Life — February 10, 1910 — page 31: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“LIFE: @fhelireraryfoow The American Gift of Self-Mockery Thomas Hardy has remarked that the man who has really lived and suf- fered probably would not find it worth his while to write about it. The remark carries with it an un- conscious implication of his own un- questionable genius; for only the sym- ic imagination of genius could and picture those ironies of life which lift his fictions to the plane of the Greck tragedies. It is, moreover, a psychologic paradox—and one which explains the inadequacy of literature to express life—that the greatest poct, The first Derby made in America was a C&K The Maximum of Excellence The Minimum of Cost SPRINGFIELD PORTABLE GARAGES Theyare builtof the best of materials, on lines that are archi- tei true, and painted to harmonize with color scheme of azar bldg auickly assembled by unskilled labor. ‘They give you nlutely from the “Joy Ride Pree Move you excessive storage charges, wear and tear inci. ee ah pot ollsand gases, and {ySon the many minor repairs that can made by the competent denal to a public garage, 50% on motive Write for Catalogue SPRINGFIELD PORTABLE HOUSE CO. S51 Allen Street, Springfield, Mass, An Alluring P. S. A widower who was married recently for the third time, and whose bride had been married once before, wrote across the bottom of the wedding invitations: “Be sure and come; this is no amateur performance.’’—Ladies’ Home Journal, “Let's go to the theatre." “T've nothing to wear.’” Ther we'll go to the opera. —Lippincott’s. iy your car on premises when not in use. They Circle Tours from and back to your home city, by rail and water, through the New York Gateway via Atlantic,Gulfand West Indies Steamship Lines to Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia or San Domingo via CLYDE LI Texas, California and Pacific Coast points; Florida-West Coast, Mobile and New Orleans via MALLORY LINE Porto Rico, cruises to and around the Island via PORTO RICO LINE Nassau - Cuba - Mexico - Yuca- tan, direct service with rail connec- tions for interior cities via WARD Liberal Stop-Over Privileges {ddressany of the following District OMices for complete information: 1% Washington St. lioston og Nonth Clark St.. Chieago! 629 Qestnut Si Plladelphia; 530 roadway, dramatist, novelist who would make the creatures of his brain quick with his own anguish produces characters of relative insignificance. It is the ob- jective attitude—the observation of his fellowmen with sympathetic insight— which makes possible the immortal creations of literature. Introspection seems to be essentially opposed to cre- ative work, while personal suffering is so assuaged by the very process of de- piction that poetry has been called—by a poet—the dead ashes of passion. What a sorry figure does the great Goethe cut in the sentimental garb of Werther! Into what impossible pi- Tates was self-projected the stormy soul of Byron! Even Shakespeare, when he puts himself into Hamlet— as Taine has pointed out—makes the prince talk like an actor, while the pas- sionate outcry of the sonnets—which carry an intrinsic proof of authorship to some minds—does not strike the note sounded by the plays. . # 8 E NGLISH fiction other than ephem- eral has supplied us with but few truly tragic figures. Reade’s unhappy lovers in “The Cloister and the Hearth,” Hawthorne's Hester Prynne, Hardy’s gloomy group, with Tess and the Mayor of Casterbridge in the fore- ground—it is not easy to augment the list. Right well do we know, unless we avert our faces, that human misery is essentially the same as in the days of Eschylus, that it did not take leave of life with Lear, that its dignity and its degradation are impartial! tioned as of old among the victims of wrong-doing and of circumstance, that it lurks in the shadow ever ready to spring upon us. Yet the art that can transfer its features to the printed page and contribute to our education in compassion is rare indeed. As Hardy truly says, the man who has really suffered is reticent. Genius, on the other hand, is all too seldom 259 The C & K Shop makes hats for the discriminating—those for whom the best is none too good, Knapp-Felt Hats are made in two grades, $6 and $4. THE CROFUT & KNAPP CO. Broadway at Thirteenth St. lew York robust enough. Sometimes when it studies its own symptoms we have an Amiel or a Maurice de Guérin. In its highest manifestations we get, per- haps, an Ibsen instead of a Shake- speare or a Moliére. o 8 ERE Hardy's hypothetical suf- ferer impelled to write at all it is not unlikely that he would oppose to “the bludgeonings of chance” the invulnerable armor of humor. For humor in its subtle and searching ex- positions is but a form of self-knowl- edge that enables the man possessed of it to see himself and his fellow crea- tures as characters in a tragi-comedy in which tears and laughter are inex- tinguishably blended. Life at its worst is not wholly a bad joke, because the (Continued on page 260) “LA MIRA” HAIR COLORING Has Solved the Problem of Perpetual Youth ade, with satura glott, One spol ea om: Ge oretcks bee Remains Unchanged as Long as Hair Lasts Cannot be detected under strongest light. $2 prepaid. Send sampleof yous Kureee lh mich color Crazy HUBBARD AYER, Selling Agent for ‘LA MIRA CHEMICAL CO., 1-6, 84th St, New York