The Seattle Star Newspaper, December 17, 1921, Page 11

= sab. Cynthia Gre es Message to All American | Wife and Mother Sec Parenthood in Sinclair Lewis’ “Main Street” : BY CYNTHIA GREY Todcy brings to a close the “Main Street” contest. That it twas very much of a success goes without saying, and from the hundreds of letters received I am quite sure now that everyone has read “Main Street.” Artnouncement of the prize-winning letters will appear in| these columns Monday. Following are a number of letters: Leaves Wash Tub to Write of “Main Street” Dear Miss Grey: I've left a ings in the rinse and dried my come in here and tell you what to me. “Regardless of the more trivial details as to the minor char- “which, ghict gossip, etc., ete., there about her. But since she has fairly good clothes and doing very li herself much above the “common he: batch of the children’s stock- hands on the kitchen towel to message “Main Street” brings is a much deeper meaning, to people who think, means “the hand-writing on the “is Carol. Surely nothing. finesor true, or womanly | to: wearing actual work, imagines y: DOINGS OF THE Dl NOW You GO SAY,"@ADDY, WHAT 13 SANTA CLAUS GOING To BRING MAMMA FOR. SWuckS! t Hoke we CAN GET IN TW KITCHEN AN’ GET SOME COCKIES ” Neither motherhood | (if bearing one child, and that unwillingly, can be called! motherhood) nor wifehcod can mean anything to her, for| since she is so self-centered she is not big enough to grasp! the possibilities of either. Dr. Will is not without his share of the blame. Parenthood was re- luctantly accepted, since he did not to Rave children until he was take care of them the way an idea they should be cared showing the ‘absolute lack of im the good God who made us) n't you see it, or won't you see people? What is to become our splendid American institutions and traditions if these shirkers of their God-gtven duties do not have a change of heart? A few more generations of this “one-child-well-raised = (7)" idea, which means only too often one Jonely and spoiled individual, who bas been mentally and moraily dwarfed by having too much atten- there will be no generations to come. Truly—it is to laugh, were it not so real and tragic. ‘This is not all of the message by any means, but I fear now I have! exceeded the 300-word limit. | K. A.B. o- . ! Dear Miss Grey: To criticise a book does not mean to praise or con.) demn the characters. This seems to | be done by those who are criticising | lain Street." They measure the/ merits of the book by how much they Mke or dislike the personalities | drawn in the writing. j ‘The book is well written in propor. tion as it realistically portrays the characters, situations, actions, etc.. which make up its rubstancs. one can reasonably deny that, may not like or admire Carol cott, the author has presented her to us in her mental problems and actions true to the nature and char.) acter he has given her. Nearty every one agrees that all the other character detineations are especially | well done. Not to like the char) acters in this book is like saying you 40 not like the villain in a play, be cause he has acted his part weil. I think the author could have’ in the story, The undersigned hy lived in 12 towns during the past 40 years, six in Nebraska, six in Ore. | £ON, as pastor of the Methortist copal chureh. In each of those 18 towns could be found characters imi: | lar to the leading parties named tn “Main Street." Mra. Bogart can be found in nearly every town modified ‘form. Hypocrisy is the sum total! of the religion of many people. How differ ent she treated the young school teacher to the way the Master treat: ed those whom he found in the grip jot human weakness, The world would be far better if there were fewer people like Mrs. Bogart and were like the Master. He came to saVe sinners not to push them farther down towards destruc tion. . I think the little school teacher the real heroine of the story. I cannot help but Believe her story about her experience with that drunken young man. What a victory she won by saving herself. Mrs. Kennicott was morally w and is @ fair sample of many women of the present day, as shown by the divorce courts and the destroyed homes thruout our fair land. They are found in every small town as well as the great cities Human weakness — how frail we are! Mr. Kennicott appears to me as a niighty superior husband. The way he treated the spooners when he found them tn his car and saw them safely home. To my mind he was just sublime, and the way he treated the frail, erring wife—how superior to the usual scenes of the kind. Kennicott manifested more Christian charity and spirit than any other person named in the story, tho he did not profess to be a Chris tian. ‘The young man Erik may be found everywhere. The lesson should be, Beware of the man who leads cap tive those who are weak and ready to fan. NEC . Dear Miss Grey: I have followed in | | as & novel; but a4 4 warning, I have” never read its equal, Carol and the doctor are both fine, but not aulted | to one another. By all means marry for love; but use a little judgment |when you fall in love, and do not jexpect someone who has lived an fentirely different life from you to love the same things you love | I consider “Main Street” a warn ing to men fn emall towns and to girls brought up in the city, and also a warning to married men tn general to be more tnikative to their | wives when at home or they may | met so lonesome that they will talk with someone else, as Carol did. Remember that she has not been | out riding around in the fresh air, | talking to this one and that one, but at hérne. Now if people will be warned tn time, the happiness of perhaps thousands of lives may be |saved. What a wonderful story, then, would "Main Street” be. MRS. W. 8. C . . | Dear Misa Grey; From my experi [ence I believe “Main Street” in the reality of yesterday and today, as the author reveals it thru the eyes of his respective characters An injustice some say—but why? People vary in their capacity of appreciation and obnervation, and capacity usually depends upon the | | previous training as lustrated by | Sinclair Lewis, in the various “play. | ers.” Ma Bogart, Myrtle Cans and) Carol. That le to say, Carol can see) the dull monotony of a grey, listless village, dead to her over-etimulated desire for entertainment and bentity THE SEATTLE STAR IN ANO CHRISTI EVERETT TRUE Yes, MR. MERCHANT, CHRISTMAS SHOPPING EARLY, SANTA CLAUS GOING TO BRING MOTHER FoR yA Tipping iste wil ; ar WELL, 1JUST Do Wow Yer WHAT. Do You THINK SHE OUGHT To GET ? MAS P t'M DOING MY Mm SOIN@ AROUND BIZING VP ME Sit. UATION, BUT LI CAN BEE RIGHT NOW THar ¢ WHERE BECMuS® Alc 3 S&e HERE “ce Se DONG MY BUYING Ex Se- (‘S A LOT OF HOLD OVERS THAT YoU FAILED To SGiu LAST HOLIDAYS AND haticH YOU Gxeect TO STING THe EARLY BIRDS WITH THIS SEASON BEFORE You TROT OUT THE Her Mitt SH-H-H -H-H-H-. AN, GEE*IT AINT AKY USE — NONE OF Th KEYS FIT = snucks |! GET HER A NICE FUR CoAT WOME AN PAGE BY ALLMAN OH, THEY.VE GUMMED UP THE WHOLE IDEA ~ HE'LL BE WISE TOIT ALt- SOLID ivory ! ASK WER Ford SOME FOR BEIN' GOOD Boys! While Ma Bogart finds her tulfitied | ambition {n feeding upon the mis. takes of others. Myrtle Cans finds livened the story considerably by | “Main Street" with so much Inter. toned pe tsnm ‘extremely radical |¢#t that I think I could find every action dons by Miles Bjornstam, in.|**p of Gopher Prairie in the dark ——< — given situations would cause them to | stead of letting him fade out en- tirely. Because “Main Street” |s a story | of a family and community life of | every-day characters, the story, necessarily, lacks the quick action | and labored-after plot elements of | the usual novel. It is a genuine pleasure to find a book that can be) read without having to gulp hard) . | have ‘ed its purpose, that of naturally and | logically causing the Characters to/ live and act as their natures in the| Cc. A.D. “ee. D Miss Grey: A few words | about “Main Street.” It is very in-/ teresting reading and I think, in the main, true to real life in the smalier towns. Some of the characters.are a little overdrawn, but people will be found fn almost every small town to com- pare with the leading parties named ive and act. The author certainly knows a amalt town to perfection I followed Carol when she first gave the town the “once over” and I know just how she felt; I get the same feeling when I even drive thru a dingy town. However, I think Carol is very shallow, and foolish in lots of ways, and good-natured, careless, happy-go-lucky Dr. Kennicott in a way I feel sorry for him, with his biundering ways. If he had married Vida Sherwin he would probably lived happily ever after. ‘There always je a Mra. Bogart with her righteousness, I can just see her when she told about Fern Mu! lin, Diack gloves and all. It’s her kind and the kind anxious for news that rum the lively, innocent ones to the ground. I can’t say anything about the Red Swede as my experience ia limited to one town and they didn’t happen to have anyone of his type that I know of. M. E.R. eee Dear Miss Grey: I have read nov els T liked better than “Main Street,” lies Wabats Baten Suddenly they turned a corner Nancy,“Nick, Kip, the mole, the| toy-maker the chimney-sweep | roped along thru the dark passage, sure that they would soon be in| Brownieland and that their troubles | Were over. The gnomes with all! their wicked tricks were far behind. “All at once Nick calied out, “I smell something.” “Bo do 1,” echoed Nancy. “It| smelis queer and steamy.” | And so it did! It was the steam | from the boiling toad-warts that the gnome worcerer had sent into the Panage to make it twist out of its! Proper direction. | “Goodness,” coughed the chimney | “I'm_unsed to all sorts of | is an so many of them come up| Kitehen chimneys when I'm BWeeping them out. But this is dif- ferent. 1 don't remember this kind | of & well.” “Oh, well,” said the toy-maker, “we'll noon be there now! Just I me get hold of some of the glittery stuff from Pim Pim's mines in and there Brownleland, and spiff, spaff, sping! I'll have lot of Christmas toys made in no time,” But the mole wasn’t so sure. “There's something queer,” said he, wiggling his pointy snout. “I feel dizzy, as it | were turning ‘round and ‘round.”" Wasn't he right, tho! The passage way by this time was a thousand miles out of its course and they weren't any nearer to Brownieland than I am to the sun, Well, they tramped and tramped and they tramped. “Oh, goodness!’ said poor Nancy, “Surely we're nearly there. I'm most dead.” But no sooner had she spoken than suddenly they turned a corner, and there ahead was a gate, not the fa- miliar one to Brownielapd, but a three-cornered one with a sign over- head which said, “The End of the Barth.” (To Be Continued) (Copyright, 1921, by Seattle Star) ahead was a gate a the town not only wideawake, but [the wonderiand wherein she is per fectly content and happy. Main Street an ween thru her eyes is surely not an injustices, but Mattery—which | is only the result of “being of the town.” or in perfect harmony with one's surroundings I do not mean to affirm that Gopher Prairie ts inhabited by a herd of ncandal-mongers — except | that the troublemaker stands out more vividly in a small town than in & large city, where I believe Carol | would have found a haven in the larger scope of intelligent goodnens | and the variety of clean amusement | as compared with Gopher Prairie. | To me Gopher Prairie dors. not} seem pictured as altogether unde-| sirable. In the characters of the! author, T see many of my friends. | Who of us do not tind among our | friends a Red Swede, and occasion. | ally a Ma Bogart? Even in our own make-up we find also a Carol, in that it Is not without a stinging | humaneas that we watch the ember | ashes of our own golden castles! crumble and seek to find, even as she, in word or object its lingering | spirit. Not upholding Carol In her unwiae escape, I am too young at 21 to judge another mother, Yet I am hoping for the resurrection of a finer Carot born out of the experience, who will look back with amusement upon this secondary interest ag com. | pared with her husband and her babe, And that ts Kenneth, the boy- }ish, trusting partner, not without his errors, but big In spite of them }not a burden to her future, but a/ | very fortunate meana by which she | has an opportunity to study into the jexnct difference from her own type jand consequently come into a great er understanding of life and human ity. "Then probably she will be con- |actous of the grandest possession |that gulde women into that serene contentment that comes only as the aftergiow of unselfish sacrifice. Wherein the amiles of one’s belpved babe are far outranking in their {m. portance than all the caresses of all the Ericks tn all the Gopher Prairies. MARION Dear Miss Grey: I have finished reading “Main Street” and would like to add my lUttle “say” to the rest. Sinclair Lewis is a marvel at char- acter delineation; he has so truly written so many different types, and to one who is a really deep student of human nature he has not overdrawn; each of his types may be found not only in the Gopher Prairies and the cities in general, but in every com- munity where people are gathered— the shop, the factory, the department store, and in soclety; in each place they will be outwardly different but at heart the same. In my life I have found oh, #0 many Carols united to so many Dr. Wills, and many who are not yet tied—but eternally searching for the thing that will satisfy—a something tangible; they are not viclous or use lens, what they really need is a di- rector, Like so many women—and men—of our day, they have the foundation of a good education with- out having selected or been given a goal, and that is the main thing in life—something to work for, for only in work is there true happiness, The _ By Mabel Cle sel Page 549 “NIM. “Once upon a time,” Pessy and David settled back happily At such @ beginning to a story. “Once upon a time there was a@ little sawdust town down by the edge of Biliott bay, A noisy littie sawmill gave work to the men who came adventuring tn the new country “A cook house sent out odors | of frying bacon and steaming| coffee, Sawdust ‘poured forth| from the mill and was piled on the beach, banked against the hill, thrown into the wet, straggling, stumpy street. Sawdust was everywhere “Seraggly Indian buts littered the beach, Little wooden houses gat back in the edge of the clear ings and smiled corliy down on the mill and the crooked street and the cookhouse and the saw: dust, for they were the homes of the people who were building the sawdust town, They called it Seattle. “The year on the calendar wns 1860, and the weatherman was dealing out just about such weather as he deals out now to the Puget Sound country. “Into the harbor of the sawdust town there sailed a ship, not a passenger ship such as you see rr at the docks now, but a mailing veasel which took on a cargo of lumber from the noisy Httle mill and sailed away. “Now probably no one would re- member at all about the ship and her sailing if it were not for the fact that when she sailed into the harbor she had on board her a mother and 3-monthsold baby, And when she sailed out of the harbor she took only the mother, ving the lonely baby in the lit: tle sawdust town with its noisy mill, its cookhouse and its little homes looking cozily out from the clearings. “In one of the little homes not #0 very far away from the mill lived the family of Terrys, and into this family went Nimm (Nimm was the baby’s name) wearing his beautiful, warm, brown fur coat and looking for friends with his big faithful brown eyes. “Nimm grew fast, oh, faster than most anybody you ever knew, for in one year and a half he was all grown up, as big as ever he would be. “You see, he was a New- foundiand dog and every dog and girl in the little sawdust town loved him and petted him and he was everybody's pet, but best of all his little friends, Nimm loved 10-yearold Joe Crow.” (To Be Continued) Nemes ft ttt Paneer Be a in ms “Red Swede” proved that. I hope we hear more of him, And what a blessing if we could find a way to annihilate the Widow Bogarts, It would save so many tragedies like that which befell the little school teacher, leaving her scarcely any choice but to be the wort of a girl they had tagged her; turned down by her own people and the home agency, it was indeed a real tragedy to her. ‘The Juanita Haydocks seem to be ‘fa neceswary evil everywhere, so use less, always tearing down, never building I should like to go on with each character but I know your time and patience will not permit, but just one more, I think the Dr. Kennicotte of the world are our backbone, and one in tempted to ery, “If only they would not invariably marry the Carols.” Bat in reality it is just what they need—it {# their inspiration, and I suppose the Carols need them equal ly as much to keep them closer to earth, otherwise they might soar on to Venus, Mr, Lewis is one man who thoroly understands the mental clockworks of “le femme,” and even with our ERNID HICKS WHOIS PLAYING SANTA CLAUS YESTERDAY. IN ONE OF THE Confessions of a Movie Star (Copyright, 1931, Beattie star) CHAPTER XXXIX—JIMMY SAVES ME FROM FLAMES Rose did not leave until she had handed me her latest trove of studio KoRsip. “All the girls are doing up their hair as you do yours,” she an- nounced. “That's @ test of your pop- ularity, honey! It's well to be pop- ular nowadays, and to be able to Prove it. The movie theatres are closing in lots 6f towns, Henry says the producing end is slowing down in consequence. But as long as you can keep the fans doing up their coiffures like yours, you'll hold your job. You'll eat when some of us are starving.” “How—starving?” “If you ask me—I never save a penny! Neither does Henry! 1 was sympathetic but minus a vocabulary to fit the situation. T was thinking how grateful 1 ought te, be to Motherdear, who had advised a certain budget for me. From the be- ginning of my contract, a certain fixed portion of my salary had gone into my savings account every pay- day. Rose knew, it appeared. “You'll be all right, honey, even if you don’t work for a year. Your Motherdear has a lohg head. We all know that. Henry says the boys were talking about it the other day, ‘They said she must have Scotch an- cestors.” “Whom do you mean by ‘the boys’ ?"* ‘Coleridge and Cissy. Rose low- ered her voice. “Honey—let an old woman advise fou. When a man like Cissy Sheldon gets sentimental, 0 a little slow, dearie! Go a little slow! Rose left me to meditate upon this advice, As usual, she had been none too clear, Was she suggesting that Cissy was wooing me on account of my earning powers? My pride had received a big bump. Could it be possible that Cissy or any other man would make love to me because I had a handsome savings account? My bad day ended worse than it began. A fire set was to be shot. Mother. dear came to the studios as usual when a scene is dangerous. That day something went wrong with the current which runs the draft fans, I was supposed to be surrounded by flames and jt turned out that I actually was. The draft federated clubs and educational so- cleties of all kinds helping to make the Gopher Prairies more livable and lovable, still If one uses one's eyes and ears the “Main Street” charac: ters are all there—with the little Vida Sherwins running around fran- tically trying to keep us from bump ing each other so hard. Yours truly, MRS, W. 8. M. Dear Miss Grey: We cannot call “Main Street,” with its commonplace characters, a great novel. We can- not class this book with its tiresome chapters of twaddle, gossip and petty scandal as literature. God forbid! But rather as one of those mushroom “best sellers” which arouse consider- able criticism because of their (un)- popularity and are then forgotten. ‘The author's portrayal of the archi- tecture, the general appearance and the contemptible things of the small town are true, in the main. Hence the fuss which is being made over the book. In Carol Kennicott, a product of our system of education and the times, neither here nor there, dissat- isfied with everything, discontented everywhere, he has expressed the feminine yearning for something dif- ferent from domestic drudgery and has succeeded, as far as possible, in making a charatter out of a charac- terless woman. Bjornstam typifies hundreds of workingmen, as I know them, bitter and cynical, with a contempt and hatred of capital engendered by su- perficial reading, independent withal and a man as far as conditions allow. In Dr, Kennicott, Mother Bogart, et al, T see only small town people attending to thetr various businesses of healing, gossip, trade, ete. There is no fine description or thought in the book, It takes you nowhere, the “characters” do nothing in particular, It makes no appeal to the finer feelings nor induces any pleasant thinking. One closes the book in disgust at wasted time and disappointment, with a feeling of resentment and nausea at such “literature.” G.T. T. Dear Miss Grey; I have never had the chance to pose as a literary crit: ie, 80 please be prepared to receive an ¢arful of wisdom from a woman who isn't very wise, but very much woman, Yes, I have read “Main Street”; that is, I have tried to digest its contents as a matter of educa- tion. Gopher Prairie as described by Sinclair Lewis is true to life—maybe, But what does it matter? Having thru which I was supposed to exit failed to materialize. Motherdear, from her point of view, failed to see |my danger. A little flame caught one corner of my chiffon negliges. A thrill of terror shook me. The director, um aware of what had happened, erted: “Bien! Bienf’ And then Dick rushed thru the flames and I ran into his arms cry+ ing: “Jimmy! Jimmy! ‘When I regained consciousness, 3 was in my dressing room Said Motherdear: “Your hair wasn't singed a parti- jele, Nttle girl. ‘There imn't a red ‘spot on you. I must thank the néw man.” “The, new man!’ Motherdear had not recognized Jimmy in his make- w D. “He threw his coat over your head and shoulders. He went home with his arm bandaged.” Then we wept together. The most experienced movie stars are badly | scorched, once in a while, when they {play with fire. i (To Be Continued) waded thru the mud and siush of “Main Street” I am painfully aware that there are a number of people in it whose sotils should be sent to the cleaners for a general overhaul- ing. Perhaps I see myself as one of” theme, with a number of black spots on my soul that could be blotted out by persistent rubbing. But I am not going to try it. I have so many delightful faults that I want to keep, T have a few simple virtues, and I want to keep them, too, At any rate, I don’t want to live on “Main Street.” It is too dull and dreary. Mr. Lewis is without question a great writer, whose knowledge and ,observations of the human animal are correct to a fault’ But the it is, I couldn't get a kick out of Street.” It lacks the punch, the pep, or whatever you call it T would love to corral Mr. Lewis in a corner and read O. Henry to him for a few minutes. Anyhow, I am going to forget all about “Main Street.” Reading a dry vacu' in my cranium needs motsti so if I put on a new am going to play “A! Fun?"