Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-03
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

| fy to the lure of the best Of the old.
There is, indeed, certain triumphant
quality in such old-tirners as De Ko-
ven's Robin Hood" and Herbert's
Fortune Teller"
Christopher Morley's experiments in
New York with old-fashioned melo-
dramas show that the people will 20
to anything that is good.
! This Is such vast country, with so
many millions Of people in it, that most
/ OF us constantly forget that no one
human being can consistently take in
everything in any one branch of learn
/ ing, effort, amusement or whatnot.
That is, the more one sees plays the
more plays he finds there are to see. The
more books he reads the more he will
! find to read.
No sooner does he get fairly good
| acquaintance with the music of one
master than he discovers that the mas
| ter's teachers wrote good music, too,
and that some of it is very much worth
knowing and loving.
| X X n
This magnitude Of life and its human
| products, among which we rank books,
! plays, music, is what gives the present
age one of its finest roles.
We hear a lot about the faults of
the age, but there is this one large
merit: That we are among the best ap-
preciators Of all time.
There is no good old story written at
any time that some one or other is not
willing to place before the public.
And there always is certain per Gen.
tum of that same public which is ready
to lay down a portion of its earned cash
In order to welcome the old thing, al
| though it may have come from the
shadow of the pyramids, or straight out
of Greece.
The old thus comes into its own In
an age which heartily welcomes and
delights in the new. The men of Athens,
perpetually seeking some new thing to
! talk about, were no keener for novelty
and surprise than the Americans OF
1880.
Yet in the body of appreciators OF the
new there remain the seekers after the
best of the DID, those who flnd a certain
charm In antiquity, just as other men
| love old coins, bottles, paintings.
A strange thing Is that a certain In
terval of time must be allowed to elapse
before a revival can be staged with
success. Who would want to listen to
Eyes, We Have No Bananas" for another
decade. Yet, about 1910, it may be a
popular favorite again. Already we are
tired of "Faw Down and Go Boom"-we
don't recall having heard of any one
fawing down this Winter-but about
1945 the whistIing world will find it
"cute" again.
In the matter of books and plays, solid
merit, rather than cuteness and caprice
plays heavier parts. Books and plays
may be studied, conned, pondered over
read, put on the boards. Novels may &c
into plays, and vice versa, although not
/ n mi " IN ALL
A play that was entertaining once will
be fascinating again, provided only that
1t dealt in the first place with human
nature. And most plays do. That was
what Shakespeare meant by saying that
they hold the mirror up to Nature.
The good play is as timeless as a
| diamond. Our chief protest against the
movies is that they have dared to cut
butcher and otherwise change the mas
ter plays to better suit strange tastes.
A really fine play Is no more subject
to cuts" than would be Dumas Three
Musketeers" Any one who has read a
condensed version Of the latter, after
reading the original, will know about
| this.
| Why bother with the new mediocre,
| we insist, when the old fine Is available?
Except of course, in the way of Joyous
| experiment. But we believe that the av-
erage theatergoer, when he sits down in
his chair, wants to see something good,
whether old or new does not make so
| much difference.