Evening star., 1925-04-04

You will not find anything remotely
resembling that in Charles Dickens
novels, or In any of the great Rus
sian writer's, or in any of our elder
poets, or any of the English poets, or
In James Whitcomb Kelley, or In
Palgrave's Golden Treasury" or the
oxford Book of English Verse, or
,, in Alexander Pope, or in Walt Whit
man, or In score Of great writer's
They were great, but not clever.
Search through Dickens as you
please, I doubt II you can rake up
single instance of pure, unadulter-
ated cleverness, such as +. Z. A. dis
plays on almost every page in this
book and every day in his wonderful
column.
Wherefore, 1t would seem that clev-
erness has no particular place in the
gifts of the great. They can write,
they have the understanding heart,
they combine imagination with the
gift Of narration, they are sincere and
outspoken.
The great writer's have never gone
in for mere cleverness. Even o.
Henrys short stories will live be-
cause there Is more in them than
cleverness So, some of +. p. A. Will
last eternally because there Is res
idue of humanity, just as some of
H. C. Bunner live today for much the
same reason.
The young man who loaned me
this book will say I take F. T. A.
too seriously. He will call this article
nothing more nor less than lese-
majeste, rather more or less. with
him I have no quarrel. Smoke your
expensive pipe in peace, Freddy.
AS for me, mourn and lament over
II. p. A. 1t is rather of his 'Ballade
of Mr.. Samuel Pepys' ! am thinking,
and that ien~oi:
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
And when the whole Of it's done and said,
up, TO the Office and So TO bed.
Greatness lies there-and serious
ness. After all. is not seriousness one
of the great things in life?
The writer and non-writer can well
envy the thrill OF creation that ran
down the spine of Adams when he
conceived this ballad, taking the
commonplace remarks of Pepys, re-
peated ad nauseam in his diary, and
turning 1t into that last line to sum
up the whole life of man.
Even F. p. A. is not entirely
ashamed to be serious. Beneath his
most extravagant fancies often lies a
serious intent too deep for tears My
sorrow over him comes at exactly
this point. With such talent he has
chosen rather cleYerneSS than serl-
BUSINESS.
1t is the serious that lasts. IF you
do not believe It look back through
literature and you will find that man
kind has cherished most the deep
convictions, the great things greatly
said.
We may laugh at the serious Long
fellow in public. but in silence and
at home We love him. His poems viii
be read and cherished when 80
Much Velvet" is gone with the news
paper columns from which 1t came.
Let US, then. be serious-but not
too serious. Let us be clever, IL We
can-most of US cannot-but not too
clever.
AS for dear old +. p. A. see this
in store for him. The Lord will come
| to him in his last hours and say:
IF =. A, what hast thou done with
the talent i did give thee?" (The
| Lord always speaks formally. like
that, according to the highest au-
| thorities)
II did spend it, o Lord, writing
clever things for subway readers"
Adams will reply.
And hast thou done anything elseT'
"Yes, Lord! I did bring bit of
light into the lives of newspaper
| men, who read me between a cup of
| coffee and a hot dog" 1f