly upon alcohol as a mental
stimulus, and there are authorities
who seriously question whether
The Raven" could have been writ
ten by a white-ribbon Poe. Ger
tainly Burns Tam O. Shanter,'
" it'll its realistic picture Of the de-
| lights and effects of convivial.tv
could not have been done by a tee
totaller, no matter how independ-
ent Of the bottle he may have been
In the actual business of writil,,
| Those who are repealed by the
idea that great and beautiful works
o. literature should be associated
| with so sord;d thing as inebria-
ton should remember that crea-
tive art is very often the produc'
of an abnormal condition of some
sort. Disease is believed by modern
scientists to have been the stimulus
that set many great minds to work
A peculiarly loathsome one afflict.
ed both Wagner the great COM,
poser, and Nietzche the philosopher
While no one can say to what ey.
tent it affected their work. it is
known often to act as a menta
stimulus. tuberculosis, before il
breaks a mans strength, is said By
many scientists to be an aid t.,
mental effort.
Other poisons than alcohol have
played their part in literature, too
and it may be that to some extent
they will supersede it. De Quincy
il his Confessions of an Opium
Eater" has left classical account
OF one writer's experience with
that drug, and would seem also te
have demonstrated that he could
get along without it, since. wher
he wrote the confessions, he claim.
ed to have completely given up the
dope. Whatever stimulus it ma,
have afforded him, it certainly gave
him his greatest subject. Wiki.
Collins. the writer of mystery stor.
les, who was a contemporary ana
| friend OF Dickens, and whose
Woman in White" is one of the
worlds famous novels of its kind
is also said to have been a drag
addict.
De Quincey's confessions remind
US that a good many writer's have
found a subject in their own OF
other peoples experiences with red
liquor. To take a recent example
Jack London's John Barleycorn,
is regarded by many persons as hi.
greatest work. A much less knovr
but equally interesting account O.
a writer's struggle with liquor We.
written by Will Lexington Comfort
who. like De Quincy. seems nevel
to have done his best work unit
he quit his favorite vice. but wht
then found in 1t a congenial and in
spring subject.
! 1t would be a serious omissi :.