New-York tribune., 1922-10-22
Shop Talk


RIVER 'My ancestors he says 'came
over from Holland in tho middle Of the
seventeenth century, but my grand
parents could still speak sort of
Dutch as easily as English Ny
parents could use their Dutch In such
family conversations as they wished to
go over the heads of their too curious
children. Naturally do not inherit a
racial feeling for Elizabethan rhythms
II studied them at school and college.
Even though sonle Of my ancestors
were with Wolfe Mt Quebec, out against
Burgoyne at Saratoga, down at Cow
the country later to Gettysburg, have
suspicion that In the matter OF Ian
guage rhythm inheritance am in much
the same case as those writer's, foreign
born or children of foreign born, who
have obtained such q following for
their free verse in the last few years.
These Americans (A,ny Lowell is out
of this as willfully atavistic), these
Americans whose ancestry Is not
English could not honestly lay claim
to Elizabethnn rinythms, nor use them
instinctively. They would have to
reach out for the free verse forms,
which seem to me synthetizlnE Of,
tempt to get at rilythins which would
Inherently be those Of country which
Is not New England but New Europe.
I fancy that our advertisement writers
who are making the dollar famous sue
ceed beat when they use the new
American rhythms. propose that
Down the River could not be In classic
Elizabethan form or modulatlon with
out being anachroniatic. Bring on
your 100 per cent Americans. and I'll
march them up the hill to the hoary
nf,,Ak Pnr
fathers. Hip, hip, hipI"
The author Of "Trapping Wild Ami
mails in the Malay Jungles," CHARLES
MAYER. brought four elephants into
Singapore from one of his recent expe-
ditions, and was greatly surprised at
receiving an offer Of $4,000 lMexicanl
for the smallest Of them. He looked
phant In question had twenty toes In
| stead Of the usual eighteen. Twenty
toed elephants are venerated In India,
and any rajah will empty his pocketa
to buy one, as they. are supposed to
bring good luck to ths owner--even a
small one. After that Mr.. Mayer mover
sold an elephant without counting It's
toes, but he never again found the
extra two. Have you q twenty-toed
elephant in your homeE
Speaking of tho Turks" is the title
| Of a book which will be issued this
month by one of them, ZIA BEY. the
! son of Reshid Pasha, Imperial Turkish
! Delegate to England and Ambassador
to Rome and Vienna. Zia Bey is also
nephew to zia Pasha, former Ambas-
sador to the United States, and his
| o. Au RI IL Y, En-
explain the Turks TO Europe, and
speaks highly Of Mustapha Kemal.
whom he calls "Turkish Washington"
CAROLYN WELLS says she got the
| germ Of tho plot for "The Vanishing OF
Betty varian" from an article by
CONAN DOYLE. in which he spoke of
various ideas he had discarded. Since
| he said definitely he had discarded
| them, Miss Wells worked one OF them
out for herself.
| JOSEPH C. LINCOLN spends all his
summers on Cape Cod, which is also
the scene Of most Of his novels, in
| cluding his latest, "Fair Harbor." He
owns there Colonial house at least
150 years old, which he's been given
modern convenience without destroying
its atmosphere. Winters Mr.. Lincoln
spends in suburb of New York.
HERBERT ADAMS GlBBONS'S new
book, "An Optimist in the Near East"
is to be published soon, but the pub
fishers don't know just how soon, be-
cause the author got rather badly hurt
while motoring in the Adirondacks and
cannot yet give the necessary last
touches to the book He is convalesc-
ing, but still has to get about with n
cane.
There arc various ways of preparing
for authorship, but at present the roll
ing stone seems to gather the most lit
erary moss.
STEPHEN c. NoLAND, author of
"Sam Blick's Diary" worked in vari-
Gus automobile, glass and boiler fac
tories after leaving high school, and
then went around the country as straw
boss for an itinerant builder of indus
trial gas plants. The duties of q straw
boss he defines as, chiefly: Getting
the gang out Of Jail Monday morning
and most of the rest of the week writ
ing encouraging reports to the head
office in New York" This Mr.. holland
found stimulating to the imagination;
and he began to write pure fiction,
And then he went to college for while
and finally created Sam Blick."
RAFAEL sABATINI denies that he
had narrow escape from drowning re-
Gently while salmon fishing in Scot
land He says he did fall into the
river, but swan out again unaided
meanwhile keeping hold of his rod;
and it was not he, but the fish, that
was dragged exhausted from the
water" by his gillie. The fish weighed
eighteen pounds.
NINA WILCOX PUTNAM wrote her
last novel to the sound of jazz records
on monograph. She had been living
IN Hollywood for some months, and
had got used to them, she writes.
! JULIAN STREET was born in Chi
cago, and though the event occurred
only forty years ago he says: when I
reflect upon the changes have seen in
my native city I feel that | ought to
have flowing white beard carry =
staff and drape myself in bedspread
like a Biblical patriarch When / was
born Chicago had only half million
4 inhabitants and was like an over
grown country town. Moreover
heard SO much of earlier days fron,
my. parents and grandparents that
feel as though remembered Chicaro
/ from It's beginnings. The Civil War