New-York tribune., 1921-09-18
EIaIl Game Denies That His
Novel Is an Apology for Sin
author Declares That THE Master of Man"
Drives Home the Lesson That an Evil
Act Cannot Be Undone

the charge could hardly be more sweep
ing II the critics who make it had been
SO many good old Samuel Richardson's
and I (who have SO often been accused
OF sentimentality) the wicked author Of
Tom Jones" But nobody knows het-
ter than do that Fielding would have
laughed at the first "sin" that is the
foundation of my story, and that SQUIRE
Western would have asked, with his ac-
customed oath, what the - the pother
was about.
Let me say how came to write my
recent novel.
When the subject first came to me it
was merely as dramatic incident.
Long ago judge in the Isle of Man
committed suicide to escape the neces-
sity of sitting in Judgment on his fell
low-slnner--a woman he had secretly
corrupted and who had drowned his
own child. l thought it a poignant
situation, but had to wait years be-
fore could use it, for the most thrill
ing fact out of life has no value in
fiction, except merely sensational fic-
tion, until it can be seen in the moral
light of common human experience.
The same incident came to Tolstoy.
as he afterward told me; but before he
could write Resurrection" he had to
see it not merely as an isolated fact
in the life Of Russian juryman, but
as an illustration Of the hypocrisy of
the social system which punished the
guilty woman and left the guilty man
go free.
1t came to Hawthorne, but before he
wrote "The Scarlet Letter" he had to
see it not merely as an isolated fact
in the life of young New England
clergyman, who had charge Of the soul
of woman he had ruined, but as an
illustration of the frightful struggle be-.
tween religious principle and private
interest which goes on every day in the
hearts of all.
And if may, without immodesty,
draw under the shadow of these great
writers, will say that before l wrote
my recent story l had to see it. not
merely BE tragic fact in the life of
judge on little island in the Irish
Sea, but as an illustration Of the
universal struggle of the human soul
with sin, and to think of it in the
light Of its terrible motto: "Be sure
your sin will find you out"
Sin-that was to be my subject. To
show that an evil act once done could
never be undone; that it is in the ma
ture of q sin that 1t cannot be hidden
utterly away and that any attempt on
the part of the sinner to conceal his
sin only leads to other and greater
sins until his whole life is wrapped up
in falsehood
Is not that true? We talk Of the
mysteries Of crime, but crime has no
real mysteries. The authors of some
crimes go undetected, but how few!
And who will say that any crime, even
in this life, has ever gone unpunished ?
The spirit Of sin may wait, but it never
sleeps, and it's searching power is
awful.
Some years ago man killed his
wife, buried her body in the cellar of
his house and, making plausible ex-
plantations of her absence, prepared to
go away with another woman; but as |
the last Voment a trivial accident be-
trayed hini-his sin had found him out.
Years earlier a woman poisoned her
husband, and no suspicion attached to
her; but the mere chance of servant
girl dropping into the mud letter to
her lover led to her arrest and condem-
nation. ~
Time has. no power to cancel sin,
and the sea is not deep enough to con-
ceal it. A man may put his secret sin
behind him and build up a new life,
yet some day, out of a blue sky, the
bolt will fail.
That Is one Of the things tried to
show. in my story. NY young advocate
sins with woman and then forgsts.
But Nature never forgets, and when he
becomes judge the first case he has
% try Is that of his fellow-sinner, who,
inder fearful temptation, has killed
lis own child. His sin has found him
,ut. Is that like making an apology
or it?
Think Of the lure ef sin! When my
riend, Father Jay, was working among
he criminal classes In the slums of$
London, he used to say:
I can never keep my boys up TO thirty
'ears OF age; they are nearly ali in
prison before that" Crime has the
anne effect on the criminal as gam
ling on the gamester-always tempting
i'm to another and still another throw.
t he escapes detection, or il he is
ried and acquitted. he frequently COM
nits the same crime over again. 1t
'equires immense strength Of will to
top at the first success in crime.
The spell Of sin on the spirit Of man
5 almost overpowering. Beginning
gith good conscience, the sinner may
o on for years to believe that. any
resh sin is necessary and therefore
ustifable. But the awful awakening
lways comes at last. know of no
use to the contrary.
That is another thing tried to show
!. my story, My Deemster, who goes
rom sin to sin, justifying his conduct
t every step, persuading himself that