The Washington times., 1931-09-26
TrU~ to Type
BLOWING UP IN THE 9TH
NOT A SURE SIGN,
OF GENIUS
.RV GLRERT SEL.ElES

Phlla-
depha Athletics, has thirty games and lost three
establishing record but that Mr.. Grove is longer
a wild man, he longer blows up at the end of the
sixth inning, he has been made into machine which
wins games Thinking it over l am sure that it was
columnst who that the sports writers wouldn't
have quite that angle; and willing to bet that the
columnist was Mr. Broun.
Do Artists Blow Up?
l am also willing to bet that the writer is wrong
headed because recall the complaint the Grove of
five years ago called artist, with his eye in a
fine frenzy rollng-and his baseball being batted all
over the lot after shutting out his opponents for
thirds of the game The idea that artists blow up
sweet romantic notion, but it has little to do with fact
Micheangeo lay his back for six years painting the
Sistne Chapel while Pope julius stood below and gave
him orders and advice; Mcheangeo cursed his patron
who also the head of the chu1rh) and drove him
away the Pope threatened to fling the painter off the
scaffod MicheangeO burning to make sculpture cried
out that he painter. He worked so long on his
back that forever after he had to hold books his
head in order to be able to read; he wrecked himself
over job he did not want to do. But he did it. He
did not blow up in the Sistine Chapel He may have
blown up after it done, when the Pope wanted to
the scaffold and touch the fresco with ultra
marine and gold leaf
Speed and Control
Artists are traditionaly bad tempered and erratic
The tradition needs to be examined and the names of
Plato and Titan and Goethe ought to be mentioned as
often those of the suicides and the dope ends OF
the past century And if the Wildness of artists
is granted, it might be clear that it was not WlIdneSs
in their work. De Quincy opium eater, but he
had supreme control when he was writing; COerdge
was absentminded, among other things, but he was
clear and logical thinker the most abstract subjects
A great many things said against Leonardo da
Vnc but he good engineer and inventor and
not bad painter-three professions which require
cold-booded application, and no blowing up.
Edgar Allan Poe was drunkard but The Raven
the result of almost mathematical formula for
writing poetry The perfect lines of Keats and Shelley,
which stir the quick outpourings of the heart,
were all rewritten and polished And Lefty Grove in
far he is artist is greater artist today, when
he goes the whole distance than he when he
flashed for six nnings-and took shower bath for
the rest of the afternoon.
Did Shakespeare Poach?
The personal remarks about great men which have
just recorded all made in good faith and on the
best authority; but they subject to correction 1t
appears that in these days regulations safe
bad Research is destroying the legend that
Shakespeare poacher and (through the courtesy
of the Modern Library have just across book
which, full generation ago, brought proof that the
Borgas were not poisoners. That Pope Alexander VI
was the father of family is conceded by the author
but that he the father of Caesar Borga heretofore
considered the most notable of the murderer of that
supposedly murderous family, is totally denied. In
deed it would appear that Duke Cardinal Caesar was
the son of the worst enemy of the Borga house. Pope
Julius H. the terrible Pope
Lovely Lucrezia
Lucreza Borgia. again. was gutless of all the crimes
imputed to her; she good wife and mother de.
voted daughter and sister, nothing There never
was Borgla poison because poisons know them.
did not exist in that tme-ony handful, none of
which could have had effect at long distance Zone
the posonings took place II days after the victim had
left Rome and the Borgias dining table, Of the
awful of all the murders that of the Duke of Gambia,
nothing be said except that Caesar Borga was the
last who him alive. And there is Borga
Saint-just according to the author there
Jewish Pope
recommend the Borgias to you as an example Of CEN
turies of njustce-and this particular history because
it is vivid and prejudiced and entertaining 1t is by
Baron Corvo, who died less than 20 years ago and
wild figure himself any of the Renaissance.
The Runaways
The need of plot makes strange bedfellows. l sup
pose that Somerset Vaughan has little respect for the
craftsmanship of E. Phillips Oppenheim, yet Maughams
latest play "The Breadwinner," and Oppenheim's latest
non-mystery novel, Simple Peter Cradd" both have
the In each man who has been the drudge
of family ups to them and leaves them flat Vaughan
has the more brilliant conversation and Oppenhem gives
you not only the thought of freedom but the thought
of wealth. His Mr. Cradd inherits on lordly scale.
Little Nora's Children
wouldn't make too much of this coincidence. espe-
ciay Vaughan treated the theme seriously
long before the 1t is, however, interesting that
escape literature" should become frank Ever since
Nora slammed the door of "The Dolls House." the idea
of getting away from it ALL has been popular subject