The New York herald., 1921-05-01

during an air raid over the Midlands.
a man we will call Mr., Bigsby was
staying In a house inhabited by five
women. In the excitement one of the
women dropped on her knees and be-
gan to pray, She appealed to Provi-
dence with great apparent sincerity.
then suddenly jumped up and cried
"Oh, dear, this is no good. I'm going
TO fetch Mr.. Bigsby," and ran out of
.he room.
On the subject of style" Mr.. Ben
nett takes to task the writer of the
phrase, "The King and Queen were
present at first night in London
theatre last evening for the initial
time of their reign" He thinks the
word initial" quite out of place. Yet
We find the author himself a few
pages later speaking of Sir William
Orpens portrait of Mr.. Winston
Churchill as "an extremely accom-
plshed piece of representdtiondl art"
Mr. Benefits art is we'll illustrated
in his sketches of Foch and Luden-
dorff:
"Foch is the one man in Europe
who no doubt is saying quietly 10
himself: i've done it. I've done the
trick For the entire situation to-
day Is built upon a couple of days
work in July, 1918, and the creative
strategy of one man. If the Germans
had not been outman@uvred the psy-
chology of the whole world would have
been utterly different.
"Hindenburg threw down his news
j ~, g
in a provincial town and crossed the
German Empire to kill a hundred
thousand Russians in a day. He did
it perfectly. The rest of his reputa-
ton was meretricious. Nothing could
stop Ludendorff from climbing over
him. Ludendorff has about forty times
more brains than Hindenburg. He
did all but become one of the greatest
generals of all time. Then 1t was
discovered that he was lavishing on
war highly distinguished gifts which
Heaven had meant for the gaming
saloon. He was indeed a very finished
poker -player-who lost. He showed a
countenance calculated to persuade
nearly everybody that three of a
kind was royal flush Unhappily
1 lOF MIN, some one Sdlu 10 MIN III tile
wrong moment: I'll see YOU And
that was the end of Ludendorff as one
of the greatest generals of all time"
After seeing Carpenter knock out
the British champion. Beckett, to the
amazement and grief of the entire
British sporting world, he moralizes
on what he had seen:
WAS the show worthy of the time
and talents lavished on it's prepara-
ton, worthy of the tradition, of the
prowess, of the fostering newspapers.
of Mr.. Cochran? 1t was. Was 1t a
moral show? 1t was. Was 1t an
aesthetic show? 1t was. Did II up
lift? 1t did Did it degrade? 1t did
not. Was it offensive? No. Ought
the noble art continue? 1t ought.
had been deeply interested"
Bennett lived five years in Paris,
and dabbled ian art. Hence he was inn
mensely flattered when the French
water colorist Pierre Laprade said
on inspecting some of his work:
Monsieur, you have three times too
much cleverness. and your work is ut
terly without interest," He was en-
raptured that he had three times too
much cleverness. lie produced one
masterpiece-which his American pub
Usher appropriated and used. as a
book covering, in colors. for one OF
his books OF the French and Mont
martre he writes:
"The walters were human: they are
inhuman in London. The concierges
were fends, but they were human
fiends Virtue and wicledness were
equally apparent and equally candid
Hypocrisy alone was absent. Within
a mile of the Rue d'Aumale-austere
silent distinguished. icy. beautiful
could find more intellectual honesty
than in the whole of England"
But having a most disturbing sus-
picion" that he was losing touch with
England and that his literary work
would suffer he departed from Paris
and says:
And | saw the tail of the last var
az IL rounded the corner. And / gave
up the keys so bright with use. And
definitely quilted the land where
eating and love are understood. where
art and learning are honored. where
women well dressed and without illu
sions are not rare, where thrift flour
ishes. where politeness Is practised
and where politics are shameful aaC
grotesque. | prefer to live in England
and regret France than to live II
France and regret England / thinl
the permanent exile Is a pathetic fig
ure. / suppose | have a grim pas
sion for England. But I know VIII,
France is the darling OF the nations.
His last and shortest chapter II
called "The Transatlantic View" TIL,
wife of an American official. staggered
and delighted at the spectacle of {
very great munitions factory in Brit
ain, said II can just feel the monarch
ical principle pusating through all thii
effort" Bennett. even more thar
Wells Is a cockney product. We pre-
fer Bennett, since he Is entirely fire.,
from speculation about the universe
EnN nm MED DuCKSC