SUNDAY MAGAZINE
ANN ARBOR, MICHIG AN, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1923
Time- the resent, Placw
An Interview with Mr. Franklin
The writer found Mr. Franklin at BRONSON
an inconspicuous table in a quiet res-
taurant. We introduced ourselves. He
greeted us with cold politeness. We
told him wel wished to interview him.
He cordially asked us to be seated
and ordered us food.=
"What would you like me to talk
about?" he asked. "I talk on any sub-
ject-with one exception."
"Talk about yourself," we suggested
maliciously. -
"That is not the exception," he re- O C
totted. "Well, to begin, I submitted OL C
to the usual formalities of birth. My Qe" T SEE
parents were neither poor -nor honest ex ,sW
but they were extremely respectable. KEG';
My father was a lawyer-a Philadel-
phia lawyer, and practiced in that city "
until my sixteenth year.a
"Oh," we exclaimed at an insincere N
attempt at flattery, "We've heard about
the Mr. Franklin from Philadelphia."
"Must be a different one," replied
our host, "Father's name is not '
Franklin, neitier is mine."
"What is it?" We shot the question M
at him. TE,,a , ,ow s s
"Well," was the slow reply, "You'
might call me Franklin. It does very ,t *"A 'otA
nicely." N ue -sesTe'
The waitress arrived with our food. o z o Ee
"Say," she whined, "I got the food all
bawled up. I don't know which of
you guys is which."{
Gravely Mr. Franklin arose. i "One might put it that way. But
"This," he said, "is Mr. Thompson. the mob .scenes, ball room guests and
And," turning toward me, "this is Mr. voices without seemed to be my limit.
Clarke. I apologize for neglecting However I have never carried a spear
the formality of introduction." because I feared it would hide me."
The waitress retreated and the in- "Will you tell us about your early
terview continued. Mr. Franklin an- struggles?" we asked with an eye
ticipated our next question. for the dramatic.
"Yes," he stated, "I went to school, "I shall not," was the decided an-
Washington Irving and then Yale. swer. "Make it up yourself. Nothing
However, my training for the theater could be too horrible. But please,
was done at Carnegie Tech and Bak- I please tell them that Belasco was the
er's 47 Workshop." first to refuse me a part. Several
"Then you went on the stage?" others followed his example."
r
5
e
s
CLARKE ment at the theater apparently for-
gotten.
"Well, I played with both Mary Bo-
land and Minnie Du Pree in France
CoLt iops sessee reeT and Belgium and Italy before the War.
DISPLAYS",, 04'WESTFXN Stock company in the States, Shakes-
iL y 504555'S ae e Ao e'veS A peare one week and then attempted
00a5 FL TRIUMPH musical comedy the next. However
""vT musical comedy is not my sphere. I
-E am an actor, not an acrobat. Then
ther were three seasons with the Ben
Greet Players. Open air porductions
mostly where the performers did their
best not to slip on the dew-covered
grass. The last four years I have been
with the New York Theater Guild in
two productions, 'Peer Gynt' and 'Lil-
Iliom,' both with Joseph Schildkraut."
"Oh," we exclaimed, "you played
with Schildkraut? What do you think
_ of him?"
"Most of his associates think him
analogous to a rattle snake." Mr.
Franklin pushed back his chair. "Now
that this interview has ceased to be
personal I shall go, although three
are many important questions you
use 5 might have asked me. However, you
",CFO sysjmay use your own judgment conceorn-
QDEDWILLIAM VssNKeuing' my favorite foods, drinks and
books. But I do want you to tell
them that my favorite color is orchid.
It's so subtle. Good night, gentle-
men."
"Just a minute, Mr. Franklin," we
begged, "You haven't given us any
There was silence. Mr. Franklin message for the student body. We
toyed disinterestedly with a salad. absolutely must have a message for
"Anything else you want?" he final- the student body!"
ly inquired, "I must be at the theater "Tell them,"t he said, "that when my
in ten minutes. We're playing to- days on the stage are over I shall re-
night you know." jturn to them and take a course in
We timidly asked him to give us horse-shoeing and jewelry repairing."
some idea of the range of his theatri- He had reached the door.
cal experience. I "Anothel question," we flung at
"I've been waiting for that-why him, "At the beginning of this inter-
didn't you ask me sooner? Best pub-! view you stated you talked well on all
licity in the world, barring scandal, of subjects with one exception. What is
course." Mr. Franklin settled back in that exception?"
his chair, all thoughts of the engage-, "Eugenics" he answered and fled.
THE ADVENT OF IGNORANrE
Universities or Filling Stations
"What is a child?-Want of knowl- NEWELL BEBOU "business" for the moment. You will
edge!" said Epictetus rightly. But ask yourself: "What is a freight
writers since him ,have wrongly de- train?" And you will be astounded
duced that a "man" is a profuseness Of course, this is an unveiled plea sible to think singly. It is then that by your answer. If your mind does
of knowledge, whereas he is only a for skepticism; but skepticism is torrents of thoughts bear down upon not plunge into mechanics, it will
greater lack of it. To know anything .'merely another name for humility. us, burrow beneath us, and raise us plunge into economics or metaphysics.
is surely to be an idiot. Socrates used to tell his pupils that to elation. How much a man misses You cannot answer one question until
To be born wise and to acquire ig- an humble attitude was the proper who knows everythig and has no- you find your way through a labyrinth
'horance is the natural priority in a inning of philosophy of questions. You are ignorant. It is
norance priorityrinthat whforhetinsaidTno eliea. maeofqesin
man's mind. The reverse of this no one can learn that which he thinks To see life as a maze of question the wise man who would walk along
statement is error. That, life is es- he already knows. Humility is the marks is to show symptoms of good lbs road and say: "Oh. it's just a
sentially a pursuit of knowledge is starting point of thought. Thought health. Human experience should b freight train!" Think in octopuses
not true; rather is it a running is the culmination of life. one endless and fascinating dilemma 'and you can go to heaven on an aspen
.from knowledge-a retreat. Wisdom What we certainly should not be is a ! in which a mind uses itself up in ef-I leaf. You can drown yourself in the
is our native and cursed state and row of ducks, dumb and still who pass fervescence. ce1ise bowl -of a petunia bloom. You
every man who is not a very unmiti- through the allotted years as though The thing to do is to approach all can see every flower as a love story
gated fool tries his hardest to erase we were in a shooting gallery, ex- ideas with a new mind, that is, with incarnate. You can even ponder
from himself this inherited misfor- pecting Fate any minute to knock an empty one. Everything should about the unity of an automobile-
tune. one of us down 'while the rest go on have its entanglements. Everything whether or not you are riding in a
Nor is this an exotic conception; unalterably, around and around the should be inexhaustible. Get up, if I thing or are merely floating along
it is, instead, a venerable idea which same old path. We should learn to you can, some morning before five I amid a mass of disc'ontinuous atoms.
is at least as old as the Eden story in be animate, to experience things, to o'clock and take a walk down the Living is never dull to an ignorant
Genesis. Like the orthodox Christian be alert. Can anything be baser than river, and I surmise you will discover man.
who believes in Original Sin, I be- a vapid mind? interests you never before perceived. But octopus thoughts do not conie
moan the fact that Adam and Eve I Orie ought to think in octopuses, The whole valley will seem different. I naturally to every person, so I am
devoured the wrong kind of apples, when every sensation and every You will b- thrilled, perhaps, when I told. A university, then, is the pro-
for it is precisely this "knowledge of thought has multitudinous arms of an ordinary freight train rumbles per institution for the rearing of them.
good and evil," this "wisdom of the association reaching out in all direc- down the track. And what is the j In this light do not call me an icono-
world" which for generations has sub- tions towards other ideas. Then it is difference? Nothing! You are mere- clast if I define school as a place
vetted the mind of the race and ren- that one thought is synonymous with ly approaching an old world with a where ignorance is born. A school is
dered it an eminent outrage. a hundred, and it is veritably impos- new mind. You have forgotten your (Continued on Page Two)