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"Echoes of Mary MacLane" - More Letters from World Readers" The articles by Mary MacLane recently printed in The World's Sunday Magazine have aroused more attention and provoked more discussion than any feature in a similar publication in recent years. Although it is four weeks since the last article was published, letters are still arriving in extraordinary numbers from readers of the magazine giving their opinions of her work and capabilities and her promise of future success. It is an indication not only of the great interest which Miss MacLane has inspired but of the remarkable scope of the Sunday World's circulation that these letters are coming from every part of the United States and even from Canada and other countries. The following letters have been selected for publication.
David Dalziel, Pavilion Mills, British Columbia - In my opinion Mary MacLane wants to tell the world something, but she does not know what that something is. What she lacks is learning, experience and years. In twenty years more she will find herself out and will understand what she wants to say, and will say it. "I know what she wants to tell us. She wants to say that the world is not doing so well as it should do, and she wants to point out wherein it errs. Mary MacLane is a specimen of what will be common two, three, four, five, six, seven, ten or twelve thousand years from now - a sort of perfect soul. Now she is out of place. She is an 'incongruity.'She can do lots of good if she goes at it in the right way. I say let her preach away. There are many things that the world should know which only she or the like of her can tell."
R.C. Mills, Louis, Okla. - "What do I think of Mary MacLane? "If she were given a divided skirt and placed astride a horse, and could get George Ade to follow in her wake upon a donkey, she would make a modern Don Quixote. "If she 'succeeds in being successful,' she will be a genius - if not, a crank." Lily May Ivy, No. 136 West Sixty-Second Street, New York - "I have waited patiently to find some woman who agreed with me as to the genius of Mary MacLane. I am still waiting. Surely there is one somewhere, for I cannot think that I am all alone in my opinion. That would stamp me as being oddly different, and I know I am just like all the others. "I do not envy Mary MacLane. The money she has earned, the popularity and public notice which have come to her, are hers by divine right. "Mary MacLane is a genius. She is a great genius, in that she recognizes herself and has had the courage to announce it. "She distinctly portrays the wail of the human heart for that something that we never possess in this world. She appeals to the tragic side of life. This is serious. To be serious is to think. To think is to look inwardly. To be able to depict what you see there is sublime. "Mary MacLane's attitude is at all times introspective, and therefore original. I cannot understand how any one can condemn her. She tells the unvarnished truth. I can see the sand and barrenness in every life with which I come in contact. The man or woman who tries to make life a comedy fails just as miserably as he who takes it tragically. There is something insurmountable, inexplicable. It is this we should all like to do. But it has never been solved yet. We may possibly know it 'over there.' "Mary MacLane knows her devil won't enlighten her, if she ever finds him, which of course she will. They come early to most of us. He can't take away the sand and barrenness. And she knows it. "Now that Mary MacLane is more than ever convinced of the monotony of appearances, the monotony of everywhere and the even sameness of human nature, I hope she will give us something more from her pen that will be worthy of such a brain and such a personality as she possesses."
Charles W. Patrick, Denison, Texas - "Mary MacLane is a genius. She has a wonderful gift of expression, the certain mark of genius. She is a victim of introspection to the point of partial insanity. "Miss MacLane stands as the greatest sensationalist of a sensational day. Her writings contain much that is worth reading - and much that is rot. Imagine her in New York during a rainstorm. She would say, 'The people are hurrying more than ever; they never rest. They are maddening; the rain is maddening. What does it all mean? What do the little raindrops say? What does the street say? The street says, 'Why do you beat me, little raindrops? Stop! Stop! Stop!' The little raindrops say, 'We will not stop; we will beat you, beat you, beat you!' The wind says, 'Stop, little raindrops, stop beating the street and me.' But the raindrops say, 'We will not stop; we will beat you, beat you, beat you.' The wind says, 'I will slip and slide and fall all over you.' But the raindrops beat, beat, beat.' "Miss MacLane is a beautiful girl, nineteen years old plus, and wanting fame, so she will not mind criticism."
Adah Downing, Spokane, Wash. - "Is Mary MacLane a genius? Yes. She is more. She is grandly, deliciously beautiful! And I believe she is good. She dares to tell to all the world what most people try to keep profoundly guarded. "I think she is all she claims for herself. She may be a thief, but I don't believe she steals other people's thunder, and I don't think she stole anything from the 'Anemone Lady.' "She may be a liar, but I don't believe her heart is wooden. "I hope she is a philosopher, for if she is she will not suffer much. "I think she is much more intense than she really knows. She has not yet found her true soul. She will find it when she finds its mate. "I love you, Mary MacLane! Not because you say you are a thief and a liar and are not afraid of the devil, but because you are yourself."
Henry Kirkner (range rider), Cokeville, Wyo. - "Just a hurrah for that little desert waif, Mary MacLane, that will shatter the crags and cliffs around Cokeville, Wyo.! Those spring steel fibres back of Mary's brow work like a meteor. "A bouquet of the most beautiful tropical water lilies to Mary!"
"Justitia," Roger Williams Land - "When first I read of Mary MacLane and her ideas I stamped her thoughtless, born without the finer instincts of womanhood and wholly devoid of the innate simplicity of girlhood. "On further acquaintance with her words and endeavors I have changed my mind considerably. I have come to the conclusion that Mary MacLane stands for truth and dares the courage of her convictions. The human within Mary MacLane differs not so widely from that within us all. In sincerity she has turned the searchlight on all that is despicable within the inner life of every soul. In the manner of it she is original. She stands along for a purpose, and whether it be for a tower or a pitfall, her own character, her dealing with the problems of life will determine as the days go on. "She is no more immodest or immoral than you or I, reader, through words that express inherent deeds. Deeds, not tendencies, tell the stories of the heartaches and heartbreaks that are constantly springing up before a waiting public. "I am not prepared to say that this young woman of Butte-Montana has exercised wisdom in doing thus or so. She is but a fledgling, cramped and hedged in, and her way out from her environment is unique, to say the least. "'Is she a genius?' For one of her age I should say she was gifted in ways exclusive and inclusive. I have not learned to my own satisfaction just the best between her lines, but like every other reader form conclusions and note much worthy of a place in the public mind. "This strenuous - if ever a word was used advisedly I think this is here - young woman from Montana invites comment and criticism through marked individuality and determination. Well and good. She is aggressive. Aggression turns the wheel. If Mary MacLane turns it for all that is uplifting and for the betterment of mankind, even though errors of judgment face her now and anon, her work will not be in vain. Living with her one month in close companionship would give one a better insight of her real self than the writing of all her coming years."
J.B. Burgster, Jamestown, N. Dak. - "Mary MacLane is a bright young woman of the West, strongly imaginative, who possesses a strong command of language to express the whims, fancies, vagaries, and beauties of a young woman with a healthy body, firm nerves and a keen appreciation of the value of 'gear' - which comes naturally from her Scotch ancestry. "She can write very interesting, chatty, personal letters for personal perusal, but for general reading there are hundreds of writers who can give her 'cards and spades and beat her. "She is at times somewhat poetic, but a poet? Never! "But Mary MacLane is not of the character to produce anything of enduring fame. The veriest 'hobo' can round out an oath with more dexterity, and the cheapest woman might say some things in private which she would not blazon to the world. The expectancy of something suggestive - which is not realized - makes some of her writings read. "What she says and what she believes are different, though her egotism may have led her to bare more of her actual self in her 'Portrayal' than will endear her to the majority. "If she thinks and says she is a genius, then she is - to herself and some others. "But in Mary MacLane and her impressions is the fact, which may not be realized by those of the East, that 'the East' to those reared in the West is 'mysterious' and but little better understood than is 'the West' by those of the East. The penury of the East, where a penny is more to the majority of those in humble circumstances than the dollar is here in the 'Great West,' the gaudy display of wealth and the unapproachable society of those who stand aloof and far off are still so strange and different compared with the West, where sincerity and frankness are either expressed or so apparent and patent to all as to need no expression! The social, political and labor conditions of the East, though known in the West, are hardly appreciated in all the intensity of the East. Mary MacLane has hinted at, in some things expressed it, at times felt it and wished to give it utterance, but seemed unable to satisfactorily. It's this fact which is largely apparent in her 'Portrayal.' "She has not struck a new note; possibly only 'sharped' dexterously. "Poor Mary MacLane!"
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