New-York tribune., 1922-10-01
TorcIly''
By "A. Donald Douglas

I Ea -si@V Nnis Inc income taxes D11u
the novels Of Mr. Hutchinson
| would think OF Sunday less as devoted
to horrid ritual of blue laws than
! as set apart for the consumption OF
/ multifarious newspaper supplements
First I would discover that the Browns
/ still fingered in the second division
/ either in the cellar or sliding down
the cellar steps of the American
League. That was before the blazing
/ pertcnt of George Sisicr. Then would
survey the regrettable escapades of the
katzeni iammer Kids, the real, right
| Katzenjammers and not their vigorous
but dull descendants. Those, too, were
| the days before the brick hurtled at
Krazy Kat swan like new planet
into the ken of serious literary critics
My most cherished Sunday pleasure
! | reserved for the last half hour be-
! fore the formidable orgy of the Sun
day midday dinner For it seemed
| numberless months of Sundays l fol-
| lowed the ingenious exploits of Sewell
ford's "Torchy," an adept contriver of
! plot, situation and the vernacular long
| before Mr. Mencken invented the
| American language. In those far times
very few literary persons rivaled Mr..
Ford's extensive manipulation of our
| native rhythms and vocables, as we'll
as his devising of plots less polished
than an engagement ring, but brilliant
as diamond in the rough. Then
somehow Torchy was put out in favor
OF Shorty McCabe, a person I aban-
doncd for excellent reasons + cannot
row recall. And just when I had sup
posed Torchy gone into the days that
arc no more, OF two-hit baseball games
and tive-cent ice-cream sodas and
nlckelodeons, 10! the comedies featuring
Mr.. Johnny Hines are even now carry
ing Torchy down the ages in the swift
and robustious action of the motion
picture. But the style is the man; and
rot even the facial play of Mr.. Johnny
Hines can compensate for the absence
OF the vernacular. The wheel has come
full circle in the best literary tradition
OF wheels; and now some hundreds of
writers drape the American language
like vivid garment over their later
and less engaging Torches.
t+t-*
Even Torchy's progenitor. Mr.. sewell
favor of two changelings known as
Inez, a Swedish-American girl whose
silence is as golden as her hair, and
Trilby May, an energetic and resource
ful person with green eyes and carroty
hair, another one Of those interminable
happers who now exclusively populate
the world this side Of paradise. ANY
indulgence in the pathos of distance
or sentim entail signing for the clouds
OF glory that no longer trail are sure
signs, so we are told by those wbo o
know. of senescence end decay, the
first pattering of the sere and yellow
leaf. 1t may be so: and yet in rene
brance Of the inefFable Torchy / may
be permitted to shed regretful and
strictly literary tear. : Inez and Trilby
May cannot GUST Torchy from his sure
niche in my fond affections. 1t isn't
that Torchy would ever have felt at
nome IN the company Of literary an
gels, or that his pretensions beat on
the gates of heaven where dwellA the
ldlot and Tess and Lord Jim and Pelle
and Huckleberry Finn. Torchy was
simply Torchy, a coming prophecy Of
our language that cast hip1YIy his caryotu tv
shadow before Mr. Mencken. Trilbv
May is just another flapper; and even
II Iorchy's figure does loom down
TO me through the deluding mists of
time a find it more impressive in its
native humor than the vernacular
figidities, Of Trilby May and Inez's
strong silence Of stupidity.
- '@*. &'-' Is ~ u ...&s:
TTilby May crashes into theatrical
managers office and by the spell Of
her sea-green eyes and her inyincible
presence (Which may be freely trans.
lated lmpudence) she forces hin, To ac-
ceps play of the cub reporter who Is
her discreet admirer After her an
pearance in a Greenwich Village nro-
duction Of "The Prince and the Elan.
per- She becomes the center and
whirlwind Of numerous adventures
with hardworking manicurist who
mas married and supports a wounded
aviator, with Uncle Nels's strictly me-
famous financial operations rather too
much IN the outworn tradition of Wal
ilngford, with cautious oaf from her
nome town, with life on the East Side.
ana with climax that leaves the doors
VIDE open Tor later adventures which
we may confidently expect in the fruit.
fui course Of time.
AT best and worst Trilby MAYS car
ro1y mar SHINES with reflected glory
from the resplendent sun of ToTchv
After This Side of Paradise" and
dancers in the Dark"-the Aapper.
In general Trilby Mays fapperism nos.
sesses all the attributes necessary for
that high estate of modern culture.
and yet in one respect she hardly an
proXimates the austere ideal set for
later f1appers by earlier Happers. Her
wit flows, but not like wine. for she
limits her indulgence to "trotters on
the grill' and permits no undue "a
miliarities, that is to say. pettinr mar
ties. Her Zine of chatter" is hung with
the accustomed epigrams and the me-
chanical aptitude of the dealer in ar
got. Walters suffer small chance
and become "tip hounds" and TriIbv
May stares "as lifelike as two poached
eggs on platter"
Perhaps the vernacular strains itself
IN the exercise OF too much verbal
trapeze work. Suffice it to say that to
any question addressed her in the Eng
llsh language Trilby May replies cor
clsely in the very latest model of our
native rhythms.
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