Evening Star Newspaper, June 18, 1922, Page 61

THE SUNDAY BSTAR, WASHINGTON D. O., JUNE 18, 1922-PART 4. - — A DAY WITH LUTHER BURBANK Gilda Varesi Plant Magician Is Described as an “Optimistic Pessimist”—Plants and Flowers “Haven’t Any Brains,” His Reply to the Story That He Improves Them: by Winning Their Confidence and Talking to Them—Truth More Interesting Than Wild Stories Told About Him—Had to Restore Shells to Betterment. BY KARL. K. KICHEN. STRANGE tale took me to Santa Rosa. Many years ago a distinguished California scientist told me that Luther Burbank. the plant wizard, obtained his success in improving fruits, trees #nd flowers by winning their confi- dence and talking to them. The idea of talking to a tree—pat- ting « weeping willow on the back nd cheering it up with the encourag- Mg words that the worst is yet to ‘come—intrigued me. And 1 deter- wined. if ever T found myself in Cali- rnia, T would visit Luther Burbank, en if 1 had to make the trip by ney, dog-sledge and elevator. and discover his secret. Which explains | nizht life of Hollywood for the less pross-agented city of Santa Rosa “w EFT THE HOUS to his cactus bed—the very bed in which, according to the scientist pre- viously quoted, Burbank had talked his cactus out of their thorns. And I discovered his secret. But it is very different from what I had been led 10 believe. In fact. to put it crudely hut correctly, another Californian had lied to me. * ok ok x 1 UTHER BURBANK. avizard that he is, has never taken a plant or flower into his confidence. let alone betrayed it. And he didn't tell me so. onfidentially. “That story is too 1:diculous for words.” We said to me the parlor of his modest home at boulevards. upp and Canta Ro: “You can't accomplish anything by 1alking to plants or flowers. They haven't any brains.” “But the scientist told me you pro- Auced the spineless cactus by talking o it.”" T protested. “He said, you said ny more. Nobody will eat you. Haven't I fed you? Haven't 1ou everything you wanted? So don't other to grow any more thorns.' ™ The plant wizard leaned back in his rocking chair and laughed for fully a minute. “How ridiculous, how ridiculous.” ') the why 1 deserted the naughty, wicked | I tracked the famous plant wizard | I given | normal and unreasoning pro | esses of nature. The “plant wizard" | has substituted plan for accident. ar- | tificial for natural selection, and in | the course of some fifty years and | more than 100.000 experiments he has brought forth more varieties of plant | tife than any other man in the history | of the world. The secedless potato | which he developed more t fifty | vears ago has exerted a greater in- | fuence on the world food supply than | any other single food plant | To give even a partial list of his | benefactions—for that is what the results of his plant breeding may be | | termed—would require a large sized volume. ' But there has been no “wizardry” about it. Horticulturists and floriculturists have been doing the same thing for hundreds of years. | Luther Burbank, however, has been more successful than the others be-} an cause of his capacity for taking in- finite pains. ¢ Patience and hard work—especial patience—have been the chief req- uisites to his success For. more than half a century he has thought of | nothing else. Deciding first what he wishes to create. remake or improve in the vegetable world, he begins by carefully selecting robust specimens, allowing them to go to seed, then experimenting with the seeds under widely different conditions of climate, fertilization and nourishment. The product in turn is submitted to radi- cal changes from its natural elements and the artificial evolution kept up until the final result is what he wanted. Far be it from me to belittle the fame of Luther Burbank. But I want] to dispel the idea that he is possessed of any supernormal powers, just as I am anxious to dispel any suggestion of hocus-pocus on his part. The truth about this really great man is much | more interesting than the lies and half truths that are in circulation about him. And. unlike most of the | celebrities of Hollywood, one can tell the truth about Luther Burbank without losing his friendship. shakes. His appearance surprised me for 1 had pictured him as a much more robust and vigorous man. And while I did not expect to see a fashion-plate his almost threadbare suit and ragged collar gave me some- thing of a shock. * ok ok X LL'THER BURBANK is seventy- three. But although his eyes are still bright and he has quite a shock of tousled white hair he looks even older. And it was an evident relief for him to settle down in a rocker for the inevitable interview. “Solomon never talked with any- thing lower fhan a butterfly,” he re- marked with a smile when I con- cluded the strange tale that had brought me to Santa Rosa. “You wouldn't expect me to be wiser than Solomon?” “But how did you get the cactus to SED THE STREET TO HIS EXPERIMENTAL FARM.” grow without thorns?" I persisted, now that I was assured he had not talked them off. “I simply experimented with the seeds until I got what I wanted,” he replied. “It took a number of years —and I don't know how many experi- ments. 1 produced a new and better variety of cactus—that is all. “And that is all T am tr¥ing to do —to produce better grains, nuts, fruits. vegetables,” he went on. “I'm not only striving after new forms, sizes, colors and flavors, but for more nutrients and less waste. My new wheat has just been awarded the first prize in Canada. It is the finest wheat in the world. I've got a new oat and a new barley that will add millions to the wealth of the country. “At the present time I'm devoting most of my time to new varieties of fruits and nut he continued, leav- ing his chair to hand me a collection of colored photographs of some of his most famous fruits. “You know, be- fore I'produced my plums it was im- possible to ship any California plums to the east—they spolled on the way. 1 simply grew a thicker skin on them. “I developed some walnuts without any shells, but 1 had to grow the he repeated. “I suppose he said I threatened to sit on the cactus plant it it didn't obey me. It's almost as funny as William Jennings Bryan's views on evolution.” The greatest man in California rocked back and forth, chuckling over the ideas of his cotemporaries. “It's all so simple,”” he added a mo- ment later. - “Life in every form is so clear—it's all in process of evolution. mhose legislators in Kentucky—think of their trying to forbid the teaching of the theory of evolution:” “Then another Californian has lied to me?" I asked. t's the favorite outdoor sport in this state,”” he replied. *I have heard some very weird tales about myself because I have met with some suc- cess as a plant breeder. You've heard how 1 produce strawberries and cream by crossing a strawberry plant with milkweed? Well, that's an ex- ample of what many people think I am doing. Nothing could be further from the facts.” And again the plant wizard chuckled over the situation. * K kg \VHAT' hae Durhen'g “secret"? 'z then, is I nore than intelligent intervention in Brieflh” THE movies are often spoken of as one of the great benefactions to mankind. But Luther Burbank has done more for ais fellowmen than all the film stars in Hollywood. He has added more to the wealth of America than the entire picture business, de- spite the fact that it is supposed to rank fourth among our industries. However, he does not employ a press agent. And even when a visitor travels several hundred miles to see him it is difficult to get him to talk about himself. It was a little after 11 o'clock on a Sunday morning when I arrived in Santa Rosa—two hours north of San Francisco by train. A jitney brought me to the door of his modest home in less than five minutes from the station, for Luther Burbank doesn't live on a vast estate but on one of the main streets of this little Cali- fornia town. His gardens across the large as the average conservatory of amateur plant lovers. I had hardly been ushered into ‘the front parlor of his home whem he apneared at the doorway and grorted me with the most cordial of s nd- street do not cover more than elzht}- acres, and his greenhouse is not as| «BUT PROF. VAN DER NAILLEN TOLD ME YOU PRODUCED THE SPINELESS CACTUS BY TALKING TO IT.” shells back on again for the birds ate them off the treea I want to show you one of my ‘walnut trees—I think it is one of the/finest things I've pro- duced. ok kK UITING the action to the word we left the house and crossed the street to ‘lis experimental farm, where the first thing he pointed out to me was a htige walnut tree. “I grew ’this tree in ten years and it is as Jarge as a 250-year-old tree. It's a cross of black and English wal- nuts. Yts lumber is nearly ten times as valuable as the ordlnary walnut. Thinlc what that means. A forest of ther. would be a fortune. The plant breeder conducted me “argund the lot,” as they would say in Hollywood, pointing out varlous experiments that were underway. “I don't ralse anything, you see,” he explained. “This is nothing but n experiment statio: T was in hopes you were produc- ing some beardless artichokes,” I suggested, mentioning my favorite flower. “Well, T have produced some new ~snaragus.” he answered. “And I «on ¢ ming telling you ihat if you Walnuts Because They Furnished Meals for Birds—Believes in Human Race ever ate any of it you'd never go back to the asparagus that is being used today. Unfortunately. I have no inside in- formation about this new aspar..us. At luncheon we had some fresh vegetables from his farm at Sebas- topol, but there was nothing par- ticularly remarkable about them. However, 1 got an insight of his philosophy of life that was even more interesting. Luther Burbank is an optimistic pessimist. “There is as much in life to hope for as there is to fear,” he said to me. “Life and its origin are very clear to me. I have no doubts about it, or any doubts about the future.” And I noticed he had a singularly saint-like expression in his face as he talked. “Life is self expression—a chal- lenge to environment. It is action in certain definite directions, based on mechanical or chemical change. In nature we find varied animate and inanimate forms of life, many of which have motions—some of which in the higher forms we call emotions. These sometimes end in action. at other times in thought. You can't get away from the facts of evolu- tion.” | “Education and environment can never make any appreciable progress in producing a better vace of human beings,” he continued. ‘“Permanent results can be obiained only by the selection of the best individuals for continulng the race. This selection must be continued through a series of generations. By this means and by this only, can any race of plants, animals or man be permanently or radically improved “And that is why sex is 8o impor- tant. Sex s not a necessary at- tribute of living things, but it is a very necessary attribute if progress in the evolution of new forms is to occur, as they have progressed | through the past ages and as we do not see them progressing on this planet.” IT is & far cry rom race betterment to the climate of southern Cali- fornia. but as Mr. Burbank asked me to ask him as many questions as I wished T queried: | “What do you think of the climate of southern California?” His ascetic face instantly wreathed in smiles. “Wherever you can grow oranges you can take it from me, that it is no fit place for a white man to live," he answered. “I have been offercd every inducement to locate near Los Angeles. but 1 would rather have a grave plot here at Santa Rosa than | all of southern California.” ou see, I'm not 2 native son—so | T'm not prejudiced,” he went on.| | “For climate. richness of soil. scenery —in fact. from every standpoint—the country north of San Francisco is so far superior to the southern part of the state that there is no compuri- 50 i “Then why does southern Cali-| fornia attract so many people?” I in- terposed. “Because it is better advertised than the northern part of the state. Easterners don't know the beauties | of northern California. They all! flock to the place they're told to go. | Less than 15 per cent of our people do any original thinking on any sub- | ject. Our Army tests showed that.| The greatest torture in the world for | most people is to think. To make the average man down for fifteen minutes and think on a given sub-| ject gives him more agony than a; thrashing. But the people will awaken to the truth about sou(hern; California one of these days—and| there will be an exodus to the north. This will be a bitter pill to the inmatés of Los Angeles, but I feel that they “have it coming to them.” Again changing the subject, for our conversation touched a hundred dif- ferent topics, 1T asked Mr. Burbank if the drift of population from the farms to the cities was alarming. Not in the least,” he replied. “Farming is no longer a hit-and-miss affair. Crop failures can be avoided and modern farm machinery cuts down the number of men needed to raise our food. Conditions have | changed. Fifty years ago we needed a larger proportion of agriculturists than we do today. And with the in- troduction of new machinery and especially more sclentific methods even fewer men will be needed on our far: | i | i | | i { | f i { * k k *x EFORE 1 took my departure I! asked the plant wizard the inevi- table question—what he considered his greatest achievement in his half- century of creative plant develop- ment. “Future generations will have to answer that question,” he said, after giving it some thought. “You see, I'm really working for future gen- erations. For while many of my ex- periments have been successful it takes years to introduce a new grain or fruit.” When T hafled a passing motor bus to take me back to Sausalito to get the ferry for San Francisco I saw the plant wizard standing by his bed of spineless cactus. And I'm not so sure that he wasn't asking them to grow thorns again for the boosters of southern California to sit on. But perhaps they'll get the point of his remarks without it. Electrical Transmission. THE world-wide renown of Niagara Falls bas lent peculiar distinc- tion to the great electric plants in- stalled there, but in so far as the Niagara plants are long-distance ones the work being done there has been surpassed in several instances, both in the distance covered and in the amount of power transmitted. Many of the greatest electric plants are among the Rocky mountains and on the Pacific coast. At Fresno, in California, a reservoir on the brow of a nearby mountain supplies the heaviest head of water used for such a purpose, 1,400 feet, and the power is distributed over a distance of thirty- five mil In some of the western installations the water, after serv- ing its purpose in generating elec- tric power, is utilized' for irrigating land. 3 { named Bodmer which > 9: Playing in “Romance,” Turns Drama’s Name to Reality. BY YETTA GEFFEN. T all happened when Gilda Varesi was playing with Doris Keane in “Romance.” Miss Varesi, you will remember, was the Itallan mald Vanucci, who mothered and fussed over the prima donna with Italian volu- bility. One day during the English run of the play, when war-time Lon- don was flocking to the Lyric Theater, Doris Keane sald to Miss Varesi, “By the way, Gilda, would you like to come into my dressing room tonight after the performance? Alfred Sutro, the playwright, is coming to see me. I'd like you to meet him.” That night Gilda played with all the intensity. all the nuances of which she was capable. Her Italian voice was rich in the coaxings and pleadings. the caressings and wheed- lings with which she met the tem- peramental upheavals of Miss Keane It was an evening pregnant with possibilities, for was not the play- wright, Alfred Sutro, sitting out in front watching her performance? 1f he liked her work—well, who could foretell the result? Perhaps he might choose her for the lead in one of his plays! At last the curtain rang down Back stage. in the immediate con- { tusion of “striking"” the set, the two ctresses picked their way to the ssing room: chatting and laugh- ing in happy relaxation from the ten- sion of the play. Miss Varesi hurried to her mirror to adjust her eyelashes, to put another little dab of powder on her nose and chin, to pat her wav- British Capital—Man as Actress-Playwright. ... N b [Souie, teiena, shilel ths antier s | conversing with Miss Keane. | | Next day the stagedoor man handed | Miss Varesi a box of La France roses with the card of John G. Archibald | After that there were supper par- ties, and on sunny days, when th | seemed no danger of Zeppelin ra | oceasional drives in Hyde Park ! And then—the call of ambition 1t was all very delightful to stay on in London playing the Italian maid in “Romance,” and apparently the play would never end its run! But Gilda Varesi must get on with her career. So. when a New York manager cabled offering her a very good part on | Broadway, she said farewell to the | young man who had come to be such | a good comrade, and sailed back ml rica. There. those who have watched her | career know well how com {has fulfilled the prophecy ing’ black hair into place—and then | &8 M T oF PR red hard :;::Fi’(:: l::"m““' door of the Sar'sye, "ouch success as Gilda Varesi has | L wrested from the gods does not come | * x % * easily. She “walked away” with part after part. She nearly walked off | HERE was Sutro. completely ab-|with John Barrymore's honors when sorbed in Doris Keane. With him was a young man, tall. attractive, smiling. Mr. Sutro presented his friend. Mr. Archibald. da turned: a frank, charming smile—parts of a wholly engaging personality. She saw it for her to entertain Sutro's the blaudits aydithe O the editor: Of course my Says Ring Lardner readers has all heard the old adage that laughter aids diges tion and the more cheerful a person is wile they are eating. why the sooner they will digest their feed. Well T always thought this was just o kind of a gag like the one zbout early to risc makeing a man healthy, wealthy and wise, but the other day I was reading a article signed by 2 guys ys that it is really the truth and giveing reasons for same. It seems like our stomachs lays just below a thing they call the diaphragm and the way we digest our meals is by this diaphragm jumping up and down when we breath and the stomach has got to jump with it and every jump kind of scatters things around like they ought to be. Well wien we laugh the diaphragm jumps all the harder and the stomach along with it and that is the answer to how the adage come to be made up. Well amongst all my men friends, which is mostly 30 yrs. old and up, 1 don’t know none of them that don't complain once in a wile that their sup- per didn’t set good and a specially since sympathetic gin become the rage, o it looks to me like this was the time for all good women to come to the aid of their husband's digestion and the best way to begin is to see to it that papa has laughter with his meals. * ok ok ok ’I*HE next question is how to make him laugh and of course I can't give you no gen. rule as different men is libel to laugh at different things and what would be a wow to one husband «FOR TNST., SOMEBODY KICKING A -POLICEMAN IN THE SHINS»> she jumped in, at a moment’s notice. to play his role in “The Jest” when he fell ill. Can any one who was in | New York at the time forget the |10 meet a pair of biue-gray eves and | sation ‘caused by Gilda Varesi's ap- pearance as the hot-blooded young lover in the Florentine tragedy? As for Miss Varesi, she was satisfying might make another sob his little heart | out. | However has been pretty well | proved that the best laugh getter rc.r} the majority is physical humor like for | inst. somebody kicking a policeman in | the shins or a old lady falling on a icy sidewalk and breaking their neck But it ain't always convenient to keep policemens and old ladys and sidewalks | in the dinning rm. so we will half to| think up some other kind of gags that the house wife can stage without a whole lot of trouble. ] The one that comes to mind 1st. is! the custard pie gag that can be worked | by the butler bringing in the custard| pie right after the soup course. He| sets down a piece of custard pie in| front of the lady of the house. She looks at it and says why You poor | sap it ain't time for the pie vet and she throws the pie in the butler's eye. If this don’t keep the husband in hysterics the rest of the meal it means that his taste don’t run to the physi- cal. But if it does get a good giggle out of him the same gag can be pulled again about once a week which | is about as often as a joke can be sprang and get appreciation. * % ¥ % | { | AT then that she throws the pic on | Mondays. Tuesdays the butler starts to bring in the soup and trips on the dinning rm. rug. He falls and skins himself all up wile the soup spatters in all directions. On Wednesdays ‘the butler can be going to the kitchen with a load of dishes just as the 2d. butler is come- ing’ from the kitchen with another load. The swinging door hits one of them ip the nose and floors him. On Thursdays the servants is all out and the wife herself cooks the dinner. You dom't need no other laugh on this day but it will help a little if she burns a couple fingers. On Fridays you have fish and she gets the bones in her throat. A good trick for Saturdays is for the wife to swallow a whole spoon full of horse radish, thinking it is potato. On Sundays they's generally always company and the butler or maid can be trained to soak them in Bgravy. 1t the husband ain’t normal and these kind of gags fail to Fet a Wow | the house wife will half to memorize some verbal jokes and stories like the following which 1 found in a book which is a scream in itself. Each story should be told at the beginning of a meal 5o as the husband can keep remembering it and laughing all the wile he.is loading up. % I 1 | l Actress Descended From Line of Stars of London Stage Achieves Success Here and When She Was in Minor Role Claims Bride at Zenith of Career—Unexpected Things Done in the Course of Her Experience—Makes Big Hit duced | actress-playwright Who Began Courtship rsed ambition. Years before, Benelli's drama was pro- Italy and in France, the leading male role w played by ora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt , Bernhard! and—Varesi! * ¥ % ¥ s while she was playing the fem- ead in Arthur Hopkins' produc- 4 long nu hen Sam [T e tion of Gorki's “Night Lodging.” that Miss Varesi once more did the unex- pected. Together with her friend, Dolly Byrne. in three weeks, she wrote a play that was immediately accepted for pro- on on Broadway. It was called ter Madame,” with the action cen- tering around an episode in the life of Mme. Lisa Della Robbia, a prima donna. What more natural, then. than for the maneger to decide, after looking around it the possibilities in New York, that the best person to play the role was the herself? At lzst Gilda Varesi was to be made 4 star! New Yorkers heard the news with ion. For several vears they had watched this talented actress distinguish herself in rather unimpor- tant roles, and now she was to finally have the opportutnity to show what she could do with a star part. A few weeks' rehearsals, and the long- awaited event, the opening night of satisfa “Enter Madame” by and with Gilda Varesi. It was an instantaneous suc- cess. Alone n her dressing room after ngratulations had | “SHE LOOKS AT IT AND SAYS, ‘YOU | died away she took out, for the twen- tieth time, a cable that had arrived from London that day, and read again the simple message. ‘When Miss Varesi had left England. John Archibald had bent himself with greater energies to his work. . The grim days of war and separation were made a little lighter by the frequent letters that went back and forth across the Atlantic. As time went on something that Archibald had been cherishing as a secret dream began to grow into a great determiration. Just before the close of the war, on a pretext of business, Archibald came to New York. Miss Varesl was playing in a small town in the middle west, and the good-looking Englithman made the rail journey and arrived at the “opry house.” There was a brief renewal of the friendship, for Archibald had 1o return almost immediately to England His visit to America had strengthened his resolve, but his wisdom decided tha the time had not yet come to speak. * * % x FEW more years passed. L January it was decided that “Enter Madame,” the success of the season in New York, Chicago, Washington, etc should go to London for a run in the British capital At the end of January Miss Varesi sailed for England. When the grea' liner pulled in at Southampton, a tall §ood-looking young Englishman stood waiting on the pier. It was a night journey from South- ampton to London, and Miss Varesi and Mr. Archibald—they were John and Gilda by this time—sat up alone in one of the compartments of the day coach Of course, she said “Yes.” Her coming to London was the con- tinuation of a family tradition. for Gilda Varesi is the fourth genera- tion, in a direct line. to star in Lon- |don. It began with her great-grand- mother, Mme. Boccabadati, the famous prima donna who thrilled Covent Gar den about the time Victoria ascended the trone. Her grandfather was the |famous baritone for whom Verd |wrote the role of Rigoletto. Henct Miss Varesi's name, Gilda, after the heroine of the opera. He, too, was the sensation of many seasons at the Royal Opera in London. Her mother. | Mme. Elena Varesi, is still remem- bered by the older generation of opera-goers in England for the ex- quisite purity of her voice, her grace and charm. What a gratification it was to Gilda Varesi a few weeks 4g0 |when she met George Bernard Shaw |and he said, “I heard your mother | sing at Covent Garden.” Now comes Gilda, daughter of Elena Varesi, granddaughter of Felice Varesi and great-granddaughter of Luigi Boccabadati, to star on the Lon- don stage in her own play. 1t was for this that the good-look- ing Englishman with the determined {chin had to wait. He says it was | worth it. And so, a few weeks ago, they were married. When they were making the marriage plans there was one | person in all London to whom thev |turned—Alfred Sutro. The play- | wright, proudly realizing the impor- |tance of his position, signed the mar- |riage register, and thereby goes down |to posterity as the person responsi- ble for the whole affair “Enter Madame” has closed its Lon- don run. But in a charming house at No. 5 Clarence Terrace, Regent Park. in a drawing room hung With Italian paintings and an exquisite miniature of Luigi Boccabadati in & glass case, Gilda Varesi plays a mew role, the most exacting and reward- ing ome of her life—the role of Mrs John G. Archibald Husband Laugh; It Will Aid His Digestion. PN POOR SAP, IT AIN'T TIME FOR THE PIE YET, AND SHE THROWS THE PIE IN THE BUTLER'S EYE."” went to school and the teacher asked him who many ribs did he have. “I don’t know, teacher,” says Johnny, “as I am so ticklish I couldn’t never count them." * k% * OTHER story is about the man that went away on his vacation and forgot to take his golf coat so his sister sent it to him by mail and she_wrote him a letter and told him she had sent the coat by mail. But shetsaid in the letter that in order to save postage she had cut all the buttons off of the coat and he would find them in the right lower pocket of the coat. If a husband can't get a stomach laugh out of them gags or the physical gags either one, why he must be weak minded and if that is the case it may only be necessary for the wife to set Que atory is about the little boy that j and make funny faces at him all through the meal or maybe take a couple lumps of sugar and play like she is shooting craps or maybe just keep winking at him. 1 have got a couple kids that ail 1 half to do to get a wow out of them is act like I was trying to step on their feet or kick their shins under the table. Which ain't saying that they are weak minded or that they can’t digest all the food they throw into them though sometimes it don't seem possible. RING W. LARDNER. Great Neck, Long Island, June 16. e T Custom of giving presents to brides- maids originated in a form of toll. The bride’s girl friends went through the form of preventing the bridegroom and his friends from taking her from her home, a mock battle ensued, each party pelting the other with sweetmeats, and this was finally settled by the bride- groom making presents to all the girla,