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PAG IC MUR
THE MICHIGAN DA f
SUNDAY, MARCH 91924
SUNDAY, MARCH 9, 1924
ThE MICHIGAN DAILY
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The Curled Lip
CARELTON V. HAVENS L
IL
BOOKS
SPECIAL
This is the age of Scorn, Skepti-
fashion; Sneer is the watchword;
and Cynicism sits on every fencepost.
Will some kind gentleman step for-
ward and explain all this to our be-
wildered minds? Why? Why? Do
Fraud and Imposition ravage so fierce-
ly that the must needs take up these
weapons in self-defense? Are the
people of today more sophistic-ted,
more discerning, and less illusion-
ridden than people of the past? When
put into words the questions sound
rather silly, even to the white-hot
proponent of the Great Today idea.
We can scarcely say that our period
is the first to be skeptical and cyni-
cal! Consider, if only for a mcment.
the first half of the eighteenth cen-
tuiy. Surely that was an age of
criticism. Satire and irony-so close-
ly related-were hurled at institutions
and existing conditions like so many
cocoanuts. But, after all, daring and,
doubt are often admirable in effect.
I do not decry them as such, for they I
are, when properly exercised, prodlc
to progress. But I do cry out upoi c
the habit of so many of these little
ha'-penny intellectuals who sit se-
curely by the golden shore and pelt
their little hand-made mud balk; a
each and every institution or perso
that moves on the great tide before
them. The insignificant frowzy~
cism, and Doubt. Ridicule is the
their elders in such a lamentable
manner, are decidedly unfair and un-
sound from every standpoint. Few'
works of art are thoroughly good,
and fewer stlil are totally bad. "In-'
credibly bad," they say. How silly
and how utterly untrue! It is the
phrase of the uninitiated, the ego-
worshipper, the seeker of sensations.{
Thoughtful criticisms areenjoyable,
and if the arbiter of literary reputas- 1
tions jabs his pen-probe into the auth-i
of's tender spiritual anatomy now and
then for a really discernible reason,
so much the better. It is life admin-
istering sprirg bitters to a love strick-
en boy. Witness, I interpolate, the
case of Lord George Byron. But --
and the mean, compelling eye of
Warning hypnotizes our roving atten-
tion-give heed, wthen your mirth
has subsided, to the near-tragedy of
one -Lord Tennyson. Of course, we
go beyond our stars when we rumin-
ate thus. No college critic will ever l
'e the awful inspirer of another Ado-
nais. Let him drop acidulous tears
to plash upon his inky sleeve, for itI
can never be so.
Alack, alack! This seems a hope-
less, merry-go-round sort of effort,I
this reviling the revilers, this tossing
of mud at the mud-throwers, but it
THE BLAND GAEL
THE BLACK DOG. By A. E. Coppard.
Alfred. Knpf. 192. $2.0..
book; the only piece with real Irish.
"ochs" and "begods."
It is the heritage of his people, I
suppose, that gives him his ironic re-
gard for life. Yet perhaps this view
is more delicate and less purposive
than irony would inly. -He sees
people and what they do in a way that'
is anmused and scarcely serious. The
and "The Cat, the Dog, and the Bad'
Old Dame," reminiscent of Chekhoff,
Maupassant, and Katherine Mansfield,
to an arrant hallucination like "Big
Game." There is a gorgeous Arabian
Night in "Tanquil," and a naive alle-
gory in "Simple Simon."
The only story I can find that does
not touch me comfortably in some
way is "The Tiger." This unfavorable
regard on my part may arise from the
fact that I recall it' from the pages
of the old "Metropolitan" magazine as
it was illustrated with a particularly
wooden set of pictures. But it seems
rawer and more mtlodramnatic-so
much so that it is out of keeping with
the rest of the book
For the Soph Prom, Military
Ball and Frosh Frolic
It is a bad and perverted business title story is the best example of this;
that brings it so to pass that several the Honorable Gerald Loughlin and
short stories must be confined, to- Orianda Crabbe seem to live in ordin-
gether between the same covers. The aiy terms, and yet these terms are
poor driven reviewer must read f tcuched with impalpable fantasy. Inj
straight through, taking the gay with the second story, "The Ballet Girl,".
the solemn, the naive with the ironic, I the fantasy is more boisterous andJ
and the symbolic with the real. Short more evident-a university lark with
stories were meant to be read*singly all the alleged undergraduate whim-
i
I
,
SILVER
PUMPS
$10.00 value for
Dietzels Shoe Store-
117 E. Washington Street
Where Siles Originate
and degustated before running on the sey. But it is hopeless to attempt criti-
next one. Sometinmes the fantasy assumes a cism of the individual tales, so is it
As great a douche of criticism can soberer aspect-as in what is for me correspondingly proper to speak of the
be expended on one brief story as on the best story, "The Handsome Lady" style. Mr. Coppard has an unobtru-
a sesquipidalian novel-and then -and the ironic overtone is absent. sive completeness of statement, a fe-
where are you, with only, perhaps, The tale tells of how a district regis- lictious turn of the phrase, as though
a tithe of the book done up? The al- trar, a simple, parochial man, by a he knew precisely what he wanted toj
ternative is to skitter brightly over trick caused his remains to be buried say and then clothed his precision
the whole, aschewing the deeper crit- beside those of a woman he loved but with a fitting garment of words. Bute
icism in favor of the wider, which is never had, rather than those of his this quality which is his greatest,
depressing if the collection happens wife. The fine and sincere statement value is too evanescent and subtle for
to be good, as is the case with the of the inan's personality make plaus- confining in a formula, in spite of its
present volume, ibie and satisfactory his posthumous omnipresence and notability. Perhaps
A. E. Coppard is billed in the blurbsj triumph over circumstance. it is best to throw up the critical
as an Irishman but you'd guess itjThere are eighteen stories in the sponge, and confess a critic's frailty
yourself by "The Man from Kilshee- i collection, as varied a group as you by saying that Mr. Coppard indubit-
lan," if not by the preceding tales. could wish for. They range from ably has a way with .him.
This is the only lady-gregoryism in such incidents as "Huxley Rustem" Juo: Panurge
NEW Y(
(Contin
world Clos
the landing
from Ellis Is
lands is ob
and observin
from the o
streaming t
and women
pressing do
hope leadin
From the B
short distan
Streets whei
ern renowne
Washington
rades in arn
historic "lon
in some de
Revolutionar
permeate the
Then there
Money Grubt
with a churc
at the other-
in the world
America if r
city of crowd
is one of the
seen at its b
between the
in the after
stenographer
representing
and best dre
Now YUlr k
-'is done-and not in vain. Some day,
haired fellow, the make-believe pos- when I am collecting jewels for my
eur, who shrieks in his insistent fal- wnIallectmewesfor m-
seto tat hisis ate thn tat-crown, I shall come across one la-
setto that this is greater than that- beled so, "To that fearless soul who
this is not so, but that is-all for the sen e atl ssitely
sake of sensation,-ah, distresses me shootin darthof disay ritodty S
shooting darts of dismay into the
profoundly. ranks of the Cyclops of literature, to -
A great deal of blah has Deen in- their eternal discomfiture, and to the
scribed to honesty and sincerity, but glory of the true achievers." I rest
honesty and sincerity have not deterv- content. 5-
ed it. They are twin roads to truth,
and truth is the scale on which all
art is weighed. Corollary: All critics ,THE VALUE OF PRAYER: "Pray-
should be sincere in their judgments er has been devised for such men as
and honest in their opinions. Some never have any thoughts of their own, vdni
are. And that is saying much. and to whom an elevation of the soul.
The professional critic may find is unknown, or passes unnoticed. What
many excuses, pecuniary and other- shall these people do in holy places
wise for his deviation from just ex- and in all important situations in life
pression, but what can the amateur, which require repose and some kind_
or even the college critic, offer by way i of dignity? They may then, like the s
of palliating his fault? The college Tibetans chew the cud of their "om
critic pens his burning lines in a sort mane padue hum," innumerable times,
of home-brew wrath; he puffs his or, as in Benares, count the name of
cheeks in adolescent rage, and woe l the God Ram-Ram-Ram, etc (with or
to the unfortunate striver who crosses without grace), on their fingers; or =;-
the bitter fields in view of the reviler! honor Vishnu with his one thousand
All this, I say, appears to me in the names of invocation, Allah with his (,
light of a deplorable metamorphosis. ninety-nine; or they may make use of W
The critical-literary ink-pot is by way the yan the rosary- the
,teprayer-wheels,. n heasry h
of becoming a most unliterary- main thing is that they settle down for
stinkmeone-I do not recall the name a time at this work, and present a=
Somene- donotrecll he ametolerable appearance. . . To forbid
;-has said that there are two sides to themathe aeralli. would mean
every situation. Why not? 'Tis a thmth rae-alig -ldma
mere trui, perhaps, but it smacks to take their religion from thema
of sense. Now why, I ask, and in the fact which Protestantism brings more v
name of common consistency, cannot E and more to light. All that religion
the adjudicators of ideal expression ! wants of such persons is that they !
give sweet words with sour or sour should keep still with their eyes,m
with sweet as the circumstance mrer- hands, legs, and all their organs; they
its? These lop-sided judgments, so thereby become temporarily beautiful -
invariably the custom today, especial- and--more human-looking.'-(Netz-
ly among the younger critics who ape' sche, "La Gaya Scienza," bk. 3, 128.)
stroll. The:
market on B
_ present to the
- ing was ine
of its shouti
will long re
Trinity Chur
- WHITE SWAN Broadway w
-of Wall Stre
- alists to quo
the impossibi
mammon. 'T
ring out clea
the roar of t
quiet hours
..heard for a
way. Rober
Lawrendte a
are a few o
'rest in Trin:
!vial district
the story wr
_ Frank Norri
- are authors
" Watch for -aounemetless with af
= 5 Park Row
next week by White Swan their throng
- JVL.provide an
pxt oyss r * na * py of life. New
o f e UIvAJi A1in1 y 1 IIU e twhat broken
* the Tribune
per stories
..,to estudent and 1re7i =IppeRihr
~~V.L- lips,Rihr
de t in- Ann y ,A rbor. Ist's3n Hopkins Ada
den A 1.L .1 b ,.!i " i. t 7 G,1 ., ere11also is
jBridge. Wh
astounain inova tion." he most ink
Sis obtained -
at early tw
towering pil
window by
mass stands
table fairyla
Sauing colors.
. "The lights
- IrEXPECT GREAT THINGS dreamy
- m vised before.
C+lights of Ne
. S Bridge itsel:
written;
i "I have se
! SI ship o
over the
e ' I have see
WHIT trappe
- ' in the
° Bridge
5 '5Not far fr
-great gray so
-= - prison. Con
Inal Courts
way mentio:
"The Bridge
F the darker a
The Grea
5seething ma;
5 5- known place
5' - - 'to, the Bowc
5'student ofE
- 11141laotI lIftloIaon otikaraatn~rttssstatsrsasa~aaaaasaastssatsaaatarsasaatsra~a~la.'/"~t
EGO
(Continued from Page Three)c
youthful wantoness nenetrates all their art. The modern cult of "decency"
-thrust down the throat of human joy by a set of Calvins and John l
Knoxes-is only one of the indications in our wretched commercialized age
of how far we have sunk from the laughter of the gods and the dancing
of the morning stars.
"One wonders that scholars are any longer allowed even to read Aristo-;
phanes-far less translate him. And cannot they see-these perverts of1
a purity that insults the sunshine-that humor, decent or indecent, is pre-
cisely the thing that puts sex properly in its place? Cannot they see that'
by substituting morbid sentiment for honest Rabelaisianism they are obses- I
sing the minds of everyone with a matter which after alJ is only one
aspect of life?
"The 'great terrible Aphrodite-ruler of gods and men-is not to be
banished by ccncenticle or counciL She will find her way back, though
she has to tread strange paths, and the punishment for the elimination of
natural wantonness is the appearance of hideous hypocrisy. Diven from:
the .haunts-of the Muses, expelled from the symposia of the wise and witty,
the spirit of sexual irreverence takes refuge in the strets; and the scur-
rilous vulgarities of the tavern balance the mincing proprieties of the book-
shop."
at.
SLATER'S
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