The Washington herald., 1922-09-10

4 u the American stage, so Tar, hao iaieo
dismaliy in some half-a-dozen efforts
to either explain. interpret or even classify
those complex and singular social causes which
brought about the 'napper-that curious by
product of modern feminism which fascinstes
the fool and philosopher alike.
Mention was made furthermore. OF the fact
chat every so often some playwright other
tackles problem with caution. and q
grim resolution The usual technique
ployed is TO stalk the "napper" through a first
act that brings her into view. while the second
act usually hnds the dramatist with larist
poised branding-iron hot and the euarry
eornered and in plain sight
somewhere, IN those second rcts. the why
'napper." genericany speaking. unfailingiy
slips away. Somewhere along the course Of
those second acts. usually elabor1tely set for
the roping. hog-tying and branding Of the
specimen. she takes fright. makes . break and
vanishes into thin afr. In such cases the play
wright fills In the remaining episode with
small talk and cannily changes the subject 70
something else
r. Scott Fitzgerald, q novelist and not Q play
wright, was the only Nimrod among the nsp-
per-hunter who had given the slightest
promise Of getting close enough TO the type 20
even describe her ideals and impulses
~ EsPrTE these manifest failures Of accom-
plishment the part Of the thester
and its dramatists. &c is nevertheless
- vastly diverting to observe the method
by which these dranatists approach their
analyses of the napper girl and nowhere is
this method attitude clearly set forth
more orthodoxically presented than Rachel
Crothers presents II in Nice People, which
has just finished its local IN the movies
Here and there. OF course. the pictures have
toned up and intensified that somewhat hectic
first act of Nice People" in which is presented
the spectacle Of roomful OF young folks.
including three girls. consuming gargantuan
injections OF cocktail Juice inhsling guam
titles of cigarette smoke and discussing
with a freedom that 10 breath-taking. In the
main. though, the movies have not departed
from the basic idea laid down by Rachel croth-
and other dramatists In similar plays. TO wfti
that the wholesale ingestion Of cocktails and
cigarettes and the free and untrammeled dis
cussion of primary and inevitable con-
comitants of napper existence. In the long
run, additionally. most OF Will conoede that
young people Of the more atmospheric twentieth
century type particularly IN higher placed social
degree with cigarettes. cocktails and sex-dis-
cussion-
That part OF such stage theorems can be
accepted, generally. without c.vfl. On the other
hand It can only excite q vast and waEgish
amusement when the Crotherites attempt to
cigarettes and their thrills. such young women
are at least up to par In chemical purity.
Y ERE. suspect, Is where me plsywr1ents
nrst 20 wrong In their deductions
Here is where their reasoning usually
- - goes aground Either they misrepre-
sent the napper class by the presentation Of
such facts. circumstances. habits and tendencies
else they outrage logic common sense med
ical science and the United States Pharmocopeia-
In the first place Il may be that che play
wrights err In assuming that modern youth.
particularly modern feminine youth. subscribes
generally to this rather torrid formula OF social
contact and interest 1t Is just barely possible
that many Of our supposedly jazz-mad young