_BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON_ THE MAN IN THE STREET BLACKSHEEP! BLACKSHEEP! LADY LARKSPUR THE MADNESS OF MAY THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY _CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS_ _THE MAN IN THE STREET_ _THE MAN IN THE STREET_ _PAPERS ON AMERICAN TOPICS_ _BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON_ _NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 1921_ _Copyright, 1921, by Charles Scribner’s Sons_ Published September, 1921 COPYRIGHT, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1920 BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY CO. COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE YALE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION, INC. COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY THE NEW YORK EVENING POST, INC. THE SCRIBNER PRESS _To CORNELIA_ _FOREWORD_ My right to speak for the man in the street, the average American, is, I am aware, open to serious question. Possibly there are amiable persons who, if urged to pass judgment, would appraise me a trifle higher than the average; others, I am painfully aware, would rate me much lower. The point is, of course, one about which I am not entitled to an opinion. I offer no apology for the apparent unrelated character of the subjects herein discussed, for to my mind the volume has a certain cohesion. In that part of America with which I am most familiar, literature, politics, religion, and the changing social scene are all of a piece. We disport ourselves in one field as blithely as in another. Within a few blocks of this room, on the fifteenth floor of an office-building in the centre of my home town, I can find men and women quite competent to answer questions pertaining to any branch of philosophy or the arts. I called a lawyer friend on the telephone only yesterday and hummed a few bars of music that he might aid me with the correct designation of one of Beethoven’s symphonies. In perplexity over an elusive quotation I can, with all confidence, plant myself on the post-office steps and some one will come along with the answer. I do not mention these matters boastfully, but merely to illustrate the happy conditions of life in the delectable province in which I was born. The papers here collected first appeared in the _Atlantic Monthly_, except “Let Main Street Alone!” which was published in the New York _Evening Post_, “The Cheerful Breakfast Table,” which is reprinted from the _Yale Review_, and “The Poor Old English Language,” which is reproduced from _Scribner’s Magazine_. The political articles are sufficiently explained by their dates. They are reprinted without alteration in the hope that some later student of the periods scrutinized may find them of interest. M. N. INDIANAPOLIS, July, 1921. _CONTENTS_ PAGE _Let Main Street Alone!_ 1 _James Whitcomb Riley_ 26 _The Cheerful Breakfast Table_ 65 _The Boulevard of Rogues_ 92 _The Open Season for American Novelists_ 106