Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-11
BY C. PATRICK THOMPSON.

~ CT Ute pS6Cn "a IltS SA04 Ia tSS
isle he shares with Gene Tunney
and some others; and although his once
red beard is now a sweep Of white
against the tan Of firm, lean chest.
the long, keen, laughter wrinkled eyes
he raises TO the pellucid skies are as
sparkling Is that sea. and as blue.
He was 70 on July 36, and he likes
to take his ease now. He Is a sun hunt
er. II there is no sun to be found in
London or At his country home he hur-
RES Of to Antilles on the Mediterranean
shore, or to the wooded banks Of Lake
Magg1ore, or to this Adriatic isle. More
and more he hungers for the tang Hf
life In his old age-the smell Of woods,
the embrace Of the sea. the warmth Of
the great life-giver soaking through skin
and flesh to the vary marrow Of his
bones.
Old age? We'll, he is conscious Of
having exceeded the allotted span. He
says so. His acts are also an index Of
his secret feelings.
Publishes HE Gospel.
He published last year his gospel
athe expression he said, "of the faith
play. The Apple Cart; 1t may be his
last. He plans to edit that part Of the
vast bulk Of his published work which
he thinks good enough to be retained
for future generations to read. (The
rest will slide into oblivionD
And this month. just q short time
after the Shakespeare festival at STRAIT
fcrd-on- Avon, he is being given a Shaw
festival at Malvern; rs If he were al
ready dead and gone and classic
whose memory must be kept green by
an annual fortnight's festival Of
But George Bernard Shaw does not
look old. The, spring Of his mind bulb
bles fresh and clear and strong as In
the years when it was throwing out new
plays at the rate Of one, two and even
three q year-and every one a little
masterpiece, an intellectual 10Y. He /.
erect, virile, hard. His stomach muscles
are firm, his hips lean and supple. Not
a sag in that tall, lathy figure.
Money Helps His Health.
Money plays large part in his good
preservation. It Is. indeed, the basic
he has taken in increasingly large doses
since he passed into the sos and out
of the realm of financial cares-tha.
cocktail composed of equal parts o.
hygienic suits and the finest WOODEN un-
derweer, fat-soled. handmade boots. ar
automobile that gives him the sensation
of smooth SWEET speed he loves. those
simple vegetarian foods which need
such careful prolonged and expert prep
eration, a luxurious town apartment
and country estate upon which grow
trees that can be chopped down for
exercise in the dewy hour before break
fast, out-of-season sunshine and the
warm salt water of southern seas. travel
first class by road and rail and the best
balcony suite at the best hotel. and the
glorious and refreshing privilege of be-
ing able to do as he pleases.
Not that he has not earned every
thing. He has. His journey to fame
and wealth has been a rough one. He
has had TO work tremendously and he
has known poverty. hunger and what
It Is to be down on his uppers.
He must often stare and chuckle as
he looks back down the long path of
his life, path winding uphill and
down dale and with many twist and
o sudden turn.
Contrasted With the "'ses."
Looking back to the sos he can see
q shabby Sunday afternoon crowd lis
tening to a tall. thin Orator whose
Mepaistophelean physiognomy. WOODEN
shirt, loose clothes, slouch hat red
beard and general air of don't-care-a-
hang disreputableness conform to the
social democrat.
This orator, who verbally assaulted
the existing social fabric and foretqld
the coming Of the millennium would
emerge for these and many other such
meetings from a humble lodging In a
mean street, where ordinarily he en-
ployed himself in writing such novels
as had never been read beforehand, as
. matter Of fact are not read now.
Who is this man? Shaw. the social
YSformer, young sincere. earnest, try
eor better social order.
Early Earnings Were Meager.
He had come to London from Dublin
IN 1875 when he was 20. In his first
nine years of writing he earned by the
use Of his pen precisely &c. Of which
e5 was for writing q patent medicine
advertisement How did he live? He
lived on siXpence a day which six
pence his mother. q teacher of singing.
often gave him. Il did not throw my
self into the struggle TO live, ! threw
my mother into it," he himself has re-
marked with his quaint passion for
putting a thing in the worst possible
light and leaving you to understand
him or not, according to your degree
Of native intelligence.
He had an old dress suit and top
hat, green with age, and sometimes he
would 60 out into rniddle-class society.
get dinner and play the piano. for he
had taste for music which was some
GlR1ng of social asset and which sub
necuently became a journalistic asset.
The childhood Of this comic genius
was the unhappiest part of his life. In
his own estimation 1t was a wasted and
futile period, yet it largely decided his
outlook, which is his second greatest
asset.
Near Bottom Of His Class.
His mother, 20 years younger than
her husband, had all the virlle. auda-
ctous qualities the male parent lacked.
The latter, typical Irish Orange gen.
tleman of small means. narrow. re-
spectacle. petty. conventional, subscr1b-
ing to all the stupid prejudices of his
type and class. was descended from a
Hampshire adventurer who settled in
conquered Ireland in the seventeenth
century.
At school young Shaw stayed around
the bottom of his class. He LETT at Is
with q defective education. was attract
ed to music and painting and was
planted BY his father in the ONCE OF
3 very genteel land agent at a salary
Of 81 q week. Then his home broke
up. his mother came to London to
teach singing and father and son lived
q drab life together for four years
longer.
Shaw's later life is in essence simply
a tremendous reaction against the en-
vironr1ent of his childhood and youth
His father and mother creep into play
after play. Because he spent his mos,
trnpresSionate years In q world OF SINAI
Soobs. and because his family insisted
mon revolving around its distant
connection to baronet, he has pursued
the middle class with hatred and teers
He has waged war on roranticism be-
cause he exhausted ronnanticiSm IN
his hoyhood, brooding around his Dub.