Evening star., 1924-08-03
PALMER COX, BROWNIES CREATOR,
VAS OLD-FASHIONED GENTLEMAN
Artist Built His Unique Characters for Little Ones
With Aid of Old Friend in Cryptic Room
Under Ne,u York Thedter.

| So long as Brownie Castle" in
! the quiet Canadian village of CRANKY,
| Province of Quebec, shall stand IL
| will be identified with Palmer Cox,
! because Cox was born in Grand.
| built the castle" there, named it for
| the little people he created in art
and died in it. But it may well be
! that, if his spirit should sometimes
revisit the places he knew best. it
| will come back to a small under
] ground room beneath the very heart
| of New York City.
The little room is a sort of hole
| among the roots of the New Amster-
! dam Theater. Above 1t are two
/ layers Of shows and the traffic Of
Forty-second street and Broadway,
! and beside il burrows the subway;
but the little room is as silent, as
! King Tut's tomb-and as airless and
| untouched by the light Of day. Its
! furniture consists OF two wooden
| chairs and table, on which. when
! the performance is nearly over. the
J counting.
Skosid BE Haunted.
| At this table almost daily, or
nightly, Palmer Cox used to sit with
Malcolm Douglas. house manager of
the New Amsterdam. who collaborat-
1
he studied the little people of his
brain to see into what new activities
| they could go and analysed them so
that another man might understand
| them as he did and so that together
they might let children and and, grown, sIs
Brownies as we'll as pen and ink
ones If there is any place in the
! world that should be haunted by
! Brownies and by the spirit of their
! ,ra,tnr 10 Eff1e, rrSnf nnler
| Broadway.
| Malcolm Douglas has been known
| to Broadway for a generation He
has been writer, actor compose,
! Cox, ne was bachelor and a lover
| of children, and his verses for little
folks had a wide popularity. One OF
his poems was reprinted In an ami.
| versary number of St Nicholas last
America the last time, told Douglas
he knew them well and quoted one
to prove 1t. ~
| when both men were contributing 10
st. Nicholas, and the friendship lasted
80 years He wrote the music for
the Palmer Cox Brownies, which
f. was produced at the old Fourteenth
street Theater. and was the first i'm
LANCER, 1t was followed by Brownies
/ in Fairyland" a cantata for children
! And he helped in the preparation OF
Cox's last book, The Brownies and
Prince Florimel.' He is now one OF
the artists executors, the other being
Cox's cousin, DR., Frank II. Miller
veterinarian, No. 146 West Fifty.
fourth street.
| Spare, stopped and gray. with lines
in his face that are half melancholy
and half whimsical, Douglas sat in
! the little underground room the other
night. with his feet on the old table
! and his pipe in his mouth. 1t was a
reporter who sat in the other chair.
Palmer Cox will never sit there any
more. But Douglas looked across the
| table with eyes that seemed to see
him still
Give Brownies Credit.
! you might almost say this theater
was built because of the Brownies
and Palmer Cox" he said. ''Mr. Err
| LANCER. Mr.. Cox. Mr.. Klaw and myself
had an interview with A. NJ. Palmer
whose theater we wanted to use for
tacle, Palmer Cox's Brownies There
was some hitch about negotiations
and. as we went out, Mr.. Err
langer said, Well, some day I viii
have the best theater in New York
and we won't have this trouble.
Soon afterward he built the New
Amsterdam"
| Cox's early struggles were over
when Douglas knew him, but he
sometimes spoke of his boyhood In
Cranky, and his years as carpenter
| in the Southern Pacific shops in San
Francisco, where he attended art
school at night and used saw and
hammer by day. IN New York he had
done humorous drawings and sketches
for a time, and then turned to animal
| pictures which made a hit with
children's publications and led to
many orders for advertising purposes
SO that he was prospering before he
hit on the idea Of the Brownies.
| The Installation OF the Brownies
| was absolutely original with Cox
Douglas declares. He used as his
basis, as has been often told, the old
Scotch legend of mischievous, kindly
little elves, who worked and played
only by night, never gave or suffered
pain, and disappeared with the first
rays Of dawn.
tHe made exhaustive researches >
Douglas said, but though he dug ur
Interesting folklore. he never found
anything that suggested what they
| were supposed to look like, so he had
to imagine them himself. He told
me that in getting Ills first manu-
script ready, he gave a great deal OF