The New York herald., 1921-09-11


\ Charlie Chaplin an iconoclast! It
hardly seems possible. Yet out of
his own mouth the king of the screen
comedians convicts himself.
Yes. I'm an egotist't says Chaplin, no
matter how hard you protest. I'm an
iconoclast love to tear things apart.
don't like them as they are"
And it would seem, from the talk he
gave the other day at the Ritz-Carlton
while stopping in New York on his way
abroad-hs first trip to Europe in eleven
years-that he was as he pictured himself.
But it would require the pen Of George
Meredith to describe such an egotist.
Make no mistake about the quality of
INSTRUMENTATION in him. He is neither
overbearing, vainglorious nor snobbish.
Those who spoke with him on his visit
here found him one of the most affable and
engaging of men. There is none of the
aloofness in him to be found in screen
performers with less than half his success.
Nor is he cold and ruthless When he is
in the mood for it-and he acknowledges
ne Is a creature Oh mOOuS-He CdH De gay
and hospitable even to casual acquaint-
ances.
1t is simply that he is confident in him
self that he has arrived at his viewpoint
deliberately as a result of his career. He
might be called an egotist by conviction.
For all things are measured according to
his personality. Fundamentally, every one
is an egotist, more or less in that vein,
but Chaplin is franker about 1t than most.
'Ah, yes" he declares, with twinkle in
his eye, II think a very great deal of my
self Everything is perfect or imperfect,
according to myself. l am the perfect
standard"
And he waves his hand with boyish
yet ironic smile, having settled that
Hint of the Rebel in Him
Offset by His Success
His self-absorption can be understood
on this basis, that, now that he is inde-
pendent, he resents anything which
smacks of intrusion from the outside world
that would seem likely to control or curb
him. There is a hint of a smouldering
rebel in him that would have broken out
but for his success.
Chaplin says positively that he is not
soft hearted. Admirers of his tender wist-
fulness in "The Kid" will scarcely credit
it. Yet when anything rouses him gilt
ter comes into his eyes, almost fixed,
hard stare, that is scarcely the expression
OF an arrant sentimentalist. Then again,
when he speaks of Barrie, a shadowy,
dreamy look drifts across his eyes-for he
is Barrie fan. But of that more later
Personality is the most fascinating thing
in the world-that study of the common
qualities and the unique that link up and
separate the great and the small. Chaplin
says that nothing in life enchants him
quite so much as personality--the human
stun. He himself is one of the most
fascinating among mortals He hasn't the
simple, bubbling, direct appeal of his close
friend Douglas Fairbanks. He is more
subtle.
Some one has said that the great oil the
earth aren't really complex, they only
seem So Yet Chaplin is one of the most
complex among men, fact which leads TO
some apparent contradictions. One mo-
ment he will declare that he is wrapped
up primarily in his own concerns; the
next he will assert that nothing Is OF real
moment and all life is ephemeral. But
that at bottom. is the expression Of nina
quietly secure in itself and disdainful Oh
the world