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Show I ZV AN OBSER VA TION I PLANE ONE would think that Harry Haw- ker, the smiling, and Command- 1 ant Grieve, the solemn, had flitted B clear across the Atlantic in their frail M aircraft, so delirious with joy were M the English masses and classes who H celebrated the arrival of the aviators B safe from their souse In the sea. M I have already celebrated the hero- M ism of Hawker and Grieve and can af- B ford, therefore, to have a smile with B and at the English. I'll say that when B a British aviator sails even half fl across the sea It Is something the fl English should find worth celebrating B deliriously. It's a good record for an B Englishman and even for an Aus- B tralian. B While the Londoners turned their B city into a grand and glorious circus B to acclaim the wonder of the half- B portion trip of Hawker and Grieve, a B modest American naval crew, coin- B manded by Albert Cushing Read, B sailed smoothly from Ponta Delgada i in the Azores 800 miles to Lisbon, thus B completing the first trans-Atlantic trip B of an airplane under its own power. It B was all in the line of duty. I fancy B that the English hurried through their Bl festivities in honor of Hawker lest Bl Read arrive in his airplane to lead the B; procession. Bi I am reminded that the English semi- B trans-Atlantic flight was carried out B in, the same spirit and with same effi- B ciency displayed by our British cous- B ins in the war. The English got into B the habit of sacrificing Anzacs at Gal- fl lipoli and they thought one Anzac B more or less, lost in an attempt to re- B trieve British honor and fame, would B not matter. B Of course they were delighted that B Hawker was saved. They did their B best to make his welcome hearty, but B deep down in their hearts they must B have felt that they were celebrating B their own defeat. B General Haig mentioned the Ameri- B can fighters merely to say that "after B the armistice was signed the Ameri- B cans occupied Coblenz." Now the En- B glish papers can chronicle the fact B that the Yankees, "after the English B failed, landed in Lisbon." B The occupation of Coblenz and the B 'landing in Lisbon are simply symbols B df what the Americans achieved to B .make the occupation and the landing B possible. They told of energy, enter- B 'prise, ayBtem, efflcioncy. Hawker's Lj. flight told simply the old story of British Brit-ish daring and disaster. THOSE addicted to love stories take it for granted that this is a form of romance in which writers have achieved their most notable triumphs. tri-umphs. I wonder why it is that there are so few great love stories. Before permitting myself to be disputed dis-puted I find it necessary to define what I mean by a love story. Perhaps Per-haps as good a definition as any is a story in which the dominant theme is love and the result love triumphant. trium-phant. There have been many attractive, few great love stories. It will bo contended, of course, that I have unjustly excluded stories in which love is the dominant theme, though tragedy or sorrow bo of their warp and woof. I shall be told that "the course of true love never did run smooth," and that the novelist or playwright cannot be expected to write a great story about something that does not exist, that is not founded found-ed upon verity. But all of us know of love romances in real life that have ended fortunately. We have seen the writer, time and again, attempt at-tempt to embody such a love, in permanent per-manent literature. Time and again we have seen them fail. The entire course of literature is strewn with the wrecks of love stories. The presses continue to turn ' out love stories by the scores, hundreds and thousands. In the stupid lexicon of the love-story writer there is no such word as fail. I am thoroughly convinced that writers of love stories have never stopped to think what they really were about. They have assumed that they were attomplng tho easiest, Instead In-stead of tho most difficult, task in the realm of literary endeavor. If stories critics have pronounced great I am sure they would begin to reel off the names of our greatest novels and stories. And I am just as sure that they would stop with a guilty sense of something wrong, begin again and then look sheepish. Perhaps Per-haps not one of them would have named a great love story. If they were discussing the matttor with their challenger they would, of course, find fault with his definition. They would demand that he Include "hate" in the category. There have been many great "hate" storieB. We have 'but to run over a list of romances accepted as great to realize that the so-called great love stories are rather great "hate stories," or, perchance, stories of stormy or tragic passions. "Rorw and Juliet" has long been acclamed among the most beautiful of lov j stories. Shakespeare's play contains passages about love which are Incomparably appealing in their tenderness and beauty, but tho piece-de-resistance of the romance is not the love of Romeo and Juliet, but the hate of tho Montagues and Capulets. Tlie end is excruciatingly woeful. In our own time another play has held the stage because of the powerful power-ful love element. All of our celebrated cele-brated actresses have given us their version of the love story of "Camille" and "Armand Duval." At the very outset we are led into an atmosphere of tragedy and there is hardly a note of joy. The end is death. And so it goes. If we would find love stories of the kind I have tried to define wo must search among the forgotten works of third or fourth-rate fourth-rate authors like E. P. Roe of the last generation and Harold Bell Wright of our own. The estimable lady who wrote "Pollyanna" is also deserving of special mention. Let us now count over tho dark rosary of hate stories that are genuinely great. Their theme is love, but the greatness comes from hate or kindred passions. Here is an imposing impos-ing list: The Scarlet Letter The Vicar of Wakefield Vanity' Fdir David Copperfleld Anna Karenlna Diana of the Cross-ways Cross-ways U ifc Monsieur Beaucairo Trilby Les' Misorables Tess of the D'Urbevilles Sappho The names are selected at random. They come into the mind as I pass rapidly in review the novels that have won a lasting place in literature. litera-ture. Trying to remember the lovo stories which conform to my definition I can , think of only two as great, but my$ readers may recall others. I am thinking of "The Abbe Constantino" and "Paul and V'Tginia." But I would not be too rigorous in adhering to my definition, and am willing to include "Ivanhoe," "The Little Minister," "John Halifax" and "Henry Esmond." Many titles flash Into the mind, but fj one Is compelled to bar the stories for which they stand "Ben Hur," "Quo Vadis," "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "The Spy," "Last of the Mohicans." Although love is a theme in these works, it cannot bo described as dominant. dom-inant. The very purpose of the work often proves that it was not intended as a love story as in tho case, of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Each student of literature can supply sup-ply his own lists, but I dare challenge chal-lenge any of them to demonstrate by their lists that .the great works which can be described as "love stories" are numerous. MMiViBHBMBSUMBSSSJSJBBaMaBSBBSSitSSBar' |