Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-17
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

ers are greater or more skillful, or less
melodramatic. We grant all that readily,
but it makes no difference. Dumas was
a positive we'll of life; he dubbed over
with something of Natures own very
energy He was nearer to the prin-
tive than most writer's he stood closer
to the border lines of fact and fancy
and knew how to weave them together
so deity that no one looking at them
later, could tell where the one began
and the other left off.
It is said that even in writing his
memoirs, which he did in all solemnity,
he could not help embroidering them
with the iovial touches of which he
was the master, so that truth and flc-
ton play an entertaining game of hide
and-Seek there as in his straight nc
ton works No doubt 1t is because he
thus blended truth with fiction that his
stories make one of their great appeals
Is not that life? In this great world
in which we all live, and whether we
play it on our feet in the martS OF
trade, or quietly in our beds, do we
not find fact and fiction so indis-
solubly blended that no wizard, let
alone a mere well man or sick man,
could tell them apart? And the fact
and. fiction are further complicated by
and "boloney," so that no man can
be sure that he knows either fact or
phantasy when he sees it.
X X
The great merit of the works of
Alexandra Dumas, however, is that they
subtly bring to the reader a sense of
powerful energy, a sense of the swing of
immortal life, which Yields the planets,
which causes the grain to grow In the
fields, and the sick man to get well in
his bed.
So Dumas acts as an involuntary
physician extraordinary at the bedsides
of all those who are wise enough to
call him in. Behold the good, jovial
DR.. Dumas calling on his patient with
his woolly, kinky hair flying over his
head, his eyes sparkling with life and
hope. his medicine satchel filled with
the most colorful and fantastic pills
and powders, but above all his hearty
voice trimming with strange tales of
the streets and cafes, or, If that is not
enough, of a thrilling narrative, got
only that morning by him out of an
old chronicle of Froissard, which he
CHANGED to be reading before break
fast!
Would monsieur like to hear it, the
story about Agenor de Mauleon, who
was knight of the twelfth century, in
the days when men we're indeed men:
the story of the brave Mauleon, who
lost his right hand in combat, but had
it replaced Immediately with iron
pinchers, so that he came to be known
as Agenor of the Iron Hand?
Perhaps monsieur would rather listen
to the enthralling narrative of the
handsome Roger and his beautiful Con-
stance, a modern story laid in 1708 to
1716, or whereabouts. The two families
want to keep them apart. so they tell
Roger that Constance is dead. All ta,
ha, it is only joke, monsieurl Roger
wins her, after all, but not without
going through 400 pages of exciting
fluctuations. A bit melodramatic. yes.
especially that portion where our hero
sells his bad first wife to Corsair to
get rid of her, but what would you
have, monsieur? A patient must have
some sort of stimulation, and Sylvan
dire" will give it to him. leave 1t
with you, sir. with the compliments of
Alexandra Dumas, M. D.