We have been requested to write, during this vacation, a true and
varacious account of a meeting with any Celebrity we happened to meet
during the summer. If no Celebrity, any interesting character would do,
excepting one's own Familey.
But as one's own Familey is neither celebrated nor interesting, there is
no temptation to write about it.
As I met Mr. Reginald Beecher this summer, I have chosen him as my
Subject.
Brief history of the Subject: He was born in 1890 at Woodbury, N. J.
Attended public and High Schools, and in 1910 graduated from Princeton
University.
Following year produced first Play in New York, called Her Soul.
Followed this by the Soul Mate, and this by The Divorce.
Description of Subject. Mr. Beecher is tall and slender, and wears a
very small dark Mustache. Although but twenty-six years of age, his hair
on close inspection reveals here and there a Silver Thread. His teeth
are good, and his eyes amber, with small flecks of brown in them. He has
been vacinated twice.
It has alwavs been one of my chief ambitions to meet a Celebrity. On one
or two occasions we have had them at school, but they never sit at the
Junior's table. Also, they are seldom connected with either the Drama
or The Movies (a slang term but aparently taking a place in our
Literature).
It was my intention, on being given this subject for my midsummer theme,
to seek out Mrs. Bainbridge, a lady Author who has a cottage across the
bay from ours, and to ask the privelege of sitting at her feet for a few
hours, basking in the sunshine of her presence, and learning from her
own lips her favorite Flower, her favorite Poem and the favorite child
of her Brain.
Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.
Duke of Buckingham I had meant to write my Theme on her, but I learned in time that she
was forty years of age. Her work is therefore done. She has passed her
active years, and I consider that it is not the past of American Letters
which is at stake, but the future. Besides, I was more interested in the
Drama than in Literature.
Posibly it is owing to the fact that the girls think I resemhle Julia
Marlowe, that from my earliest years my mind has been turned toward the
Stage. I am very determined and fixed in my ways, and with me to decide
to do a thing is to decide to do it. I am not of a romantic Nature,
however, and as I learned of the dangers of the theater, I drew back.
Even a strong nature, such as mine is, on occassions, can be influenced.
I therefore decided to change my plans, and to write Plays instead of
acting in them.