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Show Ihhnhd about Aa Immortal Oration T) EVERLY HILLS.CALIF. The future has a rotten trick of mussing up the judgments judg-ments of the present. What a pity it is that we can't wear our hind-sights in front. When I read where some ponderous performing pachyderm of the literary elephant quadrille ays. "This story will live forever." I get to thinking about a time-yellowed cony of a U A metropolitan newspaper news-paper that was printed on November Novem-ber 20, 1803. It devoted great gobs of praise and nine solid columns very solid to the eloquence of the Hon. Edward Everett Ever-ett of Massachu-1 Massachu-1 setts, who. on the Irvhi S. Cobl day before, after months of preparation prepa-ration had, on a battlefield down in Pennsylvania, spoken two hours and turned loose enough oratory to fill about nine gas balloons. But of the subsequent and incidental remarks re-marks of another man, an awkward, awk-ward, shy man from Illinois, who had spoken Just two minutes, It said, "The President was also heard briefly. The applause was formal and scattering." Prejudices of Crities OFTEN, 'twould seem, the professional pro-fessional reviewer makes up his mind beforehand that he doesn't like y'ou and behaves accordingly. ac-cordingly. A friend sent me a clipping from a small city it dealt with the opening open-ing of the picture, "Everybody's Old Man." The writer was quite severe in his analysis. He didn't like the film. Passionately, he didn't care for me. The joke was that the theater where the picture was to have been shown burned down just about the time the paper went to press, and the picture wasn't ever shown in that town. The next best Illustration of the point Fm making dates back years ago. I was discussing various novelists nov-elists with that gentle wit, the late Oliver Herford. "Ollie." I said. Vhat do you think of So-and-So's books?" "My dear Cobb," he softly murmured, "something I once wrote about him in a critical way so prejudiced me against the man I could never bear to read any of his books." . Self-Anointed Dukes. OUT here we're waiting for that Spanish baron and that French count back in New York to form the mother branch of their Noble- men's club for the protection of holders of genuine titles In America Amer-ica and, presumably, as a guar antee to our own home-grown heiresses heir-esses that, when they marry foreign for-eign princelings or what not, the goods will be as described. There's been a lot of title-legging, you know. As soon as the organization gets started we're going to open the Hollywood Hol-lywood division. Since only the authentic au-thentic nobility may qualify, it's figured that the active roster will be confined to a very limited group. e a The State of the Nation. FAR be it from me to turn alarmist alarm-ist right on the heels of the hot wave, but I feel it my duty to warn my fellow-Americans that this fragile frag-ile and crumbling republic is doomed. That is, it's doomed if you can believe what comes out of our sainted political leaders In the way of predictions. Hark to the quavering chorus which already has started up: A crisis exists. Every professional crisis-breeder in the land openly admits it I can't remember when a crisis wasn't existing. But they come larger in campaign years. We are facing a dread emergency which has had no parallel since the last occasion when we faced a dread emergency. This very hour the nation totters on the brink if an abyss. It has been tottering ever since George Washington was Presidenttottering Pres-identtottering worse at times, but always on the tot Miracles and Misdemeanors. ONCE upon an early time there was a man so holy that even the wild creatures would not harm him. He drew a thorn from the paw of a tame lion and the grateful grate-ful beast followed after him. So he became a saint Only the other day in a court ln Tanganyka, which is ln Africa, a black man a savage by our definitions defi-nitions was on trial. It seemed the lions were raiding the stock, so the native authorities set traps for them. The accused found a lion in one of these traps and made a ladder lad-der and went down and helped the great brute to escape. Being arrested, he explained simply sim-ply that the lion was his friend. So they fined him $12.50. In the olden times it was a miracle. Nowadays it's a misdemeanor. IRYIN S. COBB C WNU Service. |
