Evening star., 1925-09-15
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
i. G.. NJ.
TABLE-TALK OF G. b. s. Archibald


Always interesting and pretty near
ly every time convincing, George
Bernard Shaw Is even more stirring
in the give and take Of familiar talk
with friend than he is In his ia
nous and more formal prefaces or in
the dramatic projections of one or
another of the worlds shortcomings
upon which these prefaces open the
way. Dialogue Is, to be sure, stilted
form of printed intercourse, too reg
ular and rhythmic in it's formula of
question and answer, suggesting the
ticking Of clock in it's monotony.
Even dialogue, with G.. B. S. as the
party OF the first part, imposes a per-
ceptible stiffening of the amazing
fuidity of the man himself. This
check upon free movement. inherent
TO the method, is, however, but a sur.
face matter whose effect soon disap-
pears or becomes negligible, in the
Swimming spread of themes presented
here in the table talk between Shaw
and his biographer, Archibald Hen
derson.
With the first How do YOU do?"
followed up by the query of how
he does 1t, how he holds SO Justify to
youth, Shaw is off on the subject of
long life sturdily lived-this, really,
the theme Of his Back to Methusa-
leh." Il look my age. | am my age.
1t is the other people who look older
than they are. What can you expect
from people who eat corpses and
drink spirits?" Headed at once upon
three tremendous themes-longevity
Vegetarianism, prohibition. Let's
dodge the easy turnings of this YER
satile man. Let's hold him, If we
can, to the point SO universally inn
portant, that Of long life. In no time
at all Shaw sweeps away as delusive
and unsound the rejuvenating process
that stirred up so deep an interest
not long ago. THE Steinach opera
ton has produced no results that do
not occur spontaneously in occasional
cases. And 1t is not contended that
the operation has been more than oc-
casionally successful. 1t is admitted
That the alleged retuvenations do not
prolong life. And IT is longevity that
interests me, not the ghastly prospect
or seeing all the moribund people
bustling about, pretending TO be gay
young dogs. Then, admitting that
the secret of longevity is so far still
a profound mystery, Shaw is off on
nve minutes OF brilliant speculation
as TO the effect Of this paramount dis
coVery upon individual character, and
through this upon history itself
rake your Louis XIV or your man
just turned 40. and convince him that
ne has another century or two to
nve. Would Louis have let things
slide TO provoke 1888? Would the
man of 40 bank on his being over mil.
ltary age and hound his juniors to
war? II is the time ahead of a man
that controls him, not the time be-
nina him. When the secret of Ion
geVity is discovered the hu-
man race will become quite different
TO our present short-liyed mob"
No nearer the point than we were
you see; no nearer the secret of long
Ilre-but started Off. instead. upon a
most interesting line of thought that
ends logically in entirely changed
aspects of history-if only the mys-
terry OF longevity had been mans free
and open possession at any consid-
cradle point in the past years of
the world. A provocative man, this
George Bernard Shaw. And the DOW
er 10 stir others to clear and indie
pendent thought is one of the su-
preme gifts TO this generally unthink.
ing world.
Jumping from topic TO topic az
other are bound to do, these two. in
no time at all, reach the overworn
question of Americas real reason for
entering the World War. And here
Shaw is so truly English that he is
not Irish at all. English in his deep
knowledge of America s inner being
where her motives lie, English also
in his power to place just the right
Interpretation upon all the overt acts
or America. A really superhuman
power which every English man and
woman acknowledges when it comes
to the evaluation of America ,an{.
Americans. No; they entered IT to
take Germany's scalp under all sorts
OF romantic delusions and pretexts.
The ku Klux Klan lynches and fogs
and tarS and feathers because II likes
these sports; but it has to find patri.
otto causes for believing that negroes
should be outlawed, Catholics exter-
minated and inconvenient people
taught klan manners. Americans at
large rushed to the front because
they wanted TO fight, to indulge in
virtuous indignation, to see the Old
World. to escape from their homes
and have adventures of all sorts, TO
strike a blow for their ideals, and
10 prove to themselves and others
that they were not towards. Also
of course. because they could NOT help
themselves. But-saving word-un-
der all these heads it is truer to saw
that they entered the war to risk
their skins than to save them. I.
War fever-another saving words
curious disease and very infec-
tious." Interesting. as an opinion
this. whose basis is profound un-
acquaintance with America, except
such an America as the ready ina<
ination Of this English-Irishman has
built up.
A scrap of interesting-illumin
ing-talk between Henderson and
Shaw about American writer's follows
here:
H.-Surely you know Edith Whar-
ton?
81 seem to have heard the name,
but cannot connect anything with it.
H.-Willa Gather?
S.-Never heard of her--or him.
H.-James Branch CabeN?
S.-Not Cable-no, of course not. Is
he Senator? No. that is Cabot. isn't
it? l am afraid I'm out of It,
H.-Sinclair Lewis?
S.-Nice chap. / met him with Mary
Austin after Main Street" and he
gave me "Babbitt."
H.-Zona Gale?
S.-Sorry. No.
H.-Sherwood Anderson?
S.-My mind is a perfect blank.
H.-Theodore Dresser?
S.-F'rank Harris used to talk of
him, but L never read him.
H.-Upton Sinclair?
S.-Yes, l know Upton. More power
to his elbow, An American De Foe.
H-Stuart p. Sherman?
81 thought he was dead. A gen
eral, isn't he?
H.-H. l.. Mencken?
S.-An amusing dog, and a valuable
critic, because he thinks 1t more i'm