The Little Review, April 1916 (Vol. 3, No. 2)

To sermonize here, we have Mrs. Aldis, who we know to be a highly intelligent woman and one not only interested in the uplift of the drama but also in the uplift of the common (?) people, merely saying to a girl, who is wretchedly unhappy about her elephantine size: All that I can give you is a doctor’s vague advice to bant and exercise. She might have given her Vance Thompson’s epoch-making book “Eat and Grow Thin,” or read chapters from it to the unhappy girl, thereby convincing her that starvation is unnecessary and also a patent medicine. But with a coldness that is most reprehensive, she gave “a doctor’s vague advice to bant and exercise,” and evidently Ellie would none of this. She might also have consulted the hundred and one doctors in Chicago or elsewhere who specialize in the reduction of fat, and who could have given her for “the continent” a diet chart or perhaps a pill to effect the desired change. But she did not think this necessary; she did not feel it her duty. But if we have only adverse criticism for Mrs. Aldis’ uncharitable act, what direful words of commination should we not visit on the doctor who gave the “vague advice.” In an age when the cult of slimness is uppermost in everybody’s mind, is it possible that the doctor consulted by Mrs. Aldis was so untrue to his mission as a public benefactor that he gave only “vague advice,” or is Mrs. Aldis maligning the whole medical profession and trying to show that by his “vague advice” the doctor was really responsible for Ellie’s death by driving her into taking “the bottles in the woodshed, hundreds of ’em. All labelled ‘Caldwell’s Great Obesity Cure Warranted Safe and Rapid.’”?

The lesson contained in the poetic lines of Mrs. Aldis’ little tragedy is a bitter one for all those medical men who have made strenuous efforts to let the public share their deep and vast knowledge without so much as asking for the slightest compensation. It shows beyond a doubt that not only are the Ellies of this world unwilling to imbibe science in a popular form, but also the Aldises of a much higher intelligence. It shows that the lure of patent medicine is a very strong one and that a doctor’s “vague advice” cannot offset it. Strange, indeed, that a doctor’s “vague advice” should be so inconsequential opposite so patently fraudulent a preparation as “Caldwell’s Great Obesity Cure,” but stranger still is what we are about to record—namely, the failure of our medical propagandists to combat in an intelligent way that most simple of all our metabolic disturbances—obesity!

A Vers Libre Prize Contest

Through the generosity of a friend, THE LITTLE REVIEW is enabled to offer an unusual prize for poetry—possibly the first prize extended to free verse. The giver is “interested in all experiments, and has followed the poetry published in THE LITTLE REVIEW with keen appreciation and a growing admiration for the poetic form known as _vers libre_.”

The conditions are as follows:

Contributions must be received by August 15th.

They must not be longer than twenty-five lines.

They must be sent anonymously with stamps for return.

The name and address of the author must be fixed to the manuscript in a sealed envelope.

It should be borne in mind that free verse is wanted—verse having beauty of rhythm, not merely prose separated into lines.

There will be three judges, the appointing of whom has been left to the editor of THE LITTLE REVIEW. (Their names will be given in the next issue, as we are hurrying this announcement to press without having had time to consult anyone.)

There will be two prizes of $25 each. They are offered not as a first and second prize, but for “the two best short poems in free verse form.”

As there will probably be a large number of poems to read, we suggest that contributors adhere closely to the conditions of the contest.

Margaret Sanger

Will speak at the Chicago Little Theatre

SUNDAY, APRIL 30, at 8:15

“The Child’s Right Not to be Born”

Margaret Sanger

“Birth Control”

West Side Auditorium

TUESDAY, APRIL 25, at 8:15

MAURICE BROWN, CHAIRMAN AUSPICES BIRTH CONTROL LEAGUE

Taylor and Racine Avenue Admission 25 cents

THE EGOIST

An Individualist Review

In the APRIL NUMBER of THE EGOIST our new Serial Story: “_TARR_,” by MR. WYNDHAM LEWIS opens with a long installment.

In the MAY NUMBER MISS DORA MARSDEN will resume her Editorial Articles, MR. EZRA POUND will start a series of translations of the “_DIALOGUES of FONTENELLE_,” and the first of a Series of _LETTERS of a 20th CENTURY ENGLISHWOMAN_ will also appear. These Letters bear particularly upon the interests and education of modern women.

MADAME CIOLKOWSKA will continue the “_PARIS CHRONICLE_” and her new series of articles on “_THE FRENCH WORD IN MODERN PROSE_.”

Further prose contributors will include: H. S. WEAVER, RICHARD ALDINGTON (also poetry), A. W. G. RANDALL (studies in modern German poetry), JOHN COURNOS, F. S. FLINT, LEIGH HENRY (studies in contemporary music), M. MONTAGU-NATHAN, HUNTLY CARTER, MARGARET STORM JAMESON and others.

_THE EGOIST_ will also continue to publish regularly the work of _Young English and American Poets_, and poems (in French) by _Modern French Poets_.

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