The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1929-01-04
The Cherry
- Where with our
F00 Little Hatchet
= s~~ we tell the truth
about many things. sometimes pro-
foundly, sometimes fippantly,
sometimes recklessly. ........

IN the Wrltlng world. MRS. Slnclar
Lewis is one of the parties to the
tilt, and comely and sprightly lady
ser, who seems, as he looks to the
world, to wear blue glasses good
part of the time.
Both of these artists of the pen
and typewriter have written books
about Russia, after having visited the
country
The row is all about the queer
business of identical sentences and
paragraphs in both books.
Now when the same sentences and
paragraphs are found in two books
written by different persons, interest
ing speculations are sure to arise.
They have been arising.
Mrs. Sinclair Lewis, known on the
backs of her books as Dorothy Thomp-
son, threatens to sue Mr.. Dresser.
Mr.. Dresser threatens to fight the suit
and to make a few charges of his
own.
1t looks like plenty of pepper.
| While each of these authors is ac-
cusing the other of cribbing, one spec
ulation has not been made. 1t is
herewith offered, tentatively and with
no thought other than to bring for
ward more or less interesting Specu-
lation, without disparaging either au-
| thor.
May not both authors have been
similarly influenced = even uncon-
sciously-by what was preached to
them, set before them and published
for their benefit while in Russia?
Both were in Russia at the same
time May not both Of them have
been subjected with identical results
! to the Establishments, influences, wiles
call them what you will-of the past
masters of propaganda in the red ano
rotten land Of soviets and hunger?
Who knows? And nobody can tell
unless it be the authors, who won't.
5 Miss Thompson calls her book THE
New Russia" Dreiser's is typically
called Dresser Looks at His Russia
high priest like.
The similarities are mainly in tn,
rather inconsequential second chap
ter, dealing with the appearances o
people and having no more than gos
sipy significance.
In Dreiser's' book there appears:
1.-THE streets are cobblestoned, an
e if the snow has melted are muddy.
e In Miss Thompson's:
"The streets are cobblelstoned, an
if the snow has melted, are swimming
in mud"
: A paragraph. of Miss Thompson
e says:
"The famous Twerskaya, throug
6 which the emperor used to enter tn
city, and which runs, SO they sa.
clear to Leningrad is like the shoI
u ping street of small town"
The same paragraph as Dresser ha
re it:
IS "The famous Twerskaya (throug
l. which the czar used to enter the cit
= and which runs, so they say, throug
to Leningrad) is like the shoppin
= street of small town."
'r AS to the dullness of life Mi.
Thompson says merely--"in the ma
ter of amusements Moscow is, for tt
sophisticated Westerner, "a dull city
Dresser wrote that "as far /
= amusements goat present anyhow
Is | fear that Moscow is the dullest eli
n in the world, not even excluding Kal
n sas City"
It's all very funny and it may
- added that it is all good busine
for the soviets.
as But it does shed an interesting ligl
lie on the greatness of the great.
T In this case it would appear tn
either both authors are equally gres
or that perhaps neither is great
e all. If we may discard the lack
r. profounlity which is to be found wit
Is out any great trouble, we may al
have the speculation, for which bo
authors contend, that one is great al
the other is a mean piker,- but tn
is an unworthy thought to linger
a the brain of anyone not a dire
IS. party to the row.
If we may conclude by gettir
- away from the little dispute betwe'
the lady and the gentleman, to u
terms which they seem not to
using, we may call attention to Il
fact that both have written the mo
or less usual drivel, twittering ov
petty results, out-croppings, coping
ID cornices and cupolas, witho
troubling to get at the fundament
he rock bottom of this malformation, til
s. phenomenon in social pathology.
". Both have written like theatric
On reviewers instead Of like scientist
y, | UoIf opuxuau LOT n ho banQ6 fh,