Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-02-12
E. w. HOWE APPRAISED
AS A MAN OF LETTERS
The Retired Journalist OF Atchson Kan, Has Written
"Anthology of Another Town" Tha, Contains Only
One Superfuous adjective
by rELIX r.. SCHELJING


-
pcar-Sam Kelsey, the new mayor. was
pressed insb that service. and taking
command the whole thing was carried |
to the last detail. "Thc casket was |
very heavy, and It was hard work get
ting 1t into the car. but finally this was
accomplished, and the flowers placed on
the casket. Then we stood around in
solemn silence for n moment. before
departing, and Sam Kelsey, with his
hat still off, wiped lot OF perspiration
from the top OF his bald head, and,
leaning over to me, whispered in ten
der, sympathetic way: Who was he?'
For another example, take this, which
| quote entire ben Bradford, known
TO be n little gay, says the first time
he kissed woman other than his wife,
he felt as sneaking as he did when he
first began buying Of Montgomery,
Ward & Co. But Ben gradually be-
came hardened. and many say he now
trades with Sears Roebuck,. too" If
any confirmed dweller In cities does not
understand this, let him move to the
country, and he will.
TN A VERY entertaining recent book,
l. Mr.. Edson's Gentle Art Of Col
umning." it is maintained, il l remem
Der rightly, that all humor, as well as
all wit, is referable to n kind of malice
in US that delights in seeing the laugh
on the other fellow. have never liked
this idea Of humor, and with Mr.. Ed
sons pardon will say that do not
believe it IA to all humor. And ] would
cite both Mr.. Howe's Towns as IL
lustrations in point. There is no want
Of discernment in either of them, and
many of their inhabitants are as hard.
as wrong headed and as absurd, well.
as we are ourselves. The college bred
lawyer who came down in the world
until his wife kept cows, or whom his
rival said: "If he ever makes me
mad, I'll just quit taking milk of him
and starve him to DEATH; the daugh-
ter who would have the blinds down
Of nights although her sick old father
wanted to look out at the stars; the
slanderous wife who invented tales of
her deserted husbands wealth and mig
gardliness and ruined HMM none Of
these faithful little sketches of Mr..
Howe IS there malice or uncharitablc-
ness. We need Mr.. IIowe's Towns
as q corrective of the horrid "mortu-
aries' of Spoon river. 1t is one thing
to dctest the entire human race like
Swift, it Is another to laugh at men
and women. and. what is still better,
to laugh with them. Wit and humor,
with their outriders-to the left, satire,
| lampoon and invective; to the right
pathos and tcndcrness-have always
seemed to me more things in the ma
ture of the spectrum, governed to the
left with the light rays of the head,
and to the right with the heat rays OF
the heart. Where they dissolve. tho
one into the other, it might be difficult
often to say, but we know when we
are warmed, and we are aware when
only the flash light has been turned on.
MIR. MASTERS once confessed, l
4Nl believe, that it was the Greek
anthology which inspired Spoon
River from the very irony Of NOR
tuary inscription. | wonder if Mr..
Howe knows old Thcophrastus. with his
'simplc method, plain black and
white with his language, ''thc sim
plest possible. neither bookiSh nor doc
trinal nor controversial lie
relies for his effect on the simplicity
Of truth When yOu laugh il
is at humor in its last element of sim
pie incongruity." This is recent
learned criticism Of Thcophrastus. not
the present reviewers effort rs to Mr.
Howe. But twill serve. GLOW much
one gets from little talk. to be sure,
says the Loquacious Man'-Mr. Howe
would have called him Jim Walker
"and his children say TO him at bed
time: Papa, chatter to us. that We
may fall asleep This is Theophras-
tus. not Mr.. Howe. I'VE haven't q
daily paper in our. town." says Mr.
Howe. not ThcophrHstus, ''but really
we don't greatly miss one, owing tC
Mr.. Stevens. the milkman." And just
one more: Sand Mcpherson, the bar
Der, says he charges five dollars fol-
shaving 4 dead man because he Is com
PEELED to throw away the razor he uses
But how do we know he throws the
razor away"
| THE ANTHOLOGY Or ANOTHER TOWN
BY T.: W, HOVE. New York: Alfred \
knopf. 70