The Washington herald., 1922-08-16
FEATURES, FICTION |
HSeenrs to Me
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST IS, Iesa. .

1ournansuc contemporaries! flease
read the inclosed and tell me IL you
Co not see the footprints of John
Sumner stamped upon It."
We have read the clippings and
are properly shocked. Here. for in
stance. Is the way in which our old
friends Little Red Riding Hood and
the Wolf fare In the Bedtime
Stories Of Raggedy Ann and Rag
gedy Andy:"
And as they watched the little
giri. who was Red Riding Hood.
they saw q great large Wolf run out
+ of the bushes and speak to her.
Good mornins!' the Wolf said, Can
] help you carry your basket. Little
Red Riding Hoodf -"
OF course. we assumed that he
was the same old wolf and that
pretty soon his true nature would
be revealed. Nothing of the kind
happened. A few paragraphs fur
ther on Red Riding Hood and the
Wolf ran into Goldilocks and the
three bears.
We were just having a picnic.
Mr.. Wolf said Daddy Bear" the
story continues In it's amended
version Wont you have some
thing to eat? We have cream pufrs.
lady fingers, nice cookies and ham
sandwiches and pickles.
The Wolf let Red Riding Hood
side down to the ground and
thanked Daddy Bear. I'd like
cream pun If you have one to spare.
be said.
All this seems to US an outrage
against childhood. Red Riding
Hood in the original has a definite
place and mission in nursery folk
lore 1t serves to remind the futur.
citizens OF our world that lif. q.
not all gingerbread Drenched with
the pervading optimism of fairy
stories. the little ones need some
eounterirritant of sharp teeth. or
course. even the original does end
nappiy. As we remember the story.
Woodcutter comes along in time
70 rescue Red Riding Hood. and
even extracts the grandmother. in
.oier@oly good health. from the
II.
But all this is so dim In dur
memory that We feel sure il made
shaii impression at the time we
nst neard the tale. The thing
which gripped US then was the
phase of the story which is vivid
to this day. We are never roins 70
forget that the wolf said "Tba 6.to
ter TO eat you with, my dear" nd
ne meant it, and he would have
done IL, too. Nothing but an ex-
eeiient break of luck saved Red
Riding Hood.
Any time between the ages OF
ana 10 we should have run for dear
ute IL oy any chance we happened
upon wolf Perhaps Red Riding
mood Is actually old enough to have
oeen INTENDED as wolf warning to
frontier children. But its symbol
Ism 10 much wider than that II
fastened upon US a suspicion of ALI
SICK people. and in thirty-tbree
years we have never bought any oil
stock. We. did own something in a
silver mine once. but we couldn't
heip getting stuck with that he
cause the man who noated IL wa. a
close personal friend.
As a matter of fact, most of the
oioer fairy stories have teeth in
them- The Grimm brothers went
N Tor happy endings rather con-
hstentiy. but they did not deal in
world entirely made up of pickles
ana cream puffs. II the ictional
pts OF the future generation
eoh'lnue 10 be coddled in this way.
snsil soon have a race which
i NOT even be willing to serve
niue time In the ashes for the
sake OF the glass slipper.
sun more pernicious ia another
instalment of RaeCedv Ar g.,
which the Wolf, when indicted for
ms notorious outrage. Is white
washed by Grandmother herself Tn
the new version she is quoted ,s
saving: And the Wolf brought
Little Red Riding Hood to NV house
ana he Is the very best friend we
nave He meets Little Red Riding
me-" " ''S''
To which Raggedy Ann. the
precious little pr!g. replies: isn't
that just like things, It just shows
tnat We must never believe Ill of
anyone when others tell us unkind
stories of themw
Thst certainly Is no good rule to
impart to growing child. Just
look at what happened to Blue
boards wives because they dis
missed so lightly the well-authenti-
Gated rumors concerning his con-
duct. And wouldn't Ali Baba have
been fne old moron II he had said,
Thieves nothing! l never met forty
inner and cleaner boys in my life"
Any time Raggedy Ann wants to
bet US. we are willing to lay odds
that Humpty Dumpty did fall and
that there was a lot more than
malicious gossip in that talk about
Taffy the Welshman.
Harold G. Armstrong. the author
OF For Richer. for Poorer" ap-
parently has no desire to enroll
himself in the younger generation.
At any rate his heroine is fam
boyantiy an oid-fashioned girl. On
page 15s We read "A1l at once
Miriam let down her hair" More
than that. Kenneth GramlinG. the
hero. was thrilled thereby. TT was
a symbol. They killed. Deep
encysted inhibitions vanished. They
were normal people. after all"
Miriam did not seem so to us.
We do not think she should be al
lowed to qualify. II she had been
q symbol. They kissed. Deep
have been the hair which had van
ished and the inhibitions which
were let down.
According to the publishers