The Washington times., 1922-07-16
HOLDSITSWARPED
MI R.R0R TO A
= GAPING AGE
New Book by Author of mir
rors of Washington" Given
To Gossip, DisiIlusionment,
and Personalities.
BY CLIFFORD MEREDITH.

I1TSt Vlblt 10 tne SdplIOi,
you saw what, by your elementary
history books, you had been told
were mighty lawgivers, giving
more oratory than law to the
near-empty houses. You expected
. dramatic procedure, with much
sense and little bunk-but you
found much bunk and little
sense. .
You were keenly disappointed
and you did not cease to remark
Of the absurdity until you had
become fully inoculated to Wash
ington and its easy.going govern
ment atmosphere.
The closer one gets to that
held up as an ideal, the beauty
of that ideal begins to fade, and
fades rapidly. Thus. Washington
rs the National Capital is a high
mount to the outside world
surely in the forty-eight States,
at least, and. with due pardon.
even to New York City, to whose
people Washington continues fully
as thrilling as its own Wall Street
does to Washingtonians.
For the mere curtain asunder-
ing qualities, therefore. Behind
the Mirrors" e. p. Putnam). the
most recent quake from the facile
typewriter Of the author of the
Mirrors of Washington" does
not awe Washington. The books
intriguing quality, for local con.
sumption, lies in personalities con-
corning some Of the Government
kings, who by our frequent asso-
citation with them. and in some
cases employment under them,
we have grown to believe can do
no wrong.
Rather than the quicksilver one
ordinarily finds on the reverse of
looking-glass. we find behind
the home town mirrors an ocean
Of quicksand. alleged to be the
foundation upon which our kings
Standard stand not too well,
either.
Some who read the detailed, fire.
quently caustic, but always hu-
man. clockings Of the mighty in
our midst will believe that the au-
thor looked only for weakness,
al too easy to find in men. who.
unfortunately, continue to be fully
~ human and susceptible to fail
inss after election or appointment
~ before. On the other hand,
howevers those who had quiet
hunohes that the great were far
from being az great as alleged, will
enjoy the thrilling pleasure Of be-
ias vindicated in their diagnoses.
The author. who incidentally re-
mains behind the cloak of anonym-
ity ~ was his pleasure. or regret,
with the publication Of the original
sMirrorH" ts careful to escort his
readers through q review Of his
tory sufficient to show why we
arc so5ourning in q dilatory. STALL
Ing period. He is frequent in his
referenos to the good. old days
. habit one ordinarily dislikes, In
asmuch a. We are living in the
present, but a practice permissible
in the current case because Of the
light It throws upon our present
Administration.
Government by business having
foregone its glorious freedom of
. few years back. Government by
party having flivvered through the
passing of party leaders who were
true ballot generals and not mere
1y chief executives, Government by
more or less no plan at all has
been elected.
BY permitting the Senate to do
its own Presidential picking, tho
public consciousness, more or less
unconscious, as usual, has stamped
as satisfactory the enthrong Of
q man very ordinary in most re-
spects, but in whom, nevertheless,
the nation believed 1t saw a return
Of the good old nineties. We have
not returned to the nineties, and
we never shall, is Mr.. Mirrors
opinion.
Casting aside the portion which
might subtly lead to real thinking
on our present predicament, as
perhaps many readers will be wont
to do, there remains, nevertheless
goodly bit Of delightful gossip
as easily digested as the most re.
cent daily divorce scandal.
Who, for instance, can not at
least find a .05 kick in the refer
ence to Mrs. Harding: His wife,
UP till some Fourth Of March an
elderly country woman grown dull
in the monotony of village life, or
worn with the task of pushing an
unambitious husband forward TO
,on.,n. n1aly{,,. L. A. ,..1..