The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-11-23

drsds of millions of years the sun
will be cold, and so what. difference
does it make what we poor insects
do? You will find that at >the be-
ginning, in "The Testimony of the
Suns" and at the end in the drama,
Truth" 1t is what one might call
applied atheism.
Once, NJ. c. S. tells me, George of
fered never to drink again, if she
would ask him not to. But her notion
of fair play did not permit her to do
this. What could she give him in
return? The cares of her own life
were too many; she had a husband
who refused to be afraid of his enc
mics, and so she had to be afraid for
two, and there were long periods when
she could not even answer Georges
letters. He stayed in San Francisco,
and now and then he would SOW he
was coming to see US, and when he
did not come, we would know why.
Mencken was coming to Wis t
George, and just before his coming
George was drunk. He was fifty
six years old, and there was no longer
any fun about it, but an agony of
pain and humiliation; and so he took
cyanide of potassium, as he had many
times threatened to do. To me it is
something so cruel that l would not
talk about it, were it not for the next
generation of poets and writers, who
are parroting the art-for- art s-sake
devilment, and dancing to hell with
John Bootleg.
Consider my friend Mencken. The
death of this beautiful and noble and
generous-souled poet has taught him
nothing whatsoever; he writes the
same cheerfully flippant letters in
celebration of the American saloon.
Whatever George told you in mo-
ments of katzenjammer, l, am sure
that he got great deal more fun out
of alcohol than woe. 1t was his best
friend for many years and made life
tolerable. He committed suicide in
the end, not because he wanted to get
rid of drink, but simply because he
could no longer drink enough to give
him any pleasure"
Was more poisonous nonsense ever
penned by an intellectual man? How
many pleasures there are which do
not pail with age, and do not destroy
their devotees! The pleasures of
knowledge, for example-of gaining it,
and helping to spread it. The
pleasure of sport; l play tennis, and
it is just as much fun to me at forty
eight as is was at fourteen. The
pleasures of music; l play the violin,
after a fashion, and my friend
Mencken plays it better, l hope-and
does he find that every year he has to
play more violently in order to hear
it, and that after playing he suffers
agonies of sickness, remorse and
dread? l say for shame upon an in
tellectual man who cannot make such
distinctions; for shame upon teacher
of youth who has no care whether he
, sets their feet upon the road to wis
dom and happiness, or to misery and
suicide!
Let George Sterling speak from his
grave the last words upon the subject
"a few lines from "The Man l Might
Have Been"
Clear-visioned with betraying night,
! count his merits DER,
And get no comfort from the sight,
Nor any cure therefore.
I'd mourn my desecrated 49,
(His manned and sorry twin,
But well he knows my makeshift
tears
The man might have been.
Decisively his looks declare
The hearts divine success;
He held no parley with despair,
Nor pact with wantonness.
0 Fates that held US at your choice,
How strange web we spin!
Why chose We not with equal voice
The man | might have been?
ITO Re EO9, f5o,3,od