The New York herald., 1922-12-10
Why | Did It

tell ALL. And 50 I come to the most
potent influence Of all. I really wrote
Our Nell" most Of all because It has
seemed to me of late that our stage was
singularly devoid of Noble Sentiments
suitably expressed. I'm not talking
about epigrams or cheap witticisms.
leave those things to people like Ber-
nard Shaw or Max MARGIN or Zoe
Atkins. What I'm talking about Is the
expression OF Refined Feelings, or
Great Thoughts. such as "All is not gold
that gltters." or Every cloud has
silver lining" things like that in short.
the sublmated experience of the ages
crystallized. embalmed, boiled down and
put in cold storage for the benefit Of
suffering posterity.
When / was lad there used to be
published series OF works by one
Samuel Smiles. called the "Self-Help
Series" Samuel was chock full of these
here Noble Sentiments. He used to bore
me stiff. But now l see that Samuel
was dead right. know more than
did then. Samuel was a long way ahead
of his time. Nowadays he would have
been running the Pelman Institute for
Self Improvement or he would have
been Mr.. Coue's press agent. Samuel
didn't know anything about autosug-
gestlon. He'd never even heard of t..
| But he had the idea.
Now, "Our Nell'' is founded upon the
principle of autosuggestlon. IL you hear
Noble Sentiments enough you are dead
sure to become noble in spite OF your
self. Every day in every way you will
get better and better. IL you go to sec
| "Our Nell" often enough you will be so
thoroughly convinced that honesty is the
best policy that IL will become the rul-
| Ing principle Of your life. You will be-
come so sure that many noble heart
beats beneath gingham gown that you
viii never he able TO look Mt piece OF
gingham without being uplifted and en-
nobed n couple of yards or so. / don't
claim much for "Our Nell" / leave that
TO the press agent who is, IL I may say
80. one of the ablest Chalmers / have
ever heard declaim. But what / do say
Is that Our Nell' contains more
Noble Sentiments to the square yard
than any work of art ever exposed
on Broadway. There would have
been n lot more OF them II 1t hadn't
been necessary 10. stop once In while
TO stick In n song and dance. But Life
is n compromise anyhow
MY advice to you Is this. II you have
wayward son or n frivolous daughter
send him or her often and often to see
sour Nell" If that doesn't convince 'em
that life is reai, lfe is earnest and that
two and two make four, why you might
nh well cast them off at once and save
yourself trouble and heartachc. And II
you feel yourself slipping from that
plane of True Nobility which has here
,ofore been your residence, Just you go
TO the Baycs Theatcr and get real
honest-to-goodness allopathic dose OF
Noble Sentiments and Great Thoughts.
II after this you don't feel ennobled and
uplifted and inspired TO lead a Better
Life. why then there's nothing in this
here auto-suggestion, and we all know
better than that.
nearly forgot to say anything about
the villain OF the piece and i imagine
that the copy readers axe Is going to
fall on this piece pretty soon. However,,
this | will say. IL he will let me: This
particular villain will teach you 70 look
below the surface. His exterior Is all
that the eye could wish, from his slick
manners to his perfect store clothes, but
oh, the black, black heart of hint And
what happens to him will convince you.
II you are hosi.atins on that point, that
| IL pays, Il really does, to be Good.
Well. anvhow, i was asked why did
II. and now you know.