THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1921
. 1
The Detroit Saturday Night has things literary. The other publica- Lyhne," which Henrik Ibsen called
started a book review section. It is tions of Detroit either run the book the greatest novel of the nineteenth
not confined to the regusar pages but news in a regular section or have no century, has been translated into Eng-
is a department in itself. The De- such department at all. lish by Hanna Astrup Larsen, and is
troit Sunday News has for sometime - offered by Robert M. McBride and
had a section devoted exclusively to Jacobsen's famous book "Niels company.
."Easily Settled
To save yourself from buying a "twelve-
dollar style" in a six-dollar quality, remember
that a shoe is only good if it's made good; and
you don't really feel sure of worth unless you
buy- a good name. Therefore seek a name
that stands for style with quality, and for value
on which maker and merchant stake their
"
f
, .
",;
Iosh !
I take great pleasure in presenting,
with several corrections in spelling
and punctuation, the following letter
concerning myself. G. D. E,
The isolated phenomenon of G. D. E.,
one who engauds your _Sunday sheet
with lengthy peroration anent Dreis-
er, Puritanism, the "yokelry," prohi-
bition, Christians, and so on-in other
words, one who talks the Mencken-
talk unstintingly, has at length arous-
ed my righteous ire. This worthy, who
was assailed by disgusted campus crit-
ics rather weakly this past Summer
Session, has been growing steadily
more obnoxious. My sole objection to
G. D. E. is that I have read H. L.
Mencken ("Father Henry," as G. D. E.
so fondly and familiarly terms his
"master"). I have read with avidity
all of Mr. Mencken's published books;
I am also a regular follower of "Repe-
tition Generale," which Mr. Mencken
with George Nathan publishes each
month in the Smart Set. The famous
critic is quite familiar to me, both in
his philosophy and his slashing mode
of attack. I believe him to be a force
in American life, not wholly unrepre-
hensible, but at least healthily alive.
My feelings, uping seeing Mr.
Mencken's ideas and phrases garbled
in toto into a silly, presumptuous, and
flippant mess of "blab" in The Michi-
gan Daily (I don't remember whether
I quote Mencken or not), are complete-
ly outraged. Of course, if one has
never read Mencken, G. D. E. is quite
exhilarating. This, I presume, is G. D.
E.'s view of the matter. To bask in
the sunlight of borrowed astuteness
appears to be his particular privilege.
If these displays of brilliance by G.
D. E. were only labelled at the top of
the page, "Translations from the Men-
ekenese," or "With Apologies to Smart
Set," or "'Prejudices' in Words of One
Syllable," or "Clippings by the Campus
Cut-up," or "'Prefaces' Paraphrased,"
or "Mencken Made Easy," I should be
pacified. But this posing as a great
critic and "enlightener of the dense,"
I find an abominable nuisance.
I have not the space nor the patience
to point out the similarities between
the respective points of view and vo-
cabulary of master and pupil. It would
be far easier to note the phrases that
G. D. E. has actually coined for him-
self. As for ideas, I have never yet
seen one of G. D. E.'s that did not
force me to chuckle to myself remin-
iscently.
Mencken has something to say and
the experience and background which
give him the right to say it. G. D. E.
has nothing to say and no excuse for
saying it. His "criticism" is only a
shoddy redecoration of of another's
opinions. Never yet have I caught G.
D. E. differing from "Father Henry."
It is a matter of indifference to me
whether this outrageous plagiarism is
stopped by The Daily feature-hunters.
I am merely interested in letting G.
D. E. as well as his public know that
these slavish imitations of his are not
passing unrecognized and that Menck-
en's self-appointed "understudy" is
not imposing on all of us.
Then, I suppose, a man cannot help
being an ass, but one does feel sorry
for him.
ONE OF MANY NAUSEATED
READERS
11
reputations.
Dorothy Dodd shoes have been preemi-
nently good for over twenty years ; and value
considered, they are better than ever today.
REG. U.S.PAT. F. A. S.C..
SHOES -r
r
i w