Mr. John Drinkwater has returaed to London from America, after having seen "Abraham Lincoln" produced there with the same amazing success as in London, and having rendered a further service to the cause of Anglo-American understanding by lecturing in 50 or more cities throughout the States on the universal qualities of Lincoln and the common bond of ideals, 'The success of his tour and his play can be best summed up by quoting a sentence from a leader on "Lincoln Across the. Seas' in the "New York Tribune," written shortly before his departure "There will doubtless be irritations between the two nations in the future as in the past. What 'Abraham Lincoln,' this American play by an English poet, can do for the whole country is to reveal in most moving fashion how deep and sure is the basis of common faith and common purpose underlying our surface rivalries and dis "Lincoln is an article of faith, as it were, in every American mind," said Mr. Drinkwater in an interview, "and Americans seemed to be very interested by the fact that an Englishman should have written a play about him to be produced in New York. Ever since its production on December 15 it has been playing to full houses, and it is almost impossible to get seats without booking them week's ahead."
In his lecture tour Mr. Drinkwater travelled some thousands of miles through the States, and spoke more than 60 times to audiences varying in size from a few hundreds to more than 3,000. His chief subject was the English dramatist's view of Lincoln.
"T tried," he said, "to see what there was in him that made him universally interesting, and I found it in the spectacle of a man who made of public leadership something particularly fine and noble—a man who in the midst of all his political affairs, which he conducted with great skill, aways kept in close touch with men and women, with life, and the human factor. The Jeotures on this subject led very naturally to a good deal of talk about Anglo-American relations and to seeing what there is in common between the two peoples.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.