New-York tribune., 1922-12-04
The Lantern
cvpr. New rors rriSun' In'.' 1919

i New OIh WOsiuf ooJtNN' ~
20 being referred 70 as the best
loved man Of letters In America 70
day" And, indeed, II does remind
one Of the sort Of thing Aunt Pru-
dence Hecklebury might say Of Dr.
Frank Crane. But some persons
may think that Mr.. Broun Is little
extreme when ne goes on; "Our
ambition Is 10 be hated, and II we
can't arouse that emotion with print
cd words we are going 70 get des-
uerate some afternoon and rush out
Of the Office and begin to step on
peoples feet"
-
We shall never forget the terrible
time we had with Fothergil Finch
one night a couple Of years ago. We
called on Fothergil in his studio, and
we got there just in time to save
his life. He had hanged himself TO
a hook in the wardrobe with his sus-
penders; the suspenders had broken,
and he had tried il again, after
knotting them together, and again
they had broken. But Fothergil
would have gone on and on, until
he succeeded in strangling himself
or else ruined the suspenders ut
terly, IL we had not taken them
away from him and asked him what
the deuce he meant
"oh, Cd" cried Fothergil, 1T
Is comingl II is eomingl IL will
get me, finally II will get mel"
And he threw himself upon the
sofa and moaned, moaned and shud-
dered.
"What will get you?" we asked.
"The Beast!" he said, "the Beast"
We had noticed neither wolf nor
landlord at the door, and there was
not so much as a rat in the room
itself. We adiured him to specify
and particularize.
"The Beast" groaned Fothergil,
"the many-footed Beast The Beast
Popularity It will get me! II will
get mel"
Mr.. Finch. 1t developed, was quiv-
ering in the grasp Of vast dread;
he was invaded by a toothed fear
that gnawed at his heart Like Mr..
Broun. he desired to be hated, he
wished his writings to make him en-
emies. But something had gone
wrong. His poems were becoming
popular.
The fame Of his precious honey
had spread beyond the confines Of his
own hive; not only his own little
group Of serious thinkers but the
broad, fat bourgeois thousands had
crowned and acclaimed him.
Ii was insuppOrtG lie. 10 must nc
an intensely dramai moment IN the
life Of any young I'cctual when
he finds himself ur rstood. 9.
not merely underg, cd but % God T.
the disgrace Of it, ik-d. Fothergil
is an honorable .u1 loyal to the
higher ministric- Of m,dcrn song.
and he chose the only noble exit.
he chose Death.
The thing must have presented
itself TO Fothergil something like
this:
"If these multitudes comprehend
me, and agree with me, and love me,
then they must be much nearer 10
me in intellectual power than ! have
supposed.
ION the other hand. il trey DO
not really comprehend me. but only
pretend 10. am about TO be SUD
ected 10 "A contact from which !
brink; these idle and empty persons
with their loud and empty praise
nd their disgusting Victorian senti-
mentality will handle me and dandle
me until my finer gold is corroded,
until my mind is degraded and vul-
CARRIED"
Perhaps Cesar did not refuse the
crown because il was a crown, but
because it was offered him by the
populace.
IL will be interesting 10 note
whether Mr.. Broun will be as true
TO the nobler part Of himself as
Fothergil. for 1t was not
merely a Gesture on the printed page
with Fothergil, but il actually went
as far as the suspenders. wilkins
Micawber, similarly bowed under a
aense Of life's futility, was one time
seen making motions at his throat
with an oyster knife; and this also
was a noble Though Vietorian)
Gesture.
Will Mr.. Broun come through with
a good bloody suicide, that will make
a frst-page story, and give the rest
Of US writer's miserable compro-
misers though we be) a chance 10
be proud Of him? Or will he fail
US and himself? We do not wish
70 seem overly eager about this mat
ter. but in case we can be Of any as
sistance our Office Is IN the
twentieth story there are
eobblestones below .. there Is
a typewriter near the window q.
II Mr.. Broun were 10 sit upon the
sill and dictate his final statement