THE COURIER
3
V
she is also very good-tempered. She
Joins the "Won't Perform Club" be
cause life Is short and too full of
committees, deputations, secretaries,
etc. In Europe there are retreats
where the over-worked and over-entreated
"can retire for contemplation
and .real repose. No cnllers'are allowed
to see the fugitives who place them
selyes "in retreat." They are not dis
turbed by bills, death notices, invita
tions or demands of any kind. It is as
good as being dead without the uncer
tainty regarding that state or its lrre
vocableness. Not having any "re
treats" here, the next best thing is to
Join the "Won't Perform Club."
t& &
Morgan and Lucullu
When the schoolgirl on commence
ment day or Mr. Bryan on a stand
hastily erected for "The Matchless" to
stand on wish a terrible example of
extravagance, they use Lucullus and
the feast he gave, which, reckoned in
our money, cost about eight thousand
dollars. That is not much. You could
not get up much of a banquet for that
sum in New York now, and chickens
and eggs are cheaper there than they
were in Rome at the time which ora
tors have subsequently selected as a
period of horror and a sufficiently bad
example for all time. They date
Home's downfall from the Lucullus
banquet. All the leading men were
guests and from that time on they were
out of health and got more and more
degenerate and hard to please. Un
healthful diversions tempted them and
when the hordes of husky Germans,
Norwegians and Danes came down up
on Rome there was no one strong
enough to protect the gold plate and
the beautiful women.
But since the banquet given by Mr.
Pierpont Morgan and his friends to
Prince Henry, the schoolgirl and Mr.
Bryan will not have to travel back
to Rome for an example of a feast
that cost more money than an ordi
nary laborer can earn In ten years.
The blase spendthrift, Lucullus, had
' neltherthe daring, the Invention, nor
the determination to show Germany a
good time possessed by the American
with an imagination and an execution
that Includes the world in its victori
ous sweep.
-'i -H Ai
? tr c
University Literature
The freshman classes In the Ne
braska university are not obliged to
study literature, English, French, Ger
man, Spanish and Italian. Undergrad
uates of Yale, Harvard, Columbia,
Princeton, Michigan, Minnesota, the
university of Chicago, Stanford and
the university of California are still
drudging away studying literature as
a whole and In its various national
expressions.
Nous avons changez tout cela In the
university of Nebraska. It is taken for
granted here that the boys and girls
directly from the prairie high schools
of this state have a comparative,
comprehensive knowledge of English
and foreign literature. The favored
students of this institution study short
stories like "Five Hundred Dollars and
other stories." The department of
English thrusts aside all other mas
terpieces which have survived the re
lining processes of time and devotes
several months to the consideration of
a book of short stories whose title Is
unfamiliar. I have searched in vain
among the lists of the hundred best
books offered from time to time by
savants for this book on which hun
dreds of Nebraska students are com
pelled to spend so much study. But
apparently the fame and value of
"Five Hundred Dollars" is confined to
the limits of the Nebraska university,
for general literature Is silent con
cerning It.
Although .Nebraska graduates are
obliged to obtain their knowledge of
literature as a whole outside of the
university, the method of teaching it
in vogue at the university is said to
develop critical acumen and a power
of appreciation and insight Into an
author's real meaning unmatched by
any other method.
Professor Sherman, who has been at
the head of the English department
for perhaps a score of years or more,
is the Inventor of the unique system
applied to Nebraska undergraduates...
Until they are graduated and go to
some other school or are abruptly
brought face to face with what they
do not know about literature, the stu
dents are content with the system
which has a sign ..language of its own
not spoken or written outside the uni
versity. It ma,y be that the Inventor is right
and that in time all other universities
will adopt his method of inoculating
students in their freshman year with
literature rather than attempting first
to give them a view of literature as
a whole. The system has been in force
for a matter of fifteen years and
hundreds of graduates of the English
department have left the university
as innocent of the knowledge of the
Elizabethan period as when they
matriculated.
In response to the trust reposed In
them by the people who elected them
the regents of the university have
doubtless examined the method of im
parting knowledge in the largest de
partment In the Institution. The ob
ject of studying literature is inspira
tion: Inspiration to life and further
creative effort. If a student is gradu
ated trom a department as cold and In
different to Its meaning as when he en
tered it, his class record of how much
he has absorbed and recorded is value
less. After iifteen years of trial the
testimonials of those who have been
educated by the system are worth con
sideration. If the students who have
taken postgraduate courses in litera
ture in other colleges are convinced
that the foundations were -well laid by
the instruction which they received in
the Nebraska university, their testi
mony is a tribute to its soundness.
Because the method Is unique and
since it has been adopted by the uni
versity has made no converts in other
universities and because in order to
spend a semester on Browning or
"Five Hundred Dollars" it Is necessary
to. dispense with the study of general
literature, the subject is worth the
attention of Nebraska people and of
those to whom they have given the
university in charge.
&
Bad Advice
When Mary Anderson was starring
in this country, when she was young,
very beautiful and graceful, when the
world was at her feet, when the per
fervid Imagination of young genius
was stimulating her to do her best,
and Ijer best was just this side of the
greatest acting we know anything
about, the wiseacres, the dried-up old
hyper-critics dinned into her ears that
her work lacked esprit and supreme
force because she had not been in
love. They advised her to fall In love,
and they harped about it so much that
she decided to quit the stage even be
fore she made up her mind to marry.
She was a better actress than Maud
Adams; she had a larger original en
dowment of genius than Modjeska.
There is no actress on the American
stage today whose work is of so high
a character as Mary Anderson's. Yet
the chorus of disapproval becauseher
words, her voice, her movements were
virginal finally drove her from the
stage. She thought her critics knew
more than she did and that she would
never succeed in reaching the high
water mark of her art and humbly she
withdrew from a field which the crit
ics insisted she could never conquer.
They are writing the same thing
about Jan Kubeiik now. It is all a lie.
The degenerate critic with a cigarette
everlastingly glued to his upper lip
insists that the violinist must fall in
love before he can make the best
music. So far Jan Kubeiik seems to
know better and has Ignored the im
pertinent advice of his critics and of
his officious manager. He was born a
genius. He has not had to pass
through the stages of achievement
which Is the only way to virtuosity
for most violinists. He began to play
when he was an Infant. Between him
and the limit of human expression
there is a space which he may con
quer. How much or how little, can be
measured by the achievements of
other great violinists. One might as
well try to open a rose with clumsy
fingers as to Interfere with the devel
opment of genius. Happily Kubeiik
has received the applause of the world
as well as the criticism of erotic man
agers and he Is convinced that he
knows what Is best for himself, and
that If he can not love a woman, still
he can fiddle and that the fiddling Is
not dependent upon the loving.
The millstone that the Preacher of
the Sermon on the Mount advised for
the men and women who put a
stumbling block In the way of one of
these little ones could be tied onto
these Kubeiik critics who claim to
know more than God and nature, and
If it were, justice would be meted out
and Mary Anderson and other children
of genius who have been harried out
of the callings to which they were
born or else driven into experiences
which wilt genius, would be avenged.
Achievement, the creative achieve
ment awakens wonder: but In the
breast of the ordinary musical critic
dwells an egotism that would destroy
the manifestations of genius. Doubt
less God could have made a violinist
who would play better than Jan Ku
beiik, but from all reports God never
has. In truth, he Is playing well
enough now, with a whole heart. The
advice of the critics to get it broken
in order to play better is foolishness',
tf-
Advice to Americans
A thoubhtful writer In Harper's
Weekly advises the gentlemen who
expected to be introduced to Prince
Henry not to forget that "Hoeh" is
pronounced hoke and not hock. Hock
der Prinz or Hock der Kaiser is very
bad form. "Don't speak of his Im
perial Brother as If he were a subject
for a comic paper Joke instead oC Em
peror of Germany. Willie the War
Lord Is all right In conversation with
others but not to a member of His
Family. Don't tell him that you have
always been anxious to meet him. and
that you have heard quite a number
of persons speak of his brother Willie.
Don't ask him how he got through the
custom house and if he had to pay
duty on his uniforms. Don't ask him
for his autograph, adding that you al
ready have that of Johann Most. Don't
ask him If It is true that his Imperial
Brother Is such a big thing at home
that when he goes out on parade It
takes him four hours to pass a given
point. Don't tell him that you once
had a Newfoundland dog named
Prince."
If the Americans who met the
Prince were prohibited by this rejuve
nated Ituth Ashmore from saying
these things to H. R. H., what could
they say to him? The foregoing list
includes everything that the versatile
American considers original and
sparkling and typical. If the news
paper reached him before the Intro
duction, I can fancy his dismay, and
his suspicion that the man who wrote
the paragraphs had stolen his happy
thoughts.
j
.- .- i
Henley Friendship
Stevenson revealed himself to Hen
ley. He wrote him affectionate letters
wherein he made no effort to conceal
spasms of vanity or self-gratulatlon.
If Henley had died first, and there are
not very many now who do not wish
that he had, and If Stevenson had
written Henley's biography, how gen
erously he would have praised him!
How sincerely he would have mourned
him! In Stevenson's book about Hen
ley there would have been no whining
about the canonization of a man who
was after all no saint. Stevenson
knew no Jealousy, and praise of a
friend always seemed to him inade
quate. Henley says he was moved to
write about Stevenson because the
blographersand the editors of letters
and memoirs were making him out a
chocolate caramel saint. Then, al
though Stevenson had admitted him
to an Inner apartment and shut the
door on many a worthier man, Henley
told the faults of his friend as only a
friend knows a friend's faults.
Mean people live longer than gener
ous ones. The small-souled lack
Juices. They are like the amaranth,
that does not wilt. As a bud It Is dry
and when the ghostly flower blooms.
It Is scentless, dry, lifeless. Just be
cause It has so little life It lasts a long
time. A mummy's life Is Indefinitely
long. Egyptologists say they have
found mummies who were embalmed
by ancient undertakers five thousand
years ago. To be sure, there arenot
many people who dare dispute nn
Egyptologist to his face, hut I have
often thought their statements strong.
An Amaranth Is a (lower mummy. In
a sealed case It would last Indefinitely.
There Is no reason why Henley should
not last as long. He Is sealed against
all emotion and Us fibre-destroying ef
fects. It may be that his Stevenson
post-mortem was necessary to stop the
gush about the Samoan exile, but the
over-idealization did no harm, while
his betrayal of friendship is shocking.
Henley boasts that "Beneath the
bludgeonlngs of fate, my hend Is bloody
but unbowed." He wants to think
himself the cock of the walk and ap
preciation of even a dead man irritates
him into a betrayal. Ills capacity for
hatred Is his specialty, and above all
others he hates his friends. A few
years ago a testimonial was arranged
for Henley nnd among the subscribers
wus Itudyard Kipling, .vhose talents
Henley discovered long before they
were apparent to other critics. Kipling
sent a check with the word "only"
after the amount, which is a way Eng
lishmen have of writing checks. Itut
Henley was stirred to a passion of, rage
by what he thought was an Insinuation
against his honor and he threw the
check Into the fire. Probably he got
the value of the check when he re
viewed Kipling's next book.
J A "
7- flf n?
A Narcotic
Cigarette manufacturers claim that
cigarette smoking is not Injurious to
young boys, and to the papers which
have advertising contracts with them,
tobacco manufacturers send a great
deaPbf reading matter on the subject
of the Innocuousness of cigarette smok
ing. Dr. FIsk, the head of the pre
paratory school of Northwestern uni
versity, has been making some Inves
tigations on his own account. As a
result he has announced to the boys
his ultimatum: All boys in the school
who make up their minds that they
can not or will not give up cigarette
smoking must leave school.
There are three hundred boys In the
school. Dr. FIsk offers the results of
his investigation for the use of other
teachers "who are doubtful about the
deleterious effects of tobacco upon
growing boys. His Investigations
cover u period of three years. Of the
boys who smoke, only two per cent are
among the twenty-five per cent of stu
dents whose scholarship Is highest.
On the other hand, fifty-seven percent
of the smokers are among the twenty
five percent lowest in class scholar
ship. At the present time the boys
who smoke appear to be entirely In
capable of passing their examinations
or keeping up with the non-smokers
in their class. Two out of every nine
boys In the school confess that they
smoke cigarettes and not a single cig
arette smoker Is in good class stand
ing. Dr. FIsk is so impressed with the
result of exhaustive Investigations
that he offers to refund tuition to every
boy who must leave the school on ac
count of this ruling. It Is certain that
the school will lose nothing from his
decision, for let parents discover that
there is an institution where cigarette
smoking Is positively forbidden, and
not only forbidden but prevented, and
they will send the boys there In In
creased numbers.
Judging by the number of small boys
one meets on the streets smoking cig
arettes the vice Is rapidly growing.
The boys say that It does not hurt
them, but the pale, depraved face of
the cigarette smoker, his weasened fea
tures and his puny legs and arms do
not confirm this statement. The uni
versity undergraduates set their small
Imitators a bad example. If the truth
were known it Is the male indulgence