Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-22

Reading recently in a semi-autobi-
cgraphy, written by celebrated author
about himself, We stopped to wonder
what was distasteful about the effort.
Finally we resolved it down to three
main faults:
l.. Covert Boosting.
2. a-sophistication.
3. Straining to be tclever.
The trail of these three disagreeables,
as they may be called, chung to every
page like the thin silver line left by
Slugs on q concrete walk.
Perhaps many reader of that book
will like those marks, or overlook them,
and they are to be congratulated, for
otherwise the work is excellent.
x X x x
Many a reader, however, will be UNI
able to overlook them.
Such an one will find his pleasure in
the book almost destroyed
To him it will be a regret, for the
author in question has it in him to have
done the thing properly.
If there had been no boasting, no
straining after cleverneSs, no evidences
of Sophistication, the book would have
been a perennial delight.
AS it is, there will be few such read
ers who will not be willing to predict
for the affair a sale based only on the
past reputation of the author.
That, and that alone, will sell thou
'>-' X y * i
In reading the book in question one
is struck with the evident fact that
the writer had one eye on his critics
all the time.
Evidently he was never able to get
cut of hts minds eye the thought of
those big boy critics, sitting out there
with clubs III their hands, If he did
not live up to their credo Of How 1t
Should Be Done. wreathS to put on his
brow If he did do it according to their
standards.
So he strove for cleverness Instead
of stating his thought and letting it go
at that, he needs must elaborate it in
a thousand different ways, to make sure
that the critics would know that he had
not lost any Of his Old Punch.
This trail of the serpent is over every
page, almost every paragraph. and
sometimes in each sentence. 1t reduces
him to making statements which sound
good but which. upon the slightest
analysis, fall to pieces in the readers
hands.
When he praises good and modest
women, instead of permitting that much
to stand, to his eternal credit, he evil
IDENTIFY fears that his wise-boy friends
will find that q bit too goody-good
So he spoils it all by declaring that
the only place he had ever found such
modesty again was in a certain chorus
on the burlesquc stage.
Somehow the whole thing falls fiat
at once. Here he was. praising the quiet
beauties of his childhood days, and he
is unable to stand his ground.
Even at this date, long, long after
ward, he realizes to the full the
charm of these older days, before So
phistication struck the United States
full in the face.
He is brave enough to admit as much,
to praise it, to lay flowers at the feet
of the dead days, but he is not man
enough to stick to his guns.
No, he realizes that in print, at least
1t will not do to become too serious.
To be fully serious is to run the risk
of being jibed at by the Masters of So
phistication.
Perhaps It is necessary to look for a
moment at these persons, for the third
of these faults follows straight from
the second Without the Cult of So
phistication there would be little men,
tai pull upon our subject, or upon any
one else, to strive so resolutely to be
I"clever
Now, being clever. from Nature, as
a gift of the Most High God. and being
clever by sheer mental effort are not
the same things at all.