Evening star., 1943-11-25

bel them 30
J.P. MeEvoy. the par ents
wouldn't have to bother about
1t at all and could concentrate
their precious energies on some
thing really constructive Like
finding something to make egg
nog out Of, now that the hens
won't lay eggs and the black
market won't lay nogs.
1t warmed my heart to hear
parents get together like this and
show such interest in their chill
dren's development. for it re.
called one of my early incarna-
tions, when I was a publisher
of books for children, back there
in wicked old Chicago. In those
days, I, too, used to hire experts
to decide what I would permit
parents to buy for their moppets.
One of the things I was very
fussy about was a suitable vo-
cabulary for each age group-so
many words, just so long. for
iour-year-olds, so many words, 50
much longer, for six-year-olds.
Then I would have this informa.
ton printed, not as a request,
but practically as a challenge, on
the jackets where the parents
would follow it-or else. felt
mighty sure about what was
doing and made all these diH.
sions with real executive snap
and finality.
Didn't Have Any Children.
AS you have already suspected,
that was before I had any chill
dren. And I might add that my
experts didn't have any either.
But one Of them had seen a child
once.
All! How young I was! Now that
l. have children I have learned
something new every day about the
incredible range of the childish
vocabulary. A few nights ago our
o-year-old announced to her mother
that she didn't feel well. When her
mother asked her why, our little Pat
replied, Il am suffering from a
surfeit of ice cream" Mote to Sec
retary: Look it up yourself) Sur
felt! Fine talk! How did she get
that way?
Well. I discovered she was heI
mothers own daughter. She had
sneaked book that I had bought
for myself and was secretly ENJOYING
it. Her mother always intercepts
the Book-of-the- Month. so what ]
really belong to is the Book of the
Month -Before-Last-Club.) And it
was in this charming. sophisticated
fairy tale for adults, Many Moons, "
written by my dream man, James
Thurber, that little Pat had learned
how the heroine, PRINCESS Lenore,
had fallen i'll from a surfeit of
strawberry tarts."
Domestic scenes like this help you
to understand those Quiz Kids
even that Marian, Orson Welles,
a world-weary cynic in his
crib. One day I asked his guardian,
Dr.. Bernstein, if 1t were true that
Orson Welles talked like an adult
when he was years old and DR.
Bernstein snapped Indignantly:
Like a cultured adult"
Anecdote Recalled.
Recalling this anecdote yesterday
at lunch with Gov. and Mrs. Clifford
Pinchot (who were having Welles
in for tea that afternoon), Mrs
Plnchot said she was going to tell
Orson about Thackeray, who, at
the age Of 3 when his nurse in
quired solicitously about a childish
bruise, brushed her off with a pa.
tronizing Thank you kindly. mad
am, but the pain hath somewhat
ahated."
Maybe it was a good thing that
I didn't know so much about chill
dren when was publishing books
for them. 1t would have given me
such stage fright I couldn't have
carried on. Imagine. trying to be
pontif1cal about a suitable vocabu-
larry for tx age group" if you knew
some child worthy of Wonderland
had described her foot going to
sleep as: Feeling just like ginger
ale
And you. my dear reader. how
would you like to be a writer of
children's books and one day in your
reading run across this episode,
which actually happened to a re-
porter for New York paper not
so long ago. He was visiting a
special school for gifted children
and as he was leaving tiny tot
came UP to him and said: Hold
out your hand He did so, won-
derins, and the child pretended to
put something in it. The reporter
looked into his empty palm and
asked, What did you give me?"
And the child replied: THAT is to-
morrow. Put it in your pocket"
Distributed by McNaueht Syndicate, Inc. ;,