New-York tribune., 1922-08-13

Is 1AiSe. ANty mlSHt mol 20 INTO 1T
biindly or foolishly, but should it be
proved to them that they would profit
by it under the principle of enlightened
self-interest they would not hesitate.
love children. / should like to have
five more of them, not for the race
but for the pleasure children afford
me. am ready for another child now,
but this time | shall go into it ready
to take my medicine, knowing just
what il will be and willing to pay the
price. The great difficulty is that women
will not admit these things. They will
not even join free masonry about it.
Men, on the other hand, are so sensi
tive to pain, so much more open and
frank about their problems and so
eager TO solve them that had they to
bear the children the pain of child
birth would have been medically alle-
waited a century ago" This
and Dorothea's subsequent reflections,
1t seems to me, are the wisest discourse
/ have listened to within year, and
if in reporting it l embarrass her or
my wife, who seconded all she said
with citations OF experience, ! must
plead that ! share their opinion that
delicacy in this matter has but con-
tributed to the fslsity surrounding it.
Dorothea has written a novel in which,
LANut Nhat Can gain oA IL, sue mas
faced the problem of maternity and
young marriage for the first time SEN
sibly and truthfully. It has been
hacked at before by men who know
nothing, really, about it--by Theodore
Dresser, Sherwood Anderson. r. w.
Kaufman, Upton Sinclair and others;
and women like Kathleen Norris have
made delicate and somewhat sentimen-
tai attempts to brave the prejudice
connected with it; but this will be, ]
think, the most sincere and veracious
treatment of the theme we have had.
And l know that Dorothea will write
not merely thesis novel but one of
literary beauty and power, for she has
sense and sensibility. And it will
be novel that is, in that higher
sense l spoke of, eminently moral. A
fine humanitarian spirit animates it
and animates my wife, who declares
she will sell the book from house to
house, If necessary; for it is in the in
terest of generations of young women
who come after them that thew plan
this enlightenment. This knowledge
they have; they cannot profit by its
dissemination; their moral fervor has
In 1t the splendid quality of that devo-
tion to an unselfish ideal which is asso-
ciated with every notable effort in the
trouble is that there will probably be
much difficulty in getting the book
published. Men and childless women,
kept moralists and rat-faced politicians
who believe that wonlan's place is
either in the kitchen or the maternity
ward will oppose and probably sup
press it. Yesterdays work pre-
vented me from recording that Frances
Newman, of "The Atlanta Constitu-
i0S1f - S11l
| may be right about James Branch
Cabeil's being shy and retcent in the
presence of men, but that with wom-
an he is quite ready to open up his
heart and speak freely. "He is, how
ever, a very shockable man." she said.
II caused him to blush furiously by
most innocent little sally" 8.
Mark O'Dea, too, was in during the
afternoon, we'll tailored, distin guished
low, who told me that he is writing
companion book to "Red Bud Women"
called RED Bud Men," which will also
deal with farm life in the West and
Middle West, but will be in prose fic-
tion instead of dramatic form.
AUGUST
My wife and went to dinner TO-
night with Hendrix Van Leon, Doro-
thy Grant, Deems Taylor and Mrs.
Taylor. The Taylors had just returned
from Europe and they told of the
wretched situation of the people in
Munich, Berlin and Vienna, where
house servants are paid the equivalent
Of sixty cents American money month
and where the most ordinary cotton
stockings are not procurable for four
or five times that amount. All the
time they were in Germany, they said,
they wore their oldest clothes and even
then they were conspicuously over
! dressed, so shabby have peoples
, clothes become from long and continu-
Gus wear. Mr.. Taylor said that fine
artists and musicians are eager to get
to America but the savings of a life
time at their present pay would not
buy their passage on the worst means
of travel. asked Mr.. Taylor If he
encountered Szumanowski in Paris, re-
membering that ne had heartened me
| by hailing Szumanowski's second SYM
phony as great musical event and a
work of genius, but Szumanowski was
with Strawinsky in Poland during his
stay IN Paris. The Taylors were glad
to return to America, finding nothing
in the Paris theaters or concert halls
to interest them and enjoying the
physical beauty of Paris the while they
resented the commercial spirit Of the
French. "They speak of Americans as
dollar chasers," he said, "but we are
! less interested in money than the peo-
pie of any country in Europe They
talk about our cultural nouveau richie
habit OF copying European architecture.
| but in Fontainebleau we saw new
chateau with carefully planned
ruined tower" =. Van Loon, who
IS Hollander and who observes
the European custom of kiss
ing the hands of the women
he meets, said that when he did that IN
the Middle West the women invariably
did one of two things: they said THANK
you" or rubbed the kiss off on their
| skirts. During the meal he observed: {:
| What silly custom it is that people
| combine eating with conversation. Eat
ing is no more an asthetically pleasing
process than is shaving. Instead of
asking one to lunch or dinner for the
purpose of talking why not say: Come
over to the barber shop and let's have
a shave or haircut? I took nv
wife home and went to T. r. Smiths,
where we were Joined later by GUY
Holt. Tom told us some interesting in
stances of canny business methods of
eminent authors. George Moore. Rud-
yard kipiing and Bernard Shaw not
only have their secretaries sign most of
| their business correspondence or type
their names, but they compel their pub
fishers to return their corrected proofs.
even when the corrections are in the
| handwriting of their secretar;ac and