Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 May 1946 — Page 3

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_THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES ___ eo a

fl Booth. Tarkington's Much Loved Characters Are Still Alive In Our American Literatt

Once in sn

expression of his philosophy, ~Tarkingtom

terary | troup, so the story goes, was irate,|said: ,| demanding where his press agent | bad been. “1 don’t know where I've been or who took me there, but I've cer- Which never varies. Manitestatighut tainly had one helluva time,” 881d) 1 ings about people never g

the press agent. . Some writers find * Onalsle of Capri: - these things nearly" Eventually Mr. Tarkington, Har-iout to be old. Try Leon Wilson and Julian Street|press ideas which toured Europe and finally settled new. But many on the isle of Capri. were expressed years ago While they were there, a Hoosier men as Shaw and Freud” politician sought out Mr. Tarking-

BURR

sketch club with Schwalb, Riche ird Beck, Helen is Mendenhall, lice Richardson, 1 Harry E, Paston

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sored by the city

tion . department Mr. Wood, Miss Mrs, Robert H.

lam Sullivan ag .

DECRIES SHORTAGE

.—Dr, E, T. Mce rthwestern unilorado educators * great tragedy” he “ shortage of American school

ot enough future r ‘trained to ree ing out. EE —————

(Continued From Page One)

metropolis, he recorded that in his books. In a brief biographical sketch submitted to “20th Century American Authors,” Mr. Tarkington wrote: “This writer was born in a quiet, lovely little city—Indianapolis, Ind., and began to talk when he was seven months old by calling the family dog. That small city, the Indianapolis where I was born, exists no more than Carthage had existed after the Romans had driven plows over the ground where it stood. ‘Hoosiers Are That Way’

“progress swept all the old life]

frequently recited), he kept always at 4270 N. Meridian st. But the bulk of his collection was on display at his Kennebunkport home. It is numbered among the topranking art treasures in the United States, ¥ Mr. Tarkington was also quite an antique devotee. He once said he derived immense pleasure from haggling over the price of objects d'art dug out of remote antique shops. One of his rooms at his Meridian st. home, a gem of richlycolored tapestry and stained glass, was furnished entirely with 17th and 18th century European antiques. "

Studio on Third Floor

an 1 sn ol a i gw At first he spent 14 or 15 hours lived in other places . . . In Exeter a day writing, but in his latter days b

he slowed down to five or six. In Indianapolis, he worked in a huge | garret .studio, covering the third floor of his home. | Aftér his eyes failed, he dictated! all his novels—couldn’t stand the noise of a typewriter. His secretary later wrote them out in longhand. | He dictated painstakingly, with] scrupulous attention to grammar

N. H., where I went to prep school. Fabien Sevitzky, conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony orchestra, In Lafayette, Ind, where I went to Purdue university for a year; and in Princeton, N. J, when I was in the university there in the class of 1893. “Since then, I've lived a while in New York and Paris and Rome, and for a little time on the island of Capri, and for many years NOW| ,nq word usage. Sometimes it took I have been spending long seasons jim an hour to grope for the corin Kennebunkport, Me., on the sea.| ei word and sentence structure.

“But I always speak and think! 1, ,ugining his plots, the Hoosier

Mrs. Tarkington, Mr. Sevitzsky and Mr. Tarkington.

| kitchens.” |sieur Beaucaire was rejected half {middle of the night. named Indianapolis “Tarkingtonap- to try his hand at a novel. Of its | Tarkington quit politics at the end » | undertaking, he said: lof the legislative session.

is. At 16, the budding author wrote | “I'd been writing short stories|

| ater production of it in his back stories, including Monsieur Beauof Indianapolis as home. Almost all novelist started at the end of his| yard. {caire, had been rejected by several Hoosiers are that way about where | stories and worked back toward the At 17, he dictated to his sister magazines, and I had no idea the they grew up. : beginning. another adolescent “epic” entitled novel would get in print. Of course, Wanted to Be Artist Loved Dogs | “the Unknown Adventure.” It be- I hoped it might. I'd have written “ | gan: it just the same if I had been sure ung my boyhoen 7 winted, ¥ lovd ats wd Swart edi, joruive urine eam tot melt wouldnt To witor wok ¥. Rt least. an ilustrator p 4 Rar 8 - ay was | jnvelving interests in gold mines, was the “The Gentleman From In-

periences. For his effort he was) rumored to have been scolded by President Theodore Roosevelt for “writing stuff which would ténd to keep decent men out of politics.” | Riding the crest of literary fame, Mr. Tarkington lived high and!

and Miss Lucy Taggart, sister of Tom Taggart and long-time frienu of the Tarkingtons, were frequently guests at Sunday afternoon teas at the novelist’s home on N, Meridian st. Left to right are Miss Taggart,

| made bread sifting from summer practically none from editors. Mon- (ering his colleagues about it in the! Once here, Mr. Tarkington and married Susannah Robinson in 1912. | the celebrants put the stranger up It was Woolcott, too, who re-|a dozen times. Finally, he decided| The governor vetoed the bill. Mr./.u the Country club, brought fre|quent guests to see him, introducBut his brief legislative career| ing him as the erstwhile American his own version of “Jesse James” until I thought I might venture a paid off by furnishing grist for his| writer of horror stories. Of course,|the merits of the modern ‘realist” into a play and staged a barn the-|bigger job. So I did. All the short| writing talent. He penned “In the|they generously supplied their sub-

Arena,” a series of keen, biting ject with liquor. so he didn't mind.(a spade, and went around looking satfres based on his political ex-| finally, tiring of the game, they!for them.

ton for a visit. The politician also struck up an acquaintance with an Englishman, with whom he invariably drank at the bar. From their conversations, Mr, Tarkington and Wilson wrote “The Man From '| Home.” The play was acclaimed in New York as hk legitimate flag-waving glorification of Americana. But both men were embarrassed when they accepted their royalties, because they had intended the work to be a satire. Mr. Tarkington's devil-may-care antics in Capri, in Rome and in Paris are legend. But despite Europe’s attractions he was still a Hoosier, and he returned to Indiana. ’ Life wasn't all milk and honey tor the Indianapolis author. His first marriage to Laurel Louisa Fletcher in 1902 ended in ‘a | divorce, following the death of their {daughter from pneumonia. He

Not everything that the author wrote was of “immortal” caliber, He admittedly turned out some “pot boiler” magazine pieces along with his best. He steadfastly snubbed

writing school which called a spade

He termed the modern trend a “revolt against prettiness.” “The revolt has gone to an exe treme,” he sald. seem to believe that nice snow is prettier than nice snow. It seems unfashionable think nice clean snow is prettier. A subject has got to be dirty be art, some believe. But we'll get sensible and find the truth again. | ’ He once sald he was never ine terested in using what he called “plain words * “l have never cared to write things that I could be arrestec for saying,” he explained. For this attitude, he has been raked over the coals by some critics as a “romantic sentimentalist.™ Others, however, have described him as “the most versatile of Amer ican writers.” Perhaps the warmest tribute was paid him by the late William Allen White, famous Kansas editor. He wrote: ‘ man has gone straight ahead . gally and wisely describing man as the child of God,

abominable, but always carrying ims his heart that nobility which marks him from the beast. That man is

Booth Tarkington.”

1 tried per-|Prench poodle named Figaro. Once sistently to draw pictures after I!

found it was hopeless to think of! painting them. But at last, ‘I found out that my hand would never do what my mind wanted it to do. And so, since my hand| could make nothing better than| symbols (written words) I discov-| ered that I was a writer. | “As a matter of fact, I had al-| ways been a writer, but I didn’t] realize it because, like a great many

other people, I wanted to do what ever, he forsook exercise .of any| dreds of campus activities, shocked : I couldn't. kind and whiled away most of his| student body and faculty with his| fOlIOWed by Success Upon Success “About five years after I pegan | time on an old schooner he had eccentricities and smoking, perpe-| + In Politics in 1902

being a writer seriously and pro-| fessionally, a magazine editor ac-! cepted the manuscript of a Jong] novel of mine, and since then a| great many other stores of mine have been published, and something over a score of plays I have written have been put on the stage. ‘Millions of Words’ “All this means millions of words! scribbled and crossed out and re-| written, and as every old-fashioned! biography should end with a sum-|

he came out strongly for a “seeing-| eye” dog bill in the state legisla-| ture, giving blind-leading canines, broad privileges in public places. Another time, he wrote a stirring | tribute to dogs in general which] was read before Indianapolis city| council when it was considering the $4-dog sales room. The council] passed the ordinance. In Maine his principal relaxation was boating.

beached in shallow water. As a matter of fact, Mr. Tarkington's frail constitution gradually

seen outside his Indianapolis or Kennebunkport homes. Here his] excursions into the outside world

board of trustees. ‘Oozed Out’ Winters

it behooves me to take a perilous journey into the West.”

Went East Instead So he went East instead, to Ex-

| eter academy to prepare for college. the fruits of Mr. Tarkington's labor,

Then, like a good Hoosier, he came back to Purdue. There he studied for two years before moving on to Princeton. . At Princeton, despite his extreme

Recently, how-| shyness, he participated in hun-|

trated practical jokes, and studied a little.

As a member of the glee club, he perhaps by the example of his|ing how he watched Mr. Tarkington, compelled him to lead a serene and wrote most of its songs. He alsc/ beneficent uncle, entered politics.|dressed smartly in tweed and white ‘novels and | Sheltered existence. During the last| played the banjo. Dressed in a $3 He ran for Republican nomination gloves, handing out apples and decade of his life he was seldom | pair of corduroy trousers, he roamed | for the Indiana house of representa-| bananas to perplexed pedestrians in

the countryside. He went in for collecting signs while at college and decorated his

stores or public sites. Sallow and Wan

His classmates: thought

| “The Gentleman From Indiana”

he'd | Otherwise, he reminisced With gmoge himself to death. In those ming-up, I conclude these memories | Siq {riedls Qabidey nat » lis- | days cigarets were called coffin nails| by saying it seems to me, that] tary’ and Mr. Tarkington smoked enough |

diana.’ I had no real success until I struck Indiana subjects.”

was an instantaneous success. Following its publication in 1900,

| previously rejected, were grabbed up |like kisses at a bavaar. McClure's | finally awoke to the value of “Mon- | sieur Beaucaire” too. That year he | made $27,000: He never fell below that figure in any year thereafter. “The Gentleman From Indiana” was

STRAUSS

Sradition wh a lowckh of fomorrow

A SPROUT

hilariously. Many are the anec-| dotes told about the Hoosier author and his carefree meanderings that took him from Indiana to Chicago to New York to Europe and back again. In 1900 he joined the New York Players’ club and played an important role among Manhattan's literati. Fruit Stand Complex For some reason he developed a passion for fruit stands whenever “under the influence.” Fruit stands

! On the heels of his newly-won | popularity, Mr. Tarkington, spurred

| tives in 1902. He won. | In.-his own words, he was aston-

room with them. ished by the victory in the primary ' and some friends were boisterously

| were limited to concerts and meet- Many were taken from crossroad since he hadn't lifted a finger in celebrating after having witnessed {ings of the Herron Art Museum's

the campaign. He was getting ready lo follow this do-nothing course in 'the general election race, but his

otherwise. He advised him to make some speeches and distribute a few

judging by what I know of my char- read Wo him. This was necessary.|, gypply an entire mortiary. More- | cigars. .

acter, I wouldn't have done all this| work if I hadn't liked doing it.” Booth Tarkington was twice] awarded the Pulitzer prize: For | “The Magnificent Ambersons” in| 1918 and for “Alice Adams” in 1921. He was one of three persons to re-| ceive the gold medal of the Aer. ican Institute of Arts and Sciences.| The National Institute of Art and! Letters honored him as “interpreter | of the wholesale atmosphere of! American life . . . commander of the cadences of English prose, for

because following an operation for eye cataracts in his 60's, Mr. Tark-

ington nearly went blind. His vi. | Plesion and trudged along with * with the caption: “Picture of a|with fruit, invaded Central park.

sion «was considerably reduced after that. | Failing eyesight deprived him of!

the privilege of ever witnessing a ing lee cream, watermelon and House No. 4 to make a speech. That| morning, sir. And here is Meadows

talking picture, although several of his books were reproduced on the screen. | He described himself as “oozing out” his winters in Indianapolis, “swathed in cotton and wool,” Back in the late 20's, his doctor warned | him of a heart condition, told him |

| over, he wore a sallow, wan com-

sort of slow, weary gait. He ignored friendly warnings and indulged in midnight food forays. Sometimes he could be found relish-

caviar at a single sitting. His sleeping was perfunctory. The

mghs ous AY aS bd Sudiesss sine starts he finally urged, in one team would step sedately up and p ne | sentence, everyone to vote. Then | place an orange into the palm of | the bewildered loiterer. i

| |

sprinkled with alcoholic stimulants. Among the favorite topics: How bes! to commit suicide; immortality;

his life work in the art of fiction.” ne could do little more than “ooze.” | Women.

Among 10 Greatest In a poll taken by the New York

Times some years ago, he was in-| cluded among the 10 greatest) American authors for “the. most truthful portrayal of contemporary life in America.” |

He oozed for a long time after that.

His classmates later said he

An evening paper had already | cartooned Mr. Tarkington in bed,

{young man in earnest and active | campaign.” So, as a flyer, Politician Tarkington journeyed one night to Engine

lis, he started to, but couldn't think of anything to say. After several

he sat down. | Because this didn't go over so well, he composed an address for his next oratorical emergency a | week later. Of his second speech,

He als, was supposed to refrain|Wasn't altogether successful with! liam Jennings Bryan sald:

from cigarets. But instead, he con- | the ladies who flocked to Princeton) “.p, "yy candidacy for the Indi-| Mr. Tarkington in the first. |

tinued chain-smoking of his long,

for football games, teas and dances.

| fat, specially made Turkish cigarets| In many of his tales are found vivid

(ana legislature, Mr. Booth Tarking(ton made two public appearances.

“to immunize myself against to- aosounts of the woe and anguith of On the first occasion he is reported

bacco.” |

the timid young man at the dance. He was a man’s man,

to have suffered from stage fright to

sponsor, & political boss, thought several hundred pounds of fruit,

gave him the urge to caper. John {| Drew, the actor, never tired of tell-

GRAD-U-ATES IN INDIANAPOLIS!

(IN INDIANA)

+ He's coming into one of the most significant eras in World History!

| front of a midtown market, On one occasion in Chicago, he

| the opening of one of his plays. [They ended up by buying out an entire loop fruitstand. Its contents,

they had delivered to the hotel | room of the play’s producer. Thus | did he show his gratitude. One early morning in New York {| Mr, Tarkington and a friend, armed

{There one of them would Arst | awaken a bench-sleeping bum, bow | from the hip, and announce: | “Good morning sir. It's a fine

with your breakfast fruit, sir.” Whereupon, the other half of the

Perhaps neither he—nor his heirs or assigns will ever know war—The United Nations are striving to achieve that blessed goal.

Once when he was still in In-| dianapolis, Mr. Tarkington and a| party of pals drove to Lafayette to | see the opening of a George Ade] | play. They were in two cars, with

————

| He would stop at each com- | munity and inform the gawking| | citizens that the following automo-

| bile contained Indiana's currently You can count on Indiana boys

Teetotaler Since 1912 turning into pretty fine citizens.

frequent tippler during his

| the extent that he was unable to two favorite sons, the late Senator

h | The Box Sowa SR on | Then there was the disappoint- | And after Albert J. Beveridge and Charles |.

mended him for his acute and sym-| A say anything at all

ing graduation he didn’t partici-|

pathetic interest in the American boy. In 1945 he became the first author to receive the William Dean Howells medal of the Academy of Art. Several of his works were se-| lected for distribution by the liter-| ary Guild. Although Mr. Tarkington's specialty- was fiction, occasionally he penned an essay on politics or art. He was a connoisseur of art. Of late he was feverishly active in pamphleteering in behalf of international peace. He believed war could be outlawed, just as murder nas been outlawed. He wrote an eloquent plea for world co-operation which was read before the historic San Francisco conference in 1945.

| ton hopped aboard the wagon with

| that 1 suddenly decided I preferred

youth and middle-age, Mr. Tarkingdramatic resolve at 9:40 a. m, Jan.! 6, 1912. “1 remember the exact time, he once told a newsman, “because it was right here in Indianapolis

to die sober. Got so I craved a drink before breakfast and that’s] not good. But as it turned out it| required surprisingly little will power to climb aboard the wagon. Couple of days later I was in the University club and a fellow asked me to have a drink, I took one" whiff and it smelled like kerosene. That was that.”

John Stevenson Tarkington, an In«

pate in because he had failed to learn Greek. He never received his A. B. It was a disconcerting blow. Later, after he was showered with honorary degrees from Princeton and other universities, he declared:

devote himself to the “arts.”

and finally drew cartoons. these he managed to sell to the old

publication. Rejected 6 Times At last he turned to literature.

Mr. Tarkington was the son of mye gsardonically preserved scores

“I'm sick of this degree business.” |

reading what he said on the occasion of his second effort, it seems a pity that he didn't have stage | fright both times.” Won in Election

But Mr. Tarkington also won in | the general election.

| He sponsored one bill and there-

He returned to Ipdianapolis toby became an insurgent. He want-| struck with the resemblance of an-

|ed the state to establish a factory

He dabbled in dramatics, painted | to teach blind men to make brooms.| Poe. Playing along with the gag, One of | This encountered opposition for all the stranger, a press agent for a,

| sides. But he finally mustered

“Life” magazine, then a humor | enough votes to pass the measure guest. They took him back to In-

{by promising to refrain from both-

| | |

'Gentleman From Indiana’

| Warren Fairbanks, then vice presi. dent. | Harry Leon Wilson in the next car, and his companions, imper-| | sonated the two and accepted the | eurbstone applause with much aplomb. After the play, the freshing itself in a

Being Indianans, they will take a lively interest in Politics— and by the same token they may become Artists or Writers.

party, re- : iavern, was . Some will engage in Agriculture— or Industry—the State is well

balanced—and very good in both.

other in the room to Edgar Allen

road show, kept drinking ag their 1 His future may be in mercantile

fields—in distribution—it may even be in Advertising—for with the miracles of the Post War

| dianapolis.

of rejection slips returned with | deadly regularity during the five| years he spent struggling for a|

dianapolis attorney, and Elizabeth World awaiting the production

He was elated when the charter

. was adopted. | Booth Tarkington. He first began

Didn't Pull Punches

And at the age of 75, when he easily could have coasted on his laurels, he boldly lashed out against peacetime military conscription. It was a touchy, explosive issue, but he didn't pull his punches. All his life Mr, Tarkington was a conservative. Many times in print and in speeches he opposed the New Deal reforms of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was a rock-ribbed Republican, an individualist and outspoken foe of “planned economy” and federal controls. “I have what must be termed an oldfashioned mind,” he once said. “There is I believe, no liberty except individual liberty. “To my oldfashioned mind, the liberty we lose -when the government plans our future security is worth more than the benefit this security could possibly give us. Hardship, it seems to me, is a part of life, a test and builder of character.” Fine Art Collection His most consuming interest besides his writing was his superb art collection. Close associates say it cost him something like a million dollars to assemble from far © corners of the earth. He specialized in the old masters. , Some valuable paintings, like the

to write after his family, which also included a sister, Mary (later Mrs.

foothold. Ome editor acepted a story, “Cherry” at a price of $22.50

Ovid Butler Jameson) moved to the big square brick house at 11th and Pennsylvania sts, Entertained Famous Men

in the world of letters and the stage, including Riley, George Ade, Meredith Nicholson and other greats of Indiana's literary “golden age.” It was on the side porch there that Riley first conceived the idea

| of “Little Orphan Annie.”

Perhaps Mr, Tarkington's most impressive days at 11th and Pennsylvania sts. though, were his childhood days, the nostalgic days of Penrod. In the roomy barn in the rear, the author-to-be and his playmates performed many of those juvenile stunts and antics that later were to be recorded for posterity in “Penrod,” “Penrod and Spy” and 1 “Seventeen.” li What Woolcott Said The late critic, Alexander Woolcott, one of Mr. Tarkington's best friends, once said: “The fabric of American life as Tarkington saw it contained the hum of lawn mowers, the swish of garden hose playing at sundown on the phlox and petunia and helio-

portrait of his old crony James ‘Whitcomb Riley (whose poetry he

- v

a Lids

trope; the sound of neighbor calling

neighbor; the fragrance of new-.

Here he entertained men famous |

and stuck it away in his files, When Mr. Tarkington became famous |later, it was published at an | enormous profit. ° Anyway, $22.50 was his net income from literary endeavors from 1893 to 1898. : But the budding ‘author had a rich uncle -to tide him over. The uncle was Newton Booth, millionaire adventurer, gold speculator and merchant who became a governor and U. 8. senator in Cali-

fornia. The Indianapolis Tarkingtons visited the affluent Mr. Booth frequently. When Mr,

Booth died, he left his Indianapolis namesake $20,000. Tark immediately invested it in real estate and assured himself a small, fixed income from rentals. Fortified with this, the aspiring writer bullneadedly : pursued nis destiny. Neighbors complained because his lamp wicks were lit at {all hours. : During this same period, he renewed his acquaintance with Riley and became a leading figure in the Indianapolis Drama club. Later he recalled, with a sweep of his cigaret: “We only belonged because we liked to see people we knew on the stage, hoping they would make asses of themselves.” His writing trials received much encouragement his sister, but

By HENRY BUTLER Booth Tarkington must been characteristically vigorous- | minded up to the very last, | For when I talked with him at | his home a few days before the | revival of The Times book page last { Feb. 6 he was as keen a thinker, as subtle and allusive a talker as I've ever encountered. His unforgettable voice, with its peculiar Hoosier sonority, never grew monotonous. He used a great variety of shading in his talk, without ever giving the impression, as do some writers, of being affected. Some critics have accused Mr. Tarkington of having lived in an ivory tower. That is partly be- | cause he liked to surround himself | with beautiful things, partly be- | cause he was not. interested in writing Marxist or similar specialpleading novels. Liked Beautiful Things The ivory-tower criticism falls before Mr. Tarkington's final, allconsuming interest in world peace. It is a tribute, not only to his continued mental vigor, but also to his profound social conscience, that he devoted a great deal of time and energy in his last months. to writing about and discussing plans for a peaceful world. He ‘was a lot like Ulysses in Tennyson's famous poenk. At the

have

Radin n

Vigoroys-Minded Up to End

signals=——Advertising will help usher in a new high standard of Living.

| wyia gig

'FUNERAL TODAY FOR 'MOORESVILLE DOCTOR

MOORESVILLE, Ind, May 20.— |

| | Services for Dr. Allen Jackson Hyl-|

|ton were to be held at 2 p. m, lo=] {day in his home, 39. W. Main st. |

[Burial was to be in Mooresville | | cemetery. . | Dr. Hylton, the oldest practicing | physician in Mooresville, died Sat|urday in his home after a nine- | week illness, | | A native Hoosier, he attended | Central Normal college and was graduated from the Medical College of Indiana in 1901. He practiced | medicine at Mooresville many] years, and spent 14 years on his] farm near Joppa, Ind, | Dr. Hylton was a member of] Mooresville lodge, Knights of Pythias, and a charter member of the Plainfield lodge of the order. Survivors are his wife, Mrs, Frances Clark Hylton, Mooresville; a son, William R. Hylton, and a step-son, Oharles Clark, both of Indianapolis.

: MAYBE THIS WOULD BE a good spot for a commercial— and say something about Clothes for Graduation—and after (clothes being an ethical and . legal requirement).

OF COURSE—they want their Clothes from The Man’s Store— they practically insist on it! It is good for their bodily comfort— it adds happiness to their activities— - it helps ease them over life's tough road— It caters to something within— for the genuinely good!

L STRAUSS & COMPANY nc. THE MAN'S STORE

THE BOYS SHOPS (21022) —— are on FOURTH FLOS

1 ig Se Tei 2 Jk Sl]