"qw w .. . - . .. t. 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 .