The Washington herald., 1922-08-20
THE new MOVIE MENACE!
BY EARLE DORSEY


NE BY ONE. those dearly beloved tradi-
tions of our history. art. ethics. science.
~ literature and law-traditions suppos-
edly fixed Gibraltar and nursed
for nigh to a century-one by one, they
falling before that insatiate and devouring
modtrn complex smartly style as realism"
Consider how. in short lifetime, this
reckless and headlong pursuit of truth has cost
US the best elements of our real American cul-
ture. 1t has banished the happy ending in the
field Of literature, while Santa Claus has been
proven an imposter. 1t has evolved the fapper,
the Freudian complex. the Higher Criticism.
Eugene O'Neil. X-Ray dentistry and the safe
and-sane Fourth 1t has Indirectly led to the
elimination Of the Saturday night bath. book
beer, the old fashioned girl, the conspiracy of
silence, the atomic theory and william Jennings
Bryan Not content with thus running most of
our most cherished national notions and super
stitions, 1t now proceeds to attack the very
foundation of legend upon which rests the
whole fame of our greatest heroic figures.
Take. for instance, the case of Barbara
sFrietchie. For half q century have care
fulGeand sedulously cherished the story that
sB -rbara, devout and steadfast Abolitionist,
Jung out her front window one summer morn
ing and dared Stonewall Jackson to shoot at
his countrys nag Whttier's poem has helped
us to remember. but If you browse among the
realists long enough they will tell you that
Jacksons army never passed within four blocks
of Barbaras house and that Barbara beside
was down with the rheumatism.
TAKE, for another instance, the case of
Ethan Allen. that never to- be forgotten
u hero of Ticonderoga who we have all
ways been told and believed marched
at the head of his Green Mountain boys and in
clarion. never-to- be forgotten tones demanded
the surrender of Ticonderoga in the name of
. the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress"
Fair words, indeed. and nobly spoken. but
greatly scoffed at by the realism which
asks us to believe that Ethan got lit up and.
with bravery more alcoholic than patriotic
marched to the fortress and called the
British general. in effect, an old son-of-a- gun
and told him to come out before they smoked
him out.
Naturally, one deprecates such wholesale
sacrilege of the historical tradition 1t seems
indecent to fly dsdanfully in the face of
the schools, who have spent many a busy hour
inculcating these stories in our hearts. So far
the new realism has been content to merely
sneer at the Barbara Fretchie and Ethan Allen
legends. but there is reason to believe that the
thing has got completely past the sneerine
stage in the matter Of Paul Revere the famous
rider of rs, who was immortalized many a long
year ago by Longfellow in that now-famous
Jingle:
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
OF the midnight ride of Paul Revere.
'Ttcds the eighteenth of April In 'GE
Hardly man Is alire,
Who remembers that famous day"
ToR this devastating. modern realism.
~ coupled with the higher historical. criti-
il cism. has practically eliminated Paul
Revere from further heroic consideration
by broadcasting through the films the fact that
Bill Dawes a Massachusetts, Yankee, was
the real hero of the night before Lexington,
whereas Revere. the supposed hero. was incon-
tinently and ludicrously unhorsed by British
officers who turned him loose to walk to Lex
ington while Bill Dawes rode on ahead and
turned in the alarm.
This heresy. entitled 'Lexing-
ton" shortly to be issued to the youth and
adults of the land, is sponsored by no less an
authority than Yale University, whose profess
sors have boldly and defantly utilized the
films already under grave suspicion as one of
the DEVILS most ingenious works. deal thus
harshly and brutally with the sacred reputation
Of one Of our most popular but evidently ono
of our most bogus national heroes.
The Yale pundits. however. have not the
slightest intention Of stopping with Paul
Revere. Lexington" is to be but one of a
series Of similar pictures which are designed
to propagate and promulgate the real facts Of
American history opposed to poetical fancy.
As far the Revere hlm goes the most
imposing array of evidence and authorities have
been brought to bear and there seems but
small chance. indeed of anyone. matter how
patriotic. starting a successful backnre in favor
Of the Longfellow version. Not that / doubt
for moment that effort will be made
toward that end such was done on the occa-
sion of Newton d. Bakers lamentable COM
parison of the American armies of 1776 with
the Mexican armies OF 1916, but there is q vast
difference between a bare statement by a Demo-
cratic Secretary of War ana q solemn pronun-
ciamento by that pillar of New England cui-
ture-Yale.
Here Is a movie menace indeed,