i
,.
b
.
, less clearly.
.oorofin so. has.
I TOUAIAe—By Rene list-nu. Thomas
laser.
MARAN has done at dent
one thing that no one else
has ever done. His ‘30-
la” presents the say-cs human
incl Just as he is: 5:111:3th
7's have here no decorated vet-ion
the noble black man or of the
' ' 3- "unspoiled" prism!" aes-
idealised or travestied mer the
nor of a Chateaubriand. Ber-
W'in as St. Pierig or our on
per Neither is there anything.
the Klpun‘esque. fiat-fluted,”
pathetic interpretation at
"0-. It is not a coldly scientific.
j} specimen for fun ethnologist's'mb-
And. finally, it is not'i n'exro'i
- interpretation of himself. or of
ancestors from it definitely negro
t of view. M. Maran is. as he
. ely claims to be. simply the
'11: artist who is drawing a. pic-
.. of what he sees just as he
" it. His attitude, he tells us. is
‘ of one seeking utter objectivity.
- therein he is almost miraculously
‘ ' cessfui. As a work of literary art
," is. in this respect. a masterpiece.
Batouula. himself his nine wives the
, lusty youth Bissibingui. the drunken
" old father and all the minor figures
stand out with a clarity and detach-
ment of outline like that of a group
of bronze statues. They are all
figures "in the round.” with no con-
cealed parts. And they are not at
all poswi. We see them in perfectly
natural. unconscious attitudes—in
short. Just as they must be. in stark
reality. in :he very nature of things.
lint in LIJF-ln, the consummate
artist. there Ls added Martin the
bitter controversialist. the critic.
propagandist. champion of his race.
Bpt'kt'stn for the educated, intol-
lcctuai negro—social philosopher.
and. possibly. militant leader. This
Maren appears in the preface to the
Finry. or sketch. This preface "and
the tale of "Batouala' itself are as
“i-li‘ apart as the poles. It is a
: :ular juxtaposition. Q. Marat) is
~-vlously so intelligent that it is
hard to see how he could have been
blind to the contradictions beturesn
his preface and his artistic 'expreSc
aion of the subject in the rest of the
. book. For "Batouaia" is a terrible
indictment of the negro race: so
.unsparing. entirely unmitigated .
statement of sheer animalisrn, with-
out one sinxle redeeming trait. with-
out a suggestion 01* any hopeful.
progressive human virtue or a trace
of any human quality that could be
held worth preserving
that aspires to rise above the brute
creation. On the other hand. the
preface is an impassioned plea for
justice to the individual negro, and
for an altruistic settlement of tho
ominously rising negro problem as it
exists in America. North and South.
and in Africa. and. to a. small extent,
in Europe.
How the two lines of thought are
to be reconciled is not apparent. 3!.
Show himself gives us no clew to
his own hirmonization scheme. if he
has .1n).lt may be suggested. dif-
titi ently. thht there is a little con-
fi<ion of thought involved. The
negro question. as a modern problem.
is not the problem of the negro in a
”stain of nature" in an Atrium
Jungle. but of the very much modi-
fied negro as he exists in civilized
society. or in contact with civiliza-
tion. anti, usually. of the negro who
is not of plll’t' negro blow! but who
has at lens: a trace of some modi-
fying element in his makeup. In
fact. the character of the negro as
he is shown by M. Maran to exist
in his natitc habitat is. for the most
partnasidc from the question.
II.
But .\l’. Martin‘s preface is im-
purmnt enough to call for very
serious consideration. It naturally
has raised :1 storm in France. where
the controversies it started m: still
raging in the press and in Govern-
mr-nt otiives. The last Word. accord-
ing to recent press dispatches, from
M. Moran him-elf in reply to his
critics. has been a demand for an
official investigation of the French
colonial administration. His charges,
in brief. were that the negroes were
being treated worse than animals
and that the coionials themselves
"haven't the strength to stand up
against the influences of (their rur-
roundinxs.” and so take to drink and
debauchery. "And so." he concludes,
“intellectual anmia joining hands
with moral debility. they have de-
ceivod their country and felt no re-
morse. " Quite probobiv there is need
of a house cleaning- ’
Curiously enough. nothing of all
that prefatory thundering has much
to do with the ensuing narrative.
The white ”slave drivers" turn up
once or twice in the background. but
have litt' e or nothing to do with the
events of the tale. It is only in
Blinuala‘s final delirium as he lies
dying that one. gets a definite state-
ment of grievances. although it P
also brought out in a. previous scene
For the laattlmetwsreadiin
hisdelirlumhstoldoreeanths
- ed. impersonal studyof him in‘
in a world'
', one feels after reading the book. .. .
»mm
is finest the oniy one in flié out
it'd! wherein a. Ilsa-an h_. M.
putting mouthing of his own sophi-
nationutothemindofhhotbsr— *4
wise native Batouala. For embers
neither the chief Batonala nor any
of his people show the blighted trace
of any conception of the idea. of the
“brotherhood of man." or of any
other idea. or ideal. whatsoever be-
yond the primitive ones of satisfying
hunger, lust and the secondary pas-
slons of vengeance. thievery and the
pure joy of battle. The other ap-
proach to this quasi-civilized note is
shown after Batouaia's outbreak de-
nouncing the whites at a festival
where. the negroes reflect:
Of old (they think) before the
coming of the whites they had
lived happily. They had worked a.
little for themselves, they had
eaten and drunk and slept. From
time to time they had had bloody
pala'vers and had plucked the liver!
from the dead to eat their courage
and incorporate it in them-sly..-
Such had been the happy days of
old before the coming of the
whites. Now they were more
slaves. . . . The boundjous
(whites) were heartless. They de-
serted their children by negro
women, and these children . .
scorned to associate with the '
blacks. They were full of hate and
envy. . . . As for the white
women. no me talking about them.
. III.
Itisnecesaary todisposeofthis
element. this sinister statement of a
part of the problem of race conflict
(and essentially a true statement), ,
before one can really approach the
more important part of the book.
For this. after all. is a very small
part of the whole, and. moreover. it
holds no great novelty. though it
will inevitably attract more public
attention than the truly unique
features of the performance. The
bulk of the volume is given to de-
scribing various episodes in the daily
' life of Batouala. his wives and his
o4
tribe.
Strictly speaking it has no plot.
It is not an artificially constructed
dramatic story but a series of more
or loss connected sketches. It o‘pens .
with Batouala's awakening-
‘Whan he had rubbed his eyes
with the back of his hand and
blown his nose through his fingers
he got up and scratched himself.
He scratched his armpits. he
scratched his thighs. his head. his
buttocks, his arms. Scratching is
a splendid exercise. It is a pleas-
ure. and it also points to some-
thing. . . . All living creatures
scratched themselves on waking.
It was a good txample to follow.
. . But if scratching was good,
yawning was still better. It was a
means of chasing sleep away
through' the mouth.
There follows the awakening of
Yassizuindja. his favorite wife. then
a breakfast of fried mterpliiars and
manloc and the day‘s routine. The
other wives come out and proceed to
their toilet. “It was an unaffected
business. Lion and woman were
made for one another. Since they
cannot be ignorant of their differ-
ences why be ashamed? Modesty is
just another of the hypocrisics of the
whites."
Batouaia issues a general invita-
tion, by means of the wonderful tom-
tom signal. to all the tribes to gather
for a festival. for the annual cere-
mony of circumcision of the ado-
lescent youths. After that he goes
fora walk and the young Bis!-
bingui. the handsomcst. strongest
youngster of the tribe. appears.»' He
is the favorite of all the women. “He
had beenfiarty- to breaches between
many a couple.“ There is an outline
of the usuafintrigue, difIEring little
from the civilized trauma.» except in
its naivcte and. it rnust be added, its
multiplicity. The philosophic Yassl-
guind‘la ends ‘a quarrel among the
women—an aflair of true billings-
gate—with the wise advice: "Let as
rather cat this maniac. Sleep-
ing, rung. maniac bread. men.
danc ng. tobacco. they are the only
rem things."
IV. .
later we get a magnificent dc-.
scription of the festival and dance;
a masterpiece of restrained. careful
writing worthy of a, Flaubert. It is
too long for quotation—and some. '
times a little too racy, though the
sensuality and reel: of the thing is
never. anything but the normally
savage. unashamed, “natural“ man
i-UonL 32999555?in of “N-
fsvorlto wife and the lusty youth
Wmmmhde—
tenninzl to kill. 80. too. M the
youngster. Egchplotahowitanbs
donewithoutdancer.
Then comes the hunt, with the
sasondmfburainzdthebrnsh.
Wmsflfimfisfld— “ ‘ ‘
only libelous! Be threatened
L www.m’ V
interchmareacnnnagrafioa.
Tochhlufldburstotm
it mxhtbe rotort‘ed Morena“
mmmursiblytcuaflsltlsnohln
it:
,le
Rene Maran, the author of “Batouala,” which last winter received the
Prix Goucourt. Marat: is a colonial chief stationed on the banks of Lake
Tchad. "Batonsla" has provoked wide discussion in France. In oficial
circles it has been regarded as unjustified criticism of the administration of»
. France 5 colonial empire. ' "
a 7J
panther did; you tore him limb from touch of the new vices they ate better. The “gun tears” and
acquiring from the white man.'espe~
limb as the panther did."
daily in the form of absinthe and
Bissibingui‘s plans were similar.
but neither came off, since a real disease. It is a. picture of un-
panther interrupted and clawed Ba- paralleled grimnesa‘lfi”
touala's belly (pomaftcr which came "Civilization." M. Moran cries out
in his preface, "pride of the Euro-
peans and Charlie! house of inno-
cence . . you have built your
kingdom on corpses. Whatever you
wish, whatever you do. you move in
lies. A: sight of you, gushing tears;
shrieks of agony. You are might
over right. You are not
a lingering. hideous death.
That is enough to give something
of the quality of the book. But in
addition to the rank human material
there is also an uncanny feeling of
the forest.‘tiie jungle, of the wild
boasts. the ciamorous birds. the heat
and storms. Here again M. Mama prevailing
CHRONICLE AND
COMMENT
8y “mun aunt-:11 MAURICE. ,
T0 continue from the Chronicle
and Comment of last week the cordance with a request in her will.
story of the most amazing letters. Says 3‘11 Te’hui‘b Wh.’ She
that have been received from picked me out. as “5 “dill?!“ I
strangers by prominent American don’t know. except that its. text was
authors: When Alphonse Daudet's built on a silly phrase in a ‘story (if
immortal “Tartarin de Tarsscon" mine. The rest of it. was he? “10
was published serially the hero was story. crudely and ““99“? and 0033‘
called Barbarin. But in Tarsscon pelfingiy told (“0‘ 8110 m not
there was an old family of Bar— from Illinois. I out that in to make
barins who threatened a law suit in it harder) The letter was written
use the name was not immediately if; 1998 and 1909. I received it in
chang hastened to 1 15-.
sullstxetgtea'll‘lii.dr1::i‘n:i e'ttith the result 11mm letter was not intended
that in the first edition of the book for humor. It took two pages to
there are Barbarian and mm praise some 0’ 3“- Terhnne 5 '9’:
it will be found many Amerl- 23:: We? 3:13:21? 3 in"
.ym
Immmadnflmhzyummnmmfl by writing I plan to become 1: liter.
Ifyoneandoitanyo.
happen to belo tomlm "1mm
lastweekur.anrfhurB.Reevotold Waughttobesbieto.“ filament
crushinletterran: “{don'tosre
of such experiences. and now Hr.
Albert Payee}: Terhune onerrasbls
gealnsandtlntyoacan
‘ofthedfltelmmtuntngm
qnde—“homamnnknownto
mwhossidlhsdusedhlsnsflo
inailctioaatoryin’tbem
mmmmmnn m
umteutlomlfldialgandtht‘thfl mmflm ,
Tmmmmmm/ mm ina- ton to it»;
Her executor sent it to him. in sc-
The auto author’s most-
stanforanyo! your dog stories.
Inst WW the minim” 76' that on” E10?! We
'pleoaotcheaelhanemw ' ,
«mmmwm I Mommmmewme
Theauucewfiisyourimnrtsl.
laminar Teri-nevus momma-ran
“shriek: of agony‘ are not lacking.
according to M. Mann's own ac-
count. without the white man's aid,
And there is. in fact, somewhat more
to civilization than trade gin. slavery.
discos. and injustice.
There can. however. be no question
at all but that in 1&1;an rife negro
race has at last a writer and poet of
a high order. His book is unquali-
fiedly the greatest intellectual or
artistic achievement of his. race thus
for. H. L. PANGRORN- ,
gog, be mine!‘ Well, a not of that
genus wrote me an incoherent letter
about ten .years ago—thirty odd
pages. closely jwritten. meaning
nothing. He has continued every
week or two ever slnog.’ He has,
written. I fancy. hundreds of thou-
sands of words; Once «afar!
glance through one of the letters.
It means absolutely nothing. It is
Modernism to the nth. > He has at-
"tamed the goal toward which Mad-
ernism is galloping—perfect ex-
pression of the quintessence of
nothing. To me his achievement is“
tremendously impressive. :13 hun-
dreds of thousands of words he has
never made, the mistake of convey-
ing a eingl’i idea. Let .Modernism
in Art honor this unknown anti"
0 O C
speaks. The author of “This
Side of Paridise," “Rappers and
Philosophers." and “The Bsantlhil
_ and Damn " considers the follow-
ing the most ry coun-
xauaieatios fro stranger—incl-
downy, it wasmknmhe
everfoundinhlaletterbox. “sir:
Ihnvereadyourstorfi‘fiensamm s
Button,” in Home", and 1 want to
say that as a shortstory writer
youmldmaket ~
have
cheese
among them a delightful me from
Mark Twain. never published.
When} set. back there. . .-
Bscheller's books have produced
someotrangemctions. H‘m-‘leinyonwmhwf no
that there was a poor Swedish
stable boy of a frail intellect living_
in his neighborhood. when “
Holden” was publidized.
learned of the unusual success of.
thatbook he threw up his job and .
began to write the story of his life. :3“ given an it But. “bliss
His notion was that if Irving’
Bacheller could make all that
money by putting a lot of words
together it was time that. he gets-{w
busy. Hedid. Hestelisummerg
.underahotstahIerootwi-itins
When rescued from the grip of the
muse he was a wreck. He had
achieved the belief that every one
was as to poison him and pres-
ently would pack up and leave hi
place. Says Mr. Bachsller: , “l
have known others authors with a
like delusion." . , p
-,s_ s s ..
081‘ of the letters from strong-
ers received by Fannie Hurst
are “fearfully and wonderfully
made.“
a week, and often twice that nun:-
ber. Until they grew beyond her
she answered all these letters pa}—
sonally; now ' she has them an-
swered. taking
herself. “They classify rather
8681133" says Miss Hurst. “There
is the letter of appreciation. The
crushing, the helpful, or the merely
unauthentic letter of criticism. Th3
:quibbling letter,
challenges the use of a date or-a-
historical reference. (The 'sort of
mind that detects‘the hero on the
moving picture screen wearing a
two stud shirt and a three stud
shirt in the same scene.) There
is, of course, in great hordes. the
aspiring writer letter. There is the
submitted manuscript. nine tlfiflm the prentice. work of the
out of ten sent. with insufléi
postage. There is the chi-oar}: let-
ter from the fiend with a plot from
‘reai life.’ who has not the time to
write it himself. but will submit
the idea on a fifty fifty basis.“ 1. ,
gs s s i
HEN. Miss Hurst continues,
“there is the letter from the
mother whose son always gets ‘A'
in English; the autograph collar.~
tor’s letter: book plate collector,
and the letter from the young man
who has seen your photograph
(probably taken ten years before)”
the bitter letter of unaligned as-
pi‘rations; the doctor's letter, nan—q
ally commenting upon some patina-g
logical reference in a story; the iet~
ter from the lady in Iowa City, who
writes to know if when y‘ou used
the name Katie Lee in a story yeti
meant her.
whose cam were exceedingly large.
I received letters from five) out»;
raged Abs. accusing me of personal
attack. Then there are countless,
letters :' ‘I- notice you used the name "
Breen in such and such a story.
Since we are the only
that name in America you .could
naturally only have meant us.’ ’* =
‘ sos
predation of the “richest of
all tributes." the word of concur—-
agement. from a fellow craftsman .
. who is further along toward fie
tern too to be found in the author’s
letter box. Miss Hurst says: “One of j ‘
my most treasured correspondents
is” an old monk in an Illinois mon-
astery, 1nto_whose secluded life any
work seems to bring some sense of
the pound of the life unmade these
walls. Anotherisaboy in Aw
trails. whose bones are turning to
mammarmefimdaper
are some at? Winter Park. and
univt.
Ham ‘
7. “Miss Hungry.” For 51% months
-ta ‘
~ her work so well that her unployer
100
She averages an easy fifty: 3 W3 he? 3 amonth. Some time
career the more"
interesting and intelligent ones
which usually »
I ma seen with the eye of his flesh
and would like to ‘YcorreSDODG- 9‘ - writing week by week until the
course there is the convict's letter _
(I have followed many of them M. the Pavements."
only to be invariably disappointed) ;.-
Once, in a short story.‘ . Maine was blown up in Havana
1 created a chat-am named Abs. harbor February 14, 1898, and in
{y ,hy._ carried away a set of the old files,
ISSHURSTexprmhuap’
n, 1-: scan mg 'ERaLn gas]. For there are plmsan' t let; ‘ yard, he med
[Truffle the twentym ”-
getter. She promised that m
:you have given me new life. . .'
o
again. If I lose—goo won' "
x',
mom passed. Mr. canons
- .1 even advertised inLosAngeles
papers, setting that he might hear
again from “Miss Hungry" and ‘\
Hungry" did not. reply.
at the end of the. month. he re-
ceired another letter. She was-‘
in: in the kitchen of a private 7
no "I weigh ten pmn’dx more ’
’jthflrldid. . Iamgning‘tée;
,_win. Writer Man. I am going to
win." Again she signed heralf,
Mr. Garwood heard nothing. Then
third letter came. In it Was a
:napsh' ot. the picture of a slim".
'pale faced girl, with large eye.
quietly and prettily dressed in a
street suit. She had secured a
position in an ofice, and was doing .
in the near future she was going *
to take up stenography in a night
school. “And when I came to the
end of the letter my hart fell, fir .
'ahs had signed herself again 'Miss
pungry; and she said: “This is
the last tme you will ever hear
from me. Writer Man. 1 have
won. But some time I am going
to see you; and talk with yomvand
know you. But when that time
comes you will never know that I
am'Miss Hungry!”
0 O <
THE preface written by Will
Irwin for “The Third Circle.”
a collection of the early short sto- .
flea of Frank Norris, of which a
new edition is being issued by
Dodd, Mead 8: 00., refill: the old
San Francisco Wars. in which ap-
anthor of “Moran of the Lady Let.-
ty." “The Octopus” and “The li'lt.III
The Ware was owned and edited
by J. O’Hara Cosgrove, who at tint
time was more of an artist than I
man of business, and in conse-
quence ve Norris a free bani
Says Irwin: “Whatever his
thoughts of the day, whatever he
‘or the eye of his imagination. lIs ,-
might write and print. You began
to feel him in the files of the year
1895 by certain distinctive sketches ’
and fragments. You traced his
sketches became ‘Little Stor lea of
< ..t O
was in welfare that Norrls’s
first oneness, “Moran of the
Lady Letty," appeared serially.
written feuilleton fashion week by
' Week. II: was begun late in 1837.
turned out and sent to the printer
" as part0! Norris's daily stint. The
.the later chapters of Halal-an Nor; ,
ris introduwd the destruction of
the warship as an incident. When '
the Wave finally died of "too much
merit.“ Will Irwin and Gelett Bur.
gess, a goworker‘ on the periodical.
:thereby saving them from the great
fire of 1906. Says Mr.1rwin:“Ws
spent a night running over then;
marveling again at those rough cro-
saunas which Norris had made out
of that city which was the first tors
of his awakened intelligence, and
“ in which, so wotully soon after.
I O O
‘ THINK that I remember them '
all, even now; not one but a
name or aphrase would bring back
‘ to mind. m vividly, perhaps, ro-
maine a little column of Tour
Norwalk Chronicler