The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-31

w. L. George, in Harper's Magazine. TIT is bart of the vitality of the mid- dle west that it should put as e much energy into its pleasures as if does into it's work. That is perhaps American, rather than middle western for. in general, the American seems 10 worx 1S hours a day. He may call one occupation hustling freight, another ore eating. another golf, but 1t IS all work.
 Rut in the middle west there Is a cu- rious intensity of organization. Almost every town has a guide book lnoica'- ing nleasures. have a collection of them. such as, Now in St. Louis" The Visitors Handy Guide to Minneapolis "seeing chicago" What Is Doing Tn Cincinnati," Tn Kansas City Inls week." etc. You will never find tnae in Europe, except in the capitals. In minor European towns the favorite oi- version is sleep; I believe the average American would prefer nightmare. lie is always doing, always planning ne follows MT. Arnold Bennett and learns to live on twenty-four hours oay. When he takes his pleasure in a cul- tnral form he is sometimes rather grave; in fact there is certain gray ity in all American pleasures tnougn noisy, because they are taken lntenseiy and thoroughly. If the American ecteo otherwise he would feel that he was wasting the good raw material of lire.
 so the American pleasure crowds are more vivid than those of Europe; they are not so light, they are perhaps not so spontaneous, but anybody who mas sat at the movies. or watched Babe" Ruth excite his crowd, realizes the depth of feeling that the American puts into moments ferociously snatched from his daily work.
 Naturally. in the middle west. with this goes what the east calls crudity. The west is plain spoken and does not waste anything of its appeal. It real ixes that pleasure is one of the national products, just as it tells one that the film industry is the fourth in order of importance. So it puts things briefly. It advertises on a boarding that to- night there will be a ''vodvil." which is a way of expressing eagerness and economy of effort foreign to the more languid tradition of vaudeville" had the same impression in St. Paul. where. outside a restaurant stands merely in enormous letters the word, ricI, In you: "Do you want good time? Come inside" instead of saying, more or less, |"Within will be found diversions for the families of gentlefolk."
 I saw the middle west at play in Bar num's circus as it went through Kan sas City. Kansas City was perhaps not the best place to see intensity, for to me 1t is a southern town. If is 1oy- full. delightful town, with its patch work of black and white faces. its bright colors. it's lovely sunshine. and it's sense of prosperity.
 I found out that the circus was conn ihg because the streets filled up. The sidewalks were lined with rows of ne- gro women and solemn pickaninnies. A little farther were the whites, who pre- tended not to bc Interested. but stood about all the same. talking hard and forbearing from going to their busi- ness Just behind me shine shop. conducted by seven negroes. added the sounds of grzdcphone to their la bors: from time tc time, at the proper moment of syncopation, the sinners all together brought down their brushes upon a board' II felt very south" but it was middle west all the same. There was no mistake about that when you reached the main atreet
 Kansas City Faat lay vas in the hands of its circus t ssayed in its |haAda all the week, tLouEh one would