MODERN MYTHS

In the days before publicity because a business and before notoriety became as interesting as fame, popular imagination was fired by ballads or sagas on legends that passed from mouth to mouth. Now that pink newspapers and catchy captions have taken upon themselves the task of transmitting popular legends at length, the real digest of the news is broadcast in single words and short phrases. Thus Col. Lindbergh's exploit of last spring has become included in all its glory in the monosyllable "We".

Every age has its mythology, and the nearest approach to the genuine in modern times is in thumb-nail accounts such as this. As ancient myths grew in the telling, so do their modern counterparts, and such phrases as "We" gather about themselves a wealth of imaginative color. But also, as the ancient myths came to be liberally disproved, so are modern ones likely to fall, the most recent casualty coming with the reported statement of Col. Lindbergh that "We" did not in reality refer to himself and his plane. But, also like older myths, present ones are not easily discredited even when disproved. It would seem likely that by now Col. Lindbergh will have more difficulty in demoting "We" from its false pedestal than he had in placing it there last spring.