Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-19
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcEwELL.

/ introduces one, a certain Miss Marcia.
in the following words:
"At the sound of his voice, Miss
Marcia stops and regards him with a
surprised smile. She is very pretty, Is
Marcia bewitchfhgly pretty-and she
| has an air Of demure grace and modestv
about her that is perfectly CHARMING
why, oh why does she not remain
in that sylph-like attitude of question
ing silence? But she speaks-and the
charm is broken.
WAL now! Dew tell!' she excIsinos
I thought yew were in Pa-ar-isl Ma
would yew have concluded to And Iord
Algy here? This is too lovelyl If I'd
known yew were coming I'd have
stopped at home-yes, would-that's
sol"
The author continues on at this rate
for several pages, with Dew tell" beine
shrieked by the pretty Marcia at almost
every line. ''-0''
Miss Corelli had a very poor oninior
of Emile lola, the great French novel-
ist, and Of Walt Whitman, the great
American poet. Time has long since
! justified these two writer's.
But to Miss Coreli and her genera.
ton they were new, disturbing forces
IN the world Of letters. In her
Thelma" she has one character saw
In brief what would 1t avail to write
as grandly as Shakespeare or Scott
when society clamors for lola and
others of his school?'
| Meanwhile Thelma's blue eveS loolra1
puzzled, we are told.
7 do not know that name" she said
''Zola!-what is he? He cannot he
great. Shakespeare, I know-he is the
glory OF the world, of course; I think
him as noble as Homer"
lola could not be great, evidently, be.
cause she had not heard of him. Such
unfortunately, is the attitude of thou.
sands of readers.
| In another scene the roue Len
nox is being carried to his room after
an accident. And there, in a luxuri-
Gus apartment furnished with almost
feminine elegance, they lifted the in
animate form from the stretcher anc
laid it down, still shrouded, on a velvet
sofa, removing two of Zola's novels tc
make room for the heavy, unconscious
figure"
Thus the poor lola was linked UT
with the worst sort of debauchery. Blu,
time has long vindicated Emile lola oil
all such charges.
Walt Whitman, Americas good gray
poet, whose fame grows with the years
anu WIIUcC 1llU1luIuEuGdl Leaves o.
Grass" Is issued in ever-increasing edi.
tions, comes in for Miss Corelli's par.
ticular scorTi.
In one place she speaks of ''tre com.
monplace sentence-writing of Wal
Whitman" whatever that means, anC
near the end of the book-for sht
never gave up hammering America anc
things American-she has a character
declare:
THAT any reasonable Englishmar
with such names as Shakespeare, Byron
Keats and Shelley, to keep the glorie:
of their country warm, should for one
moment consider Walt Whitman /;
poet! Ye gods! Where are you
thunderbolts?"
Hes an American, isn't hep" asket
Errington.
HE is, my dear boy! An American
whom the sensible portion of Americs
rejects. [Note-This, unfortunately wa
true at the time. America has become
more sensible since.l We, therefore
out of opposition, take him up. Hi
chief recommendation is that he write
blatantly concerning commonplace
regardless of music or rhythm"
A selected passage from Whitman i
read.
stop, stopl" cried Lorimer, putting
his hands to his ears. This Is q prac
tical Joke, Beau No one would cal
that jargon poetry"
"Oh, wouldn't they, thought" ex
claimed Lovelace.
And he was right. No less q poe
than Swinburne did.