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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1920)
24 THE SUNDAY OREGOMA PORTLAND, NOVEMBER 21, 1920 GIRL WHO GOT LOW ENGLISH GRADE NOW FAMOUS AUTHOR Professor W. F. G. Thatcher at University of Oregon, Who Conditioned Opal Whiteley, Criticises Diary. I f' T'S-li (j.uiiuimiw is hli ill fl I YJSjW. J?' CS c.mv t . "1 . a- fl ft- w r y&Z yfrsZ 77 JZr " fl 4. f A X itsm T lUGENB, or., Nov. zo. (special.) H After giving Opal Whiteley. author of the "Story of Opal," which created a literary furor In America and England, a condition In a short story writing: course while she was In the university in 1917, W. F. G. Thacher, professor of rhet oric and former associate editor of the Pacific Monthly, has written a highly interesting appreciation of her work. The real name of Opal Whiteley, according to the library of conerress. Is Opal de Vere Gab- rielle Bourbon de la Tremoille Stan ley Whiteley. This name, it is under stood, was sent to the library by Opal herself. Professor Thacher considers him self in a rather peculiar position, and that there is something of poetic Justice in writing a review of Opal Whiteley's diary since he conditioned her in a course and afterward her "Diary," famous throughout the English-speaking world, is placed on the shelves of the university library, and Opal Whiteley's name shines lus trously among the literary luminaries of the year. "Her book is published and vouched for by one of the most fastidious editors in America Ellery Sedgwick of the esoteric Atlantic Monthly, appearance In whose exclu sive pages is an achievement denied to hundreds of professors of English," said Professor Thacher. Jordan Sponsors Book. The American edition Is sponsored by one of the best-known university presidents of the world David Starr Jordan, honorary head of Stanford university. The English edition is published with a preface by Viscount Grey of Falloden, one of the. world's greatest statesmen. These facts were quoted by Professor Thacher to show the acceptance by literary men of Opal's diary. "The readers of this appreciation will look for a resumption of the con troversy which raged so hotly at the time of the first appearance of the diary in the Atlantic. If so, they will be disappointed. The writer, for this occasion at least, has exercised his will to believe, and has accepted the book at its face value. It is no pres ent concern of his whether Opal wrote the oiary as a child or In later years, or whether her curious belief in an nerel father and mother Is a matter of fact or 'fantasy.' Those skilled in investigation and with the evidence close at hand have failed to areach a definite conclusion. And certainly Opal Is entitled to be believed inno cent until she is proved gulltyi The discussion is interesting and not with out its ethical Implications. But the book remains. Shakespeare may not have written 'Hamlet.' Who cares? The man who wrote 'Hamlet' is isnaKespeare. In this manner Pro fessor Thacher treats the controversy concerning the authenticity of the famed diary. Oiary Palpitant Record. The worth of the booJt, according to Professor Thacher, may be under stood by the following-: "The diary of Opal is a breathing, palpitant rec ord of the inner life of a highly sen sitive child a document so poignant In its revelation of inner experience that its counterpart is hardly to be found in all literature. Many children perhaps most are as sensitive as Opal: a few may be as poetically lm aginative: but to these Qualities Opal added the priceless gift of expression that gift which .lone will unseal the lips of mute, inglorious Mutons whether they be children or adults In writing of the book Profesor Thacher delicately omits giving board excerpts from the diary, but rather says, "to do more than to suggest the contents of the book would be to rob the reader of the delight of discovery. He must not be denied the joy of en tering Opal's world, of making the acquaintance of her small menagerie of pets; of going with her, hand in hand on 'explores' into the dim cathe dral recesses of the forests; of all her comings and goings in and about the camp, over the singing broolt; back to the barn and the pig sty, and sad to tell most frequently of all under the bed, where the misunder stood little girl was so frequently sent as a punishment for some child ish offense, but where she found full solace in printing in her precious diary. Diary Constant Companion. The diary was Opal's constant Companion her only confidant. To its sympathetic pages she entrusted not only a record of the experiences that made her life, bnt, as well, the rich and generous outpourings of an un folding soul, so quiveringly imagina tive, so highly sensitizer, so eagerly alive that, in his perusal, the reader has almost the sense of eavesdrop ping before the revelation of this mystery, which is the heart of child." Such are the thoughts of a literary critic, Profesor Thacher. "Not everyone will, or can, apprecl ate the diary of Opal. To- enter the child s world he must have an un derstanding heart"; must himself have something of the heart of a child. In deed, to enter it In any other spiri were it possible to do so would be a desecration. Only one minor criticism of the diary is presented by Professor lhacher In contrast to 'the adverse Criticism of Opal Whiteley. His crit icism is as follows: "The illustrations are reproductions of actual- photo- graphs, taken, presumably, in and about the lumber camps In which Opal made her home. And because they are merely actual, they are to tally out 01 narmony with the tem .perament of the book and singularly aestructive or tne illusion." RED CROSS WORK FORGOTTEN WITH SIGNING OF ARMISTICE Pete, Paladin of Montenegro, Tubercular . Circus Hand, and Mothers and Widows Yet Seek Aid and Counsel. , A TRIFLE over two years ago, when all the world wcs weary of war, peace came with the armis tice. When they spoke the .name of the American Red Cross .In those days, here at home or on the battered turf of battle, there came a mental picture of compassionate service among the boys who saved American honor. The past dwindles in even two years, the vision of service grows vague, and with the fourth Red Cross rollcall sounding in Portland today, for a membership of 100,000, one hears the public query: "What is the Red Cross doing now?" Perhaps It Is the query itself which has eerved to retard the progress of the rollcall in Portland and bring it face to face with failure. . Or it may be that the same lack of understand ing regarding the present activities of the Red Cross has created an apa thy that results in a diminished num ber of rollcall workers. - In any event the fact is that response to the appeal of the Red Cross is not fraught with the cheerful spontaneity of those times when the casualty lists' were daily new. i ' Home Service Recalled -"If the people of Portland realised how unselfishly and unremittingly the Red Cross has given its service to the boys who returned from France and Siberia," said H. B. With, am, chairman of the rollcall campaign in Portland. "I am sure that both workers and memberships would overwhelm us, as they did when the Hindenburg line was an unbroken menace to civilization." At rollcall headauartera, when the dollar memberships are yet far from the allotted quota, they know that Portland has never been without the quiet, unostentatious aid and comfort of the Red Cross, and that the rec ords of the local chapter for the past year show that almost 11.000 calls were made on loyal errands for ex service men and their dependents, and that privation and suffering have been banished from hundreds of homes. - . Pact Not Known. "The public does not. know the facts," say the workers. "For If it did, the answer would not be tardy" Into the Red Cross offices jn the Piatt building, where the Portland chapter directs the mending of cer tain lives broken in the great war came two Montenegrins a day or so ago. swarthy fellows of quick gesture , , "-JHuiy eye. They were seeking word of a cousin, caught in the whirl of war and borne away un der the American colors to strike a blow for his adopted land. Time and again they had called on the same quest, but this day there was word of the "vanished Pete. '-'Tour cousin is in Walter Reed hos pital, at Washington.' 'explained Miss Doyle, "and it may be some time be fore he comes home." "What'e the matter of Peter pur sued the cousin. "He is Insane." said Miss Boyle, tap ping her forehead. "Ah. crazy! For why is he crarvr "It was the war, shell shock, that made him so." "Ah, Pete not afraid for war!" ex claimed the Montenegrin, his eyes Irindliner. "Smtb t T ertavA a v. i He would not scare to jump through - ' U , yX d; - ijf ' ; ; j " ' ' ' ' ' - t ' ' " ' '- .' " ' - - '. ' ' ' mam. S 8we mm MS Never waste rails No mm tte Aran ordjnarij leavatina strength uou use Jess Jhaaorc HIGHEST AWARD 7GTVEN CALUMET 1 BAKING PCWDtH WORLDS .PURE FOOD 1 Moderate Price it Ialways M!Mosr; this window. I bet you no man in this state could handle Pete, my , cousin!" -1 Mother to Be Informed. War must have been rough -with Pete, the paladin, sought out by the Red Cross from the wreckage of ar mies. There is a motner in the hills of Montenegro, where crops are scant and a silver piece is always a rarity, who will in due time through the efforts of the Red Cross, the Portland chapter, if you' please, receive her portion of the compensation allow ance that the federal government is holding in trust for her shell-shocked son. He served as an American, as loyally as though New England nur tured his youth, and his cousins will tell you that his prowess was not all brawn and bravery, but that he had "mastered the difficult English lan guage when he went to Camp Lewis. Circus Hand Is Charge. There was a circus-hand, bred to the life of the canvas, who came with the draft to the tents of the national army and who discovered new depths of mud and rigors of winter winds. In time he developed a cough, not en- tirely. occasioned by cigarettes, and the medical examiners gave him nis discharge for the sufficient reason that tubercular soldiers are poor ma terial for the trenches. There was no war risk insurance in those early days of the war, nor was 'there time to pause for the rescue of the unfit. So the ex-soldier, ex-circus hand, drifted across the- country, seeking the big- tents again and coughing with profane variations. "But the cir cus was always one jump ahead of the slow freights, and It had folded its canvas and leaped southward when he reached Portland and. the Red Cross. ' , Two Yenrn of Core Described. For almost two years the Portland chapter has paid the sanitarium ex penses of this, patient, arguing with official Washington to prove that he met the white plague while in uni form. Last week an official message was received admitting his right , to federal compensation, dating from. discharge, and entitling him to $8Q monthly until the cough quits him. His sanitarium expenses will be de frayed -by the public health service until a cure is effected. - - A case to intrigue the alienist was that of the fretful applicant with loose, lips and nervous, agitated hands, who brought his discharge pa pers to the Red Cros and pointed to the offensive word "undesirable" Curtly traced across the document.-' "Twice I joined the army," com plained the young man. "Other fel lows were going and I wanted to be where the fighting was. I told them I eould fight, but each time they sent me home and the last time they wrote this on the paper. I don't like it, I tell you. What right have those men to say it?" - ' - - " ' . AVoundrd Feelings Soothed. His friends of the Red Cross calmed him with the assurance that . they would have the word erased, and they worked through the army records un til they came to proof that he was mentally disabled and hence disquali fied to serve. And with tact and pa tience they persuaded the military authorities that to be touched with madness does not impugn the patri otism of a volunteer, and that offi cial.-brevity is sometimes cruel. The erasure is now of record. In a-north end brawl the police ar rested a wild, incoherent, two-fisted fighting, man, not past the middle twenties, who relapsed Into sullen apathy when the cell door closed and who mumbled oaths, over . and over. ' "He's nuts," said the discerning jailers, and within the week the state asylum for the insane had received him. The Red Cross found him there. Why and how? -Because his incoher ence at times fell from him land he spoke clearly of matters that do not pertain to the sordid lodging houses and soft-drink shops of the slums. Ex-Soldier Rencned. ' " "Turn out! Fall in!" he ordered briskly, his .-face flushed about the haunted eyes. "Three o'clock : . . here they come. . . the ridge to the right! Look out! Look out!" , Washington said that the finger prints of this man, . duly forwarded to the. proper department, would re veal his regiment and company and thence his family and friends. It may be that his is a paralleled case to that of Pete the Montenegrin, who was once the best man of his inches in - 3 rwArnn ntid that there are folk who are waiting for him. The Port land chapter nas aiwnaeu iu iii3 "-"-ter of finger prints and is awaiting reply. Widows and Mothers Aldrd. . j,.0 Dr, nf - i nera is r.inii-.c-j . . - cases on record at the Portland chap ter or motners ana wiuowo "'-"- keepsake is the formal military an nouncement of death in action or on the road to France, and who had not heard of war risk insurance or the incommensurate benefits that the government extends to those who lost their breadwinners under the flag. The home service department of the Portland chapter has acted as counsel to these bereaved women and has seen to it that the 10,000 insurance sum is arriving in its monthly install ments. And this work, in its wide variety, is but one- task of the manv that the Red Cross is carrying on. During the year ending October 1 the local chapter's aelTvities made possible the following report: Number of cases handled ,2,900 Number of calls made T2 -25 Number of office appointments , 64 Number of telegrams f; umber of telephones ..u,JxJ......16,J-l Number of letters 10.7T9 Patients cared for in hospital....... 358 Dental cases Visits made to patients In homes and hospitals 3,240 Number of certificates Issued In home care of the sick classes 70 Number of classes held 18 Number of members of lifesavlng corps -when organized May, 1U0.. 12 Number of new members -'O Number of lives saved 36 Number of events 7 When America was at war an in spired headliner coined the apt de scriptive phrase, "The Greatest Moth er in the World," typing never more truly. The current revision is "Still the Greatest Mother in the World." Portland has abundant proof of the right by which the Red Cross won and holds this tribute. Winter Stops Aviation. AMSTERDAM. Winter weather in Holland, Germany and Denmark baa been judged too severe for commer cial aviation. The daily aerial mail service between Holland and England and Holland and Germany will be dis continued until next spring. ; Bead The Oregonlan classified a da.
