The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-01-14
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influence of Waggling Tongues Up
on the Public at Large

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elbowing their neighbors in an
effort to get up in front, there to
attract the wavering eyes of the
world, publicity of one sort or
another, is considered the es-
sential factor in human prog
reSS.
To be talked about, to appear in
the public prints, to have ones
name on the national lip is consid-
cred a flying start toward the hall of
fame.
Unfortunately, many supplicants
for recognition are unable to dis
tinguish the difference between
fame and notoriety.
Publicity, gossip, rumor, all one
and the same thing, born of the
whispering chorus, is strong medi-
cine to take; dope to some, stimu-
liant to others.
T But there are authentic instances
where publicity of the right sort,
the outgrowth of spontaneous and
merited acclaim, has turned the
edge of a dark cloud into silver,
luminous and joy to behold. The
marvel is that in most cases the
waggling of a few tongues was re-
sponsible for the ensuing transfer
nation.
Actors, dramatists, artists, novel
lists, inventors unsung, unknown
and Stunned of fame, suddenly, by
virtue of small group, have gone
over with the public and been &C
claimed. Failures have been re-
vived to make fortunes; forgotten
books brought again to life; music
that once palled, flung back into
the public ear, to bring fame to
composers, dead or forgotten.
Career of David Harum"
Edward Westcott, who wrote
David Harum," declined by nine
publishers, died in the spring of
1898. In the autumn of the same
year his book found its way to a
printing press. More than 100000
copies went into circulation.
Walter Brownies "Everyman, a
morality play, reached the stage
after the author had, twas said,
died of broken heart. His family
had the satisfaction of knowing that
he had written a masterpiece.
Charley Klein's "The Lion and
the Mouse was a flop" first,
afterward to become, without
changing a single line, one of the
great money makers of the Amer
lean theater.
Felix Graux, a French youth, who
as a schoolboy received from his
uncle the story of how the Bastile
fell in Paris, wrote "The Reds of
the Midi" which made no impress
sion whatever until Gladstone, then
Premier of England, finding the
book in a secondhand shop, wrote
a letter to the publishers, stating
that Graux had achieved the almost
impossible in bringing the greatest
event in French history to life
through the eyes of dead man.
Nearly 100000 copies were sold as
consequence.
Davis Admires Butler.
In 1910, returning to New York
from a Yellowstone trip with Sam
uel G. Blythe, / found discarded in
a vacant Pullman seat copy of
Samuel Buffers "The Way of All
Flesh,' which both of us read with
satisfaction and, before reaching
New York.
A year later, during a luncheon
given in honor of Arnold Bennett at
the University club, New York, I
said jokingly to the Englishman:
"Aren't you fortunate to sit at this
table consuming terrapin worth one
pound the plate, drinking vintage
champagne and mingling with the
intellectual elite of the Twentieth
century, while underneath the
shrubbery of the garden, at the
WokIng crematorium, forgotten and
with nothing to mark the spot, lies
the ashes of your peer, dead these
nine years?"
''To-o-o-o-w-w-whom do you re-
fer?" replied the novelist, who not
infrequently spoke with slight
stutter.
Samuel Butler, who wrote The
Way of All Flesh F"
Arnold Bennett COncurs.
Rising from his seat, the Briton
made a profound bow and extended
his hand. "You are quite right; he
stood alone among English authors,
but it will be long time before he
is forgotten
This brief dialogue, overheard by
a reporter present, appeared the
next day on the front page of the
New York Herald. John Macrae,
head of the house of E. P. Dutton
& Co., publishers of ''The Way of
All FLESH" copy of which Blythe
and I had read the year before, i'm
mediately brought out another edi-
ton contained in a jacket carrying
in full the colloquy between myself
and Arnold Bennett at the Univer-
sity club luncheon.
Revitalized by Benefits high en-
dorsement "The Way of All Flesh"
which had sold less than 1000 jump
ed into a best seller and so
effectively established Butler in
the United States that twelve years
later, 1923, his collected works in
twenty volumes, in a limited edi-
ton of $50 numbered sets at $140,
were brought out for the United
States and Great Britain.
Copyright.-WNU Service.