National Affairs: A Popular Ballad Perverted

There is no more tragic phenomenon in this vale of tears than the deliberate perversion of an idea or a philosophy out of its original meaning in order to serve the base purposes of its enemies. Does a Christ preach a creed of peace on earth, good will to men, some Kaiser will pervert his words into " Gott mit Uns." Does a Nietzsche drive himself into madness transvaluing all the moral values, some nimbled-witted George Creel will reduce his works to a cheap credo for footpads. Does a serious-minded Bernard Shaw spend fifty years writing serious plays for the cultured leisure classes of Western Europe, half the standpatters in the world hail him as the greatest buffoon of the century.

The latest victim of this common fate is Hugh Antoine d'Arcy, author of the famous popular ballad, " The Face on the Barroom Floor," which our statisticians report still leads " The Shooting of Dan Mcgrew " by

345,987 public recitations as the greatest high-frequency ballad in American history. On his eightieth birthday d'Arcy learned that the Prohibition forces had been using his ballad as dry propaganda for years. As the poet intended it as a special pleading for free drinks for poor down-and-outers, he is very, very angry.