The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1926-06-03

BY GENE COIN
NE\ Service Writer

NEA Service Writer
New York. June Sit is a house
Of memories that sleep lightly.
| Madame can waken them with q
| laugh aud send them trooping ur
| and down the old stairway of hel
rooming house that looks out on
i Washington Square. Gay and youth
full wraiths they are. dipped in the
! faint perfume Of Immortality AIDE.
I lima Patti, Stephen Crane, Frank
Norris. Alan Seeger and host Of
others.
| The world has crowned them with
laurels and built monuments to their
genius. but 20 Nine. Catherine
Blanchard they arc Just the incest
I young people"
f, You see, it bcfcu Nine Branchard's
lot, that. in the role Of landlady Of
one Of Greenwich Villages venerable
! mansions, she was to play temporary
mother 20 most of Americas young
geniuscs. In their first toddlinY
steps toward fame, they came be-
meath her roof.
For 81 years Nine. Branchard's
motherly smile has courted conf
dcnces and thus given her the key
TO untold secrets in the dramas Of a
hundred and one famous writer's and
artists. None others have been her
guests. she says. none others ever
will be.
There was Patti she begins
'"Shc was one Of my first roomcrs.
She lived in the room just above
here. Such nice girl! An Italian
maestro introduced her to the place.
She was so eager. and-ycs, rather
timid then. Do you know she re-
hearsed for 'Cavalleria' right in this
room. And I was sitting right there.
and that was the piano they used"
It is easy to believe anything Of
this room. with its walls plastcrcd
with paintings. its tables and bureaus
and shelves as cluttercd with relics
as museum. its entire atmosphere
fragrant with memory.
And there was that Inflated three
Norris and Crane and Steeger. each
of whom lived just long enough to
touch Immortality. Norris scrubbed
in the Groom upstairs long before
the germ of "McTeaguc" had been
incubatcd Crane was helped up the
long three flights on the strong arm
Of Madame. while she gently scOlded
him for not taking better care of
himsclf--Stcphen Crane who was to
20 to the wars and write THE Red
Badge Of Courage" and die. And
Alan Seeger "livcd on the first floor
but his mother wanted him to have
more sun SO we moved him UP to the
top'-Sceger, who was to write the
"Rendezvous with death" and then,
dying in torture upon a battlefield
in France, hasten his end with n
bullet.
Eyes they were the incest boys
and Nine. Blanchard smiles
her infectious smile. mo. remem
Der when Mr.. Norris came back from
the Boer War. He was so young
and yet what he had seen had turn
ed his hair white. And he brought
the strangest things-skulls and
bones and things FROM the battle
field. til you were almost afraid to
make up his room in the dark.
"And then ! began to notice that
a letter came for.him every day. And
| knew there Wa romance in the air.
So, after few weeks l winked at
him and told him there must be a
girl somewhere. And sure enough he
got married a few months later and
they stayed here in the neighborhood.
The poor boy, he didn't live long"
And then, as the years passed. came
T Theodore ,Dreiser. Robert W. Cham
bers, Gelett Burgess, who wrote most
Of his whimsical rhymes there: Her
bert Davis, who wrote the popular
play, Cousin Kate" and who, as
madame puts it. they all said was
my star border. and he was the
incest boy you ever saw" Thomas
now prominent film
figure; James Oppenheim. the poet;
Oscar Caksare. the artist, and great
list from the who's who" Of artists,
musicians and writer's.
And yes. there was Blanchard pere.
who painted, and Babe" Blanchard. |
4 son.
Now the madam had it all fixed |
IN her mind that babe" was to fol-
ow the footsteps Of the great ones |
under whose influence he came. But |
Tor many years he preferred to be !
.ruck driver. plumber, and what not
After the war he came home quite i'll |
md the doctor advised that he do no |
1ard work SO without any prompt
ng he set up n studio in the build |
ing's basement.
And" concludes the madame, The
mas lovely painting in one Of the
zig galleries, and they're asking |
$4,000 for it. Isn't that wonderful"
SO madame is happy and her
house never lacks for
.ucsts. for letters come from all over
he world asking for rooms in SO his
oric a place.