THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 1923,
SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 1923
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
I
PAGE TwO
i
._ .
The Breviary
of Decadence
"While versatility was represented ROBERT LOCKE heasvertaken by the apparition.
by men of the prodigious energy of "The bulldog woman was-in front
lbert and Leonardo it was by no t t ocepr'of him and, grotesque and woeful,
Albet ad Lonado t ws b nothe flute, at once sugary-and peppery, trip to London. And a rather vaague while warn: tears fell from her eyes,
means vain, but-when small spirits whlIan er elfo e ys
ttmtedalthinsbt. iledsallsthigspuling and sweet; while, to complete agnosticism frightens him for fear!she told him that she had lost her
attempted all things, spoiled all things hetlhi tatseadothr
and belittled all things, then versatili- 1 the orchestra, kirschwasser has the that he is weakening and again be- teeth in her flight. As she spoke she
ty led to decadence." This from Giov- furious ring of the trumpet; gin and coming subject to the snares of the drew clay pipes from the pocket of her
anni Pani, an Italian and oneofthehIskeyburnthChurch while it provokes rather in- nurse's apron, breaking and shoving
anniPapnian talin ad oe~o th whiskey burn the palate with th:eir tricots philosophzy concerning Cath-pecsfth esinohehlws
clearest thinkers that it has been my strident crashings of trombones and t eph p pieces of the stems into the hollows
luck to find. Bearing this statement cornets; brandy storms with the deaf- olicism and Sadism. of her gums.
in mind we will not expect too much ening hubbub of tubas; while the Another quality of the book which "'But she is really absurd', Des
from the reading of, "Against The thunder-claps of the cymbals and the deserves notice is the grotesque. I can: Esseintes told himself. 'These stems
Grain", a translation of "A Rebours", Jfuriously beaten drum roll in the most effectively give this with an ex- will never stick.' Anil, as a matter
by Joris Karl Huysmans and publish- mouth by means of the rakis de Chio." cerpt of a dream. Des Esseintes finds of fact, they dropped out one after
ed by Lieber and ewis, Publishers; Huysmans uses Des Esseintes' se- himself confronted by a form: ". . . another."
for it has time and again been dubbed, usra seDsEsins hshatalo
ft riary of andeadnen, duthei, clusion to bring out a good many his heart almost stopped beating and' The book is full of clever bits which
things of interest. Chapter after he stood riveted to the spot with I could go on quoting at great length,
nacle of decadence' or the book that, chapter starts out with a nee symp- horror. He nearly fainted. This en- but it might be considered as an in-
'may be said to contain the apotheosis tom of his ailment each of which igmatic, sexless creature was green; fringement on the copyright held by.
of that fin de siecle spirit', leads to memories or perusals o f through her violet eyelids the eyes the publishers if I continued. So after
Although the book has been a pat- rather extraneous affairs. Bon bons were terrible in their cold blue; pim- recommending it to those who are in-
tern for innumerable books written served to recall his former mistresses. ples surrounded her mouth; horribly terested in the decadent writers of the
originally in the English, it is but They, " . . . were each a drop of emaciated, skeleton arms bared to the eighteen nineties, in particular, and to
now receiving adequate translation. sarcanthus perfume, a drop of femi- elbows issued from ragged tattered those who are interested in literary
And it is, it seens to me, its value as nine essence crystallized in a morsel sleeves and trembled feverishly; and curios, in general, I leave the book,
a source rather than any enduring of sugar. They penetrated the papil- the skinny legs shivered in shoes that itself.
literary qualities that now warrants rere several sizes too large.
ispbiain rfima emi-lee of the tongue, recalling the very I have not yet mentioned, however,
savor of voluptuous kisses". "Suddenly he understood the mean- the introduction written by Havelock
consistent with the resther e i- An afternoon in his library offers a ing of the frightful vision. Before him Ellis. He divides it into two parts;
for I will probably be rather enthusi- A feno nhiwirr fes as h mg f ;ils-oei nHysasadhswr,
astic over parts of it. Its levernesschance for much sound literary crit- was the image of Syphilis", one is on Huysmans and his work,
is verart ad it unusu aeshet-s, icisnm. A foggy evening and a meal in Horribly frightened he took to his while the other is on the Decadence
icism are still, even, after numerous:' a wine shop suffices for an imaginary heels. Finally" having stopped to rest (Continued on Page Eight)
weak impressions have been struck
from the same die, freshly original.
Technically it cannot be called a
novel. I am tempted to call it a fore-
runner of the psychological studies]
that have so lately been the center of
much literary attention until I re-
member that Arthur Machen was writ-
ing his "Hill of Dreams", at the same
time and that Marcel Proust was wellM
started on his enormous work, "A La
Recherclie (In Temnps Perdu .N Never-
theless, it is a psychological study of
one man, Des Esseintes, the last of a G
long hine 0o French noblemen, and the
product, physically, of several genera-z
Lion of close intermarriage. Fait Heart Never Won
After leaving the cloister, where he
received his early education, Des Es- - w-
seintes lead the life of an artist and :_Farr Ladv_.
his unromantic 'puritan nature, she
left him, . soul-weary girl who had
searched for' love, found it, and hada
been ddfeated in the battle to retain i
Manning, cold-blooded Anglo-Saxont
though he was, could not endure thet
heartache of her desertion, and plead$:
ed with her to return, but Sonya hat
tasted of the cup of Life-and found
it bitter. She married her modiste.
Anzia Yezierska has presented ina
'Salone of the Tenements" a -drama,
painted in no false colors. of ther
ghetto of New York, the melting pot-
and the ghetto is in itself a meltingt
pot. In Sonya she has created a char-C
acter whose life is a flame of passionE
for beauty and love, trying to destroy
the bigotry of creed and the prejudicesf
of race in order to. realize her selfishI
dream of romance-and fails.
The novel is truly a master's work.t
"Hungry Hearts" brought AnzioI
Yezierska from darkness into light:
"Salome of the Tenements", will keep
her forever in the light.
THE PAINTER STANDS'
ALOOF
Ph it. ItE FRAMES. hy Tylira Samter
Winlaw. Alfred lnope.t
Reviewed by F. L. Tilden
There seems to be a sacred tradi-
tion among book reviewers to acclaim,
a new author of short stories as the
reincarnation of 0. Henry or the heir-
apparent of Chekhov. The first case
presupposes short, eqigrammatic sen-
tences, the chocolate sundae joys and
ten dollar a week sorrows of Mag or
Liz. The second classification be-
speaks of a "relentless young realist"
with a set mouth and very shiny eye-
glasses prodding rural characters with
a pointed stick and jotting down re-
actions. Sometimes there appears an
author who is a combination of types
and refuses to fit comfortably into the
file. Then the preserved and stand-
ardized adjectives are useless and a
new set must be made; a new place
must be opened. Fortunately for the
good of contemporary short-stories,
Mrs. Winslow refuses to fit in any
niche but her own.
The stories are ten in number and
the settings are about equally divided
between the small town-the classic
example of mid-western variety-and
the brick and smoke of the city. There
is Emma Hooper who comes to Chi-
cago from Black Plains, Iowa to find
"some rich old geezer whose wife
doesn't understand him"--prima facie
evidence that the efforts of the cinema
producers have not been for naught;
there is Mamie Carpenter who waits on
table in the Busy Bee Candy store and
marries the social catch of the season.
A story called Birthday impressed me.
Gramma Potter helps around the
house of her daughter, is snubbed
substly and patronized by the selfsh
complacent family and then on her
eighty second birthday successfully
returns her dues to her daughter.
The sketch reminded me of Pa
Blanchard in "Nocturne"-the attituac
of the children was almost the same.
Anither, "Amy's Story," concerns a
girl who once heard that in everyone's
life was the plot for a novel. All her
life she spent waiting for something
to happen-romance, the big story, but
"it did seem too bad that nothing ever
happened to her, school - parties -
marriages - babies - widowhood -
nothing - no story at all."
A cycle of Manhattan follows the
rise of a Jewish immigrant, The Ros-
enheimers on MacDougal Street.
through the periods of acquisition till
the father becomes a pillar of the
pants industry, changes his name at
last to Ross and the eldest son
takes a studio in Washington Square.
It happens to be the same old Mac-
Donald Street loft which first greeted
the Rosenheimers several decades be-
fore.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing
is Mrs. inslow's attitude toward her
people; .it is, one of unique detach-
ment, tinged neither wth undue hope-
lessness nor with sanguininity It
seems precisely the same point of view
that you would take toward people
whom you have never bothered to be
t reatly concerned about. Through her
I'aere is no - mnathe tc appeal wha -
r- Tn ]12h drawnk the charcmtrs
,'d 1 t anl take themre r Inat as vosn
choose. She plays no favorite; no one
is wholl.y good or wholly bad; hers is
a splendid sense of equity.
'Wifhle' the reader is taken within
the emotional life of the characters,
the impression, I think, persists that
they cannot be known as personali-
ties; one does not close the book and
have remaining with him the vivid
image of an individual that is evident
after reading Drieser's "Twelve Men"
for example, or any of Mertick's sto-
ries. The reason for this lack of
strong individualities is in the fact
that Mrs. Winslow has chosen for her
characters, with perhaps one or two
exceptions, the purest kind of stock
types, the small-town girl, the Harlem
fiat-dweller, the comfortably situated
methopolitan stock broker and his
wife. Into these has been breathed
actual'life but they remain types; it is
natural that they should have no more
lasting personalities than so many
subjects in a clinic.
The same applies to Mr. Sherwood
Anderson'scharacters insofar as they
leave little of real acquaintanceship
on the mind; they tell their stories
also; a succession f masques, emo-
tion in spectres. This book is more
than merely clever; it is in a sensej
fundan:ental and all one can do with
crude color,, length and breadth-a
gallery of figures without shadows.
Mrs. Winslow's .success is in the
ironic twist of each story, her com-
plete lack of any fixed idea and an
almost continental sophistication. It
is refreshing to see her amused ac-
knowledgement of human fallacies,
the complete absence of any illusion.
MEMOIRS OF
WALTER PAGE
(Continued irom Page Four)
question the most crucial for an estim-
ate of his character and of the place
which he will take in history; for the
reactions of_ Mr. Wilson which are
frankly set forth in thse pages on the
basis of intimate knowledge are just
those which have changed the course
of history. Page's judgments will be
weghed with appreciation of the fact
that they are penned throughout by a
friendly hand, and until events
brought about a reversal of judgment,
by a close, intimate and a warm ad-
mirer. The growing disillusionment
of Mr. Page as to the character and
purposes of the ex-President is, in-
deed, the outstanding feature of these
remarkable memoirs. What these
judgments are can of course best be
learned by going to the book itself.
A few excerpts are however of special
significance. Of Mr. Wilson he says:
"He does his own thinking, untouch-
ed by other men's idea. He receives
n'othing from the outside. His domes-
tic life is spent with his own, nobody
else, except House occasionally... .
"He declined to see Cameron Forbes
on his return from the Philippines.
"The sadness of this mistake!
"There is a great lesson in this
lamentable failure of the President
really to lead the ation. The United
States stands for democracy, and free
opinion as .it stands for nothing else
and as no other nation stands for it.
Now when democracy and free opin-
ion are at stake as they have not
before been. we take a neutral stand-
-we throw away our very birthright.
We may talk of humanity all we like:
we have missed the largest chance
that ever came to help the large cause
that brought us into being as a Na-
t i o n . . .
"And the people, sitting on the com-
fortable seats of neutrality upon which
the President has pushed them back,
are grateful for Peace, not having
taken the trouble to think out what
Peace has cost us and cost the world
-cxcetg so many as have felt the un-
comfortable stirrings of the national
conscience.
"There is not a man in our Sta;e
Department or in 'or Government who
>' s ver met any prominent statesmen
in t ny Europan Governne t-except
the third assistant Seretary of State,
teho has no authority in formking poi-
ties; there is not a "ae who knows
tie amosphere of Europe. Yet uen
Secretariesshold go t- Englandon
(Centinued on Puge Eight)
S
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s _
HOES that are dif-
ferent-trim and
conservative,
at $6.00 and $8.50
GEross and Diet'
117 E. WASHINGTON
Eating May Be a Ha
Make your Lunches a pleasur
by eating at
Tuttles Lunch Roo
338 Maynard St. South of M
philosopher in Paris until ennui over-
took him and all of his contacts be-!
cane unbearable.. He then retired to
a house in a lonesome suburb of Paris
and lived there in close seclusion.
Everything that was used in furnish-
ing the house was especially designed
for its effect upon his senses. In fact
he had developed such a case of
hyper-aesthesia that the prime object
in everything that he did was the
dicovery of new sensations. In con-
nection with some cxperiments with
perfumes, . . . He believed that this
sense (smell) could give one delights
equal to hearing or sight; each sense
being susceptible, if naturally keen
and properly cultivated, to new im-4
pressions, which it could intensify, co-,
ordinate and conpose into that unity,
which constitutes a creative work.
And it was not more abnormal and un-
n'atural that an art should be called'
into existence by disengaging odors
than that another art should be evoked
by detaching sound waves or by strik-
ing the eye with diversely coloredj
rays."
A group of sensations which will be
more interesting to the majority is'.
that group which he obtained from the,
taste of his liquors:
"He went to the dining room where,:
built in one of the panels, was a
closet containing a number of tiny,
casks, ranged side by side, and rest-:
inmg on small stands of sandal-wood.
"This collection of barrels he called
his mouth organ.
"This organ was now open. The
stops labelled flute, horn, celestial
voice, were pulled out ready to be
placed. Des Esseintes sipped here
and there, enjoying the inner syn
phonies, succeeded in procuring sen-
sations in his throat analogous to'
those which music gives to the ear.
"Moreover, each liquor correspond-
ed, according to his thinking, to the:
sound of some instrument. Dry cur-,
acoa, for example, to the clarinet:
whose tone is sourish and velvety
;umnneI to the oboe whose sonor ous
notes suiffle' Min~t 'and annisette to
Don't Die on Third!
We suggest three effective ways of making the right impression:
I st. Take Her to the Betsy Ross.
2nd. Send Her a box of Betsy Ross Chocolates. They hit the spot.
3rd. Bring Her here and take a box of Betsy Ross Chocolates when you
leave.
"There's nothing belier than sw9eets for the swpeet."
If you want the best,
You need not guess,
But come to the Betsy Ross.
r
~1
"It
Dry your hair by
electricity
it's the easiest, quickest n'av
W ITH an electric hair drier one's
hair can be dried in a remark-
ably short time, with either warm or
cool air. Where there are many girls,
the 'expense of purchasing is very
low.
$25
Every sororitV should have one.
Detroit Edison Co.
c a i at .t i. nir Tele l e{pho1e( I
I-Imnumm 1