The Washington times., 1923-11-15
BY Gertrude Anterior
Author OK Many Notable Novels,
and One Of the Most Widely
Read Writers Of the Day.

.<0NyAIK. Talk. TAX.
Good lines and no &C.
ton raid al
not even promising first act
eighth failure and season more
than half over. rather be
o playwright and fail than 3
critic compelled to listen to has
beens and would-bes trying TO put
over bad plays. oh. Tor
just one more great firgt night.
.. II there's spirit world
why don't the ghosts .of dead art
lists set together and inhiblt lad
playwrights from tornenting first
nighters? Astral board ok
immortals sitting IN unconscious
twealring strings until gCbbeks
and sclerotics become gibberfng
idiots every time they put pen to
paper? Fewer FIRST
nights, but more JOY also
Joy Of sending producers back 70
cigar stands. Thank God.
no longer q critic don't
need to come to frst-nights m.
less / want can't keep
away habit too strong
poor devil of 4 cOlumnist must
forage why did -
come coIumnist? More money.
Money! And I once riIbescent
socialist best parlor type
Lord! / wish some one
would die ana leave me . mil
iion!''
Clavering opened his weary eyes
and glanced over the darlxened
auditorium, visuaIizing mass "
bored resentfuI disks: few hope.
ful. perhaps, the greater number
too educated IN the theater not
10 have recognized the heavy note
or Incompetence that had doomed
like 3 mufGed fog-horn since the
rise Of the curtain.
It was q typical 1rat-1ielt an
dience, assembled u pslcon1s
iavOrits actress il new play.
All the Sophisticates tas Claver-
ing had named them. abandoning
.IntellectuaIs's and .'Intelligsnt-
aiap' - the Parlor SoclalistsD were
present: authors. playWrights.
editors ana young editors, column
lists, dramatic critics, young pub
fishers, the fashionable illustra-
tors and cartoonists, 3 few 40
tors, artists. sculptors. hostesss
Of the eminent, and . sprinkIing
OF Greenwich Village to give
touch Of old Bohemia to what
was otherwise almost as brilliant
and standardized as q Monday
night at the opera. Twelve yeaen-
ago, Clavering. fmpeiled irresisti-
bly, from q dllapidated colonial
mansion in Louisiana to the eers-
Drum Of the Western world. had
arrived in New York; ana run
the usual gamut OF the high.
powered man from reporter to
special writer, although youth
rose to eminence less rapidly then
than now. Dramatic critic oe his
newspaper for three years 1.-TWO
years at the warl. an envied.
quoted and onniscient colunnist
since his return from France.
JournalisticaIly he could rise no
higher, and none Of the IRE
quent distinguished parties given
by the Sophisticates was complete
without the long lounging body
and saturnine Ocountenance Of Mr..
Lee laverings. AS sooi as he had
set foot upon the ladds- of proni-
nence Mr.. Clavering had realized
the value Of dramatizing himself,
and although he was as active Of
body as of mind and OF an axnia-
BILE and genial disposition. as his
friends sometimes angrily pro-
tested, his world. that world oS
increasing Importance in New
York, knew him as q cynical, mo
rose, mysterious creature, who.
at party, transferred himself
from one woman's side to another
by sheer effort Of win spurred by
boredom. The unmarried women
had given him up as a confirmed
bachelor, but few still followed
his dark face with longing eyes.
Gle sometimes wondered what
role he would have adopted X he
had been a blond1 AS q matter
Of fact, he was intensely roman
tic, even after ton years Of news-
paper work in New York and two
of war; and VIXEN his steel-blua Z
half.closed eyes roved over gath.
ering at the moment of entrance
It was with the evergreen hope
Of discovering the cOnaumHnate
woman.
Perfectly at Ease
There was no affectation In his
idealistic fastidiousness. Nor. Of
late, in his general boredom. Not
that he did not still like his
work. or possibly pontificating
every morning over his famous
name to an admiring public. but
ha was tired Of ''the crowd, the