Show In Influence or of Waggling Tongues Upon Up on Public at Large LargeN IN JN N THE present era with L every man woman rind and child elbowing their neighbors neighbors neighbors neigh neigh- bors in an effort to get up in front there to attract the wavering eyes of the world publicity of one sort or another another another an an- other is considered the essential essential essential es es- es- es factor in human progress To be talked about to appear in inthe inthe inthe the public prints to have ones one's name on the national lip Is considered consid consid- ered cred a flying start toward the hall hail of fame Unfortunately many supplicants for recognition are unable to distinguish distinguish dis dis- dis the difference between fame tame and notoriety Publicity gossip rumor all aU one and the same thing born of the whispering chorus is strong medicine medicine medi medi- cine to take dope to some stimulant stimulant stimulant lant to others But there are authentic instances where publicity of the the right sort the outgrowth of spontaneous and merited acclaim has turned the edge of a dark cloud into silver luminous and a joy to behold The marvel is that in most cases cases' the wagging of a few tongues was responsible responsible re re- re for the ensuing mation Actors dramatists artists novelists novelists novel novel- isis t inventors vent rs unsung unknown and shunned of fame suddenly by virtue of ot a small group have gone over with the public and been ac ac- ac claimed Failures have been ben revived revived re re- re to make fortunes forgotten books brought t again to life music that once palled flung back into the public car er to bring fame to composers dead or forgotten Career of or David id Harum lIarum Edward Westcott who wrote David Harum de declined lined by nine publishers died In the spring of 1898 In the autumn of ot the same year his his book bool found its way to a printing press More than copies went Into circulation Walter Valter Brownes Browne's Everyman a amorality amorality amorality morality play reached the stage after the author had said died of a broken heart His family had the satisfaction of knowing that thai he had written a masterpiece Charley Chancy Kleins Klein's The Lion LInn and the Mouse was a flop first afterward t o a become wi without hout changing a single line one of the grea great t money makers of at the American American Amer ican lean theater Felix Graux a French youth who as a schoolboy received from tram his uncle the story of how the Bastile fell in Paris wrote The Reds of the Midi which made no impression impression impression sion whatever until Gladstone then Premier of England finding the book in a second-hand second shop wrote a letter to the publishers stating that Graux had achieved the almost impossible in bringing the greatest event in French history to life through the eyes of a dead man Nearly copies were sold as asa asa asa a consequence Davis Admires Butler In 1910 returning to New York from a Yellowstone trip with Samuel Samuel Sam Sam- uel G. G Blythe I found discarded in ina a vacant Pullman seat a copy of ol Samuel Butlers Butler's The Way of ot All Flesh which both of us read with satisfaction and before reaching New York A year later during a luncheon given in honor of Arnold Bennett at atthe atthe the University club New York I Isaid Isaid Isaid said jokingly to the Englishman Arent you fortunate to sit at this table consuming terrapin worth one pound the plate drinking vintage champagne and mingling with the intellectual elite of the Twentieth 4 h. h t L i. i u nuy J V Hue H i shrubbery of the garden at the Woking crematorium forgotten and with nothing to mark the spot lies the ashes of your peer dead these nine years whom w do you refer reter re re- re- re fer ter replied the novelist who not Infrequently spoke with a slight stutter Samuel Butler who wrote The Way of All AU Flesh Arnold Bennett Concurs Rising from his seat the Briton made a profound bow and extended his bis hand You are quite right he stood Blood alone among English authors but it will be a long time before belore he heIs heIs hes Is s forgotten This brief dialogue overheard by bya a reporter present appeared the next day on the front page of the New tew York Herald John Macrae head of the house of ot E. E P. P Dutton Button Co publishers of The Way WilY of All AIl Flesh a copy of which Blythe and I had read the year before Immediately immediately Im im- im mediately brought out another edition edition edi edi- tion Uon contained In a jacket carrying in full fuU the Ule colloquy between myself and Arnold Bennett at the University sity club luncheon Revitalized by Bennetts Bennett's high endorsement en en- The Way of All Flesh which had sold less than 2000 jumped jump ed into a best seller and so effectively established Butler Inthe in inthe inthe the United States that twelve years later Inter 1923 1023 his collected works In twenty volumes in a lin limited ted edition edi edi- lion tion of numbered sets at were brought out for the United States and Great Britain right Sen Service Ico |