Celebrities of Our Time - Interviews by Herman Bernstein (1924) Book

Text extracted from opening pages of book: CELEBRITS& OF OUR TIME 1 INTERVIEWS BY HERMAN BERNSTEIN JL NEW YORK JOSEPH LAWREN PUBLISHER Copyright, 1924, by HERMAN BERNSTEIN PBIWED IN XT. S. A. VAIL-BALLOU PRESS, INC. BINQHAMTON AMD NEW YORK To EDWARD M. HOUSE The liberal American statesman Who is intimately familiar with American and Foreign affairs and deeply interested in their betterment This volume is inscribed as a token of friendship and admiration. HERMAN BERNSTEIN. JAN 14 1943 Acknowledgment is due to The New York Times, The New York Herald, The New York Sun, The New York World, The New York American and Our World for permission to reproduce these inter views which originally appeared in these publi cations. A few of my interviews reproduced here ap peared also in 1913, in a privately printed little volume entitled With Master Minds the entire edition' of which has been exhausted since H. B. PREFACE During tie past fifteen years, I have met celebrities under all conditions and in many lands. Some were only get notorious-quick celebrities, made suddenly by some unusual situation, wearing the garments of momentary grandeur, their glories dimming and their personalities fading in a descent as rapid as their rise. In contrast to these were other celebrities whom I trav elled thousands of miles to meet. These were the men who by their genius for art, science and government, touched close to the springs of life; ' who were the real, even though sometimes unrecognized, hewers of circumstances. I have thus met practically every outstanding figure of my time who has influenced thought and shaped important events. I have experienced the stimulating pleasure of dis cussing with these geniuses in their own work-shops, in the studies where they conceived and executed their great work, those questions which had been raised in their writings, researches, or by their political activities. Always and everywhere I have gone to the f ountainhead. What gratified me most is that acquaintance with a number of these men deepened into friendship, establishing relation ships that I treasure with pride. I do not know how many tens of thousands of miles I have traversed in the course of these journeys, during the past fifteen years. Though at times beset with numerous hardships, it has been in the main a pleasant road. The viii PREFACE days enroute were spiced with incident and color. I have come to know the sea at all times of the year the Atlantic and the Pacific, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Arctic Ocean. I have seen the little comedies of tourist and professional travel, as well as the stark tragedies of the war, which I viewed not only on military and diplomatic fronts, but also in the homes of the people involved in the war. What were the emotions experienced on meeting these celebrated men? I am often asked. Some of them have been to the mind what a dip in the surf is to the body on a hot day, or like the clean, strong, invigorating November wind. Some I am thinking principally of Leo Tolstoy have been like the calm effulgence of the setting sun, illumi nating heaven and earth as the day is dying. A visit to one was like a day in a fairyland grotto, a place where magic arts were thriving. With one's intellect and vision I was millions of miles away from the earth, gazing with a cold, detached laboratory view upon the vanities of the human species. Another showed me the world as a circus, of which he was the clown, the rest of mankind the donkeys in the show, and the Olympian gods as the laughing audience. Some of them were electric currents transmitting their high powered voltage of revolution through the minds of mil lions of human beings. Among them were apostles of peace and leaders of unrest. I have seen the war at close range I have seen the militarist diplomats and politicians, blind with passion, wild with vengeance, savage from the sight of blood, craving conquest and power. They turned the world into a mad house, intoRead More