davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The New York herald., 1921-03-13

the thing myself-satirizing the ideal
istic side of the American psyche
(granting that the sheeplike innards
Of us Americans have evolved
psyches), showing its essential cash
down, utilitarian nature and it's in
corrigible insfpidity. James Huneker
could have done It; Don Marquis
could do it-but-
The Don Quixote of Mr.. Hemstreet's
story is John Eagle of vinehaven,
n. Y. Eagle has conceived the idea
OF building somewhere, vaguely in the
West, model city called Vast Eagle
prolongation of his own irlwrapt
woodsman's ego. He is Carol Ken
nicott in a red shirt. His spear is an
axe, with which he proposes to hew,
singlehanded almost, the new city out
of the wilderness. He has all the vii
layers 'het up about 1t. He has
promised them all jobs in Vast Eagle,
and they swallow his scheme like
hooch. He has builded wilderness"
around his house, and inside one may
inspect the vast map of his Kingdom
Come and models of its perfect" pub
lie buildings.
He sets forth one day with a gull
lible retainer who wants to be the
warden of the Jail of Vast Eagle. The
train dumps them off at Los Angeles
because it can go no further. He calls
taxi and orders the chauffeur to
drive him to a vast wilderness" He
is caught in rainstorm at night in a
cemetery. Johns crazy adventures
continue-he is vamped, robbed, jailed,
hooted and written up
The "writeup" in a local California
newspaper reaches the folks back
home in Vinehaven, and on his return,
broken, penniless, sans axe or map or
red shirt. he finds the town decorated
to receive him and the local Sousa
stationed to receive him.
All of which is respectfully sub
mitted to Mack Sennett or FATTY"
Arbuckle.
The Jacket" hints Of an under
lying idea" / have spent weary nights
over the home brew trying to excavate
it. I leave it for future literary archn-
ologists to unearth.
The New York herald., 1921-03-13

TIE SEVEN PARSONS AND THE
SMALL IGUANADoN. BY Gerald n.
Thayer Harper q Bros
When the lion saw the statue OF
man conquerlng one Of his own kind
he said. II would have carved this
differently" Fables have generally
been written by the moralist. This
booklet gives the blue law parson a
dose of his own medicine
Seven parsons sailed forth one Sab
bath to kill all the joy they could.
They were nagging a little boy for
padding in the brook, when an
iguanadon who had escaped the ex-
tinction OF the rest Of his species over
heard them.
"shame on that long and shaky lot.
say ].
To make a lazy little boy-beast cryi"
So thought he 10 himself And should
say
Though neither sort appears a bit
sublime.
The boy-beast is better beast than
they,
For he was wet and happy in the sunny
slime"
These verses ought to receive wide
circulation In these days OF repression,
for they are clever, and are well illus
trated by Norman Jacobsen, whose
conception of an iguanadon is much
more like jabberwock than a mu-
s-un skeleton.
The New York herald., 1921-03-13
Reviewed by JORGE GoDoY.

Exceedingly readable anthologies of
Spain's and Latin Americas most dis
tinguished sons of the muses. were
compiled and edited in the good old
days of George Ticknor, Fitzmaurice
Kelly and other erudite bibliophiles;
and innumerable flowers are still
blossoming in the scented rhythmical
gardens of Hispanic letters, planted
and watered by such painstaking
and laborious literary botanists as
Alfred Coester, Peter Goldsmith and
other contemporaneous craftsmen. DR..
Walsh's collection is one of the most
thorough and convincing books of its
kind ever placed before the American
reading public. Starting with the
anonymous and world famous "Poema
del Cid" a rhythmical record OF Span
ish chivalry composed in the year
1850. and ending with the symphony
in White" by Munoz Marin, modern
Porto Rican poet born in 1898, Mr..
Walsh presents us with 779 copiously
illustrated pages of text containing
hundreds of brief biographical sketches
and Spanish and Portuguese render
ings into English by such Of the
earlier poets as Byron, Southey,
Longfellow, Bryant; and by John Hay,
John Masefield, Alice Stone Blackwell
and a dozen or more masters OF tho
intricate art Of versification.
After reading some of the inspired
passages Of this remarkable book the
readers mind is refreshed and en-
lightened historically, geographically,
philosophically and POLITICALLY, so to
speak. Spain's barbarous and SAN
culinary bullhghts, with their "torea-
doris" "matadors" and "picadors,"
transport our adventurous souls to the
Roman days OF bloodthirsty Nero.
with fear, astonishment and admira-
tion we read OF Spanish pirates, in
satiable and daring gold diggers,
Quixotic knights and warrior poets
seeking the enchanted fountain Of
eternal youth and the magical fairy
lands of hidden treasures and fabulous
riches; Argentinas endless grassy,
treeless "pampas' appear before us;
Bolivia's "llamas" and "alpacas" are
added to our poetic 200" We seem
actually to drink Brazils delightful
coffee; Colombia cordially invites us
to visit the Athens Of South America"
-B0Eota, we even cream Oh Cnlle
nitrate Of soda Cubas sugar
sweetens our palates and her tobacco
makes us the worshipping slaves Of
Queen Nicotine and his Majesty King
Smoke, Ecuadors volcanic eruptions
fiji our vision with seething' lava and
ashes: we gaze on Guatemala's abys-
NAL bitches; the heroes and martyrs
of Honduras raise their undying fore
heads from the battlefields Of liberty;
Mexico's snow capped Popocatepetl
salutes us with Its glorious. gigantic
and mountainous peaks of icicles;
Nicaragua teaches us the new doc
trines Of Ruben Dario. one OF tho
greatest modernism poets of all
times; Panama leads us to a certain
wondrous canal that astonished the
entire engineering world, and the
bards Of Uruguay, Paraguay, Venc-
zuela and the other highly cultured
and idealistio countries OF Latin
America entertain us and please US
with soul stirring songs.
From the earlier group. Lopc Felix
The New York herald., 1921-03-13
SPAIN FILLS ANTHOLOGY AND MOVIE SCREEN

not to take course az a university
or to correspond with an unknown pro-
fessor. 1t is to so into studio and
work. as an actor as an assistant, as
a camera man, rs a property man,
as a writer who would learn the way
the wheels go round 1t is to see
every new picture that is released and
dissect their editing and directing. 1t
is to frequent plays, peruse literature,
identify history grow and study and
become criterion of what is genuine
and what is not, and what is essential
and what is unworthy of time, vitality,
interest," and when all this has been
done, if there are no results the APP
prentice may as well decide that he
is better fitted to paste up twenty-four
sheet posters than to have his name
printed on them.
The New York herald., 1921-03-13

ming Pollock said, "are not written,
but rewritten" photoplays are not
titled but retitled. And the star
doesn't do this, nor the producer. nor
the director, but the scenario writer.
Aye, there are more things in the
movie heaven and earth than are
dreamt of by Miss Lytton for the
novice's psychology.
After all. one must not be discour-
aging, since the screen must cultivate
its coterie of specialized authors. In
her book, Miss Lytton tells persuasive
ly If incompletely. what really is i'm
portant. 1t is as efficacious as any
volume can be in instructing one how
To create. Mr.. Pollock is credited with
another aphorism: THE only way to
learn to write is to do it." The only
way to become a scenario writer is
The New York herald., 1921-03-13
Reviewed by
BENJAMIN DE CASSERES.

When a title like the above jumps
at us from the covers of book one
name in particular occurs to us-the
man who first was too proud to fight,
who then went into a war to end war,
and who finally found that Sancho
Panza runs this world, and that the
fair Dulcinea of his dreams was a
trixy wench whose real name was
Fickle Public.
But this American Don QuiXote of
Mr.. Hemstreet's Is quite of another
breed. The story also proves, for the
thousandth time, that Don QuiXote
was done once, done forever-like the
Book of Job and Hamlet-and done
to a turn. Cervantes put an eternal
and irrevocable truth in words, and
while sketching the vicissitudes Of
that truth in material forms he incl
dentally wrote the history of the hu-
man race on the pea-green planet
Earth. For Don Quixote' Is the
comic Gospels, and the Knight of La
Mancha himself is Aristophanes on
Calvary.
The nearest approach to the Ger
vantes masterpiece-in my reading
was done by the late Octave Mirbeau
in an interlude of about one hundred
pages in his great story, Liable
Jules" The interlude concerns lie
Pere Pamphile and his journeys
around the world to collect enough
money to build a stupendous temple
dedicated to some Oriental secret cult,
and his final death in old age in the
grave he had dug for himself, which
was to be the earth opening for the
first pillar. AS a piece of colossal satire
on human idealism Mrbeau's story has
never been equalled-not even by
Cervantes.
Mr.. Hemstreet has a great theme
which he cannot sustain. He has
written a first class comic movie. y
And yet it has intellectual implica-
tions 1t suggests the idea of doing
The New York herald., 1921-03-13
Reviewed by
JOHN GARRETT UNDERHILL

Miss Farnell's Lives of the Trouba-
dours" Is SO gratefully remembered by
students OF literature that no reviewer
can fail to welcome the appearance OF
her name upon the title page OF a
new volume but as an opportunity for
sincere tribute How much of the
charm Of Provence breathed in those
pages. eloquent Of the midi and the
Howery graces of the Courts of Love-
They remain in the minds Of countless
Of the younger generation throughout
the Englsh-spoaking world as among
the most priceless memories of college
days
in her present venture Miss Farnell
has been less fortunate. She under
takes To afford view. not of a re-
stricted and properly local movement
strongly characterized and narrowly
defined but Of q great national litera-
ture, maturing slowly through the
centuries in long line of distinguished
names, associated with different phases
Of its development The value Of such
an undertaking must depend upon tho
soundness of Judgment with which the
writer's have been marshalled. ag unon
the skin and sense Of balance with
which they have been fitted into the
picture In a word, tho selections must
bo truly representative
tnhappily. Miss Farnell has yielded
70 casual cnthusiasms Some of these
have taken rise In the Dorusal ~ CON
vcntional manuals OF Spanish litcra-
ture. while others suggest. rather. suq-
ceptiblity to tho influence III modern
popular advertising campaigns. and as
suCh arc plainly commercial. II is diff
fcult TO account on any other basis
for the appearance of Blasco Ibafiez
In the table Of contents. which Is
limited strictly % . score OF masters.
while the name Of Cervantos is calmly
excluded. IL cannot be urged in pal
liation that Cervantes has already
been sufficiently translated. for cer-
tainly no Spanish writer has been
more widely exploited in English than
Ibahcz. The fact IS and Il IS known
10 all scholars, that there is not even
q shadow of justification for coupling
Blasco 1bahez with the masters OF
Spanish prose Nor can the "Celes-
tina" for pll its fine passages, be
canonizod as q perfect specimen or the
art Of prose.
The New York herald., 1921-03-13
Reviewed by
c. BLYTHE SHERWOOD.

Deep down in his heart everybody
knows how to write a screen play.
1t must have suspense and action; It
must move the audience to hilarity,
enthusiasm or sympathy. The favorite
stars must have the biggest parts,
and no matter how many times (if it
is a he) the gallows is ordained to be
the climax, or how irretrievahly mis-
understanding sends her to contem-
plate the depth, the width and tenn
perature of the river. amidst the
downpouring rain-its always raining
on nights like these-every vigorous
vengeance will be forgiven the author
so long as the final closeup is a clinch
of happy elimination. Grace Lytton
warns those of us who would be
cinema scribes against certain errors,
making 1t clear that We should as
religiously acquire the proper habits.
Her best Dos are:
(a) Make 'em laugh; make EN-
cry; make 'em wait.
(b) Write in the present tense;
use object words, action words. de-
scribing words, pictariejn0 words.
(c) Before you begin to write out
your story write out your purpose,
or motif, in ten or a dozen words,
and keep it in plain sight all the
time you are doing your work.
(d) Your characters must reflect
your own emotions and impulses.
being, however, possible of presen-
tation on the screen. They cannot
ne MI iRa
their natures to be shown by their
acts.
(e) Simplify: Story. cast sets;
characters, struggle. triumph. climax.
Each type must be distinct; the
first appearance marks the calibre
to which the player must live up
the rest of the picture. one cannot
deviate or disappoint
% Write your plot on impulse.
Ideas come from feeling
(g) Work out detail in delibera-
tlon. Concise continuity comes
from concentration.
(h) BE short, be snappy, be SYM
pathetic-for the scenario editor.
Your brief synopsis is your card of
Introduction 'tCondense! Con-
dense!"
d) Avoid the risk of actors lives.
(What would Douglas Fairbanks
say to this?)
Cd Keep up to date. Read ex-
hibitors' magazines. Find out what
is being done. what can be done
better and what should be abol-
ished. Go to the movies-not for
enjoyment but profit. "Analyze
from first to last, take particular
note of every word that flashes on
the screen. the producing company.
the director. the staff writer. as we'll
as the names of the stars. Observe
whether ii is novel or an original
scenario"
(k) Save expensive sets and cos
tunes. Go on location. Visit
studios. Keep notebooks.
Cd Read: Scenario Writing To-
day."
The final suggestion is mine. For
this textbook is not dry but rather
terse and pleasantly to the point.
We've all known that we should do
these things. and here they've been
put in statements for us.
Juno Mathis, who prepared the
The New York herald., 1921-03-13
Spanish and Latin American Poets

de Vega Carpio. zone of the greatest
figures Of Spanish literature" sings to
1.-The Good Shepherd" thus, through
Longfellows English version:
Hear, Shepherd Thou who for Thy flock
art dying,
Oh wash away these scarlet sins. for
Thou
Rejoicest at the contrite sinners vow.
oh wait to Thee my weary soul is cry
Wait for me- Yet why ask it, when
see,
With feet nailed TO the cross. Thou'rt
waiting still for me
What a contrast between this and
the lines of Ruben Dario, the Father
of Nicaraguan poetry" and perhaps
the king of all South American song
sters. translated by Elijah Clarence
Hills! In these lines the people of the
United States can see themselves rs
others see them:
The United States are rich, they're pow
erful and great
(They Join the cult OF Mammon to that
Of Hercules),
And when they stir and roar, the very
And though they coun. on all, one thing
is lacking: God
Francisco De Quevedo Villegas.
the satirical Spanish wonder. who was
born in Madrid i'm 1880 and died in
Villanueva in 1916, has also something
to say about the almighty power OF
gold, in Thomas Walsh's excellent
English version:
over kings and priests and scholars
Rules the mighty Lord Of Dollars
In this volume the reader win hnd
brilliant English translations of bal
lads sonnets. rondeaux. epigrans,
odes. romances, epic poems. panecy-
rics and amatory, convivial, pathetic
and humorous stanzas OF surprising
beauty written in various forms of
verse by Jose de Espronceda, the Span.
ish Byron; Jose Santos Chocano. the
Peruvian prodigy; Gertrudis Gomez de
Avellaneda, the Cuban Sappho. Arnado
Nervo, the Mexican mystic: lose
Ascuncion Silva, the Colombian genius
and over two hundred more Spanish
and Latin American poets. some OF
them still living and I'm the prime OF
youth. The writer knows many Of
these personally as kind hearted. pleas
ure loving mon Of high mental abilities
and attainments, ideals and aspira-
tions. remarkable linguists and fluent
and arresting conversationalists noted
for their versatility and the excellent
quality Of their work; while others nm
fortunately, arc consummate "poseurs"
living lives Of debauchery. extrava-
gance and recllcssness. attempting to
initiate Oscar Wilde's flowing Bo-
hemian ties and long unkempt hair.
and being constantly assailed by
creditors and implicated I'm matri.
monial entanglcments.
Although Mr.. Walsh's anthology Is
one Of the most thorough collections
Of its kind, he has omitted a few
versifying celebrities from Spain and
Latin America, especially from Mexico.
where. as tho popular saying goes.
should you throw a stone from the
window Of the National Palace Won
would Enthusiastically strike n poet :"
Everybody in the land beyond the Rio
Grande Is rhythmically inclined The
great Mexican poets excluded are
three--Manuel Acuna, the suicidal
bard; Juan dc Dios Pea. author Of
"Cantos del Hogar' tHearth Sonrs).
and Antonio Plaza, the widely known
vagabond singer.
The New York herald., 1921-03-13
BY EDWARD ANTHONY.
Tomerville Anthology.

/. THE PUBLISHER.
Speak kindly OF the publisher.
Cease aiming jdbs and hooks.
He spends his days derising lcdDS
OF landing 1corthy books.
And granting that he spends his nights
CordHing lesser toriters,
And stoops at times to make some
dimes
BIZ peddlin0 books by bHghterS,
Like Charlie cheer and Jennie Joy,
And other slushy Biddies,
Remember. please, that books IKE
Support the Wife and KiddieSi
A blessing on his Drayina head!
Speak gently as he passes,
Whose job IL is 90 thankless biSD
To pIedse all shades and classes!
.. THE AUTHOR
Gas the reader sees HIND,
It's nice TO be an author
And sit and smoke a pipe.
And nothing do the seasons through
And hare your picture printed
In papers eUeryichere.
And achen you pass. hear lad and lass
Shout, "Thdts him over therep"
And daily open letters
Containing lots OF pelJ,
And liUe on steak. Some day III take
The business up myself
II hear" says Mr.. Bucket. as he re-
arranges a stack Of books that
threaten to topple, that II. @. Wells
has written another book. Macmillan's
salesman was telling me about 1t this
morning. It's coming out soon, and
the title is The Salvaging of Civiliza-
tion.'"
"Zasso?" says Mr.. Flick. the head
clerk. as he glances through the Pnb-
fishers Weekly. II admire that feller
Wells. He's the hardest working au-
thor in the business. And the mans
going to make the universe decent
In The Outline Of History he tells
what's the matter with the world and
in the new book he salvages IT, What
can be fairer than that?"
Don't be SO flippant about the
great" says Mr.. Bucket, totalling the
sales sIips FOR the morning. you'd
better get busy on your inventory"
rive got the girls working on That
now. Say, have you read this new
travel book OF John Weaver's that
Knopfs Just released--'Jn America
Guess it's a sort OF See America First.
isn't it?"
mo. II isn't" says Mr.. Bucket, i'm
patiently, 1T wouldn't do you any
harm II you learned something about
the books we sell. The title Is In
American, not In America and II
isn't n travel book. It's n book OF
verses written in the vernacular--or,
what MenclSen calls the American
language"
"Zasso?"
Yves. that's so. This reminds me
of tho time you listed that novel In
Dire straits as a travel book. Every
things n travel book to YOU. And
with these few words, I wish you'd
run along and see that the girls make
a good job Of that inventory"
"Oh, they'll do II right. Brightest
lot Of girls you ever saw. Read all
the efficiency magazines, attend lec-
t,lres on system and never make n
mistake. Say, how many copies of that
new Rider Haggard book, She and
Allan do we want?"
How many can we sell?"
several, ! should say"
"well, then, order that many and
don't ask needless questions"
"Oh, Miss Pottlel" shouts Mr.. Flick,
twinkle in his cyc, send Longmans
The New York herald., 1921-03-13

ANTHOLOGY. BY Thomas
Walsh. Ph. D., Lift. d. Corresponding
Member of the Real Academia
Sevillana de Buenas Letras," of the
Academia Colombiana" and the His
panic Society of America" @. p.
Putnam's Sons.
The New York herald., 1921-03-13
Book Exc change

HIGHEST CASH PRICES PAID FOR
complete libraries and small iots Of books.
Encyclopedia Britannica, IL edition. Book
OF Knowledge and sets Of standard authvs-A
particularly wanted. cans tnaue anywhere.
THOMs 4 l1RON, INC, "a Barclay ST.. NJ "
phone SO62 Cortlandt
The New York herald., 1921-03-13
BlaSco Ibanez, But Not Cervantes

SPANISH PROSE AND POETRY. OLD
AND NEW, WITH TRANSLATED
SPECIMENS. By Ida Farneli Oxford
University Press.
The New York herald., 1921-03-13
How the American Don Quixote
Tried Riding Bucking Bronco

THE DON QUIXOTE OF AMERICA
THE STORY OF AN IDEA. By
Charles Hemstreet. Dodd Mead & Co.
The New York herald., 1921-03-13
The Way to Write a Movie Feature
Is to Get a Studio Janitor's Job

WRITING TO-DAY. BY
Grace Lytton. Houghton Mitflin Com
The New York herald., 1921-03-13

BOoKS--over 1000 600 IN stock. All sub
jects. Second hand and New on Approval.
Rare Books and Sets OF Authors Catalogue
6f free. Commissions executed. FOYLES,
12l Charing Cross Road, London, England
The New York herald., 1921-03-13

AUTOGRAPH Letters of Famous People
Bought and Sold. W. n. BENJAMIN, 1873
Broadway, N. r., Pub. THE Collector" ~
yesr. Sample Free.
The New York herald., 1921-03-13
Sabbath Atrocities

TIE SEVEN PARSONS AND THE
SMALL IGUANADoN. BY Gerald n.
Thayer Harper q Bros
The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1921-10-22
VARIOUS TONGUES IN BAGDAD
Pupils at Jews School Are Taught
English, French, Arabic and
Persian Languages.

Most of the public scribcs in Bag
dadj were either Armenians or jews
bOtli of whom are natural linguists.
Many that ran aCrOSs>near AS Serial
mosque and in Zazim PaSha street
close to the government buildings and
the law courts, knew at least a half
dozen languages, writes Roland Gorb-
old, in Asia. 3. .. ..'..,
1t is not difficult to acquire that
number iii Bagdad itself. When / Wis
tied the Jews school, the masters put
their pupils through their PAGES by
having them recite their lessons in
English, French, Arabic and Persian.
French has been much used in the
city for social and even business pur-
poses. The tickets to the German
Basdad railway were printed in Arabic
and Frencll-not German. With the
advent of the British expeditionary
force, signs in English as we'll as
French began to appear over the shops
in New street.
I laughed at some Of these absurd
legends and sighed over them too.
They were as homogeneous as the
cinema houses and the watering cart
labeled .'Bagdnd> Municipality"
never really liked New street. Though
If was a necessary and admirable
achievement it did not appeal to the
Imagination.