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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1927-09-22, Page 3seriessenassaaaaasaanaa Mr, Shaw Sits For His Portrait The Issue of His Price for Posing -43,750 an Hour—Being Settled, He Paints in His Conversation .a lively Picture of the Social and Intellectual Interests Which .. Have Shaped His Career . By S, J, Woolf He had a visitor, an; economist from . Just south cf London's Strang lies Australia, who. wan Interests , in lit- ,Adelphi Terrace, a row of, Georgiantle theatres, And .when• the visitor 'buildings stretching 500 feet er more introduced himself as an eoonomict above the Thames embankment and Shaw remarked: facing :the river. The row was built "That's what I am; playwriting is just a pastime." He went on "Of the model*its T Particularly like by the four Adams brothers. They occupied one of the houses; in another ;David Garrick lived and died. The preparty was offered at public sale a Ptrandello and Strindberg, Their -few weeks ago, and although no bids plays are not logical deveict,ments of 'were accepted, nevertheless the pro- themes and, after all, I am suchan posed • disposal •caused, uneasiness old band at the business that a ,among the tenants, and even George logically developed play cannot pos- Bernard . Shaw, who has made 'his I sibly contain any surprises for me. 1 home here foe thirty years, has now !know what will happen from the be - moved. )Ii's house, which he 'left a' ginning and accordingly lose interest, few clays ago for a more modern But when a play goes along without apartment, was a four -storey building anY apparent plan and when at first .at one end of tile street 1 no' consecutive deve"lopthent or plot The ground floor was taken up.by appears evident, I am at once intra- -offices, but on entering the first thing. gued into discovering the purpose and that struck the eye was a large sign 'outcome. Naturally, if the author is —"Mr. and Mrs. G. Bernard Shaw"-- ` mad the play becomes all the batter. 'while at the head of a flight of stairs 1 And as. Car Strindberg, of oouese he a wooden gate reinforced by iron : was mad, He had an idea he was ,a spikesprevented further progress. and mortally ill man. I remember visit - another p 1 ing Stockholm and I .felt that it would another sign gave notice that the floor above was titivate. • It was here that the visitor, if he be an act of international courtesy for me to call on hime Accordingly I dropped him a line telling him I was managed to elude the wily janitor, who in the city and that I would not like !told every stranger that Mr. Shaw was to leave without payinf my ,respects. "ln the country, came to an impasse,; I received a. reply that Mr. Strandberg :and naturally it was here that I met ,was to i11 to receive any one. But my first obstacle. I managed to per- the next day, without any further ac- seuade the maid to permit me to speak I tion on my part, a note reached me to Miss Patch, Mr. Shaw's private ! say.ng • that he would be home that +secretary, who did not find it neces- afternoon. I went. For an limn sary to open the portcullis, for she he was. charming. Suddenly he pull - ,could easily sneak over the top. .Mise ed out hos watch, looked at it for a Patch said it would be .out of the moment and •in a fearful voice said, question event°. ask Mr. Shaw to' pose 'In twenty minutes I shall be a grlev- •—in fact, most of his time was spent I ously ill man.' in refusing to be a .model for any "To this day," continued G. B. S., "I more artists. Somewhat dejectedly, I do 'not know whether this was the i left.' result of my visit or of his diseased undoubtedly also an actor of oonsum- I could not melt the stony heart of mind.. mate ability. The manner in which he speaks has as much of bis in- riviruality ae what he says. I am frank to confess that before I met bim I had certain misgivings as to his personality. A mentality Politics Calls Megan Lloyd George The daughter of the former premier of Groat Britain was invited to contest a seat in the Liberal interest at the next election. brigades. In fact, countless schemes were devised and disctis•sed, When every one had finished• the Dean had proposed nothing. Some one asked him how he felt and he answered; `Let it burn.'" snapped him. But Shaw told me And then in some unremembered he was not leaning forward far en - way the subject of human 'affection ough and that the absolute pose tan - was introduced, and Shaw was asked not be assumed by anybody. whether it was not the one .compelling thing in the world. Mr. Shaw else showed photographs "Human affection," said he with a .of himself, some thirty or forty years quizzical smile, "is the one great old, and the thing that struck me was curse of mankind, the principal ob- the apparent change in bis slntll for struotion to its progress. Take my- mation, and L mentioned it. •He as - self, for instance; all my life affec- eared me that it was a fact that as a tion has been showered on me, and young man his head was broad, rather everything that I have done' I have than long, but that in later years his had to do in spite of it." entire skull had lengthened. It is hard to convey in words the At last I ventured, ".And, Mr. Shaw, full import of all that Shaw says. For, what do you think of modern art?" in addition to his other gifts, he is "What do I think of modern art? I have been, practicing It seventy years," he replied with a delightful smile, "but seriously I supposethat there must be something good in it. I do feel that any number of incom- petents are using it as a cloak for their shortoominge. But take Matisse for instance; from the surety and beauty of his line I know the man can draw in an academie way should, he so desire. I will acknowledge that at first his works seemed strange have a certain cold, calculating hard- 1 to me, but I have looked at them so ness' about it. much that now I see their beauty But on meeting the man this fear is without permitting their apparent dispelled, and on hearing him Calk you strangeness to interfere with my ap- wonder how you could have even sus predation of the part that appeals to me. I don't think the goal has been posteng such a thi. Sitting cross - reached, but there must be forerun - legged on the sofa, with his hands ners to every great movement. It folded in his lap, his white hair glint t,doesn t matter whether it is religion ening and appearing even whiter in or art. Cezanna, Van Gogh, Matisse contrast to his ruddy complexion, ire may be only prophets or John the was the personification of geniality. Baptists. And as he spoke a smile would break "But the thing you moat admit over his face, beginning in his eyes h tl want to or not 'look at and spreading to his mouth. Ile en. whether he were discussing Rodin's "Thinker." He lad tried to assume the pose but he could not, so he un- dressed n dressed to see if he could get into the pose unhampered by clothes. Coburn Miss• Patch; it was vulcanized. 1 had ' Of course, it is economies that has to get to the great man himself and I taken up moat of my time, though— move him not by pity but by humor. and this may seem strange to you— What would he' have done under music has always played a large part sirnila'r circumstances? Knowing that in `my life. Both my Bather and modesty is one of Shaw's salient mother were musical and I was rear- which oould so unerringly .dis'sect the characteristics, and that his apparent ed in an atmosphere •ot music. In human mind and expose to public 'blatant conceit is nothing utan in -a ith the 1 fact, ltaa mony I Have always sought. which ew human malcelean ents ire frailties, people feriority complex combinedw Classical music, Beethoven and Bach keenest wit and humor, I concocted : were so much a part of my infancy ridiculous—such a mentality must the following letter after much trou-'that it really took me some time to ble. I knew that I had nothing -to lose learn to appreciate the lighter forms and that it might just strike the one of music, and it was only after an 'unprotected spot in the Achillean effort that I could appreciate the armor of reserve. On July 1; there- waltzes. of Strauss. for, .I wrote to him as follows: I * * "Mr Dear Mr. Shaw: Mast, people don't know that it was "Years ago I remember- you said an American who really turned me to that the only reason you posed' for socialagy. When I was- a young man Rodin was because ,you felt that it. Henry George. came to London and was the one way In which you would .lectured. • I was carried away by both gain •everlasting fame. the man and his ideas. His revolu- tionary theories appealed' to me. •And I. may say I still see the truth in his "That is quite true as far as Eur- ope is •concerned, but as for America, with true Shavian modesty- I may say land. tax. I joys life and people, and he commune - that immortality will not be yours "From George I went to Marx, and' cates that feeling to his listeners. make you feel that the work of their there until I have drawn you. his `Capital' swept everything from The sketch was finished and I pre- predecessors is dull. drab, monotonous "That is one of the reasons I came me and I was a Socialist. Of course, pared to rearrange the furniture, for and lifeless."—N.Y, Times' to London—to obtain immortality for I was young: In those days• I was in order for me to be comfortable — you in America. ready to grasp at everything new. Itis Shaw had removed a picture from an - STATION WEAF'S NEW PLANT REPRESENTS LATEST IN RADIO Tests Show Half-Million-Pollar-Txanamitter on Long Wand; •r Is About Ready to Handle Programs— Power Power is 50 Kilowatts Station WEAk"S new transmitter at Bellmore, Laa representing an invest- ment of $5.00,000 and the latest in. broadcasting apparatus, is now test- ing after midnight on the 49L5 -meter wave under tile call 2XZ. It is ex- pected that the regular programs will soon be put on the air from the Long Island site, according to M. H. Ayles-, worth, President of the National Broadcasting Company, %owner of the station! The transmitter is rated at 50 kilo- watts, with an estimated reliable ser- vice range of 100 miles under all con- ditions. The two lattice steel towers are 300 feet high, and the aerial they hold aloft is 250 :feet, with.a vertical lead-in taken off the centre of the aerial proper, thus forming a "T." The two antenna towers will be painted in alternate twelve -foot bands of black and yellow. Both towers will be illuminated by flood -lights, prinotpally to serve as a beacon for aviators -and as a protection against planes crashing into the aerial. The equipment is located in a one - storey stucco building midway be- tween the towers. The power sent into the installation is 50 kilowatts, which, according to Dr. Alfred N. Gold- smith, chief broadcast engineer, is suf- ficient to light 10,Q00 homes. The amount of filament energy used to light the filament of the tubes in the transmitter would supply en- ough current to operate the filaments of 200,000 UX199 receiving tubes, or approximately 50,000 of theaverage dry battery receiving sets now In use. The amount of electrical energy used to supply the plate circuit of this transmitter would provide sufficient elate current for 550,000 UX199's. Power is supplied by the Long Is- land Lighting Company. Ten Tubes In Amplifier In the 50 -KW 610 -kilocycle amplifier which follows the intermediate power stage ten UV -207 tubes' are employed, but only eight will be in use at any given time. The remaining two act as "spares." This unit, about 20 feet long, is built in open fashion. The most conspicuous feature is. the ten water -hose coils wound on insulating •pores, into which the anodes of the tubes themselves fit. These coils in- sure a water stream sufficiently long. to insulate the plates, with their 10,- 000-15,000 volt potential from ground; otherwise the tubes would melt. Bee low each coil there is' a pressure. actuated relay, which precents voltage from' being applied to the plates of tine tubes when water is notflowing at a safe sate. With twenty-seven water-cooled tubes in use, in the ab - settee of such automatic protection, an• D�.y� gYl�l)_�� these pictures often enough, have , operator's mistake might cost the sta- j� Y� lis a position to remove 1t from the c1r cult and .energies a spare unit byj throwing two tumbler witches on the control unit. These actuate Targe solenoid -operated switches, which pet' forme the operations required. Sada automatic controls, while complicated• and costly,`insure the continuity- of service which is vital in such a plant:" 1 In the basement of the new trans- mltting plant are found the trans.: formers which step up the ,300-vol9 power supply to the 'high voltage re quired to feed the rectlfiera, the rel actors which smooth . out undesired variations, the speech reactor coupl1 ing the 5'O -KW amplifier with its ntoduu dater, and the rotating machinery oft the station. - "The water.cooled tubes are buO with the 'plate,' which In smaller units is actually a plate or small 'real tangular sheet of metal, in the form of a closed hollow cylinder, housing the grid and filament," explained Mr Dreher. "The amount of energy coni veyed.to this anode may be of the order of 30,000 watts• at a voltage of, perhaps 15,000. ,The efficiency of the device is between 60 and 70 per cent. so that some 0,000 watts may be with- drawn in the form of useful oscilla- tions, leaving 10,000 watts dissipated at the anode in the form of heat. 'This energy warms the water circulating through the hollow cylinder at the rate of two or three gallon@ a minute) The inescapable loss of plate energy, in one power- tube alone of a station, like the new WEAF, if that unit is run/ at its full capacity, wculd be sudi•cientl to supply all the power for a normal' 500 -watt broadcasting station. This does not take into consideration the power of over 1 -KW (52 amperes at 22 valts) required to heat the filament, of each unit. In broadcast practice the tubes are run at inputs below the. allowable figure in order to prolong. life and minimize interruptions." Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, chief broad, cast engineer, said: "If listeners in the vicinity of the new station experience interference we will co-operate with, them to eliminate the difficulties. When WJZ went on the air at Bound Brook, N.J., we received 1,500 com- plaints, each of which we investigated by means of a service corps. The, majorityof cases were successfully cleared up, and we shall follow the same procedure on Long Island. Tho papulation in the vicinity of the WEAF Bellmore transmitter is about a00 to 1,000 per square mile. Tho present transmitter in New York has about 300.000 people within a mile radius." them in your home, and th'ey will tion upward of $10;0.00 in a few sec - "And when you think it will cost strange how men change. At that you only one half hour of lime—lhat time I refused to believe a word of the is a very small price to pay." Bible and was ready to accept every When the following note •came the new theory any scientist offered. To - next morning I was the most surprised day I'd rather believe the story of person in the world: Jonah and the whale than a fact al - "I now have considerable expert- most proved by a scientist. once as an artist's model; but my "But to get back to Marx. I was name. But I still delayed my going. terms --about $3,750 an hour—are pro- his devout follower and remained so Shaw had spoken on socialism, on hibitive. Also, I. shall not be disen- until Jevons showed me certain fal- p:laywriting and even on religion, but I wanted more. easel that stood in the corner and wheeled it out for m'6 to use. I "fixed" my drawing so that it would not rub, and asked him to sign it, which he did, though he said that ho felt. that it was unnecessary as any one could tell whe.•it was without the gaged for at least" a year to come.— G. B. S." I now felt sure that the proper re- sponse would bring results, It was the 3rd of July; the letter had to be timely, it had to contain in itself a rea- son for being written; in other words, it must of necessity be a reply to his note, so, 00 Ju1y 4111, I sent him the following; • • "My Dear Mr. Shaw: "Your price for posing is acceptable to Me. My price for a drawing is the same amount. "You do not have to be disengaged while I draw. "I ani leaving on the eighth. When shall I come? "If you could pose this. afternoon and sign the drawing to -day, think what it would mean to the. American people to have two .vital documents signed on July 4." 'The following day I received a 'phone call; Mr. Shaw's name could go. lacies in his theory of values. Net that I discarded Marx; I accepted him with reservations, and it was due to th•e Fabian Society that his theories were made popular in England. Marx was a strange .chap. I. never met him but I have learned much about his personality from people who did. One of the most delightful stories I heard about him was told me by a lady whose husband had been one of Marx's intimate friends—a fellow -Socialist. "Far years they had been close com- panions. But one evening, as both were leaving a party, tire friend by mistake took Marx's hat. It fitted him and Marx, who prided himself 011 thetremendous size of his head, from that day 'never spoke to his former friend." Shaw's delightful manner, the charm and sonorous tone of itis voice with its faint suspclon of a brogue, his in- terest in the subjects on which he spoke, and tb'e delightful twists he down in history with John Hancock, gave to his conversation made it ex- Thomas xThomas Jefferson and others. tremely difficult for me to work. I wanted to drop my charcoal and just listen, but i could not. Accordingly in order to finish my sketch I had at Ings count for little in my mind. Now times to concentrate on my work I dimly remember making a mental rather than on his conversation. Vara note of his dining room, furnished ous remarks of his conversation dome under a decidedly Chinese influence— to my mind with the result that 1 Its gorgeous Eastern yellow rttg, a am unable to remember the exact way Wonderful open sideboard tilled with multicolered Oriental pottery, and on, the mantel `several Chinese dragbns. Behind me was a bookcase, containing among Other works. Gibbon's "Rome," Wagner's template works and Balzac's novels. On the light green wall hung `A.ugtts- tits John's portait of Shaw, whiClr Mre. Shaw •told me she had not liked at first, but now felt was one of the best por- traits of him hi existence`—h'ot • one absolutely of the man is flesh and !flood, but a maiiumental work of bim Ind his aims, It was in Mr, Shaw's living recent oat of the windows of which one has a long, Unbrolcen view et the %tames, that 1 drew him, While he sat on a largo ablate ii`a fn and 'mikes!. . Since meeting ani talking with him, or rather listening to him talk, for two hours- or more, his surround - In wlach he led from one subject to another. Plow he came to speak of his reli- gion, I ,forget, but in some way or other religion was touched• on and ho said; ' "I have the sanie religion as Dean' Inge. We are both Quakers. Wo don''t. believe 'in set prayers. When we want to talk to God we u:se the sante lang- uage as we ordinarily itse, not pray- ers 'composed for us by other people, end we ado nob 'need a church in which to lapid oontn unlon with Hina, X i'e- ineraea that some time ago a Move - Meat was afoot to afford flare protee- tlon to St. 1Pati1's against fire. A Meeting was held and various people attended, Some adeotating More fire ext tiiteishers, ()there a peeial fire i had been unable to turn Shaw's conversation to the subject of art. Be- hind hint on a desk was the bust Rodin had made of him years ago— the one referred to in my first letter. I men- tioned it again and asked if Rodin had required many sittings. "Yes, quite a numbers' he said, "and the strange part of it was that in the course of its making that bust went through a complete development of the history of art. At the end of the first sitting it was• a work of the very earliest Greek period—archaic smile and all. From that it embodied the Greek and -Roman styles and at one time it was a perfect example of the sculpture of the twelfth century, a masterpiece of that period, and; it kept on evolving from one century to the next until it was finished." Rodin Seems to be ou.e of Shaw's heroes. Ile showed me numberless photographs of him, which he keeps around his living room -photographs made by Coburn, whom he had sent for from London particularly for that purpose, He also showed the famed "Nude Photograph" of himself and told bow at came to be taken. Coburn Overstuffing. Wifie—"The upholsterer said it would cost over "fifty dollars to re- cover that chair." Hubby—"He's trying to stuff you as well as the chair, my dear." One to the Choir, starting and stopping the various ma - The Vicar made a bad break the chanen and energizing the different other day. At the close of the anthem frames is loceted here, he rose to preach, and tactlessly 'Once the station is running," said But the choir got their own back. Carl Dreher, engineer, "at may be had ceased—" taken off the air instantly by a small ABut the chair got longear ownrack. tumbler switch on the operator's can - theythe end of the prosy sermon in trol unit, which.. is placed on a table toot roae andespontaneouslywha burst in the middle of the room This table to the anthem, "And when we awoke also bolds ,the 600 -meter receiver and from• our sleep." a found -speaker always in service on --t' marine wave lengths. Au operator Transoceanic flying, we learn from sits at the table and, should an SOS extensive newspaper reading, is do- can be picked up, immediately takes ing wonders to promote international the station off the air after a cover- amity, and indicates entirely new ing aunouncelnent. ‘1f a modulator methods of 'wreaking destruction in or 'amplifier tube should break down It is very' honest of you to bring it the next war. in operation the operator is also in back." ands. The superstructure of the 50- The discussion of a change in the KW amplifier carries meters, in diva- calendar in order to bring any given dual choke coils, indicating relays, 1 date in each month on the same day. switches and other paraphernalia re- of the week, .and to equalize the length of the months, is opened once more, says the Paris Times. It 'goes on: "An ingenious suggestion is made frequency energy in accordance with i by M. E. 1. Weiner. It is that there . the speech or music, is a similar unit I be five clays each yoar without dates. in appearance. It contains cixt:eeu' They would be known as New Year's tubes. Twelve are in lase at one time, Day, the Spring Festival, the Summer while four are "spares." These are Festival, the Autumn Festival, and wired in groups of two. tho winter Festival, and would not be The rectifier, which supplies plate recognized by any date whatever. power for all the three element tubes, ....either would they he kuown as Mort- is located at one slier of the trans- 1 day, or as any day in the week, but matter room. This is .a relatively merely as Festivals. Thus the eaten - small frame, mounting six water- dar year would be reduced to 360 cooled rectifiers of the UV -206 type, I days, or four equal 'seasons of three but it is capable of delivering twelve 1 thirty -day months each. The extra amperes direct current at 15,000 volts, i days could be arranged so that New corresponding to a power of 1S0 -KW, ! Year's Day would come the day be - The power board of the station is fore January 1 and the other Festival similar to that of a good-sized elec- clays on the equinoxes and solstices. tric substation, with the same circuit The Spring Festival would be a day breakers, meters, relays, signal lights without name or date between March and controls The equipment for 20 and 21, the Summer Festival in June, the Autumn Festival in Sep- tember, and the Winter Festival in Decerria-r. In leap -year there would be an additional dateless day, which could be -placed before January or as a second day of any of the other Fes- tivals. Although such a calendar is interesting and has attractive fea- tures, it would conflict seriously with the movable feasts of the Church." Why He Returned. • Weary 'Willie --"1 found a sovereign in the pocket of those trousers, you gave me," Lady of the House—"Oh, indeed, quired in the operation of large vacuum tubes. The modulator, which molds the, amplitude of the 50 kilowatts of radio New Coin Designs Are Accepted TORONTO ARTISTS ARE WINN1IFS Canadian coins to mark cbu-Fede ration year are shown aboYo, 'The one -cent piece was designed by fns. e tavo Hahn, Toronto, and the 5 alts! 25 cent pieces are the designs of-' . d, 1Viacdonalcl, I3„C.A., of Toronto, Weary Willie—"I'm not bringing it back,', mum. I came to see if you could give me another pair of trails - ors." Lost For Byer. - The country parson was condoling with the bereft widow. "Alas," he Concluded earnestly, ,"I Cannot toll you how pained I was to learn that yotir husband !tad gone to Tleaven. We were bosom friends, and we shall, never meet again!" "Mediaeval records," - declares ati historian, "will testify the extent of the tortures to'which our ancestors were sometimes subjected." But many of those played by Our neigh., born are little better", "A Word For Wireless," runs a heading, An anti-wireiess fiend sonde tta one b as Cannot pri„ t it.