PAGE FOUR
THE MICHIGAN DAii
SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 1924
SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 1924
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
--
u ., .
, ..
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Books
So BIG, By Edna Ferber. Doubleday,
Page, & Co. 1923.
When Edna Ferber wrote about
petticoat salesmanship she was amus-
ing and well liked. Beside her place
in periodical fiction, her yearsas -a
short story writer netted her some-
thing else-a certain facility of tech-
nique and a sure sense of the popu-
lar pulse; at the propitious moment
she came along with "The Girls" and
established herself as a novelist, It
has been interesting to watch Edna
Ferber grow and in her latest book,
"So Big," one feels any optimistic.
earlier prediction justified. She I:
still the thoughtful yet sprightly ob
server, large with sympathy and sure
in perception... . more than tha
we find in this novel a breadth ant
depth which our paper jacket an
nouncements call "truly American."
There are spots in the book wher
Bliss Ferber's early mannerisms o
the cheap fiction days assert then
selves: the improbable is made plaus-
ible stark reality is apologized for
. . . It is as though she forgets thai
I er r' aders are now a mature and
ultie lot . . . as if once more she is
wrting for the "happy-enders,"
Selina Peake is forced by sudden
poverty into teaching school in th
country-High Prairie, drab, heavy
hopeless, a community of Dutch truck
farmers, servitors to Chicago's maw,
which makes of Gopher Prairie an
enviable place. Here Selina, a crea-
ture incredibly fine and superior to
circumstances, falls in love with and
marries Pervus De Jong, a stupid
blond giant. The general muddiness
settles about her. Pervus dies and
the story is that of Selina, against
whose kind "life has no wealns,
left with her baby "so big", ahd the
run down De Jong farm. Endowed
with high courage and a belief in
beauty she finds prosperity in High
Prairie and a place in the world for
her son. The last part of'the book is
concerned with Dick, outgrown his
nickname, now, but it never loses
track of the transcending little figure
on the De Jong farm, 'Whose clear
conception of the spirit of things en-
tirely penerates and 4illunines the
empty shell which irk's successful
career had told hien was life,
There are other characters in the
story. .. types definitely drawn with.
that precision and consistency which
sems so native to Edna Ferber. But
most noteworthy are her keen 'darts
of irony, scarce bitter enough for
satire, none the less amusing because
well-aimed. "She talks with whole-I
some relish of Chicago's pork aris-
tocracy riding to hounds in pink jac-
kets while ' the fox'=a 'worred and
somewhat dejecte-looking ' animal-
had been shipped in -a crate from the
south and on being released lia away
of sitting sociably in an fllinis corn
field instead of leaping feetly to cover.
At the finish you had a feeling of
guilt, as though you had killed a -ock-
roach...
She criticizes what is elegant and
fashionable in Chicago architecture,
with genuine amiablty. "Those
French and Italan gimcracky 'things
they-they're inco'gruous. Its as
if Abrahatn Lincoln were to appear
suddenly in pink satin knee breeches
and "buckled shoes and lace iff le
at his wrists. . . . Those Italian vil-
las and French Chateaux-in north Chi-
cago suburbs are a good deal like
a race evening gown in the Arizona
desert. It wouldn't keep you cool in
the daytime, and it wouldn't be warm
enough at night. I suppose a native
architecture is evolvtd from building
for the local climate and the 'needs of
the community, keeping beauty in
mind as you go. We don't need turrets
and towers any more than we- need
draw-bridges and moats. It's aight
to ke p them, I suppose, where they
grew up, in a country wherethe ,eu-
dal system meant that any day your
nxt door neighbor mtght take jt into
his head to callthis gang -around him
S
I
,
,
a'
d'
i
'
.p
.
.
;
k
1'
o
and sneak up to steal our wife and
tapestries and gold drinking cu~ps."
Since I have fallen to quoting I
feel I must include that pungent com-
mentary on the University, Miss Fer-
ber described two classes in the in-
stitutions, the Classifieds and the Un-
classifieds. "The Classifieds and the
Unclassifieds rarely mixed. Not age
alone, but purpose separated them.
The Classifieds were, for the most
part slim young lads with caps and
pipes and sweaters, their talk of foot-
ball, baseball, girls; slim young girls.
- . . - with pleated skirts that switched
delightfully as they strolled across the
campus arm in arm, their talk of foot-
ball games, fudge, clothes, boys. They
cut classes when ever possible. The
Student Body. Midwest turned them
out by the hundreds-almost by the
link, one might say, as Aughempel's
sausage factory turned out its fine
plump sausages, each one exactly like
the one behind and the one ahead of
it. . . . . Football, fudge; I-said-to-
Jim, I-said-to-Bessie." Contrasted to
these were the Unclassifieds. "If it
had been physically possible they{
would .have attended two classes at
once, listened to two lectures, pre-
pared two papers simultaneously. . .
Most of them had worked ten years,
fifteen for this deferred schooling. ."
-Dorothy Sanders.
PROHIBITION
(Continued from Pala T r)
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The Reviewer Is Reveiwed'Mr. Cowles 0
DOROTHY TYLER "A player shall cease to beain ama-
THE REVIEWER, one of those lit- Gynt," which reveals Isben's humor teur by... playing for a mony prize
erary quarterlies which pay "in fame more fully than any other of his plays
not in specie," begins its fourth year in translation, precludes the possibil- From the By-Laws of the United
States Lawn Tennis Associa-
with somewhat minor contributions ity of ruling Iskben out of the running. I tio, Article II, Setion 5.
from authors .for the most part well-1 l
known. Margaret Emmerling, using Ben Applying this fundamental tennis
Hecht's Fantasius Mallare and Sher-. maxim to the situation in which I
more Evening Sun, tells of the cBesa- wood Anderson's John Webster (in find myself, I become a professional
peake Bay people in "Mare Nostrum." "Many Marriages") to prove her points humorist: for I receive part of the
"On ire Cheapeke B y," Mr. Owes well taken, writes that .the madness of 'gate receipts of the Michigan Daily
"On thre Chesapeake Bay," Mr. Owens ns t t ken, writes that .themadnss for turning out what is technically
thinks,d"one may live happy, and contemporary literary heroes is akin ou whatc cl
dying, die happy." to that of Hamlet: "The suspicion known as a column.' Ergo, whatever
arises that the authors use their he- I may say about the art of Mr. Stephen
Julia M. Peterkin in Over the;' Leacock must be interpreted as the
River" proves again the effectiveness roes' insanity as a mask fromx which Laokms eitrrtda h
ofiusingrfor literature maerialefos-they can criticize society's standards reflections of one professional humor-
of using for literature material for f morality and what not Anticipa- ist watching another professional
inerly rejected. A negro serving wo- .nohumorist doing his stuff.
man goes over the river to find the tng rebuke and dismay, they plead
fater of the child she bears while madness, like murderers on trial, but Mr. Leacock was certainly doing
ther; sthe scoed, ash ers child they do it with a wink to the initiate."'( his stuff. I have no idea how much
there; she is scorned, allows her chid of his public perceived the various
to die, and then home over the'river. David Bruce's "Et Cetera and Wine tis pubic ereie t e os
Carl Van Vechten's "Pastiches.et Glasses" is a prose ode to wines andi tricss their rit plyhd on
wt 1---- them-twisting their wits by his voice,
T
n Mr
manuscript
his discour:
through his
Some pe
Leaoock on
is not all o
these peopl
3e MA STeyfried
Jevelers
304 S. MAIN ST.
L-'Il
Pistaches" are comments upon the tnc Ways of wines in glasses. It is
Sabbath Glee Club of Richmond, Ar- so well done that it suggests Keats'
t1iur Machen's "Ornaments in Jade," draughts of vintage rather than post
an incident at the Al Jolson theatre, prohibition triviality.}
Anna Pavlowa, and things of equal' The thesis of Hansell Baugh's "The
interest. Tie That Binds" is that fraternities)
Apparently to prove that the Re- gather together strange bedfellows.
viewer is not afraid of Gertrude The literary trifles included in the "At
Stein, "An Indian Boy," in Miss Setin'sI Random" section, corresponding some-
..'
. t% vLI~tUitmn age iwo)
, lar medium he contemplates using,
so that he can decide what type of
appeal and argument will be most ef-
fective. To one class of people hisi
appeal might be Quality while to an-
other Low Price; to one class it might
be Beauty and to another Utility. The
effective advertiser classifies and mar-
shals- his arguments of greatest ap-
peal to the group of readers he hap-
' pens .to be addressing. On all oc-
casions, and especially in demonstrat-
ing the evils of liquor and the bene-
ficent' results of Prohibition, the Pro-j
' hibitionists ought to do likewise. Not
as a rule to the vast undifferential:
General Public but rather to the
groups composing it ought the Prohi-
bitionist direct his arguments. A!
specimen grouping is (a) Men, Wo-'
men; with these subdivided into (a)
Employers, - Employees (b) 1\arried.
Single. The possible groupings are
numerous and often overlapping, there
are no tight boundaries; yet as a gen-.
eral rule there are certain types of
argument which will have the great-i
est appeal to a certain group, and itt
is to this group that these arguments,
ought to be consistently directed.
{ Common-sense demands that oneI
sends -one's appeals where they will C
prove the most effective.
I,-Plenty of material is already avail.-
able for developing our third line of
advertising, which is, the arousing of,
the public to the prime necessity of
the enforcement of all law (which
would of course include the Prohibi-
tion lawes). The New Republic (a
magazine, incidentally, opposed to
Prohibition) in its issue of Sept. 13,
1922 admits that "When a law is not
Senforced, ... to that extent govern-
ment is oyerthrown." President Hard-
ing in An Appeal to Halt Law-Break--
ing (Literary Digest, March 15, 1922)
says, "If people who are known as
leaders, as directing influences, as
thoroughly respected and respectable
members of society shall in their re-
spective communities become known,
for their defiance of some part of the'
code of law, then they need not be as-
tonished if presently they find their
example followed by others, with the
result that presently the law in gen-
eral .comes to be looped upon as a}
set of irksomeand unreasonable re-
straints upon the liberty of the indi-
vidual."
It will not prove so very difficult to.
demonstrate the necessity of law en-r
forcement if government is to exist;
and in this phase of their propagandaj
and advertising Prohibitionists will
find themselves aided by a large num-
ber of citizens, many of whom are op-
(Continued on Page Five) -
{ -
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1.
u-sual repetitious prose, is included. -
However, inquiries concerning "An
Indian Boy" will be ignored, accord-
i- g- to the editors.
Edwin Bjorkman in "Isben Here and
Now" contends that the attempt . to
relegate Isben, with his supposed se-
verity, to a pre-war past, argues a -
desire to relieve ourselves of the dra-
matist wbo reveals Main Street (in-I
O uding our agglutinated Main Streets;
the cities) to itself. According to Mr.
Bjorkman, however, the revival byf
the New York Theatre Guild of "Peer
what to Harper's "The Lion's Mouth"
and the Atlantic Monthly Contribut-
ors' Club, are interesting.
Ambng the book reviews there are
excellent considerations of Cabell'sj
"The High Place" and Conrad's "TheI
Rover." Beverley R. Tucker protests
that Professor Joseph Adams in his
new life of Shakespeare has attempted
to change the quite human poet into
a model puritan gentleman.
The poetry includes one of Amy
Lowell's Chinese poems, and Robert
Nathan's "Since She is Dead,"
his actions, his words, his hair, his
trousers, his feet. Nor have I any
idea how conscious Mr. Leacock was
of the effect of all his wares. But I'
do think that he was much more in on
it than the audience: if he hadn't'
been, he couldn't have done it so con-I
sistently, and the customers certainly4
couldn't have laughed as steadily as
they did.
In the course of his long lecturing.
I career, Mr. Leacock has inevitably be-
come conscious of certain of his as-
sets, just as he early became aware
of his shortcomings. And in time he
has gotten to the point where he plays
up his good points just as far as he
can, and I suppose that he has also
crushed and concealed his defects.
He now knows that. when lhe -reads.
one thing, he must do it in such and
such a voice; that at this point he'
must slap the reading desk with his
jest. unwor
stick. Fron
fend him.
I am sure,
very good t
he went onti
ing to bet
sour cracks
a matter o.
of bum stuff
always som
will laugh a
who have n
rest. H1ie m
people an <
And then t.
important r.
thing quite
business. S
were of the
ty as his ve>
steady laug
want some
couldn't ha-
fully manag
came in wav
the crowd
temporize w
rate matern
other good a
sort of thing
But still,
to go and
things so d
edly, for all
ior. The h
how, a mu
than this L
But if a ma
game, the I
able.
Nathan's "Since She is Dead,"
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PROHIB
(Contini
posed to Pr
lieve that 1
with strict F
-forcement ,
Tormer is b
A 'resume
this paper
of conclusi
showed that
the enactm
law depends
aid intensil
hind -it and
tnore vigdfo
hit~ition law
'winning of P
hbitionists.
then found,
in Prohibit
# in these citi
colonies Pu
thier law via
lve counter
foreign, un-
Opinion is -
zation mov
movemnent if
ter enforeen
Prohibition
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then as Pro
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