Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1923-10-29
XIV Continued


The young editors, critics, spe-
ciaI writer's, were enchanted. This
was Life! At last, Moreover. itr
was Democracy. These young and
able men, having renowned their
earlier socialism, their sense of hui
NOR recognizing its disharmony
with high salaries and pleasant
living, We're hot for Democracy.
Nothing paid like Democracy in
this heaving world. The Democrat
fc wave rose and roared. Sym
bolic was this violent eruption Of
small town fiction, as realistic as
the kitchen, as pessimistic as Wall
Street All virtue, all hope, all
idealism, had gone out of the
world. Romance. for that matter,
never had existed and it was high
time the stupid world was forcibly
purged Of its imhemorial Illusion.
Life was and ever had been sordid,
com monplace, ignoble, vulgar, i'm
nledicable; refinement was a cow
Ardly veneer that was beneath any
seeker after Truth, and Truth was
all that mattered. Love was etc
lAugh. : Happiness was hysteria.
and content the delusion of norons
IA word now hofiy racing "authen-
tic''). As for those verbal crimi-
mails, loyalty" and patriotism"
foeit yonritsre.
Their success was colossal
: Cora Dwight caught the crestsof
the wave and sold three hundred
thousand copies OF Fools" She
Immediately signed contract with
one OF the "woman's magazines
for the serial rights Of her next
novel for thirty thousand dollars,
and received corresponding sd-
vance Som her publisher. Her
short stories sold for two thousand
dollars apiece. and her first novel
was exhumed and had heavy sale.
II was dificult to be pessimistic
with a hundred Thousand dollars in
bonds and mortgages and the deed
ef house in her strong box. but
Cora Dwight was an artist and
could always fall back on tech
rique. But although her book was
the intellectual expression of wild
y distorted completes. owing TO
the establishment of war, the
humiliation Of her ego in woman's
most disastrous adventure. and tho
consequent repression OF all her
dearest urges, she deserved her
success far more than any of her
sdolescent rivals. She had formed
her style in the days of complete
normalcy. and not only was that
style distinguished. vigorous and
individual, hut she was able to con
veg her EXTREMIST realism so sub
tly and yet so ambiguously that
she could AFFORD to disdain the
fatrinities of the younger school"
A marvellous feat. Most of them
used the frank vocabulary OF the
humble home, AZ alone synony-
nous with Truth. Never before
had such words invaded the sac,
rosanct pages of American letters.
Little they rocked, as Mr. Lee
Clavering, who took the entire
school as an obscene joke. pointed
out. that they were but taking the
shortest cut-adyantage of the
postwar license affecting all
elasses-to save themselves the
exhausting effort Of acquiring a vo-
eabulary and forming a style
The spade as symbol vanished
from fiction.
Miss Dwight had her own ideals
little as she permitted her unfOrtu-
nate characters to have any. and
not only was she a eOnsummate
master OF words and of the art OF
suggestion. but she had been
brought up by finicky parents who
held that certain words were not
TO be used In refined society The
impressions received in plastic
years were not to be obliterated by
any fad Of the hour.
No one knew. not even her fell
low Californisns, that she had had
n disastrous love affair which hal
eliminated in an attempt to -
der her beautiful sister .l-law.
Her book had been a wild revul-
sion from every standard OF her
youth. aud she loathed love and the
bare idea Of mutual happiness In
reil0w mortals as she-Feeel4t-s-had
ioatlfsd blood and, Nth and war
rRd Germans