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PAGE FOUR
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 1923
SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 1923
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
FAG
PA(
Memoirs Of An Ambassador
Burnett's Marionettes
If we except a few periods within!
which literature has seemd to have'
an unusual efflorescence, books which!
are destined to go down to posterity
as distinct achievements in the field of
letters have made their appearance at
rather long intervals. An eminent
British author who was recently in
Ann Arbor made the statement that1
not since the appearance of the fam-1
ous letters of Chesterfield has any'
book comparable in its literary quali-
ty to The Life and Letters of Walter
H. Page come from the press. It might
be said of Page, as has been said of
another American, "His stylistic drag-
cry is never so smoothed as to obscure
the sinewy vigor of his thought"
But it is not alone as literature that
the Page Letters are memorable, for
they reveal as does no other book that
has been written the inside story of
the great events leading up to the
ultimate participation in the war of
that nation which held the scales in
the. greatest convulsion of our civiliza-
tion. Its amazingly frank revelations
are so startling only because the
salient facts had long been screened
from view and the public left dazzled;
and bewildered by the tinsel glitter of
advertised achievements by those in
power. In a very real sense these
letters of our Ambassador at the Court
of St? JIrC1 iS Ic
Reviewed by WILLIAM HERBERT ,HOBBS
Unicersity of Mich gcn
achievement and remain almost un- weighed heavily upon Page as Am-
known to his countrymen. The ex- bassador, sapped 'his strength to the]
planation is simple enough. The busy limit. It right be said of him that
world does not regard the person-! he gave his life to his country as truly
ality of the scholar, the editor or the as did our soldiers at the front. With
publisher; and it is in just these fields the outbreak of the wav the affairs of
that Page had made his career. At ( the German and Austrian Govern-
Johns Hopkins University as a student ments were added to our own, and
of the classics he had been one of that volunteers had to be enlisted at the
little group that had sat at the feet Em bassy in great numbers to lookI
of the outstanding scholar Basil L. after their nationals as well as our
Gildersleeve. From this cloistered own, caught unprepared in Europe.;
atmosphere he had removed to the The strain upon him at length told
editor's sanctum, where with an in- more and more. After long hours at
errancy of judgment which was al- the office, he would return to it after
most uncanny he had increased the l is dinner and perhaps remain until
circulation of his magazines--amazing late in the night. When at last he
to record-by elevating, and not de- returned to his house in Grosvenor
pressing, their tone; and here his per- Square..
sonality was masked under the plural "He would enter the house slowly
and impersonal expression, "The Edit- --and his walk became slower and
ors". Just as abruptly he came into more tired as the months went by-
the political field with the advent of; go u to his roam and cross to the
Woodrow Wilson in national politics. fireplace, so apparently wrapped up
Both from the letters themselves in his own thoughts that he hardly
and from the historical material which A word fire was kept burning for him,I
the editor has supplied as a back- winter and summer alike; Page would
ground, it is clear that the burden of put on his dressinpg gown, drop into
work and of responsibility which a friendly chair, and sit there, doing
nothing, reading nothing, saying noth-
ing--only thinking. Some times he
would stay for an hour; not infre-
quently he would remain till two,
three or four o'clock in -the morning;
occasions were not unknown when his
almost motionless figure would be in
this same place at daybreak. He never
slept through these nights, and he
never even dozed; he was wide awake,
and his mind was silently working
upon the particular problem that was
uppermost in his thoughts. He never
rose till he had solved it or until he
had decided upon a course of action.
He would then get up abruptly, go to
bed, and sleep like child."
It was in such a protracted vigil that
he hit upon the brilliant idea which
solved the Dacia peril. It was his
suggestion to Sir Edward Grey which
led to the taling into custody of this
contraband freighter by a. French in-
stead of a British war vessel.
It was but natural that the strong
light in these letters of our Ambas-
sador should have been turned upon
President Wilson. Of all the bio-
graphical material which has been
essembled concerning the part played
by' this dominating figure, that which
is found in these letters is beyond
(Continued on Page Seven)
AGA WINTERS
There is a man in the University, a torium for a matinee and evening
Senior in fact, whose guiding passion performance.
is tinkering with mechanical toys. The remarkable feature of his mar-
ionettes is their really remarkable me-
Athletics hold no attraction for him, ' chanical construction. It is in this line
the absorbing ethics of business ad- that Mr. Burnett excels. All of the
ministration do not interest him, and sixteen dolls of "Rumpelstilzkin" are
it doubtless makes little difference to capable of the most astonishing
him whether the so-called Liberals tricks, but there is one puppet, a vio-
vindicate their questionable principles linist, that is especially delightful.
or not. His name is Harry Burnet. The creature colemnly walks on to the
The alpha and omega of his existance stage, his violin in one hand and bow
are marionettes. Obviously, he is;stehe . He owshand a hen
either a prodigy or a maniac. n the other. He bows, and then
.ha.d.am - 1places the instrument against his
He says that his inspiration came neck, raises hi, soulful eyes to the
from Tony Sarg, but this is meaning- ceiling, and with true tempermenta!
less, for every amateur puppet in the grace draws his bow across the
country sprang from the terrible strings for the first mellow note.
Countess Grufanuff and. her Prince And there are others as well:.Rum-
Bulbo. If the purpose of hi, marion- pelstilzkin himself with his villain-
ettes is only the most obvious kind Of ous scowl and clatter-ng wooden leg, a
burlesque, it is not his fault, for the dark-skinned accordian player, the
marionettes that Maeterlinck, Schnitz- distracted miller's daughter, and her
ler, and Hauptmann write for have royal child who, they say, appears at
not yet been introduced into Amer- the end.
ica- I do not ask you to attend the pro-
Harry Burnett has preoented sev- duction. A play Qf such eternal ap-
eral puppet .plays during the last few peal as this old English nursery tale
years, and each successive produc- is always certain of good audiences.
tion has shown mrarked improvement, I can, however, personally assure you
technically and artistically. On March of a delightful evening in "Rumpel-
17, he will offer another marionette stilzkin", full of the boisterous vigor
farce, the familiar fairy tale, "Rum- and frank humor of the old time mum-
pel,stilzkin", in the High School audi- mers.
Scene From 'Rumpelstilzkin'
serious development are inherent, no future is concerned I thinl
doubt, but are as yet totally unrealiz- pictres have inherent artisti
ed. tialities and it seems to me i
The greatest art is that which pays motion picture opera is not be
the least. The great orchestras, opera boundas of possibility.
companies, art museums, and the like I liked the plays "Smlin' T
are constantly crying out for outside i "The Eternal Flame", the las
aid, remuneration, as it were. In in g picture interpretation of
themselves they are helpless. Undy- novel, largely due to the exce
ing fame ha- oft come far too late in nd striking personality
to the great creators and innovators, Tg ade.theonl tyno
of our civilization. Public apprecia-;Talmadge. The only pretentio
tion has come years after the death of' Wallace Reid ever appeared
some of our greatest men. Now by side of his performance of
the very testimony of the various mo- with Geraldine Rarrar, wx
tion picture companies, theirs is the! screen vrsion of DuMaurier
fifth largest industry in the United Ibbetson" in which he apea
States. This fact, it seems to me, com- Elsie Fergusom This work.
pletely obliterates all claims t h e me, was exce1 in man
photoplay may have had towards art- which go toward i makiu
istic worth, just as a terrible sinister art and if I rememl .- ,orCC
fate motif destroys all sense of joy not appeal to our "en1 ht
when suddenly introduced into a sym- dent audience at all. Th o
phonic scherzo movement. One of the; sad, it was profound, and
well known De Mille brothers wrote in very badly, being quite real-
suport of a contention, "Why, the best in spite of the adverse
art pays the most, naturally". But our only too numerous 1 a
why go further? Such shallow-mind- did tnd it possible to i,u?,
edness as this, and cheap reviewing by mnong the list of '-4 prMC
actual photoplay authorities, but hurts the year nineteen 1 tndred A
their cause the more. As far as the' one.
.RINGS FOR WINTE
R1 ENGAGE'MENTS
Quality Marks Those Which Come from
H ALLER 'S
Though spring may get the credit, quite as many Junt1 b
wear the veil as a result of mid-winter courtships. Th
who would grace a fair finger with a diamond will
assortments just as complete and satisfying now asia (
We Know How Diamonds Shot
Be Set
The setting may increase the luster of a diamond, d
play its best points, enhance every beauty, or it may du
dwarf or otherwise spoil the appearance of the stone.
We know the fine points of gem setting. Many ye
of experience in choosing and setting fine stones enab
us to set diamonds perfectly.
I--
-'TAT E 1 TR T
1EI Li R
vLa. james are Lne arenives of the
American State Department during
those long and terrible months when
our Government had not yet focussed
its attention upon the real crisis of the
world, but only upon personal prestige
in international diplomacy. These
Memoirs tell us that at tho beginning
our ambassador sent his reports to his
Chief in the Department of State
through the offIcial channels, but
after a most confidential cipher dis- -
patch to Mr. Bryan had been at once
given out to the newspapers, his only;
resource was to rely upon private !
letter addressed either to the Presi-
dent himself or to his familiar, Calonel
House. Even when urgent messages
to the State Department were still un-
answered, a special message from the 1
Secretary asked the Ambassador if he
could not find a place upon his staff
for some "deserving Democrats".
There are in those letters many re- ,
ferences to Mr. Bryan, but the Am-
bassador's attitude is perhaps beet
expressed in a letter to House, who
had warned him that Mr. Bryan was _
planning a visit to England, Page'
writes, "Never mind about Bryan.
Send him over here if you wish to
get rid of him. He'll cut no more -
figure than a tar-baby at a Negro !
camp-meeting. If he had come while
he was Secretary I should have jump-
ed ,off London bridge... It'll be,_
fun to watchBryan perform and never
suspect that anybody is lying to him
or laughing at him; and he'll go home I
convinced that he has done the job and .
he'll let loose doves all over the land'
till they are as thick as English spar-
rows."
Page's contacts with the British
government were of course first and
foremost with Sir Edward Gray, (aft-.
erwards Viscount), the Secretary of
^ rereign Affairs, and the por- j
Th &h~'d he has sketched of that
uIreM !gure of the World Conflict is
) e .hat will greatly enhance the , z
t, in which he is already general-
r;: ?el. From the very beginning I
Grey r:Alired that in the final decision
hc'- les would be held by the United'
States this explains his patience ,
durig t } long nagging period over
t re trctions Placed upon American.
t - T'e concessions which thesel
ventions complications led him to,
nmk , used great dissatisfaction in
Geat Britain, and even tually forced
him to relnquiish his portfolio. This
acrifc e seems to have made cheer- I
aiy 'a 1iing that his policy had pre-
V :1; beak between the two na-
:ions an thus led up to America's!
Articipation
memors Walter Hines Page
t with the stature of a great
one who played a major rol
.wsis; bt 'any of tho iSC.X3
themn 'w11i be urpised that
i arriae 'at ,uc e )
\- -
--l
---
7?.5
- S
A Spring Fashion Revue exclusively for University women! This affair
will be given at 4 o'clock eWdnesday afternoon, March 14. The
. t.w
models will be selected from University women and the music will be ,
- . . . -
furnished by an orchestra composed of University women, and the total
cost of the affair will be contributed ,to the University of Michigan
League Campaign Fund.
Wraps, suits, frocks, millinery, and footwear for Easter will be displayed
as well as many frocks for late Spring and early summer wear. All
University women are cordially invited to attend this Fashion Revue.
11PmICNII194l 1 iil aaP11IIIIIIHM 1HOHil1IU~illUIHHflhftIMfhYHIIIhhi
Pandering !To Ikhe Public
CARL E. GEHRING
Of all the photoplays I have ever by better and worthier efforts of men.
seen, I think there would barely be ten, But the moving picture industry is
say one dozen at the outside, I should ever expanding! That is one point
ever care to see again. Theseselected they never let us forget in their ad-
works would include such plays as
"Prunella", "The Birth of A Nation",
"Stella Maris", "Smilin' Thru", "TheE
Eternal Flame", and a number of
others, the titles of which fail me at
the moment. For the'rest of the count-I
less p'fcrmances d have seen, the
less said the better. They provided
me with that which I sought, enter-
tainment ,amusement for the moment,
nothing more, and left no definite im-
pression whatsoever. I say this fur-
thermore, making no diastinctions as
to comedy of the more serious types of'
work. From the artistic standpoint I
think they are hopeless with the ex-
ception of the few I mentioned and
others I did not see perfromed.
seriously, one could hardly guess
the motion picture industry made any
artistic pretensions -whatever, judging,
from the work they turn out. TheyI
simply pander after the public taste
and the result will be inevitable if the
movies are to 'be taken at their word,
as a new art form. Heretofore, all
j vertising, hence, to my way of think-
ANY student who has a check
ing account in this bank will tell
you about the conveniences anrd
ing, they belong to the same category
as baseball and other types of pro-
fessional entertainment. The photo-
play never represented art, does not
do so today, and can only aspire to
anything like the true worth when
they cease allowing the public to lead'
them by the nose.
In support of my contention read
the reviews of current pictures by
prominent motion picture critics of
today as the Mae Tinee of the Chicago
Tribune, or those of Mrs. David Wark
Griffith, wife of the producer. If these
reviews represent the lofty, the beau-!
tifnl ascents I take art to be, than I
have a total misconception of the lat-
ter. Slang, vulgar phrases and ex-
pressions run rampant in these crit-
icisms, and good grammar seems to be
a phenomenon not to be considered.
I absolutely cannot defend the mo-
lion picture as a new art form. Those{
who do so hardly know what the in-,
gIredients of true art are. So ar the'
extra
service
youll get he
STATE.
SAVINGS BANK
Main at Wash ngtn
,{
p:uits artistic allowing public taste 'wolk of the various companies of this
to ictwte their course have away, industry has beenp'ehep tawdry and,
sutferea the same fate,-total eclipse vulgar. The p sibilities for future
.