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CHAPTER XVHI 57 into the world only to lose them to other interests. The mother is a figure wholly deserving of sympathy. Her condition makes for heart interest. 4. Mother-love in almost any manifestation is apt to win the heartf for it is the strongest of all human emotions; more powerful and lasting than sex-love because based upon a higher attribute. But tlie mere statement that it is mother-love does not suffice. It must be advanced skillfully, it must be presented adroitly so that pathos does not become bathos. A too evident appeal to the theme of mother love is like the waving of the colors or the playing of the national air. It will bring only a mechanical, surface response. Heart in- terest must make a deeper appeal than tliis. The mother must not be a lay figure on which is draped the conventional appeal. She must be a living, breathing woman; something more than a woman in a white wig and a general appearance of suffering. We must be shown that she is real, genuine. Then we must be made so interested in her that whatever affects her happiness is vital to us. It is not the happening, but the result of that happening in happiness or un- happiness to her that rouses our interest. 5. To turn to patriotism, which too often is made the basis of false appeal, we will suppose a hero captured by the enemy. The villain is, of course, of tlie opposite side. He is a military man or courtier, and it is through his scheming that the hero is stood against the wall to be shot. At the last instant the United States Consul hustles in with the hero's sweetheart and file of marines from a battleship. The dear old flag is waved and the villain sneaks away, while the audience is supposed to break up the orchestra chairs in their wild delight. 6. Of course there will always be present in any audience a certain proportion of persons with large hands and small brains to whom this will appeal, and the cunning producers know they will use the hands to convince the manager of the house that he has booked a success. This class of persons has no real intelligence, and the really intelligent in the audience will realize the falsity of the appeal and remained unmoved. There has been nothing in the early action to show that the hero suffers unduly from love of country. The preceding scenes have all been about his love for the girl and his efforts to win her or save her from the villain. The flag is dragged in—literally—to create a diversion and make a cheap appeal. It fails in this, with the majority, because the appeal is so palpably forced. 7. On the other hand take a man whose love of country amounts to worship. Let him give his life, sincerely, for the sake of the flag he loves and the appeal is made to the heart. One of the earliest fic- tion stories the European war brought out w^as the tale of a peasant who is given his choice between death and treachery. He must lead the army of his enemies to the secret pass where a bridge will enable them to gain a strategical advantage. With seeming reluctance he