The New York herald., 1922-04-09
Young Woman Whose New Ideas al
Gipe Concern to Craze Professor
from the Breezy Ideal of the Pld
and Cane and Spats, Who Kn0ws th
amenities and Appeal of GaIIantrie
By T. HOWARD KELLY,

by Il. HOWAKD KELLY,
Author of Romance of War" "The End
of the Fifty Days." "What Outfit,
Buddy" apple Pie" and other popy-
lar novels.
\ TOT so long ago he came laundering
out of the sunset like rugged
young god of the outdoors, caring
little for conventions that were current
east OF the Mississippi and fascinating the
world he differed from because Of his very
difference.
am, as you Of course know, speaking
of the man who few years back reigned
on the hero throne of American fiction
Sad to say his dynasty has crumbled into
the selfsame dust that most heroes spring
from, and to-day he no longer holds the
favor of that fair court which creates from
time to time new and popular man types
for hero worship. His coming and going
between book covers as the popularity ac-
cepted Lochinvar of fiction demands at
least few words before turn to his sue
cessor, who Is now for the sake of spice
and psychology white collared product
of the effete East.
Primarily It is the picturesque and ro-
mantle that lends greatest charm to fic-
tion. Realizing this, clever writer living
in the days when street cars were not so
plentiful and automobiles were consider
ably less a menace to human life than
now followed the unbeaten trail TO find
knightly sort of male somebody. He found
him down in the shadows of the canyoned
Sierras rounding up wild horses on the
plains, ranching blazing trails to new
places and ideals, sleeping out under the
stars, making his own laws and winning
his woman by the sheer force of his man
self This writer dubbed him "a mans
man" and promptly waved the magic wand
of fiction over him. Very soon this clean
limbed chap of the West with his blunt
ways and frank tongue, his ability to
ride wild ponies and make men do his way,
became "a woman's man." Woman, in
trigued by his very artlessness and virile
masculinity, clamored to make him hero.
and she succeeded. From the seclusion
of his wild and open spaces he was thus
dragged into the spotlight.
All of this was some time ago when out
where the West begins was quite differ
ent place from what it is today-days
when hoof tracks across the plains constt
tuted road and when people were pio
neers, not tourists. When the railroad train
superseded the prairie schooner and cities
sprang up in the places of settlements the
original Western hero type with his pic
turesque sombrero and blue flannel shirt
folded his tent and, like his environment
faded reluctantly away.
But fiction readers we're loath even then
to see their Western type OF man entirely
erased out Of the picture Surely his new
generation must have some of his fresh.
invigorating heroic qualities?" whispered
the readers, and the writer's listening In
heard and answered Yes with loud ac.
claim. So we passed from the blue shirted
gun toting Westerner to the man out there
who was building that vast section into
something akin to the pattern of the East
albeit a bigger, more rugged scheme Of
life and living that smacked of the free
winds from the Rockies and the salt tang
Of the Pacific.
This man was still, like his father, "a
mans man" even IL he believed in bunga
low comforts as opposed to log cabins AS
such he found himself heroized in print
He was advertised on the cover jackets OF
the books written about him and in the
magazines and newspapers as "a man with
all of the freedom of the open West who
will bring into your lives some Of his own
compelling vigor and ideals culled fresh
from the philosophy man creates for him.
SELF unfettered by the shackles OF super
fetal existence" and 80 on read the sales