22
BANAL STORY
S O HE ate an orange, slowly spitting out the seeds. Out
side the snow was turning to rain. Inside the electric
stove seemed to give no heat and rising from his writ
ing table he sat down upon the stove. How good it
felt. Here at last was life.
He reached for another orange. Far away in Paris
Mascart had knocked Danny Frush cuckoo in the second
round. Far off in Mesopotamia 21 feet of snow had fallen.
Across the world in distant Australia the English Cricketers
were sharpening up their wickets. There was Romance.
Patrons of the arts and letters have discovered The
Forum, he mused. It is the guide, philosopher and friend
of the thinking minority. Prize short stories — will their
authors write our best sellers of tomorrow?
You will enjoy these warm, homespun, American tales,
bits of real life on the open ranch, in crowded tenement or
comfortable home and all with a healthy undercurrent of
humor.
I must read them, he thought.
His thoughts raced on. Our children’s children—what of
them? Who of them? New means must be discovered to
find room for us under the sun. Shall this be done by war
or can it be done by peaceful methods?
Or will we all have to move to Canada?
Our deepest convictions—will Science upset them? Our
civilization—is it inferior to older orders of things.
And meanwhile in the far off dripping jungles of Yucatan
sounded the chopping of the axes of the gum choppers.
Do we want big men—or do we want them cultured?
Take Joyce. Take President Coolidge. What star must
our college students aim at? There is Jack Britton. There
is Dr. Henry Van Dyke. Gan we reconcile the two? Take
the case of Young Stribling.
And what of our daughters who must make their own
Soundings? Nancy Hawthorne is obliged to make her own
Soundings in the sea of life. Bravely and sensibly she faces
the problems which come to every girl of eighteen.
Are you a girl of eighteen? Take the case of Joan of Arc.
Take the case of Bernard Shaw. Take the case of Betsy
Ross.
Think of these things in 1925—Was there a risque page
in Puritan History? Were there two sides to Pocahontas?