Evening Star Newspaper, December 28, 1930, Page 80

THE MILD MADNESS By Fannie Hurst A First-Run Story of Ambition Realized. *+ EOPOLD knew that his family was right, and yet throughout the years of the early childhood of his chil- dren he held cut stubbornly against the oft:n angry importunings of his wife Anna, her relatives, and his. For a man who had been trained to the Tacrative trade of master-plumber, suddenly to turn waiter was not only a matter of supreme humiliation to the Dagmar family, one and all, but, .as Anna and his own sisters expressed it, sometimes they actually feared for the sanity of Leopold. It was not as if he had b:en lazy. Even his sisters said of him that as a boy he had never given symptoms of a lazy bone in his body. And dear knows the servile work of waiting table in the small Russian restaurant where Leopold took up his n2w labors was no easier than that-of a plumber who hired men to work under him.. On the. contrary, the hours were practically as longz, and certainly more arduous. On his feet, carrying hoisted trays, polishing crockery, even sweeping out, and doing sorvile chores for patrons fiom 5 in the evening until 2 and 3 in the morning, was work of an exact- ing if less skiliful nature than the plumbing. RINGING her hands, deploring the lack of dignity bis work as waiter implied for his young children, over and over again, Anna souglgg to wrest from Leopold the secret of his sudden decision to abandon his skilled work for the less remuncrative, less ambitious vo- cation of waiter. Not for worlds, after his five years of life with her, could Leopold have been brought to reveal to her the secret reason for this amazing abandonment of his well paying trade for the lesser vocation of waiting table in a small Russian restaurant. Like his sisters, she would have cried and screamed her derision of his selfish, wastrel ways. The secret motive was neither so profound nor so complicated as that imputed to him by those who felt themselves to be the victims of his vagaries. “He is after women,” shouted Anna, knowing in her heart that women were not the cause of Leopold’s defection. “He is crazy after the low-life of the cab- arets,” accused his sisters, knowing that nothing of the kind was characteristic of Leopold. The reason, meanwhile, lay snugly imbedded in the silence of Leopold. A simple reason; so simple that it shamed him. The great advantage of waiting table in a restaurant over the more dignified, more re- munerative work as master plumber was the music! As a waiter you worked to music! Your work was servile, yes, often in a way that was hateful and revolting, but as a waiter you worked to music! A five-piece orchestra played at Kosta's from «7 pm. to 2 am. Russian music for the most part, with a balalaika or Russian banjo ac- companiment that was as melancholy as wind in Awsumn tress, and yet at the same time sweet and plaintive and filled with a certain wild lust for life. Music that was as real as the beautiful black hair on the head of Leo- pold’s two-months-old baby daughter. YOU worked to music at Kosta's. At 7 the patrons tegan to come. At 7:15 in trooped the five-plece orchestra. The dinner went something like this. Zakuska, a hors d'oeuvre, which consisted of chopped liver served usually to the accompaniment of a song that wrung the very heart out of Leopold; a piece called “Ochee,” which clumsily translated into “Lan- guorous Eyes.” Then the borsch course; thick soup clotted with sour cream, to &trains that to Leopold were almost the most beautiful in the world: “The Volga Boat Song,” filled with the dirge and the urge of those who sweat and toll. Pojarsky, cutlets of chopped chicken, served to the aria from “Eugene Onegin.” And so on through an evening repetitiously crammed with melodies that never seemed to pall. You could not very well go home and say to the most practical wife in the world and to sisters to whom life was a serious day by day business, “I cannot play a note, I do, not know one note from another, but ope day while fixing radiators in the home_ of a famous violinist and h-aring him practice as I worked I realized that music can lift life from the hum- drum affair it has always been into something that makes it worth living. I will work twice as hggd as a waiter. I will dump every cent of my earnings into your lap. Let me live in my trance!” Of course the wife and sisters of Leopold did not let him live in his trance. There were children to rear, clothe, educate and feed and shortly after the startling defalcation of Leo- pold Anna developed a nervous illnzss, irduced by worry. Life stepped in and took a hahd in the mild madness which sesamed to have got hold of Lecpold. Within a month .after he haud gone over, the role of waiter in the Russian res- ta ,he was back again at his wark of soldering . Jead, . Jaying. pipe .and fixing the drajps.and igucets .of peeple’s path rcoms. . It, must be svi4 for him that he teok it ,philo- THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGION, D..C., DECEMBER. 28, 1930. As a waiter, you worked to music. Your work was servile, yes, often hateful and revolting—but at Kosta’s you worked to musie. sophically. After all, it was uncontroversial that thers were children to be reared, and Leopold had seen too much of the struggle of poverty in his own boyhood not to feel imbued with the desire to spare his offspring as. much as possible of pain and deprivation. THE children of Leopold, the four of them, justified his sacrifice. There were three boys and a girl, all of them with their mother’s and his sisters’ square, practical heads on their young shoulders. And all of them held the same attitude of tolerance toward the parent who spent his evenings and holidays picking out futile and unfinished melodies on the flute that time after time, in despair or in the spirit of practical joke, had been hidden from him by his tormented family. When Betty, the black-haired baby, reached her maturity there were four young people in the Dagmar family earning each a good living wage, "dnd contributing to the by no means inconsiderable daily wage of the plumber Leopold. Pive years later the four children of Anna and Leopold between them were in the proud position to give the sum of $1,000 to their father on his 60th birthday. That accom- plished two really triumphant purposes. It sealed by deed their loving regard for his gen- Harold Bell Wright Resolves. Continued from Eleventh Page with words, and the place is designed to make work as easy and rapid as possible. It is a long, simply designed room, dominated by hori- zontal windows which frame exquisitely the natural pictures of mountains and desert. The tone of the entire room is a subdued green, a color matched absolutely by carpet, walls, sceiling and draperies. Some plain but beautiful tables and chairs, desks and book- holders complete the furnishings. One or two works of art and some very pretty wrought iron fixtures made by Mr. Wright himself are the only ornaments. But the decorative effect of the views from the long windows is positively startling. The entire home is impressive in its beauty and liveability, but is not in the least preten- tious. It is a simple Spanish or desert archi- cture, conforming to no very definite school of design. All of the shrubs, except those in the little gem of a patio, are native to the desert, and the color of the home itself blends into the sun-baked desert tan. Guest rooms of the home are in a separat® building some yards away, and incident to them is a blue-green swimming pool. These rooms are fascinating because of their Indian furnishings and works of art. The Wright homeplace is scarczly visible from a short distance away, except for the fact that it rests on a desert knoll. It is situated on a 160-acre tract of raw desert land bought by Mr. Wright because of its natural beauty and suitability as a place for a workshop. There he may study and enjoy Indian life and lore. And from his roof he may bask in the incom- parable beauty of the colorful mountains, ranges whose very names are musical—Santa Ritas, Tortillitas, Santa Catalinas, Rincons. AROLD BELL WRIGHT rarely can be heard to venture an opinion regarding affairs of the day, exc2pt possibly to his inti- mates. The people of Tucson will tell you that he is a good citizen and a loyal one, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, a booster for “good roads and good government” and gen- erally the type that a town likes to claim. But personally. he is scarcely known, although, liter ally millions of people sit up nights to reall his works. ‘This 1s phenomenal when you stop to con- sider that Harold Bell Wright has many very active enemies and adverse critics, who delight in panning his novels and in calling him all sorts of uncomplimentary names. . But usually the critics are among the self- exalted higher-ups of the country, Mr. Wright finds, whereas all his writings are directed at the great mass of common people whom—as Mr. Lincoln remarked—God must have loved because He made so many of them. Their very numbers _have made Harold Bell Wright both wealthy and famous. Incidentally, among the very favorable critics of Harold Bell Wright, among those who have regarded him positively as the greatest writer of all time were his own three sons. One of them, Paul (whose death a short time ago ended a probably brilliant stage career, and left a mark on the heart of a devoted father), overheard his dad once remark that Shakes- peare was the greatest of all authors. “Gee, dad, did he have you skinned?” the incredible little Paul demanded. “Unquestionably,” Mr. Wright laughed. Harold Bell Wright's boys hayve been a source of pleasure to him throughout their lives. The oldest, Gilbert, first made a success in scientific studies, then moved into novel writing. The third son, Norman, is a university student. Mr. Wright has every faith in the so-called younger g=neration today. He sees nothing in them or their conduct that should be “viewed with alarme” He admits they take many lib- erties, have pre-empted many freedoms and manners that once were taboo, but for any undue license they have taken he blames not them but their elders. a It is, possibly, .. m our current decade of flaming youths that the first major impetus toward spiritual research and discovery is likely to come, Mr. Wright suggests. A generation reared in an atmosphere of physical achieve- ment conceivably will get more thrill later out of probing into man’s spiritual and emotional phenomena. The zest of discovery and experi- ment in this new realm will be far greater than any recompense our current engineers and scientists. know, .. . . . erosity to them. It increased the nest-egg of Leopold and Anna from four to five thousand dollars. Four of this Leopold presented to the astounded Anna on the occasion of their next wedding anniversary. With the remaining one thousand he made the first down payment on a little run-down restaurant in a Russian neighborhood, where for 65 cents one could eat a table d’hote dinner to the strains of & three-piece orchestra that boasted a balalaika. (Copyright. 1930.) Roger Babson. Continued from Fifth Page opportunities. Possibilities of new inventions and improvements are evident everywhere, “The possibilities of radio are limitless. So are the possibilities 8f X-rays, electricity and gas. But all these great fields are reserved for technical minds. “I've a field in mind, however, that is very different. And that is the profession of teach- ing. Some day there will be ‘teaching stars’ who will' be paid salaries as large as movie stars are paid today. [ AGR.ICULTURE is another profitable spot for young people. It will not be very long before modern science will be raising potatoes as big as squashes and growing tomatoes in a week. Improvements in refrigeration and can- ning will keep improving fruits and vegetables ever ready for our use. “A novel thing on which to work is the elimi- nation of noise. The great increase in nervous diseases is largely due to the noise of our cities, which we must succeed in eliminating. The noiscless typewriter presents only one of hundreds of opportunities to do away with noise. With a year’s training I think an ine genious young person could become an antie noise expert and make a good living as cone sultant for manufacturers, m:-chants and office managers. g “But let us return to the outlos: for 1931, The chances are that by the second quarter things will look so much better that interest in unemployment will be much less. By early 1932 we may be well back to normal. In the meantime we may expect that during the first quarter of 1931 conditions will be confused by the reactions remaining as a legacy from 1930, After the first quarter has been completzd the ground will be cleared for some improvement. “The outstanding characteristic from an economic viewpoint will be the exceptional op- portunities on the buying side. Just as in a period of overexpansion quotations are pushed up above real values, so in a period of de- pression quotations are pushed down below real values. “There will be exceptional values in stocks. If you have money to buy outright and not on margin or borrowed money you should find some ‘bargains. : W “Unemployment will carry over"into " 1931. Even with business gradually improving, it will be some time before the unemployment situation can be anything more than alleviated. Some further wage reductions appear inevitable, But 1931 will be characterized by relatively few strikes. “All in all, the new year will be a period not only of perplexing problems, but of exceptional opportunities.” =3 -(Copyright, 1930.)