The Washington herald., 1921-04-10
AMERICAN DOLL
. HOUSES AMAZING
TO CHESTERTON
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.

mammoths out of mountains. the
cities reared by elephants in their
own elephantine school of architec-
ture.
And New York does recall the
most famous of all skyscrapers, the
Tower of Babel. It'recalls it none
the less because there Is no doubt
about the confusion of tongues.
But in truth the very reverse is
true of most of the buildings, in
America. I had no sooner passed
out into the suburbs Of New York
on the way to Boston than / began
to see something else quite con-
trary and far more curious. ] saw
forests upon forests of small houses
stretching away to the horizon as
literal forests do; villages and
towns and cities. And they were,
in another sense, literally like for
ests. They were all made of wood.
It was almost as fantastic to an
Englishman as II they had been
made Of Cardboard. had leng out
lived the silly old joke that re-
ferred to Americans as II they all
lived in the backwoods. But, in a
sense, IL they do not live in the
woods, they are not yet out of the
wood.
do not say this in any sense
as criticism. AS it happens I am
particularly fond of wood. OF all
the superstitions which our fathers
took lightly enough to love, the
most natural seems to me the no.
tion that it is lucky to touch wood
Scouts Superstition Theories.
Some of them affect me the less
as superstition because i feel them.
as symbols. II humanity had really
thought Friday unIucky it would
have talked about bad Friday in
stead of Good Friday. And, while
l feel the thrill of thirteen at a
table. / am not SO sure that it is
the most miserable of all human
fates to fill l'the places of the Twelve
Apostles. But the idea that there
was something cleansing or whole
some about the touching of wood
seems to me one of those ideas
which are truly popular, because
they are truly poetic.
1t is probable enough that the
conception came originally from
the healing power Of the wood of
the Cross; but that only cIinches
the divine coincidence. 1t is like
that other divine coincidence that
the victim was a Carpenter, who
might almost have made His own
Cross.
whether we take the mystical or
the mythical explanation, there is
obviously a very deep connection
between the human working in
wood and such plain and pathetic
mysticism. 1t gives something like
touch of the holy childishness to
the tale, as IL that terrible engine
could be a toy. In the same fash
ION, child fancies, that mysterious
and sinister horse, which was the
downfall of Troy, as something
plain and staring, and perhaps
spotted. like his own rocking-horse
in the nursery.
1t might be said symbolicalIy that
Americans have a taste for rocking
horses; as they certainly have a
taste for rocking-chairs. A fippadt
critic might suggest that they Sc
lect rocking-chairs so that. even
when they are sitting down, they
need not be sitting still. Sometime
OF this restlessness in the race NAV
really be involved in the matter.
but think the deeper significance
OF the rockiEg-chair NAV still he
found In the deeper symbolism of
the rocking-horse.
Reminds Him Of Doll Houses.
1 think there is behind all this
fresh and facile use of wood a Ger
tain spirit that is childish in the
good sense of the word; something
that Is innocent and easily pleased.
1t is not altogether true, still less
1t is pnfriendly. to say that the
landscape seems to be dotted with
dolls houses. 1t Is the true tragedy
OF every fallen son of Adam that he
has gr1wn too big to live in a
dolls house. These things seem
somehow to escape the irony OF
time - not even challenging It;
they are too temporary even to be
merely temporal.
These people are not building
tombs- they are not, as in the fine
image Of Mrs. Meynell's poem,
merely building ruins. 1t is not
easy to imagine the ruin of a dolls
house; and that is why a dolls
house is an everlasting habitation.
How far 1t promises a political
permanence is a matter for further
NaS$eSSiCh'' L am only describing
the mood of discovery; in which all
these cottages built of lath, like the
places OF pantomime, really
seemed colored like the clouds of
morning, which are both fugitive
and eternal
There Is also in all this atnoos.
phere that comes in another sense
from the nursery. We hear much
more OF Americans being educated
on English literature, but 1 think
Few Americans realize how much
English children have been edn-
Gated on American literature. n
Is true, and II Is inevitable. that
they can only be educated an
rather old-fashioned American III
erature.
Says They Liked AHuck Finn,
Bernard Shaw. in one of his.
plays, noted truly the Limitation IN
the young American miIlionaire
and especially the staieness of his
English culture. but there is neces-
sariiy a similaf staleness IN onr
American culture. II Mr.. shaw,s
young man was still talking about
Mathew Arnold and not about MI
Yeats We are rather more likely 10
mention Emerson than Ezra Pound.
whether this staleness IL nsces-