Word: jestingly
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...CASUARINA TREE-W. Somerset Maugham-Doran ($2). The title, of course, means nothing, although Author Maugham explains in a two-page preface that it might mean something. If one takes a piece of the Casuarina tree in a boat with him, contrary winds and storms will arise to jest with his life; but if one stands in its shadow by the light of the full moon, he will hear the secrets of the future. All of which ties a string around six short stories, wherein English folk drink gin pahits and have emotional disturbances in Borneo and the Malay Peninsula...
Truly the romantics are growing gayer every minute. To jest, the canons of art are stilled, hushed the small weapons. But never can an editorial become lyric, even in critical disquisition upon the, was it "kisses not for our mouths." Mix a butter and egg world with New York atmosphere, synthetic gin and the romantic: result--omelette. To put it more plainly, one can quote Rolfe Humphries "Text for a Bitter Vision...
Nail Bey, once Secretary of the Young Turk (executive) committee of Union and Progress, sauntered beneath his gallows, remarked, "This is the first time I have ever found myself in such a situation!" was snapped off into eternity as he laughed at his own jest. Last came the revered and eminent Djavid Bey, onetime Minister of Finance, his pince-nez exactly adjusted. By nature dignified, he did not jest at Death. As the noose tightened there rolled sonorously from his lips a verse from the Koran...
...that obituaries for every aging public man, from Andrew William Mellon, 72, to Chauncey Mitchell Depew, 92, lie ready in the desks of most editors. Why not print them as their subjects reach the age of 70? Messrs. Mellon, Depew, and many another cheerful bigwig would relish well the jest. Would not many a reader prefer to scan while his idol is yet in the quick those shrewd estimates of attainment, and compendiums of little known facts reserved by custom for obituaries...
...leered as he mouthed that name. Mr. Conkling is a roving gas engineer who plays the violin. Mrs. Sidney Erskine Brewster, petite and 26, did not guard the letters he wrote her with discretion. Mr. Brewster, 29, was an aviator, Manhattan scion, grew not to perceive the jest, killed his wife as she was dressing for dinner clad only in her chemise, killed himself. What editor or printer's devil in the U. S. does not know that? But what editor asked: "Who is Roscoe Platt Conkling? A descendant of 19th Century Manhattan Republican Boss Roscoe Conkling? A namesake...