The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-01
merce, even though the policy of the Southern Railway has been contrary to such exnansion ..
DIsMIssING THE CLAssICs

DISMlSSiNG HE CLASSIOS
 It is the fashion of the young intellec- tuals to dismiss the "classics" with con- temptuous shrug of their shoulders. Dick ems is dull and out of date; therefore be- meath their notice. Thackeray is in the same boat. AS for George Eliot, she has become quite impossible Not for any consideration would they dclare Anthony Trollope worthy of attention and he who mentions so remote and old-fashioned a novelist as Scott is speedily rebuked. One might as we'll talk of Samuel Rich ardson! This worthy father of the Eng l;sh novel is indeed wearisome to modern flesh. Pamela, it is safe to say, will never be portrayed on the screen by a smirking heroine of Hollywood, unless that estimable young character is so mod ernized that she would not recognize her self.
 Few of us will rise to the defense of writer as laborious in method and prolix in matter as a Richardson, but when the pert literati assail Dickens, Thackeray, Eliot, Scott, Hugo and other immortals, they are picking a quarrel with those of us who find as much en- ioyment in the pages of Dickens, for instance, as we ever did. In approving the books that have endured, our literary judgment is not at fault. Doubtless there are some good boks that have per ished-that have not been destroyed, as was the case with manuscripts collected in the great Alexandrian library, but were forgotten and then forever lost to sight because of public indifference. It would be rash to say that no meritorious works have ever drifted into the "Port of Missing Books" whence they never re- turned, but it is a reasonable assump- tion that such a fate has not overtaken many books that deserved to live. There fore, we are on solid ground when we admire the classics" They have stood the test of time.
 Dr. Clifford Smyth, writing recently in the Literary Digest's International Book Review, suggested that Booth Tark- ington, Edna Former and Fannie Hurst be substituted for Dickens, Thackeray and George Eliot in the schools. This revolutionary suggestion provoked the controversy Dr. Smyth probably ex- pected. Tarkiugton is an excellent nov elist; Miss Ferber and Miss Hurst, who is or was a member of the Lucy Stone League, which declines to let it's lady members bear their husbands names, if they are thus encountered, have won de-
 
 turning to Tarkington, there is no more delightful little tale between the covers of a book than Monsieur Beaucaire," !" to which Richard Mansfield did ample justice in the stage version. But will Harrington, or Miss Feroer or Miss Ferber or Miss Hurst be read, say, fifty wears from now? Of the three, the indiana novelist is most likely to sur vive.
 The stories in which Miss Ferber ex- cels will possess no interest whatever for reader of the rext century, who would not be able to understand the kind of people she is writing about, if he should ha open to discover one of her books. However smartly written a book may be; however great the. skill with which the writer handles his or her subject, unless such work has 6 universal appeal, it is not likely to live. There is much tiresome matter in the "classics." Page after page may be skipped without com junction; but the old masters scaled the heights They struck at one time or an. other the chord to which the heart of humanity vibrates. That is the criterion. Discuss as learnedly as we may the merits and demerits of writer, unless he sounds this chord he will never be immortal in the truest sense. Those books that survive as "caviar to the gem crap do not have this quality, they are great because they achieve a sublinity of thought or ably expound some prin- ciple of science or of human conduct which most of us are unable to under stand. Books of this sort stimulate the mind of a savant, but they are lost upon the man in the street, and the vast army of what is known as leverage readers"
 Let the young intellectuals frown upon the "classics" as much as they please, and radicals suggest the casting of the Victorians into outer darkness. Long after these manifestations have ceased the great books win still be read and, To. another generation of intellectuais will be crying out against them!