Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1921-12-15
SHERWOOD ANDERSON
WRITES DREARY TALES
OF THWARTED DESIRES

II IS a brave mortal in these days
who stands out against extreme mod
err!sn in art or literature. To side
with the more academic puts one i'm
mediately IN the class of old fogies,
anti = progress.ves lstruction!s's
And. what is even more painful to
the pride, gives the name OF one who
lacks in lroadnoss OF vision-who
cannot see far enough ahead OF his
time to realize what is true and real
in Art
In spite OF these dire penalties 20
u incurred. there will lie many who
viii truly say that looks like Sher-
wood Anderson's The Triumph OF the
Egg" ". b. Hdel sch. Inc.l must have
anything tut a beneficial influence on
humanity in general. To he quite fair
and to give the o,her point OF view, ii
mas also Teen said that Mr. Ander-
sons work depicts life in the Middle
West as Dostcievsky pictured the many
coloured life of Russia with almost
az wonderful a toneh OF genius
AS a matter of fact Tho Triumph
Of the Egg" is a collection of tales
written with vigor and power. OF sor-
did. depressing facts and details OF
life-life drab ani dreary swayeC
principally Is ofsessons ana thwartea
desires. Characters struggling LIND
ly cropping for something out OF moth
ing-arriying nowhere. Their elemen
tai impulses DESERT ed in terse. sharI
sentences that emphasize the minutes
details. until one loses sense o: pro
portion. as in q fever dream, and the
smallest trities loom appallingly for
bidding and whelming
Realism says some one. BIT
why? Are these dark. drear spaces
Of life with their failures and futile
dopes. any more real than the small
successes. tho emotional uplifts. an,
he moments of pleasure that come to
every human being at some time OF
other?
The very names of the tales sug-
gest their gloominess 'Senility,'
The Door of the Trap" out of No
where into Nothing" The final para
graph OF The Egg'-the story from
which the volume is named-givcs some
idea of what the tales achieve
II awoke at dawn and for a long
Tine looked at the egg that lay on the
able. / wondered why eggs had to be
md why from the egg came the hen
who again laid the egg. The question
got into my blood II has stayed
there. | imagine. because | am the
son of my father. At any rate, the
problem remains unsolved in my
mind. And that. | conclude. is but
another evidence of the complete and
inal triumph of the egg-at least as
Ear as my family is concerned"
Mr. Anderson also includes two
POEMS, and a sort of prologue in vers
.ibre. Some of the verses of the lat
ter run as follows:
Tales are people who sit on the
doorstep of the house OF my
1t is cold outside and they sit
waiting.
| look out al a window.
The tales have cold hands.
Their hands are freezing.
A short thickly-built tale arises
and threshes his arms about
His nose is red and he has two
gold teeth
There is an old female tale sitting
hunched up in a cloak.
1 am a helpless NANNY hands
tremble.
| should be sitting on bench like
a tailor
] should be weaving warm cloth
out of the threads of thought
The tales should he clothed.
They are freezing on the doorstep
of the house of my mind" etc.
These who soon at "liber verse"
and their Number is increasing daily
since the first timid protest arose
against Miss Amy Lowell and her
school. will be inclined to think that
the mind that calls this stuff poetry
is incapable of weaving warm cloth