New-York tribune., 1921-03-05
Books

Writing de senectute in your hasty
way last week." writes Timothy Nane,
you seemed to think that advancing
years would give their first intimation
in the joints. Wrong again. From the
coign Of thirty-four let me tell you
that the admonition will not be
physical. 1t will come suddenly in
your panoramic glimpse of the dis
tancc You have travelled, as when a
preoccupied wayfarer turns at crest
to look back and discovers how re-
mote and haze hung is the inn from
which he set forth. 1t will come with
your surprise 1T noticing that you
have abstractedly passed by the cross
roads Calvaire, which once seemed in
fnitely far in front Of you. 1t will
ing that some one you had left sound
asleep at the inn whence you started
is now walking briskly AHEAD of you.
You try to tell yourself that he man
aged it by use OF a magic carpet or
some such unfair device, but you really
know he must have passed you while
you were taking one of your many
roadside maps. Personally, 1 felt this
sudden sharp pang of senesence when
| picked up and read through and
through this In American, by one
John Van Alstyn Weaver.
at recalled June day some nine or
ten years ago when was starting
back to class reunion at the Haml
ton commencement. telegram from
the Latin play manager besought me,
in the name of the dear old college on
the hill, to bring along suit Of Ro-
man armor of such and such dimen-
sions. Have you ever travelled with a
loose, extra suit of Roman armor? 1t
is quite interesting. The crises of in
terest come when the helmet falls out
of the baggage rack and knocks
drummer unconscious.
"Then, at the end of the journey,
came the painful discovery that the
dimensions Of the wrong actor had
been sent by inadvertence. The arnor
was not to be worn by the undergradu-
ate Goliath, who had been measured
for it, but by the college zany, small
and iidgety morsel strongly resem-
bling one of Gruger's illustrations for
The Narmint. This unruly creature
mutnied outright at the first sight of
his costume, which, with the breast
plate coming to his shins, did rather
suggest Mother Hubbard provided by
the United States Steel Corporation.
The play committee had to use sever
ity, tinged with prophecies Of violence
and group action, to get him into it at
all and then to keep him from one step
ping into the Forum. 1t was only by
the threat of dropping him into the
Oriskany that he was queted. "A nut
tho football captain murmured COM
passionately in my ear. Writes poetry
aud all that This, with shrug that
adequately expressed the fatigue of
campus, which had only just Begun
to recover after the passing of Ezra
Pound, when along came Weaver. For,
as Weaver Cor, for that matter, Art
Samuels) would say, it was indeed him.
And now every one is either reading
or reviewing his book
Glow time flies, Mr. Broun. What
do you say to game Of chess at the
Union Club this afternoon? You will
find me in one of the chairs in the
library, far from the window. Don't
hesitate to wake me-"
D. Fl. Lawrence has looked upon the
topography of love as custom has it
and has found it wanting. His two
latest. books, Women in Love and The
Lost Girl, both give the matter thor
ough going over and both give off a
certain authentic air Of truth. The last
word probably never will be spoken on
the subject. 1t seems likely that love
is always going to keep about one Jump