The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-10-27

one did not say things IKE Chat-
not in those far-off days, when the
second-worst of all offenses was to
be poor, and the worst was to let
anybody know that you were poor.
The people of those days were in
terested in manners" They shut
themselves off in tiny social groups,
selected upon the basis Of similar
incomes, and devised a set of minute
differentiations of costume and be-
havior, to distinguish themselves
from all who were not members of
their group. The most desirable
groups, those who had the most
money, developed the most fastidious
manners, and were the most fussy-
especially the ladies-about every de-
tail. To try to get out of your group
was called Climbing" and to fall
from it was called "disgrace;" both
We're unpleasant, and the truly dig
nified behavior was to stay Gin that
state of life to which it has pleased
god to call you" That didn't leave
much to write stories about, so the
magazines of my boyhood were per-
ishing of anaemia--the editor had
to lie awake nights worrying, for
fear he might give offense to some
maiden aunt, and cause her to with
draw her subscription, and speak I'M
favorably of the magazine to other
maiden aunts at the church sewing
circle.
If you want to know what the
literary world was like in those days,
read Howells' "a Hazard of New
Fortunes" which tells about a writer
and his spouse who rose to the heroic
effort of moving from Boston to
New York; you will be thrilled by
this hazard" you will share the
anxious tremblings of this most
proper of young couples-such is the
genius of Howells, which made him
the darling of anxious trembling
young ladies, at that period in life
where they took the great step which
determined their social status for
ever after.
When | was youth, Howells was
one of the great editors, and the best
of them; he had "stood for" Stephen
Crane, and | had the fond hope that
might "stand for" me. But alas, l
did not come under the Howells for
mula of realism" The business of
writer was to show things as they
actually were, never as they might
be or ought to be; life was static,
1t was being, not becoming suffering,
not willing or doing. And this for
muia covered, not merely the novelist
but his characters; you might tell
about men who got drunk and went
to the devil, and about girls who
were seduced and became prostitutes.
and you would be in the best Russian
tradition, and Mr. Howells would
fight for you against the maiden
aunts. But if you used your brains
to find out what social forces caused
men to become drunkards and girls
to go wrong"-if you even portrayed
any character who used his brains
to such a purpose-then you were
0-'~ANASN ~ VIC 1O1llluid, ana C1G doors
of the literary world were shut in
your face.
This so-called realism" of the
Russian writers was the spiritual re-
action to czardom. The Russian did
nothing but get drunk and consort
with prostitutes for the very good
reason that if they did anything else
they were arrested by police agents
and shipped in convict caravan to
Siberia; the reason why writers por-
trayed only drunkards and prosti-
tutes was that if they portrayed any
body else, the censor would ban Them
and if they defied the ban, they
would join the convict caravan. The
case Of Dostoyevski tells the story
a young man full of hope and enthu-
siasm, they treated him to the nerve
shattering experience which you may
read about in his Memoirs of the
House Of the Dead" Whereupon he
submitted himself to his holy masters