OCR Text |
Show Jack London's Kink. In the current Cosmopolitan Jack London telb " . "What Life Means to Me." He explains that he was born at the lowest round of the ladder, that he tried to make an advance by the labor of hi3 hands; that all his trials failed; that then he struggled to prepare himself to advance through the labor of his brains; how he succeeded, how he was taken up by the rich, feasted, automo- biled, petted, but he discovered the false pride, the vices, the narrowness of brain that prevailed, and when he analyzed his own thoughts he found he was a Socialist, that he has gone back to the poor with their humble virtues and their warm heartedness and from that standpoint proposes to labor for a square deal among men, for the overthrow over-throw of the soulless rich, for better rewards for the poor and for a more heart to heart close confidence con-fidence in the human family. From the style of his pictures we conclude that much charity and forbearance for-bearance is due Jack London. His has been a rough life; we take it that while possessing a marvelous brain, there is an uh-couthness uh-couthness about both his physical and mental make up. Then from his own account, he has never been in refined society. He must have struck upon that strata of society which is prevalent preva-lent in California and which is' made up of the second generation of the pioneers who were shoddy pioneers, who densely ignorant made fortunes, who let their children run wild, believing their money would carry them through, and not thosa glorified pioneers, whose brains and work first dedicated the Golden State to freedom and supported sup-ported and sustained the state until it was noted more for its honor, its generosity and truth than for the golden sunshine above and the gold in its soil. "We can understand why Jack London in really jj refined society would feel most uncomfortable and 1 how after a few trials he would turn In hate from j his entertainers. A man who can paint a camp of ( squaw-men as winsomely as Jack London can, must feel uncomfortable among accomplished ladies and gentlemen. He cannot comprehend, either, that the real characters of men and women merely by the acquisition of sudden wealth do not change, and that the parvenues whom he met in what is called "high society," were but a sudden remove from the humble people whom he expressed so much love and sympathy for. If they shoveled sand when poor, the only change that wealth could make with them would be to long for a steam shovel in order to toss the sand higher. Jack London has magnificent intellectual equipment. equip-ment. mhere is no more virile writer; but we suspect that in the beginning he had no reverencs for what is sacred to most men; that his admiration admira-tion for pure women has a gross sub-stratum; that he has never for a moment realized that men and women are mostly creatures of circumstances; that poverty can no more degrade a great soul, than wealth with sordid ignorance can create a great soul. Again, we take it, he has in thought an ideal state, which is to come through the political leveling lev-eling of men and women and has never once tried to realize, how the unpractlced masses would use that condition could they attain to it. A stream never rises higher than its source; it Is easy to be a gallery god, eat peanuts and hiss at the performance on the stage, but when thosa in the gallery are called behind the curtain and given roles of their own and bidden to go on with the play, what will happen then? The old world still remains a practical one, the ideal has not yet been ushered in. When it comes it will have to be through trained performers. |