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.
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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
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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.