S ISUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24. 1924
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
rAGE SvF "
ardent love for nature. The result fear we should utterly vanish into bright" and the highly imaginative
was that man became horribly inlhu- metaphysics. We owe what little re- poets who passed along the belief
scan-though of course not unhuman. ligion we have left far less to Calvin that"There is an animal known as
Were it not for our sensuous poets and the saints, and to such seraphs the salamander. It springs into ex-
(who despite popular belief are al- as Thomas a Kempis, than we do to istence from fire. Its blood smeared
ways more worldly than heavenly) I I the author of "Tiger, tiger burning on the human body will secure im-
munity from injury by fire. ." (Tal-
m uc:' Ch la i -)
Flashlight
and
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DEDICATION
If Iever write a took. I shalld di-
cate it to iatiz for two reasons: he
is dead, and I envy him. I envy him
for two reasons: he is a poet and he
is dead. Envy only dead people, and
you will never be bothered by them-
or will you?
Around shlsere titanic waters flow,
And soft-scsnted zephyrs blow,
stripe-winged duchies fly
Into the snow-filled sky.
Vigorously their wings they flap
When aroused from reposing nap;
Far thro1h the air they leep
W hen jarred from sleep.
Off s er ton wriggly hills they go
Outtined brownly against the snow
ill drowned in cloudlets deep.
There is nothing by whichn men dis-
play their character so much as in
what they consider ridiculous."--
(Goethe).
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Morgan
Robertson
An Appreciation
DAVID WEPMAN
We Americans, it would Deei/
have a penchant for mistreating our
men of genius. Poe was forced to
seek recognition of his genius abroad.
Whitman was sneered at and isolated.
And is it not a common tale-that of
the one time genius dying amid the
veriest poverty. There is no reason
to suppose that times have changed
in this respect. Even among the
much sneered at 'moderns' posterity
may find a genius.
Some years ago I was presented
with four volumes of the sea tales of
Morgan Rabertson. Avidly I read
them, as a boy will read any adven-
ture tale, pored over them time after
time until it must have seemed that I
was trying to memorize the every
word. thought them gripping, lucid,
wonderful. But I was very young
my tastes correspondingly im~iature
and I was laughed at for my enthusi-
asm. My elders chided me for my
boyish taste and derisively advised
Horatio Alger and Oliver Optic as sub-
stitutes.
Last week while working in the li-
brary I ran across a volume headed
"Morgan Robertson", The Man. In
this I found the life story of Morgan
Robertson told and the impression
that he left recorded. The book
roused my curosity. Would my pres-
ent lay opinion of this old time favor-
ite measure up to that of my youth.
Almost fearfully I drew from the a
volume that had been my especial
favorite in other days-Sinful Peck.
Still the book seemed wonderfully
good. Not, perhaps as I might have
called it in the past, a masterpiece,
but really an epic of the sea. I
found the book full of rich, color,
unusually faithful to detail, and poss-
essing a smooth, diction and a power-
ful style that held me. The book was
full too, with a humor that bubbled
and sparkled. Then, fearing that I
had been carried away by a precon-
ceived enthusiasm, by memories of
other days, I read the book again, this
time calling to my aid all of the little
analytical power that I posses. And
still I found it good.
Morgan Robertson wrote of the
sea; for it was all he knew, but of
the sea and it's ships he wrote in a
way that led Joseph Conrad to call
him "truly a master of sea tales-
ranking-perhaps, second in a list of
America's modern creative artists."
That all lie knew, the sea and it's
ships and when he tried to live his
life on land he made of it a hopeless
muddle and gave the world some of
its greatest stories.
Reading one of Kipling's sea stories,
Morgan Robertson, then in poverty,
was spurred by it into writing sea
stories of his own. In all his liter-
ary life Morgan Robertson wrote and
published some two hundred and fifty
stories. Most of these were published
in the country's leading magazines
and for no one of these did he re-
ceive more than one hundred dollars.
These same stories, so Charles Han-
son Towne tells us, today would sell
for from one thousand to fifteen hun-
dred dollars each.
And it was this same Morgan Rob-
ertson that was the inventor of the
periscope. During his lifetime he
never received one cent of reimburse-
ment for this and it was not until a
very recent date that his wife began
to be paid the government royalties
for this invention. Some of his best
stories he was forced to sell for one
cent a word-he was such a poor
provider and poor business man.
Though he had little or no academic
education his works are called ninety
pine percent perfect English; and he
(Cntinsed on Page sight)
SPRING 1924 FASHION REVUE
C OLLEGE women who realize the importance
Of being well dressed in costumes that are styl-
:sh and in good taste are cordially invited to attend
the Spring 1924 Fashion Revue to be given at 7:30
o'clock TueSday evening, February 26, on the sec-
ond floor.
A LL Enat1s 'f'r0 ta c ming season will b
re eaed at this event and all perplexing ques-
tions concerning style tendencies will be answered
by this exhilitisn c - utet La, pring Mcdes. Mod-
ds chosen from the sec Rstaf -will display costumes
iLtabe for ec ad -very --oman and for every
vent of t y
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