The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-06
YABCUT PEOPLE AND
 CHARACTERS
By pr. Frank Crane

There arfSs ceftsin Eell-kn6wn charactefs upon. the stake- There 1mrS the yot4k lovers, tRs hetS, the ltxiffafn, the singenue, the banker, the
 sot, and sSs qn. When -Che of them
 appears you know perfectly well tsAAws he is going to perform Thsre
 Afe certain types in novels After ffhe first few lines of introduction
 you could write the rest-of the tale ] ,ydurself. And the curious part of }it lis that if you find that any par
 ticular character on the stage or in Sthe story. does not act precisely as he is supposed to act the critics be- labor the author, and you say the
 book is not true to life. ~ i ABut, tell me. didsy you ever in real
 life see any characters? Are you
 a character yourself? Answer: No.
 you, and the rest of the cumberers of this earth are persons. The diff | ference is that a character does the
 expected; q Esrson is quite as apt to do the unexpected. Outside of fiction and the madhouse nobody does as they naturally should.
 :e That is one of the joys of exist ence; it is the Interesting element
 in being alive. To know that you need not take soup if you don't want it, and you even do not have to|take it if you do want it. To go by the right side of Pine street as you walk down to your work in the
 morning instead of by the left side, and that not for any reason but for mo reason; to do this, that, and the other thing principally because oth- CTS expect you and you expect your self to act quite on the contrary that is living. '
 It is not freedom to do as we please A person is as unchartable consists. in, doing what we don't pleasei A person is as uncharitable as the wind. Psychology is as full of'the accidental as Ineteorology. In books, systems. morals and the dra- ma virtue is rewarded and vice pun ished. Among persons vice is often rewarded and virtue plays smash. See Isben and Bernard Shaw.
 There was once an author (this is a parable, it is true; not fact) who sat down to write a play that should portray real human being. He first wrote it in novel form.
 No magazine would buy it; no pub fisher would accept it. All the manuscript readers said it was i'm probable, untrue, vague, and< didn't fit, in anywhere. So the writer had it, printed at his own expense. Then he found himself in the condition of Thoreau, who said he had a library 1. of 1000 volumes, 800 of which he wrote himself. f .44 : Then he made d play of it. No manager would undertake it. Hay-. ing some money (remember. this story IS not fact), the author staged the play himself, hired troupe of actors, and sent free tickets to peoy pie enough to fill the house. Only one of the men who came bought a 50-cent seat. The play never fin ished. Half way through the peo- pie on the stage being so natural, forgot they were characters and be- gan to mingle with the audience. The man who had paid for his ticket demanded his money back. The critics, in. the next days papers, finding nothing to say, dismissed the affair in few words and discussed the drama in general for a column ora so. with many autobiographical confessions. The writer went home, took down one of his volumes, and found the pages blank. He exam ined others. All the pages were blank. The people he had written about. being real, had refused to remain in the books and had delib- erately walked off.