Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-08
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES z. TRAcEWELL.

character, who, in real life, would re-
pulse him. II he were to meet this
scoundrel in actually, he knows very
well that he would end by getting into
INST fight with him.
Here in the book, however, he pities
him, and Is able to look upon him with
mingled intellectual loathing and
regard-loathing' for. his bad points, re-
gard for such few good points as he
develops In the course Of thu : on.
He catches himself surve. .ns man
kind as from a height, as one imagines
God might do, freely admitting and
freely forgiving.
glory of the great works of fiction OF
all nations.
Despite the fact that he, reads rs
from a star, the reader is forever rec
ognizing traits, If not entire human
beings.
Here. under the name Of Drovosky,
perhaps, one sees plain John Smith,
whom one knows very well!
And there goes, Ill disguised under
the cognonen Of Bordenave, a gentle
man the reader knows in real life, too.
Ones experience with real human
beings reacts on the book characters,
and the latter on the human beings, 80
that after while the good reader Of
fiction Is never altogether sure whether
ne saw man or merely read> about
him.
II * ~
There were many readers In the
world, st one time, to whom the char
acter creations of Charles Dickens were
as real as the walking, talking friends
Of their own acquaintance.
No doubt there are many persons to-
day who fondly believe that they will
some day come across old Capt Cutie
with his hook, or run into Little Nell
on a street corner.
The writer here actually met Little
Nell one snowy Winter day on a Wash
irgton street car platform. 1t has ever
since been his regret that ne did not
say to her quietly, why, hello. Little
Nell, how are you?" mo doubt Nell
would have punched him In the jaw
II he had)
One does not have to meet book
characters In real life. however, to feel
between them and the people one
knows.
Authors with the gift Of creation
must create out of something, and that
something" Is more often than not
the friends and acquaintance Of the
every day.
That is why one picks up SO many
modern books in which the authors
have seen 1T TO print q disclaimer as
a preface, In which they assert and
declare that their characters are not
intended for any one person or set Of
persons.
This Is quite true in many inst lnces.
No one person has been definitely held
in mind, but certain traits and char
acteristics of that person are utilized,
cold bloodedly, II one will.
The Shoes Fit Me Club Is a very
large one, as any one knows who has
had occasion to write about human
nature in the raw.
In the raw, alas, Is the only way In
which human nature yields up its
good, its bad. its mediocrity. The brave
man who. faces 1t comes to have a
mighty tolerance, which enables him
to see characteristics without recrimi-
nation.
Those who nominate themselves for
The Shoes Fit Me Club, however. are
looking entirely at the shoes, and de-
claring loudly that they hurt some
thing terrible!
In assigning book characters to real
human beings the average reader can
| feel pretty sure Of one solace. He will
scarcely ever recognize himself. even
though he be portrayed to the life.