The Washington times., 1931-09-17

True to Type
LITTLE OIL VERMONT
WINS PRAISE OF |
SINCLAIR LEWIS
by GILBERT SELDES-J
/ hope that will be alive and we'll next winter when
fashion DEGREES the return of the corset" Not that
have passionate fondness for the finer figure but like
my irony to be cheap and easy and think of nothing
more amusing than picking out few dozen commentaries
the abolition of the corset in 1920 and the eanci
patton of women The whole thing would prove nothing
we do not know nothing beyond the universally accepted
idea that human beings fools and more foolish
than when they think themselves WISE
Good Old Lewis
While you are waiting for the corset recommend to
you Mr. Sinclair Lewis Letter to Critics. in The Nation
of September 16 On the face Of it, it is protest against
piece sloppy criticism pointing out in fact and
judgment in the review of work famous Vermonters
Only when you take it in connection with Mr. Lewis
longer works. with main Street" and "Babbitt, you
may find the quick and easy irony at disposal
For among the things Mr. Lewis happy to satirize
the cheap pride of American villagers the boastings
the real estate Rabbits in their Zenths their habit of
abiding to towns little Of Sauk Center and of giving
the of the great and great who stemmed from
And Mr. Lewis page largely is list of great Ver-
monters. The reviewer had inadvisedy remarked that
in the book "only few famous incuded-the
inevitable Calvin Coolidge and Robert Frost of course
Mr.. Lewis is indignant What he cries, what about
John Dewey and Admiral Dewey, Daniel Willard and
Frances Willard and Justice Wendell Phillips Stafford
What about Hiram Powers?- And Rufus Griswold and
William Morris Hunt And as they used say at mass
meetings, what about Ireland"
A Fine international Figure
Mr. Lewis grows lyrical the smalness of Vermont
and the greatness of its men; he compares it with Ohio
and Jersey City and the Bronx; he goes into the pure
Babbitt technique when to make his point he brings in
totally irrelevant at Pittsburgh whence coeh'
Mr.. Lewis actually writes "cometh"-"only Melons
and the pious Jim Davis"
Mr. Lewis is Veronter, not by birth, but by choice
his letter is headed Barnard VT And it is by the
who the greatest international award in literature
of our time Perhaps we won't need to wait for corsets
to get our easy laugh.
Tennis Manners
The tennis players led by Mr. Tiden have frightened
the paying customers at Forest Hills It is of course
good not to applaud while the ball is in play
but the patrons afraid to applaud when player
returns the ball into the net actually the who forces
his opponent to net the ball is playing as well as the
man who makes placement a service
false and pretentous idea of "sportsmanship" has
been made popular. few days ago John Doeg was
playing against Frank Shields and smashed what he
imagined would be beauty-but it went into the net
It the final point of game and Doeg, who had
been serving took another ball. and in evaporation,
slammed into the net also. Sportsmanshp, sneered
a man sitting beside For the life of me- couldn't
see what wrong Doeg had DONE He hadn't quarreed
with anyone; he had taken unfair advantage He
was sore only at himself and took entirely natural
means of showing it. And all through the game his
cries of rage at his and his CALCULATIONS OF
praise for Shields beautiful Shots the spontaneous
outbursts of man who likes the game-both his game
and that Of his adversary
Winning Is Good, Too
The popular thing to say that must play the
game-any game-for the games sake and not for win
ming But winning the game is part of the game; with
out it, the whole thing is silly Almost silly as doing
anything to win which is not part of the at ALL
did not the finals at Forest Hills. My hope was
fixed on John Doeg. I wrong, usual
Doeg is engine the tennis court, pure power in
action The ball on his service going fast that it
seemed as heavy as baseball when Shields took it on
his racket Shields and his racket both twisted out
of position by the impact. I not informed enough
to know whether technically the two players nearly
equal; their onetwo ranking last year suggests it. AS
they played it seemed battle between nervous energy
at high tension and perfectly controlled power Con-