The New York herald., 1921-06-05

room of every city of the coun-
try He is the old fellow who calls the bar
tender by his first name, who relates all his
family troubles and his family joys who is
continually quoting and misquoting from the
Bible, which, Mr.. Marquis indicates, he
always refers to as "the Good Book and
whose state of health always requires that
he take little something" whenever the
subject is mentioned, but who is never i'll
enough to stay at home Every one has
known that the old fellow existed. but it
remained for Mr.. Marquis to realize that he
presented an opportunity for humor, or
pathos if you prefer and to hold him, his
foibles, his childlike simplicity his deadened
brain, his perennial good humor, his unwise
wisdom and his simple faith up to the pub
lie gaze for inspection and dissection. The
book is written around the character with
which Mr.. Marquis made us all familiar in
the Sun Dial column of The SUN
The strangest thing about the book is
that while there is a hearty laugh on nearly
every page and quiet chuckle on all the
others there is feeling which comes steal
ing insidiously over one after reading it
through that perhaps it isn't so humorous
after all. One has a distinct sense of having
been guilty of laughing at the pitiful weak
ness of poor miserable creature who has
allowed his appetite to dull his mental fac
ultes. take away his will power and destroy
the happiness of his home. THE Old Soak"
has the same idea about himself and de-
cares that he never found true happiness
until he forgot all about such things, stopped
struggling and gave up his life to drink
The author is incomprehensbe at
times, not only in THE Old Soak" but also
in his other books, and his satire is of so
keen quality that he is very apt to have
us laughing at the wrong time or serious
While he is chucklinR at Our isI1nderstand-
ing of him.
One thing is certain about THE Old Soak"
and that is it will be acclaimed with shouts
OF joy and laughter by those of us who
frequented the barrooms during the days of
their existence, and it will be received with
seriousness and as a commendation of the
work of those of us who joined in the move
ment to abolish the standing bar
splendid example of the humor which
Mr.. Marquis has injected into the book is
to be found in the first chapter To quote:
our friend, the old Soak, came in from
his home i'm Flatbush to see us not long ago
in anything but a jovial mood.
Il see that some persons think there
still hope for liberal Interpretation of the
law so that beer and light wines NAV be
sold, said we
Hope, said he moodily, lis a fine thing
but ii don't gurgle none when you pour II
out of bottle. Hope is all right and so is
Faith, but what | would like to see is a
little Charity.
r" AS far as Hope is concerned I'd rather
have Despair combined with case of Bour-
bon liquor than all the Hope in the world by
itself
Hope is what these here fellows has got
that is tryin' to make their own with "A
tea kettle and piece of hose. That's awful
stuff, that is There's a friend of mine
made some of that stuff and he was scared
OF ii. and he thinks before he drinks any
he will try some of it onto a dumb beast
But there amt no dumb beast any
where's handy, so he feeds some of II to his
wfc's parrot. That there parrot was the
only parrot | ever knowed of that wasn't
named Polly. 1t was named Peter, and
was supposed to be gentleman parrot for
the last eight or ten years. But whether
IT was or not after il drank some of that
there home made hootch Peter went and laid
IN egg"
Another thing that Mr. Marquis has done
with his new book is to present an abso-
lutely faithful picture of the barrooms II
is . picture that will be appreciated thor
oughly by those familiar with the places that
have passed out of existence. He has re-
produced faithfully the sodden atmosphere
OF the places, with the songs, the iests the
whispered condolences the easily made ac-
quaintances and the delightful camaraderie.
The latter part of the volume. which Mr.
"hiNulS NdhS iidl ana Farewell, lS uc-
voted to some intensely humorous verses
They are all about drinks and drinkers. the
old days that are gone the clubs that once
were the singers the testers, the brass rail
ings, the elusive keyholes. the dreams the
hghballs of the oaths we took to drink no
more, of the cocktails that we imbibed and
of the object lessons that we saw
The author has dedicated each of these
poems to one of his friends. We read the
names OF George Mcdaniel Paul Thompson.
Ned Leamy, Winfield Moody. Bob Dean
Grant Rice. Loren Palmer. Charley Bayne
Harold Gould, Ned Ranck. George Van
Syke Ben De Casseres. Charley Still. Frank
Stanton, Bob Lillard Kit Morley Jimmy
Farnsworth. Sam Mccoy. Jimmy Fisher,
Harry Dixey. Charles Edison. Gilbert Gabriel
Foster Follett, Give Weed, Hal Steed, Oliver
Herford Bobby Rogers, Charley Stansbury
and others.
Dedication Of poems about drinking to
these men is another bit Of delicious humor
from Mr. Marquis. since they are all men
who are either known for their abstemious-
ness or are outright total abstainers At
least two Of those mentioned were on the
lecture platform for the prohibition move
ment.
MIR. Marquis did not need "The Old Soak"
and Hail and Farewell" TO establish him
self as the leading satrist of the day. but
with II he has distinctly added TO his laurels
as an author Of the most exquisite humor.