New-York tribune., 1922-10-29

there, aud my father
aies my mother one day in Morning
toni She was visiting an uncie who ran
candy store on Main Street, and she,
girl-iike, laughed and stood behind che
counter, ready for q Irritation
say father was young, too. And he
sas employed there in the store, ap-
prenticed to the candy-maker.s trade
And, on this day, as he passed through
carrying trayful of fresh-dipped
chocolates, he winked at my mother
and joked with her in an impudent
way. and she rebuffed him, not really
meaning a rebuff, Of course. and he
startled her by pulling off his hat and
grotesqueiy showing himself to be en-
sireIy bald. for he had grown bald
Tery young, at the age of sixteen. T.
both because of scarlet fever and be-
cause badness for men ran in his
family. and he was tall and dark
and walked with rather military
carriage"
This is not the beginning of ro-
nance, realistic or otherwise; it is
merely the mise en- scene of one of our
most prominent poets and hoboes pre-
caring to get himself born. Since the
lays when Lawrence Sterne performed
4 like service for certain Tristram
sfiandy, il may be observed, the liter
ary world has discovered syncopation.
The literary world has gained some
what, by that. over the art of the
author of "The Sentimental Journey"
whatever it may have lost. This new
md lifesome Sentimental journey"
~ man at once more sentimental,
aore journeyed,. and less humorous
,nd reserved, than Mr.. Sterne, goes
18th wallop. 1t marches. 1t shouts.
{. penetrates foc's'les Of ships, fields
{ daisies, prison cells. Drags out
hatever it can find In rathole or
,oudoir. Is unconcerned as q pup as
. whether it's discovery exeites ad~
lIiration, laughter, or nausea. 1t
gounces on the truth. The truth justi-
es itself. Syncopated truth. Two
lots. A whole line Of dots across
ae page.
Here is syncopated literature at its
ighest development. There ars no
'hapters,. only rows Of periods, to make
ads and beginnings. "Main Street
md "If Winter Comes" led up to it.
4 the three Of them, including
Fyamping Through Life," there are
OTIS enough to supply several COM
lete Victorian libraries. 4. r. Dras-
&c hopping from point to point until
ne writer, it appears, begins to have
ioubts as to where he will land next.
pots appear, each dot doubt. Then
whole River Of Doubt, represented
sncopated. Simple. A long hop. .
Once on the other side, beginning,
~ beginning, ia easy. Another
tep.
"A poet and hobo, It appears, went
to the making of Harry Kemp, and
specia ly into the making of the
sutobiographical Narrative" through
.hich he presents his adventures with
sc up to the halfway mark, reached
bout the time of his widely discussed
lopement with the first wife of Upton
ihclair. 1t is all very modern in its
sankness and catholicity of detail. as
we'll as in its staccato, much dotted
.Gyle. There is the beginning in q
yilird-rate Ohio city, in section Of
= (which was neither city, suburb nor
ountry but muddy, green, splashed,
aurky mixture of all three" There
as no suggestion of "glory and lowell
1ess" in this place, at least none
isible to the unaided eye, and young
tsemp's hunger for both of these com
oddities suggests q hereditary force,
u something even more difficult to ex-
lain. Glory and loveliness, at any
ate, became the twin lode stars of his
lie, leading him in different direc-
ons often enough, with much the
ame spiritual effect formerly obtained
Il the physical plane by hitching u
IAN to a couple of wild horses and
sarting them in opposite directions
II he had been content with either
lory or lovelness he migtt have
ad less strenuous time Of his tramp
ag through life. There is something
oignant, and perhaps more significant
an he intimates, in the food of
motion which burst from him when
! 3 discovered after many wanderings
GLORY and loveliness have passed
away"
The glory-lust in him belonged to
is general hoboing strain as well as
, has poetic parts and passions. 1t
gas a desire for distinction, as we'll as
Or travel, that sent him wandering,
,nd early made community "charac-
ser" of him. He admits in SO many
fords, and several OF his friends who
new him from his wild early years
testify for him, that he seemed almost
as proud of the first part of his title
the hobo poet" as OF the last. Hoboes
OF course, as we'll as poets, are borr
rather than made, and the two of them
born inside the same skin, were eve,
more frequently at odds than is usua
n such mixtures. For the poet i,
Larry Kemp, it has been noticed i
- Acf poet with particular affinity fo
4looes. Even in this tale. where hobo
@ug plays so large part, there is ilttl.
II the spirit that made another hobo
poet, sometimes called our most typica
ana only original singer, burst into the
apiendid chant: "A-foot and LIGHT
hearted, | take TO the open rosdi'
She.!ey, Keats and similar disciples Of
oVeilness were the alteration OF the
Zero of "Tratnping on Life"
1t is not apparent, jumping anothe,
river OF dots and throwing in a para
graph of obiter dicta, after the con
venient manner Of this autobiography
Why the title should be sTramping or
Life" The tfamper does not nut liz,
underfoot. He respects it infinitely
salutes 1T on page after page viii
gestures OF congratulations and affec
tion. He finds it, by and large, tremen
dously worth while. He is an ont;
mist, with big chest and a solid. we'll
set jaw. He is out to justify life bx
extracting glory and loveliness fron
it, with glory, especially in his earle,
career, much the more important con
sideration.
Love ideas, the peculiarly sensuou
ana sensual cropping of young mar
a.ayisms exaggerated in the poet
hobo's case by mystery and suppress